Food

This is my first non-retrospective entry and it is about something very important to me in general, and, something that has moved into a position of even greater prominence in my life - Food. The move is representative of the importance placed on food in entertaining and hospitality in Jordan, and, further, the connections between food and family. For example, Friday (the first day of the weekend here) is a day largely reserved for family and centers around lunch, the main daily meal, which takes place roughly between 2pm and 5pm.

Above: Key ingredients - eggplant and zucchini basking in the sun

Now (taking a quick step back) to know me, is to know that I won't simply have one food entry, but rather, I'd like you to think about my experience and relationship with food in Jordan as a lovetrotter category, bulletin or other form or regular update. When possible I'll include recipes.

Below: Mint fresh off the truck










One more note, some of you probably also know that when I cook, I typically make things that more closely resemble concoctions rather than, say, full, proper, and recognizable meals. This worked out just fine for me as a bachelorette (more or less). That's not to say that I CAN'T make those full meals, I'm just not naturally inclined to do so. Here in Jordan, that doesn't really fly - the more you make the better and several entrees are preferred for lunch in addition to multiple plates of olives, pickles, cheeses, nuts, dried fruits, breads and yogurt. Though the amount of food made for each meal is much larger than in the states, people actually eat less and more healthily - which is also because nearly all of the food is grown locally, made that day, and consists of vegetables, rice and some meat - usually lamb.

Here is a normal dinner spread - the smallest meal of the day.





















Now, I don't eat red meat and Hisham's mom has been really wonderful to modify her delicious dishes to include chicken instead of lamb, or, just veggies.












This is a dish simply called 'sweets'. It's hard to tell, but this dish is HUGE - those are serving spoons on the left. This 'sweet' is a sort of a cake made of flour, coconut, sugar and rose water garnished with pealed, halved almonds. Delicious.