Travels in Arabia; comprehending an account of those territories in Hedjaz which the Mohammedans regard as sacred

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Five bean-sellers. These sell for breakfast also, at an early hour, Egyptian horse-beans boiled in water, which are eaten with ghee and pepper. The boiled beans are called mudammes; they form a favourite dish with the people of Egypt, from whom the Arabs have adopted it. Five sellers of sweetmeats, sugar-plums, and different sorts of confectionary, of which the Hedjaz people are much fonder than any Orientals I have seen; they eat them after supper, and in the evening the confectioners’ stands are surrounded by multitudes of buyers. The Indians are the best makers of them. I saw no articles of this kind here that I had not already found in Egypt; the Baktawa, Gnafe, and Ghereybe, are as common here as at Aleppo and Cairo. Two kebab shops, where roasted meat is sold; these are kept by Turks, the kebab not being an Arab dish. [p.31] Two soup-sellers, who also sell boiled sheep’s heads and feet, and are much visited at mid-day. One seller of fish fried in oil, frequented by all the Turkish and Greek sailors. Ten or twelve stands where bread is sold, generally by women; the bread has an unpleasant flavour, the meal not having been properly cleansed, and the leaven being bad. A loaf of the same size as that which at Cairo is sold for two paras, costs here, though of a much worse quality, eight paras.
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