#43 Jordan
- Jen
- Oct 31, 2021
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 4, 2022
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, as it exists today, is a young country but a land with a wealth of history.
Jordan forms part of the Holy Land, a region of great importance to Jews, Muslims and Christians. Jesus was baptised by John in the Jordan River and the same river separates Jordan from Israel and the West Bank today.
The lost city of Petra (the city carved into the rock in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) was once a thriving centre of trade but was ‘lost’ for over a millennium and only ‘discovered’ by the western world in the 19th century. This mystical site is one of the new seven wonders of the world.
Wadi Rum, AKA Valley of the Moon for its desert, almost alien landscape, has striking scenery and is a treasure trove of tens of thousands of petroglyphs (rock carvings) dating back 12,000 years. The local tourism industry is set up for daytime adventures on camels or in 4x4s, and night-time glamping in bubble tents with vistas of pristine night skies.
The Dead Sea is a salt lake situated in the Jordan Rift Valley and its shores are the lowest land elevation on Earth (430.5m below sea level!). It’s almost 10 times saltier than the actual sea, giving it a higher density, which is why it’s famous as the sea you can float in. With annual average water temperatures peaking at 32֯C, the cost savings of being your own free Lilo, and there being no sharks or other scary fish, this is my kinda sea!
Mezze
Jordanian cuisine is categorised as Levantine cuisine, which is what has blessed the world with mezze, which can be an entire meal of many small dishes, or as is common in Jordan, a selection of appetisers and salads preceding a main course.
At a Jordanian mezze you will find the usual suspects: hummus, olives tabouleh (a salad of finely chopped parsley, mint, tomatoes and onion) and a yummy, smoky aubergine dip, which in Jordan is likely to be mouttabel, not to be confused with its well-known brother, baba ganhoush. Mouttabel is similar to baba G but also includes tahini and yoghurt, resulting in creamier and more filling dip.
Other cold mezze dishes could include:
- Kubbeh nayyeh, which is like a Levantine steak tartar of spiced raw minced lamb mixed with bulghur wheat.
- Makdous – baby aubergines stuffed with walnuts, red pepper, chilli and garlic and cured in olive oil. If anyone can tell me where I can buy a jar of these in Cardiff, I will love you forever. They sound amazing!
- Warak enab – vine leaves stuffed with rice, meat or vegetables.
Examples of hot mezze dishes are falafel, made with chickpeas (not fava beans as preferred by the Egyptians), cheeses like halloumi, sauteed chicken livers seasoned with garlic and lemon, and various kinds of kebab.
There will also be salad accompaniments like a rocket salad or fattoush, which is chopped salad veggies like tomatoes and cucumbers with crunchy croutons and dressed in olive oil, lemon juice and sumac.
The mezze table would not be complete without a stack of pitas for scooping, preferably pitas topped with za’atar. Za’atar is a mixture of sesame seeds and dried herbs and spices, including sumac, and is the flavour of the Middle East. A bowl of labneh (a very thick yoghurt) and a serving of pickled vegetables will also more than likely be present.
Street food
The city streets are filled with vendors pushing carts of bread, nuts or juice; portions of falafels, hummus, meats and other delicious morsels are served at tables spilling out of stalls into alleyways, filling the air with spicy, fragrant aromas. Ful medames, stewed fava beans, are sold in the street, and also commonly cooked at home for a breakfast. Manakish is a popular street food snack and can be considered to be an Arabic pizza – an oven-baked flat bread topped with za’atar, olive oil and perhaps halloumi and ground meat. Shawarma and other grilled meats are served in wraps with lashings of tahini. Kitchens with such grills might also serve ara-yes, which are toasted pitas stuffed with minced lamb.
Desserts
Jordan’s sweet treats tend to be pastry-based and very, very sweet. Think: mounds of baklava and other heaps of syrupy, pistachio-laden pastries. A stringy, mozzarella-like cheese is also used in desserts, like the popular kanafeh, consisting of layers of very thin pastry shaped like very thin noodles, filled with cheese and soaked in rose syrup.
Rice pudding appears in various cuisines and forms throughout the world and in Jordan it is called muhallabia and is flavoured with rose water and served cold.
Mansaf
In terms of main courses, THE dish for special occasions and one you must try in Jordan is mansaf. Mansaf is a sharing dish of rice, bread and lamb that is slow cooked in jameed, a dry, fermented goat yoghurt. From what I read online, Jameed sounds like it might taste far better than my description, and can be used to cook meat in, as is the custom with mansaf, to create a thick, creamy sauce.
To prepare mansaf, pieces of lamb are braised in water seasoned with bay, cinnamon, cloves, allspice and cardamom until tender. In the absence of jameed (which is a shame because I believe the jameed provides a distinctive flavour for the dish), thick Greek yoghurt can be used, which should be blended with some of the lamby cooking liquor to create a creamy sauce to mix with the cooked lamb.
To serve, three layers are assembled starting with very thin, crispy flatbread torn into pieces, followed by yellow turmeric rice, then the lamb. This dish is finished by topping with more yoghurt, fresh parsley and toasted nuts.
In a way, mansaf is similar to beshbarmak from Kyrgyzstan in that it is a sharing platter of boiled meat served over a layer of carbohydrate that is eaten using hands and no cutlery, However, the key difference between the two is that mansaf actually has some flavour.
Below are the word for word notes I made (over two months ago!) whilst eating this dish:
“Lamby, creamy, fragrant, tastes like Middle East. Tender lamb, fluffy rice, crispy bread. Fragrant rather than spicy. Taste is deep and delicate.”
I enjoyed mansaf a lot.
One of the wonderful things about this blogging mission I’m undertaking is that there are so many interesting and delicious places I previously knew nothing about, but on discovering the wonderful things about them, would now love to visit.
Jordan has now made it to the bucket list…I wonder whether I will I also want to go to…COSTA RICA?!
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