If classes weren’t the first thing on my mind, Jordanian food would be. The Jordanian diet consists mainly of hubaz [pita bread], fool [beans], vegetables—mostly eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes—and almonds. Many students—mostly guys—have said that they find it hard to eat enough protein, but the truth is Jordanians don’t eat a ton of meat and rely more on hummus and beans for protein.
Eating-out here is affordable, if you know where you are going. The small little restaurants around my campus have traditional Jordanian food for 1 to 2 JD ($3-$5). An average lunch for me is hummus with pita bread, falafel, or fool. The bread in Jordan acts as a utensil, in most restaurants you will not be given any utensils and you eat your entire meal with bread as your shovel.
In addition, to a pretty vegetarian diet, fresh fruits are everywhere here. Fruit stands offer various mixed fruit drinks from lemon to kiwi. Some of my favorite treats are lemon-mint, and mango- banana. Once the weather is warmer here I will probably be drinking a lot more of these refreshing beverages.
As for meal food, the process of cooking here can be an all-day family event. Especially on Fridays—day of rest for most Muslims—families will cook large meals together. Last Friday I stayed home and made pancakes for my host family. My cooking responsibilities weren’t over from there; I finally learned how to make stuffed olive leaves or yalanji.
Here is the trick:
- Take one leaf cut off the steam and place the leaf on a plate steam spine down.
- Flatten out the leaf and overlap the edges so it looks like one sheet.
- Take a teaspoon of rice and place it in the middle, then—like a burrito—firmly roll the olive leave up tucking in the edges.
Another dish I have had the honor of helping prepare with taboole. This salad like dish can take a few hours to make. It contains parsley, cilantro, tomato, crack wheat, and white onion. My only task in the group effort to make the salad was crushing the parsley into very tiny pieces. After most of the steam has been removed cut with a knife into small pieces, and later but into even smaller pieces with a wedge cutter. (See picture below). After it is well crushed, combine with crack wheat, tomatoes, and onions; later adding olive oil, lemon juice, pepper, and salt.
But my all-time favorite meal time food is makhish, this savory dish is stuffed zucchini with rice and ground beef in a yogurt or tomato sauce served with rice and bread as usual. Finally for dessert, throughout the Mediterranean region and the Middle East traditional desserts are almond based—I apologize if you are allergic to almonds. My host mom made almond cake with honey called bilboosa.
Really you can’t go wrong with the Jordanian palette, it has everything you need for a well-balanced diet and to fill you up.
Well time for me to go eat again! Yum!
Sahti [enjoy]!