No Bacon?

The biggest difference between meals in the US and meals in Jordan is that there is no bacon here. That might seem like a trivial detail, and, yes, I understand that I’m in the Middle East, but to me it’s really quite important. Other than that, the food here is pretty incredible – if you’re open to trying it. Every meal consists of khubz-خبز – (or pita), hummus, baba ganoush, foul, and coffee or tea – without fail. In the States, every time I go out to eat, I make someone split meals with me because I can never make up my mind. Deciding what to eat is like a life or death decision for me. “Okay with food sharing” is actually a requirement I have when making new friends. In Jordan, however, that’s not a problem because everyone shares everything. It’s the culture here and I am definitely not upset by it. When you go to a restaurant, you order a few dishes that are spread around the table and everyone digs in a grabs what they want. Sometimes you get your own plate to eat off of, sometimes you eat straight off of the table. Utensils are also not really common in Jordan. You typically use your hands or the pita bread to pick up your food.

For the first week and a half, I went out to eat at a lot of various recommended restaurants around Amman. We have also gone out to a few restaurants as a dialogue group with the TAs and professor Sullivan. I felt that this was a great way of introducing us students to the diverse meals of Jordan. Thus far, I have concluded that I do not have a single favorite dish – they are all equally as amazing. We have tried dished such as Mansaf – which essentially boils down to tender goat meat over rice – Kofta in Tahini Sauce – which is ground meat in tahini sauce topped with slices of potato- and Kanfeh – a gooey, white cheese based dessert with syrup drizzled on top.

Mezze, or fotoor (فطور), style eating, where multiple small plates are spread out across the table and shared, is by far the most common in Jordan. A recent trip to a Yemeni Restaurant consisted of Mandi – chicken over rice – Shakshuka – a dish with eggs poached in a tomato based sauce with vegetables and other garnish- in addition to numerous other smaller dishes. We have also been lucky enough to go to Umm Al-Jamal and get invited to Sheikh Khaled’s house for dinner. This was a great honor and consisted of various small dishes grouped together all over the Sheikh’s kitchen floor. We all broke up into small groups around the food and dug in by dipping and scooping up food with our khubz. Most recently, during a trip to ‘Umm Qais, we were invited to eat a “small” dinner in the garden of a friend of one of the staff members. The food was a buffet style setup and was absolutely delicious, however, there’s no such thing as a small meal in Jordan.

Once I realized that I was spending a little too much money on food, my roommates and I went to the supermarket, Carrefour, to get snacks and basics such as eggs, milk, fruit, and vegetables. In Jordan, they don’t have ‘real’ milk and the freshness of the fruits and veggies is usually a hit or miss. We have started making eggs or peanut butter and Nutella on pita for breakfast and our own turkey and cheese sandwiches for lunch. A lot of the students often get falafel wraps for 0.50 JD at a place by campus. It’s really quite good, but I definitely couldn’t have it every day. For dinner, we either go out sometimes or all cook together at home. My favorite restaurant so far is a place called Hashem Restaurant. It is mezze style tapas and is only 2.00 JD a person.