country Essentials · 11 foods
Jordan Essentials
A considered first route through Jordan: the foods that carry its everyday habits, celebrations, ingredients, and memory.
Explore all Jordan foods →THE
ESSENTIALS
The complete shortlist
11 foods to know.
Each selection includes the reason it belongs here—so this is a guide, not just a pile of names.
Jordan
Mansaf
منسف
Lamb in sour dried-yoghurt sauce over rice and shrak, eaten from a shared tray.
Karak, Jordan
Jameed
جميد
Rock-hard dried yoghurt from Karak that mansaf is built on.
Jordan
Zarb
زرب
Bedouin lamb and chicken lowered into a sand-covered pit oven.
Jordan
Maqluba
مقلوبة
Rice, aubergine and chicken cooked in a pot and flipped onto a tray.
Jordan
Galayet Bandora
قلاية بندورة
Tomatoes fried in olive oil with garlic and chilli until the oil runs red.
Palestine
Musakhan
مسخّن
Taboon bread under sumac onions and roast chicken, the Palestinian dish eaten across Jordan.
Lebanon
Mujaddara
مجدرة
Lentils and rice under onions fried almost black.
Jordan
Shrak
شراك
Paper-thin bread stretched over a saj and cooked in seconds.
Nablus, Palestine
Knafeh
كنافة
Stretchy white cheese under orange pastry, cut by weight and eaten warm.
Djibouti
Arabic Coffee
قهوة عربية
Cardamom-heavy coffee poured a third full and refilled until you shake the cup.
Lebanon
Amar el Din
قمر الدين
Dried apricot sheets soaked into a thick orange drink for breaking the Ramadan fast.