Jordanian cuisine
A “Jordanian invitation” means that you are expected to bring nothing and eat everything.
Jordanian cuisine is a traditional style of food preparation originating from Jordan that has developed from centuries of social and political change with roots starting in the Paleolithic period (c. 90,000 BC).
There is wide variety in Jordanian cuisine, ranging from baking, sautéing and grilling to stuffing of vegetables (grape leaves, eggplants, etc.), meat, and poultry. Also common in Jordanian cuisine is roasting, and/or preparing foods with special sauces.Jordanian cuisine
Jordanian common and popular appetiserAs one of the largest producers of olives in the world, olive oil is the main cooking oil in Jordan. Herbs, garlic, spices, onion, tomato sauce and lemon are typical flavours found in Jordan. Jordanian food can vary from being extremely hot and spicy to being mild.
The most common and popular appetiser is hummus, which is a puree of chick peas blended with tahini, lemon, and garlic. Ful Medames is another well-known appetiser. A workers meal, today it has made its way to the tables of the upper class. A successful mezze must of course have koubba maqliya, labaneh, baba ghanoush, tabbouleh, olives and pickles.
The most distinctive Jordanian dish is mansaf, the national dish of Jordan, a symbol in Jordanian culture for generosity.
Although simple fresh fruit is often served towards the end of a Jordanian meal, there is also dessert, such as baklava, hareeseh, knafeh, halva and qatayef a dish made especially for Ramadan.Jordanian cuisine
In Jordanian cuisine, drinking coffee and tea flavored with na’na or meramiyyeh is almost a ritual.
Jordanian cuisine
Jordanian Main Dishes :
Mansaf
Saniyat Dajaj
Kofta b'tahini
Musaqqa'h
Galayet Bandora
Kousa Mahshi
Wara' Aynab/Dolma
Mujaddara
Maqluba
Kofta bel-bandoora
Beduin Zarb
Freekeh
Fasoulya
Malfuf
Bamya
Jordanian cuisine
Jordanian cuisine
Mezze
Jordanian Mezze
By far the most dominant style of eating in Jordan, mezze is the small plate, salad, appetizer, community style eating, aided by dipping, chunking and otherwise scooping with bread. Mezze plates are typically rolled out before larger main dishes, but you’ll find that they will easily fill you up by themselves and leave you wondering, “Now why are they bringing out those mains?”
In a typical Jordanian mezze, you might find any combination of the following dishes:
Hummus
Foul (ful maddamis)
Kubbeh (kibbeh)
Moutabel
Bagdonsyyeh
Haloumi/ j’ibna bedhah
Zetun
Sambusak
Falafel
Manakesh (manaqish)
Labaneh
Babba ghanoush
Makdous
Za’atar
Olive oil
Pickled vegetables
Jordanian cuisine
Jordanian cuisine
Jordanian Salads
Tabouleh
Fattoush
Rocket salad
Arabic salad
Jordanian cuisine
Jordanian cuisine
Bread in Jordan
Bread in Jordan
Shrak is the traditional Arabic bread that was prepared at home by Jordanian’s grandmothers for centuries. With development, more and more families moved to large cities where modern bakeries that provide all kinds of bread are everywhere. Most Jordanian families started buying ready-made bread and this ancient tradition of preparing home-made shark bread almost came to an end!
Sweets in Jordan
The traditional Jordanian way to round off a meal is with fresh fruit. Restaurants may offer a small choice of desserts, including some of the items described below, but inexpensive places frequently have nothing sweet. However, all large towns have plenty of patisseries making halawiyyat fresh: it’s common to take a quarter- or half-kilo away in a box to munch at a nearby coffee house.
There are three broad categories of “halawiyyat”: large round trays of hot, fresh-made desserts, often grain-based, which are sliced into squares and drenched in hot syrup; piles of pre-prepared, bite-sized honey-dripping pastries and cakes; and stacks of dry sesame-seed or date-filled biscuits. The best of the hot sweets made in trays is knaffy (or kunafeh or kanafa), a heavenly Palestinian speciality of buttery shredded filo pastry layered over melted goat’s cheese. Baglawa (the local way to say baklava) – layered flaky pastry filled with pistachios or other nuts – comes in any number of different varieties. Juice-stands often lay out tempting trays of hareeseh, a syrupy semolina almond-cake, sliced into individual portions. Of the biscuits, you’d have to go a long way to beat maamoul, buttery, crumbly rose-scented things with a date or nut filling. Everything is sold by weight, and you can pick and choose a mixture: a quarter-kilo (wagiyyeh) – rarely more than JD2 – is plenty for two.
Large restaurants and some patisseries also have milk-based sweets, often flavoured deliciously with rosewater. King of Bird nest these is muhallabiyyeh, a semi-set almond cream pudding served in individual bowls, but the Egyptian speciality Umm Ali – not dissimilar to bread pudding, served hot, sprinkled with nuts and cinnamon – runs a close second.
Curiously elastic, super-sweet ice cream (boozeh) is a summer standard. During Ramadan bakeries and patisseries make fresh gatayyif – traditional pancakes – often on hotplates set up on the street. Locals buy stacks of them for stuffing at home with nuts and syrup.
Jordanian desserts in Jordanian cuisine are literally lip-licking. Sweets in Jordan - jordanian cuisineThey are so delicately prepared and their taste is just so fine that they would leave your mouth-watering for more. The best part of Jordanian desserts is that they are so simple to make. Most of these desserts are prepared on special occasions and events, the Jordanians love to play the perfect host to their guests as they take it as an honour to have a guest come to their homes. They serve a variety of desserts along with the traditional tea to their guests. Jordanian cuisine – Desserts are truly made in complete delicacy and are extremely unique and distinctive in taste.
Their preparation does not ask for a lot of time, this makes them enjoyable to make, and your guests will simply love the taste of the distinctive taste of the desserts of Jordan.