- Hope you're having an amazing day. It's Mark Wiens, I'm in
Jerusalem and today I'm gonna take you on the ultimate
food tour of Jerusalem. I'm gonna meet up with
my friend David who is The Hungry Tourist. He's an amazing food lover
and we're also gonna meet up with one of his friends
whose name is Rafram, and he knows Jerusalem especially
the food like the back of his hand so we're gonna
take you on the ultimate Jerusalem food tour. (exotic music) - My name is Rafram Hadad, I
was born in Tunisia but I grew up here in Jerusalem and I
know about food, about culture. - And David, The Hungry Tourist. - Just travel for food
and people, because food without people is nothing. (uplifting music) - Okay so actually we're
on the outside of the old city right now and we're
stopping to eat our first meal in Jerusalem. (police sirens) (speaking foreign language) (foreign language) - So what's the name of this place? - Acramawi. - Acramawi. - Yeah, the origin of this
place is from a village called Vincarin which was a
Christian village outskirts of Jerusalem and (inaudible)
because they were deported and the family moved
to Habon area and they opened this place. - We're starting off this
Jerusalem food tour with some legendary hummus,
oh and I cannot wait to dig into this. He whipped up that hummus and
then he put it in the bowl and he added some chickpeas on
top, he added some olive oil. First bite of the hummus. Oh it looks amazing, you can
see how like whipped that texture, look at that texture. How fluffy it looks. Oh that's a sizeable first bite. Oh wow. Hummus is a relatively
simple ingredient dish, but where you really notice
the difference is, are the different textures and
the different ratios of the ingredients. That is one of the fluffiest,
it's not like silky smooth you can actually feel the
texture of the chickpeas in there, and then even
though you see a pool of olive oil it doesn't feel oily at all. That hummus is absolutely awesome. Mm, and that pepper is
wonderful, it's oh yeah. That heat starts to build,
that kind of heat that sort of goes up your nose a little bit. I love it it's wonderful. This guy has to be the
best hummus I've ever had. - This is actually one of
the best in the world, yeah. - Okay I'm going in for an onion next. And onions are the perfect scoop. You can get a lot of hummus
in a wedge of onion like this. The onion is very mild,
a little bit sweet. And just load it with that hearty hummus. Basically anything that
you dip in that hummus will be amazing. They have a separate bowl full
of like a sour chili sauce to add to your hummus as well. That chili is spicy though. That hummus was absolutely insane. The texture I've never
tasted hummus so fluffy in my entire life and you know
it was fluffy because how he whipped that up, that
was just insanely good. Almond will be great. We're stopping next for
a quick almond beverage. Look at how foamy, frothy this is. Mmm, oh yeah that's very
almondy and quite sweet it has that kind of like
almond jelly taste to it. That's refreshing. We're moving on now to a
deli shop that has cheese and all sorts of interesting things. (upbeat music) We're at this very small shop
in Jerusalem now and they are known for having some
of the best products. (foreign language) Wow. - So fresh, huh? - Oh it's so
- [David] Crispy! - It has like a fuzzy outside
edge, more kind of juicy than a regular cucumber. - [David] Yeah it's amazing. - Wow it's great. It's so good, yeah. - [David] Very rare to find. - You want to eating,
you eating the outside. - Oh it has a little shell. - [Shopkeeper] Taste this. - [Mark] Well thank you very
much, grab one of these. So you take off the little outside shell. Oh it's almost like a soybean. A little bit drier. Mmm, so this is like a snack. - [Shopkeeper] Yeah. - The owner at that shop
is so nice, we just spent 15 minutes just like sampling
all of his fresh ingredients and then he gave me a little
bag of zatar, which is a thyme blend with sesame
seeds in it to take home, so that's really kind of him. What an amazing fresh
produce shop that is. And right down the street
is the next restaurant that we're coming to. Oh! (foreign language) - [Rafram] The bread here is very very different from Jerusalem. - [Mark] Okay. - [Rafram] Very thin, very
thin, they are the only people in the area that's using
this bread, this thin bread which is actually, you eat
it and you don't feel hunger, you know, you don't feel heavy. It's very consistent with paper. And it's amazing bread,
they make it on the saj you know, like upside down
pan, and it's amazing, one of the best tastes. I will take a bite because I need to. (laughing) - [Mark] There's some
cucumbers in here, some tomato some onions and then he
added in some sauces. This looks incredibly good. I'm gonna grab over there
where the meat is the thickest. Oh that's incredible. Oh the tahini in there. You can taste that nuttiness. And the beef almost has
like a salted almost like a jerky taste to it. The bread is almost
tortilla, this is almost like a burrito. Absolutely amazing. What I really liked
about it was that bread. It really was like a tortilla. It wasn't like the thick
bread so it was kinda light and yeah it doesn't make
you too like, bloated. That meat inside was delicious
and then the combination of those cucumbers, oh. Food is amazing and
people are so nice here. We are now walking to the
old city of Jerusalem. (exotic music) Wow, this is absolutely incredible. The ancientness, the
history here it's amazing. Okay we are in Old Jerusalem now. And greeted by some bread and vegetables. I already love it. (exotic music) It's so ancient, just look
at this walkway and then you walk through here, you
can smell the aroma of coffee you can smell freshly baked bread. Oh man this is amazing
and look at this alley and the staircase. It's so incredibly good
that we have Rafram with us today who's guiding us through the ancient city of Jerusalem because
there's so many little hidden passageways and alleys. Look at this place we are
walking down right now. What's your name? - Amir. - Amir, nice to meet you. Do you also blog? - Yeah. - You do? Oh okay, Mark M-A-R-K Wiens W-I-E-N-S. Bye Amir, see you man. We just walked down this
flight of stairs through some narrow passageways
and alleys and straight to a kebab restaurant. - He's starting everything for us now. He's lighting the fire. - Oh he's lighting the fire for us? - We are first customers. - First customers of the day. Wow, it has like a cave,
actually because it's hot outside, this stone in here
you can feel the coolness. Oh is there an AC? (laughter) (speaking foreign language) - [Rafram] I asked him
if the hummus is good. He asked me to taste it. - He is about to start
making kebabs and you can see he has a bowl of hummus
which he ground by hand, and yeah they're just opening
up for the day today, so he is making the food
for the first time and lighting up the grill right now. And is this lamb? (speaking foreign language) - [Rafram] It's a mix of
- [Mark] Lamb and beef? - [Rafram] Lamb and beef, yes. - [Mark] Oh, okay. (exotic music) And he's been making the
most awesome, handmade kebabs that I've ever seen in my life. He mixed up that meat
then he chopped it up with a giant sword, he added
all the spices and then he put them onto skewers with
along with onion and tomato. I can't wait till that meat hits the fire. That is gonna be one of the
world's greatest aromas. I can already guarantee. He's busting out the sword again. - [David] The sword is coming. - [Rafram] Some swords cut our meat before they make a salad. - There's absolutely no
better way to make a salad than with a giant machete. I'm not gonna say you have to
make salad this way at home, but that is the next level
of chopping up a salad. He just rocks that sword back
and forth, back and forth and literally in just minutes
he's gone from a coarse chopped vegetables to a really
fine mince of tomato and cucumber and all that parsley in there. A lot of spices. (exotic music) Just straight up sesame. - (speaking foreign language) - Taste test. (laughter) Oh that is the most insane
salad I've ever had in my life. Oh wow, it's so creamy. (laughter) oh, that's almost undescribable. You can taste the sesame
seeds, the creaminess the nuttiness, that parsley
comes in really nicely. It's almost foamy. Oh that's amazing, he's a beautiful man. - [Rafram] He is a beautiful man. - That meat is sizzling
away and every now and then when the little driplet
of oil, of grease falls down into the coals you get
that smoky aroma of the meat. I'm at that kind of like
state of mind where I can hardly wait and the food
anxiety is hitting me strongly right now. (sizzling meat) The wait is over, the meat
is ready, he dished us out some hummus and then
some of the salad we saw him prepare. He actually bought the
bread across the street from the baker. That meat just looks insane. Little meatball shapes and
little one biters, you can actually see all of that
parsley within it as well and how it's caramelized, the
meat has caramelized on the edges where it was grilled. Oh, oh that is just wonderous. Oh the meat just collapses in your mouth. You taste onions in there
and what it really focuses on is that slow grill over the fire. Giving it that wonderful smokey,
greasy like umami flavor. - Oh my god. - That's insane. Oh wow. Next level. - Try this. - This is the type of restaurant
that you should travel around the world just to eat at. This is some pickled turnip. - [David] It's Iraqi in origin. - Mm, really juicy. Amazing. I'm gonna get one more
forkful of that salad. You can just see how thick
and rich that is from the sesame seed paste, the tahini. The vegetables are so
light, and then he's made it into a sauce that's just
wrapped it all together. It's a little bit like pasty,
and nutty and so fragrant. Okay next I'm gonna try some
of this hummus, and this is like a totally different
looking hummus from the one that we had earlier this morning. And you can see that this
hummus looks a little more smooth than the hummus
that we ate in the morning, just from looking at it. It's all ground by hand. Mmm, whoa. - [David] It's amazing hummus. - And definitely it's more
thick and a little more sticky than the hummus we had in the
morning, totally different. That salad is award winning. - (speaking foreign language) - He's from my city. - That was special, that is
an experience of a lifetime right there. - Nobody but Rafram can find these places. - That is a restaurant where
it really is a privilege to eat at a restaurant like
that and, huge thank you to Rafram for taking us there. (upbeat music) Next up we walked over to a
place called Zalatimo Sweets. And this is another ancient,
generations-old sweets shop. But he only makes one thing. - (speaking foreign language) (foreign language) - [Mark] So it's called Zalatimo Sweets. So he really slaps out the
dough until it's paper thin then he folds it over and
then he adds in some cheese and I think he has another
couple of variations as well, and then he folds it up, he
bakes it, puts on a little bit of olive oil and it's
really amazing to watch him make this art. (pastry crunching) His family has been here for
over 200 years making this same dessert, 200 years! And ours should be coming
out of the oven very quickly, but starting with a cup of coffee. Aw yeah, I love that cardamom in there. I love it. We got two different
versions, one with nuts and one with cheese. And you can just see that
paper thin dough and then he bakes it and then he tops
it with some kind of syrup or honey and then dusts
it in powdered sugar. So it's cheese. Look at that crispy, crispy
dough, oh it's so thin. Wow, the dough is so, so
thin, almost like baklava and crispy but then you have
the contrast of the salty cheese with the sweet honey
topping that crispy dough. - Listen to it, it's crunchy. - Mm, it's so crispy and the
next one this one is nuts, but I'm like really impressed
how delicate and how subtly contrasting the
flavors are together. It's really really impressively good. If you look on the inside of this one, oh yeah you can see I
think it was mostly crushed up walnuts that he added in here. (pastry crunching) Listen to that crunch! That is amazing. I'm not a huge lover of
sweets, but this is perfect. After 200 years, they know
exactly what they're doing. It has that beautiful mix
between crunchy and gooey. The nut one is good, but
I think the cheese wins. - [David] Cheese wins big time. - Thank you very much that was amazing. That was amazing. Wow that was just
impressively good, so good. So delicate, so refined, what
another gem in Jerusalem. This entire old city of Jerusalem
is just a maze of alleys and ancient lanes, it's a whole bazaar. You have modern shops
selling all sorts of footwear and clothing and kitchenware
and then there are restaurants mixed within here, you could
just get lost and just explore these alleys if you just
keep your eyes open walking around the old streets of
Jerusalem, you'll just see just incredible things and
just admire the history of the city and if you keep
your nose open, you'll get whiffs of coffee, you'll
smell the zatar, you'll smell the different spices as you're
walking through this alley it's just an overdose of
all things that you can see and smell and hear. (exotic music) We are walking back out
towards the Damascus gate and we're gonna now drive
somewhere to eat another lunch. What's up man. - (foreign language) - How are you? - Fine. - What's your name? - Tem. - Tem? Nice to meet you. - (foreign language) - Nice to meet you. - (foreign language) (exotic music) (speaking foreign language) - We're stopping just to
buy some fruit right at the entrance, right at Damascus
Gate and she gave me a sample before we buy. Mmm, oh that's so juicy
and sweet and sour. Mmm, that's incredible. - Good, good. - Eat a peach, okay. - Good, good. - Mmm. - (speaking foreign language) - That's delicious too,
it's not too sweet. Kinda a little bit starchy. Getting a kilo of those too. - Good. - Thank you. We're leaving out of the
Damascus Gate and so Jerusalem is the walled in city, Old
Jerusalem is a walled in city and so the different gates
are named for the roads that went to the different cities. So this gate actually leads
to Nablis in Palestine. And then also onto Damascus. - We go to Mathneola Market
now, it's like the main market of West Jerusalem. (upbeat music) - We drove over to West
Jerusalem and we're gonna have lunch at a market over here now. (street performer music) - (speaking foreign language) You wan to get inside? - [Mark] Is it okay, just for a few shots? Just to get some closeups
on the food here. - [Chef] This is akima,
potoates, the kebabs, spinach onion and (inaudible). You have meatballs, you
have lungs, this is lungs. You have meatballs, in fresh tomato sauce. - [Mark] Wow. - [Chef] Now you have beef sofrito. Mousaka, great dish,
eggplant stuffed in meat. You have the koubleh, you
have the okra, you know okra? - [Mark] Yeah. We're eating our third
plate of hummus today. There's some tahini. - [David] Fresh salad, they just cut it. And falafel. - These are sort of the
standard starter dishes that we're getting here. Then after that we'll be
served more the stews and those dishes that they cook down there. Third hummus of the day. Mmm, oh, that one is incredible too. This one is nice and kind
of tastes garlicky to me. Tomato salad there are
tomatoes in here, there are onions, there's parsley. Oh lots and lots of lemon in
there, that's what makes it. It's so refreshing. Some house pickles, wonderful. We didn't do any ordering. Since David knows them. - I just told them,
just give us good food. That's all I said, just give us good food. And let's see what will happen. - Dish of kebab, potato and spinach. Okra, green beans. Azura, rice and lentens. This is the mousakka. White beans, potato and beef and onion. - They brought us enough food
to cover the entire table. We've got some of their
specialty dishes, it all looks incredibly good, oh I can't
wait to start digging in. And just those appetizers
the starters, were excellent as well. Azura, oh this is the
name of the restaurant. - [David] A dish
- [Mark] Oh look at how - [David] Turkish in origin. This is gonna be so amazing. - [Mark] It just slices
with your spoon like butter, it's so tender and then
topped with that minced meat. Oh, man, wow that looks good. Oh wow, oh wow. That eggplant is ridiculously soft. And then it has a real kind
of like cinnamon sweetness. - [Chef] It's a stuffed eggplant with beef and tomato sauce. - [Mark] Oh look at that
interior. Come take a look at that inside, it looks like
minced meat on the inside. - [David] Burger inside. - [Mark] It looks like a
burger on the inside with eggplant just surrounding
it and just that soupy tomato sauce drowning it. You need a spoon to eat this. - Yeah just a spoon,
spoon is the best way. - What I love about that
is that the tomatoes are very tart, they have a
nice sourness to them. And then again you have
that really really tender, creamy eggplant. - [David] Kima. - [Mark] Kima. Okay this is called Kima. (crosstalking) Oh potato, forgot about the potato. - [David] Look at the color of the potato. - [Mark] I've gotta
respoon, I have to respoon. - [David] This potato he's
had on the fire for hours and hours. - [Mark] Caramelized. The entire thing is just
completely soft and the onions melt in your mouth,
the eggplant melts in your mouth, the meat melts in your
mouth and even the potato melts in your mouth. The flavor is a little bit
plain, but it really focuses on the main ingredients. - [David] Probably only pepper
and salt I would say here. - [Mark] Rice, lentils and onions. - You know what it is,
this is comfort food. (crosstalking) back to your
childhood, your mother. We're going now to oxtail,
so again you see it's falling off the bone. It's been sitting on the fire. - [Mark] You can actually
see the bones have just fallen out already. The little oxtail bones. One my personal favorite
meats is oxtail because every single time you eat oxtail
it just falls off the bone. Oh, it's the red chilis
in there, what a kick. Oh yeah, and that meat is
just ultimately tender. Sofrito and there's meat
in there, there's potatoes. - [David] Yes, and sofrito,
like it's got like celery, carrots, cooks for a long
time and the meat is added and garlic, potato. - It's really good, it's again,
everything is very tender the meat is tender, the potatoes
just melt in your mouth. - That's another sofrito. - [Server] This is the chicken sofrito. - Chicken sofrito. - [Server] It's a little bit spicy. - Wow, one more dish,
excellent, oh and you can smell like almost a slight curry powder aroma. Oh side of the drumstick,
you know what it tastes like? - [David] I know how my mom
used to make it and it's gonna be exactly the same. - Falls apart. - [David] It's so sweet, so
soft, like it (crosstalking) - [Mark] Those potatoes
actually, they're not dry at all. I'm loving all of the food,
but I gotta take another bite of this, this is a masterpiece here. It's like an eggplant
sandwich with just a burger on the inside it's incredibly good and it's so saucy as well. But probably my absolute
favorite dish of this entire meal is one of their specialties
and I think this is the dish that the name of the restaurant
is actually named after this is the eggplant with
the minced meat on top of it. Oh man, this is an award winner here. The texture of that eggplant
is just unbelievably creamy. Thank you very much. Walking out of the restaurant
or sort of like, stumbling out of the restaurant,
that was spectacular food. That was a meal where I
actually had to move to the next hole on my belt. If you love to eat, this is
a place you're gonna want to come for sure and have a feast. (inspirational music) We're just walking through the market now, there's everything you can
imagine at this market. A lot of fresh produce. And some serious desserts,
look at these piles. These are all Iraqi desserts? - No just this one. - That one over there, okay. - [Mark] They look
similar to a jelly bean. So the dessert is called zengoula. - Zengoula it's Iraqi
dessert, wait let me do a (inaudible) here. - Like a coiled, deep
fried and then some kind of a syrup on it. - [David] Exactly. - Alright. Yeah, it is like crispy,
and it sort of juices with a floral tasting syrup, it's
very sweet and very crispy. (upbeat music) We have just come over to
the wailing wall which is the Western wall of Old Jerusalem. And this is one of the holiest
sites in the Jewish faith and it leads up to the
temple of the mount. Thank you very much. This is the Western Wall built
by King Harrod the Great. On a spur of the moment
decision in an effort to work off some of the amazing food,
we decided to explore the fascinating Western Wall Tunnel. While above ground you can see
about 60 meters of the wall, underground you have a chance
to walk along 485 meters of the original wall built
in 19 B.C. by King Harrod. (exotic music) We're walking through this
narrow passageway, it's pretty long, right next to the wall. (cheering and yelling) - Do you have a YouTube channel? - I do. - Groovy! What's your name, what's your name? - Mark Wiens. (crosstalking) (cheering and yelling) (laughter) This, this is unbelievable,
just ancient, ancient tunnels people walked in these same
lanes in these same tunnels like two and a half thousand years ago. Whoa, this is really really
cool and we're on our way to the aqueduct. That water is extremely clear. And there is even some fish down there. And there's water
falling from the ceiling. That was incredibly cool
though, that ancient really tight tunnel. After emerging from the
depths of the tunnels, unfortunately the Dome of the
Rock was already closed for the evening, but luckily
from a nearby school, we were able to get an impressive
view of the golden dome. A sacred site, and a breathtaking view. (exotic music) Finally, before heading to
dinner, we drove to the top of the Mount of Olives to
see an incredible sunset against the beauty of Old
Jerusalem in the background. We had a nice, relaxing afternoon. We worked off a little
bit of that food from the Jerusalem food tour and
we watched the sunset from the top of Mount Olives, now
we're having one last meal to complete this Jerusalem
food ultimate food tour. And this is a place that I
think the reservations are really hard to get, so
luckily he knows the chef, again he knows everyone
and we got a reservation, we're gonna have dinner here. - [Chef] Be careful. - [Mark] Alright, thank you very much. - [Chef] This is the grill
station and this is cold station you know like fish,
fresh fish and everything. (meat sizzling) - [Mark] The aromas coming out
of this kitchen are insane. Oh I can't wait to see
what they're gonna bring us out for dinner tonight. Yeah. (cheering) (laughter) - Okay guys, fried seabass
together with a fatuta, which is kind of like an
Arabic vegetable salad with crispy pita bread and lemon. - [Mark] They just brought
us out the first course and it's served on a block
of wood and all sorts of different little appetizer dishes. Oh and I think that's some
of the ahi sashimi there. Oh, okay. Oh that melts in your mouth. (upbeat music) This is burrata which is a type of cheese. (inaudible) Another signature dish, is a polenta. It's a giant scallop. That blend of spices is amazing in there. - [David] Very bad. - [Mark] What is that, foie gras? - [David] Yeah. - Oh, rossini with foie gras on top. Oh that just sliced effortlessly. Oh that is tender, juicy supreme. Oh and ridiculously creamy and rich. - [David] Last bite. - [Man] That's a bite, open
your mouth, come on open your mouth. (applause) - Yeah, that is unbelievable. We've come to the end
of this incredible meal and dessert is just insane. I love the hand of the
chef here on the platter. I may as well go for the
hand of the chef right now. Oh yeah, that's like a cheesecake almost. What's up man. - Yeah, what's up man. - How are you? - Good. - Good. Just finished with dinner
in Jerusalem, that is an amazing restaurant the
staff are so friendly and so generous and so, they all
are having a great time as they're cooking. The food is top notch, the
ingredients were extreme quality, it was very loud
and lively kind of restaurant but really really good food. And today has just been an
amazing Jerusalem food tour. I still can hardly believe
that I was eating in Jerusalem. And everything from the
hummus we had in the morning, all the way to the kebabs,
what else did we eat, oh that giant feast at lunch
to dinner, the food has been fantastic in Jerusalem and
this is no doubt one of the most fascinating cities in
the entire world, one of the most important cities in the entire world. And it was really a privilege,
an honor to have a chance to visit Jerusalem. A big thank you to David
Kalifa, he's The Hungry Tourist, I'll leave his link in
the description box. Big thank you to David
and also to Ramraf for showing us a couple spots
in Jerusalem and thank you very much for watching this
video, I hope you enjoyed it. Please remember to give it a
thumbs up if you enjoyed it and I'd love to hear from you
in the comments section below and if you're not already
subscribed, click subscribe now for lots more food and travel videos. Goodnight from Jerusalem,
and I'll see you on the next video, thanks again for watching.
عاشت فلسطين حرة عربية تحية من البحرين