Jordanian Food Explained

Now let's dive into the Jordanian food section. We're standing right here in Jabal El-Webde in front of Beit Siti's restaurant

We're going to have a talk with Maria, who is the owner and founder about the most famous Jordanian cuisine and dishes. Let's go

My name is Maria Haddad and I founded and I started Bait City

What we do is a social business. We work to help support local women by bringing them here to Bait City

and getting them to teach guests. I'm going to tell you a little bit about some things that you need to try in your hotel

Most likely, you're going to wake up and have breakfast in your hotel because it's part of the package

So if you do, here are things that you need to try from the buffet. Foul, falafel and hummus come together

Falafel is made of chickpeas that are minced with coriander, garlic and a lot of spices

And then we fry them. So for falafel, you always want to pair it with something a little bit like creamy so

that it doesn't taste dry. So here I'm just mixing tahini with lemon juice and then I'm going to add a little bit

of yogurt to it to make it loose because when tahini and lemon juice they mix together

the fat from the tahini and the lemon, the acid from the lemon emulsifies

So I want to make it like a nice sauce and we're going to add a little bit of garlic just

because it gives so much more flavor. And fast

Fava beans, ful, my favorite, is delicious when you mix it with tahini

lemon juice, and olive oil. And that's how you wanna do it when you're at your hotel

Another breakfast item that you're going to save for your next day is manaish

So you're going to eat your manaish either with za on top or cheese And you can find these all on street corners Like you find little bakeries that sell you manaish make sure if you going on a trip anywhere to grab some with you because

these pastries will last you throughout the day and you can have them anytime you're on you know

on the go and always eat it with your hands don't eat your manaish with your fork and knife that's

just not the way to go the third item that you definitely want to try when you're here for

breakfast is a falafel sandwich now falafel sandwiches are amazing and they're everywhere

There are some places that sell them in pizza bread that's rolled, and some places that sell them in, we call it hamam bread, but it's basically a big bun

All right, so this is tahini that we mix with date molasses, and it's Jordanian Nutella, and this is how you eat it

You're going to find this in your hotel at the breakfast buffet. Put your bread, don't mix it

If you mix it, you'll ruin the texture. The perfect bite. We're talking a lot about breakfast that's on the go

Sometimes you want to sit down and have a nice breakfast. If you do that, then go for eggs

You can either order it with mfarrake, which is cooked with potatoes and it's delicious

And another option is also shakshuke, which is cooked with tomatoes. Another lovely option

The way we eat our eggs is not on toast. You need to use pita bread, like this

You grab your pita bread and you cut it like this. And you open it

And then you ghammiss. Taghmiss is very important in Jordan, which means that you're basically eating it with your hands

Not the egg directly. The bread has to be touching the egg. So that's something you need to keep in mind

If you touch the egg directly, that's not a good thing. Don't do that. And the last thing, and it's something that brings me to my second topic

which is going to be lunch and dinner. You have to try fettet hummus. Fettet hummus is basically layers

bread at the bottom, hummus in the center and yogurt on top and guys it is so good

because the bread is still crunchy and the hummus is super soft and the yogurt

is very cold and tangy but there are so many different versions to fete

Alright guys lunch and dinner are pretty much the same so if you gonna have a big lunch I would say you can have a smaller dinner but the dinner is going to be more your mashawi The lunch is going to be the home meal Guys lunch is

the most important meal of the day in the Middle East, in Jordan especially, because people take

two hours for a lunch break and they sit and they enjoy lunch. Okay, so the fatid makdus is basically

pickled aubergines, that's why they call it magdus, because it's eggplant that we fried and then we

cooked in a nice tomato sauce. And then to this I'm going to add pomegranate molasses, and we have

local women who make all of these spices for us. So I'm just going to mix it all in, and then I'm

not going to take all the juice, just the nice eggplants that we fried. Then we're going to top

it with cold yogurt, lemon juice, tahini. okay so let's talk about the food that you're going to order if you go to a

place like a place that has mashawi and side dishes. What you call baba ghanouj we call here

mutabbal okay so make sure you don't mix that up. Mutabbal is the eggplant with the creamy sauce so

it's eggplant that's roasted on a fire and then we mix it with lemon juice, tahini, garlic and

yogurt and it's so good. If you're vegan make sure you ask for it without yogurt you can do that too

Fried halloumi is so delicious so it's basically halloumi cheese which is a very salty cheese

that they fry and it looks so nice and if you add pomegranate molasses on top it tastes super so

make sure you try that paired with pomegranate molasses and can I honestly recommend something

to you when you're at one of these restaurants they're going to keep trying to change your plates

don't change the plate because you get so much flavor on the plate already and then when you add

the mezze or the mashawi the the meat at that that comes to the table it going to get so much fresher when you add it with the sauces from all of these different things that you already have on your plate When you order your mashawi it going to basically be shish taww

Shish taww is basically marinated chicken that's on the barbecue. And you have kebab

which you have to order because they're delicious. All of this you eat it with pita bread

Guys, pita bread is very important in Arabic food because it's basically how you're going to eat everything

It's your utensils. It's your cutlery. Okay? So ma'loube is a farmer's dish basically

It's made using leftover ingredients. A long time ago it was made using leftover ingredients

We don't do that now. Now we make it with fresh ingredients. The idea is it basically means flipped upside down

And that's what ma'loube in Arabic means. It's basically rice with either meat or chicken or fish sometimes

And you add vegetables that are in season. So you're going to have your option of an eggplant ma'loube or cauliflower ma'loube or peas and carrots ma'loube

Dessert in Jordan is very important, guys. Always end your meal with something sweet

Now, it doesn't have to be a super fancy restaurant that you're going to that you have to have

dessert because we also have street food that sells amazing dessert. Knafe, probably the

only place in Jordan you will find a lineup is in front of a Knafe store

So now we're going to try Knafe, which is basically the most famous dessert in Jordan

and the Middle East, and this is the best place in town. It's called Habiba. Come with me

Knafe is basically vermicelli cooked with cheese, so it's important to try it

If you're lactose intolerant, do not try it. Cheers! Enjoy

Hey guys, just quickly to say that what you just watched is part of a full Jordan travel guide that is completely free on brighttrip.com right now

So if you're thinking about going to Jordan, go check it out