There are so many delicious foods in Jordan. Most meals consist of chicken or beef with rice or bread. It is very hard to find pork in this country because Islam does not permit eating pork. The rice and bread here are often served with something called labneh, which is basically watery plain yogurt. Jordan has most of the same fruits and vegetables that we have in the U.S., but they are often prepared a little differently here.
One dish that I've tried is a traditional dish called mansaf which is a traditional Jordanian dish made of lamb cooked in a sauce of fermented dried yogurt and served with rice.
I was excited to help my host mom make mansaf and to watch her flip it. Everyone was excited when it stayed together, but then it fell apart! The dish was very delicious, but I do not usually eat potatoes and rice in the same dish, and it made me very full.
It is prepared in a large pot with potatoes, rice, other vegetables and meat (or chicken). The trick to this dish is to let it cook all together and when it is finished, you put a large plate over the top and flip the pot upside down onto the plate. Then, you slowly lift the pot up and all the food should stay packed together with the rice on the bottom and the meat on the top.
