Jordanian cooking belongs to the wider Levantine tradition it shares with Palestine, Syria and Lebanon, with Bedouin dishes layered on top. Bread is present at every meal and is used as a utensil rather than a side.
Mansaf
The national dish and a social institution. Lamb is slow-cooked in jameed, a hard dried yoghurt made from sheep or goat milk that is reconstituted into a tangy white sauce, and served over rice on a layer of shrak flatbread, scattered with almonds and pine nuts. It is eaten from a communal tray, standing, with the right hand, rolling the rice into a ball with the fingers. It appears at weddings, funerals and any occasion that matters, and refusing a second helping requires diplomacy.
Mezze
A spread of small dishes that arrives before, and often instead of, a main course: hummus, mutabbal of smoked aubergine, tabbouleh heavy on parsley, fattoush with fried bread, labneh, warak enab, kibbeh, and always more bread. Ordering four or five between two people is normal and will be too much.
Everyday dishes
Maqluba, meaning upside down, is rice layered with fried aubergine, cauliflower and chicken or lamb, cooked in a pot and inverted onto a tray at the table. Musakhan, more Palestinian than Jordanian but eaten everywhere, is chicken roasted with sumac and onions on flatbread. Galayet bandora is a simple tomato and chilli stew scooped with bread.
Street food
Falafel and fuul, the fava bean stew, are breakfast. Shawarma is dinner. Knafeh nabulsieh, shredded pastry over stretchy white cheese soaked in sugar syrup and dyed orange, is sold by weight and eaten hot at any hour; Habibah in downtown Amman is the standard reference.
In the desert
Zarb is the Bedouin method: meat and vegetables layered in a metal cage, lowered into a sand pit over coals, covered and left for hours. Every camp in Wadi Rum serves it and the unveiling is part of the performance.
Drink
Coffee is Arabic, cardamom-heavy and served in small handleless cups; the host pours until you shake the cup. Tea is black, very sweet and often with sage or mint. Alcohol is available in hotels, licensed restaurants and shops in Amman and Aqaba but not everywhere, and Jordan makes its own wine and the local arak.