Akko

One of our first stops in the north was the town of Old Akko (Acre), just north of Haifa Bay.  Incredible views of the Mediterranean, narrow, winding stone streets that are easy to get lost in and an array of feasts for all of the senses.  

First we strolled through the street market (shuk) and marveled at all of the spices, teas, fruits and veggies for sale.

My favorites were the sweet little baby eggplants.  I bought a bunch later in the week to try and replicate the eggplant salad we had at the goat dairy..with pretty good success!

Freshly squeezed juice was easy to find, and always a welcome remedy to the intense heat. We tried pomegranate on it's own...which was quite intense.

So many pretty pastries...heaps and mounds of them all laid out so perfectly.  We chose kanafeh (on the left in the larger picture) and malawbi with pastachios on top.  The kanafeh was incredible--it's a kind of birds-nest pastry on top of warm goat cheese, lightly sweetened and baked to perfection.  This one turned out to be the best we had on the whole trip.  

We did things a little out of order, starting with desert and later moving on to hummus at the hummus place...where all they served was hummus!  Supposedly some of the best.  The picture doesn't do it justice, but it was a mix of rough garbanzo and fava bean hummus topped with whole garbonzos drowning in excellent olive oil.   

Served, as always, with the requisite fluffy pita bread and pickles, this time with onions and tomatoes too.

We finished with Arabic tea and Turkish coffee, both insanely sweet but quite good.