Beit Khairat Souf

Written By: Gail Clifford | Published By: Weekend Notes | October 22, 2022

https://www.weekendnotes.com/beit-khairat-souf/

After a morning in Jerash, visitors are well served to experience lunch with the locals at Beit Khairat Souf. A social enterprise, this restaurant memorializes the historical and cultural heritage of the Batarseh family who built the house in 1881 and renovated in 2016 in its modern iteration.

Beit Khairat Souf serves the community, both locals and visitors alike, with the traditions and tastes of Jordanian culture. Managed by the Alnoor Almouben Association, which is a self-described “group of very strong-willed and ambitious women, mothers, and wives,” the goal of Beit Khairat Souf is to “create a platform for local women to financially support themselves through opportunities for economic development in the heart of Souf.”

As fans of responsible global travel, you can rest easy knowing that your tourism dollars are going directly to support this community while the tranquil garden provides a lovely space in which to enjoy delicious meals, all farm-to-table, or explore the shops to purchase local goods.

Thin stemmed thatched panels line the roof with five open-air sections over tables for six to 10 people. Up around the corner to the left to wash up, then return to your table for the parade of dishes to begin.

Service begins silently, with the placement of plate, fork, and knife. Tissues on the table serve as napkins during our stay. Watch the cats as they wander, begging, from table to table. Salad, arugula with diced onions and mint clear your palate for the dishes they present.

It is the traditional menu we’ve come to expect with hummus, Baba ghanoush, lamb meatballs, Pita bread, fried tomatoes, chicken with potatoes, grape leaves swimming in yogurt, cheese, fattoush, and mansaf.

The hibiscus tea is light, tart, and refreshing, so flavorful served with festive yellow and blue straws. You can practically taste the pink.

The pita bread, welcome and light, could be used for any of the dishes to create a sandwich or pita pocket, but most commonly was used to sop the sauce from the plate following the lamb meatballs in a tomato sauce or even the chicken, removed from the bone, cooked with rosemary and scrumptious yellow potatoes.

Hummus and Baba ghanoush, layered with pomegranate seeds, and a dessert appearing dish, Grape leaves with cheese in a milky yogurt sauce also with precious pomegranate seeds.

So good,” breathes content creator Jenn Coleman.

I want a pomegranate tree,” shares Linda Milks, who could, in theory, since she lives in Temecula, California, except her property only has Adequate sunlight in the middle of our swimming pool.

The whitefish was particularly good, and we learned it was from the Sea of Galilee, or Lake Tiberius, and commented, “Jesus ate your Grandma.” Well, perhaps the 200th or 2000th grandmother up the line.

Talk of the Jordan adventures slipped away during lunch to topics like Meow karaoke, the privilege of getting older when you stop caring about what others think and debating the probability of getting sick from a drink with ice. It’s not like Mexico or Central America, not Montezuma’s revenge kind of risk, so much is tasting poorly due to the chlorination and their tap water. That level might affect our tummies as well.

Pro Tip: If you’re allergic to cats, look for where they’ve placed the bowls of food on the ground and avoid tables near them.

Here at Beit Khairat Souf, they provide training, lessons, and jobs for locals, both men and women. We were joined by our hostess, Haifa Bani-Mustafa and she described the mission to empower women. She tells us that the building was a church, and a Christian family ultimately abandoned it., leaving it for the community to create the current establishment. In 2016, she started preparing olives and dates and sold them to the community. She has an olive farm. And is just two weeks from harvesting. Both olives and figs at this time of year.

The Beneficial Society organization is no longer involved with this endeavor. She shares that they did not receive financial funding but did have the support of various groups to acquire the bank loans necessary to both start and continue the business.

Open seven days a week, she says, “My life is working from morning to midnight. I’m stronger than I look.”