The sweet smell of nut-filled baklava and coils of honey-soaked pastry mingles with the heavier aroma of pistachios and dried fruits.Artin wants to show me the olives – every shade from light purple to the shiniest black, but I want to go back to look for the sheep’s heads. On a marble slab are goats’ heads, skinned and pink, while further back, massive cows’ heads are waiting to be stripped of their ears. Watching the butchers deftly ripping away the skin one wonders why it’s any worse than jointing a chicken, but it is “This is cow, this is goat,” says Artin. “The brains, they cook it with butter and breadcrumbs and then bake it The ears? They eat it It is very soft meat.

The eyes? Some eat it, some don’t.”The smell of burning charcoal comes from another butcher’s shop. A customer has chosen a piece of lamb and has it minced in front of him. It is then chopped with parsley and onion and the mixture is formed into koftas and grilled on skewers over hot coals.A stallholder despairs of selling his wooden camels and starts to eat a plate of kibbe instead. Four deep-fried patties, with a filling of spiced lamb and a crisp bulgur coating, are arranged on a dish with lime and sprigs of coriander.All over Jerusalem there are fresh juice stalls, piled high with citrus fruit.

Here in the Muslim part of the Old City, a stallholder is advertising first-of-the season clementines, slashed open to reveal bright orange centres. Fatye Tahar calls me over to his bar, boasting “We have two places to eat, one for Jews… and one for…” I think he is going to say “Arabs” but he actually says is that there’s one for juice and one for.. hummous and falafel. “Falafel is not Israeli food,” he claims, “it’s Palestinian”.Wherever I stop, people want to talk. They tell me about the effects of the closure of the West Bank.

They describe the fish, salads and olives they like to eat and give me the recipe for shwarma: layers of turkey, threaded on to a large skewer which rotates in front of a vertical grill. Yar Nassan uses a razor-sharp knife to slice pieces from the outside. “The Israelis make shwarma too” he agrees, “and pitta bread with chips”.Outside the Old City by the Damas-cus Gate are more food sellers. It’s a short distance to the orthodox Jewish area of Mea Sha’arim.