Food

Jordanian cuisine has evolved through centuries of Bedouin cooking. The national dish, mensaf, ideally consists of 8-10kg of rice on a tray at least a meter across, topped with pinenuts and the stew of an entire Iamb or goat. The Bedouin still serve the head of the lamb on top, reserving the prize delicacies—eyes and tongue—for speechless and visually jaded guests. The right hand is used to ball the rice, and the flat bread to pull off chunks of meat and dip them into the warm jamid (dried flour and milk).

Most other dishes include the main ingredients of mensaf. Traditional dinners, served between 2-3pm, are rarely as spicy as those in other Arab countries. Popular dinners are musukban—boiled chicken with olive oil and onions and a delicious spice called sumac, served with khoubz (bread)—and mabsbi, a tray of vine leaves, squash, or eggplant stuffed with mincemeat, rice, and onions. Mezze, loosely translated as “hors d’oeuvres,” encompasses a wide range of dishes which include hummus with olive oil, mutabal (an eggplant dip), labneh (thickened yogurt), cucumbers, tomatoes, and pickles. Supper is usually a smaller meal; hummus, cheese, and sometimes fuul form a standard breakfast.