Cheap eating in Turkey, Syia, Jordan and Israel

[piracer]

I'm going on a backpacking trip in 3 weeks time and was wondering if there are places i should go to for some good and preferbly cheap eats or places that i shouldnt miss. We'll be hitting up these stops

Istanbul

Konya

Goreme (Cappadocia)

Tarsus

Antakya

Aleppo

Hama

Homs

Palmyra

Damascus

Amman

Petra

Aqaba

Beersheva

Jerusalem & the West Bank

Any information for any of these places would really be appreciated (along with perhaps hostels and such if anyone knows)

[gethin]

This may be a bit late to be useful but:

Istanbul - check out www.istanbuleats.com if you haven't already. It's really strong on reviews of cheap, authentic places.

Konya- not much of a restaurant scene and even less if you want somwhere that serves alcohol. Mevlevi Sofrasi (Nasimbey Cad -next to the Mevlana tekke and tomb etc) is probably the best for a proper meal nd has an english speaking owner. Kosk Konya Mutfagi (sorry not using a Turkish Keyboard so - you'll need to imagine the umlaut over the o and cidilla ander the s in Kosk and the bar over the g in Mutfagi) on Topraklik Cad. (thats an i without a dot in Topraklik) is another option. There are some decent breakfast places on Alaeddin Cad and Mevlans Cad and plenty of places to try firin kebab.

Antakya- there is an enthusiastic review of Sultan Sofrasi on istanbul eats today- part of an occassional foray to other parts of Turkey. For most of my time in Antakya last summer, I was suffering the after effects of some dodgy bici-bici eaten in Adana before arriving there so I wasn't up to eating much, but there were some interesting offerings on the hotel breakfast buffet, including something that looked like coffee grounds mixed in olive oil ( the waiter simply called it kekik -which is varioiusly translated as oregoan and thyme but seems to be used to cover most aromatic herbs) and Siirt cheese- both well worth trying.

Ferah (near the Ulu Camii) is supposedto be the best place for kunefe - i wasn't taken by it myself- it was just too much like a mozzarella in carrozza steeped in sugar syrup.

[piracer]

thnks anyway, will checko ut the website. Im leaving on the 14th and looking forward to it all!