Food!

Definitely one of the best parts of living in Amman is the food. Honestly, though occasionally I wish there were more fresh fruits and vegetables, I think I could live on Middle Eastern food for the rest of my life (and to be honest, its not that there aren't fruit and veggies, its just that I am not very good about seeking them out).

My first meal of the day, before I go to school, consists of bread and a shifting array of toppings. Generally there is honey, cream cheese, jam, olive oil and zattar, and sometimes yogurt cheese as well. After my morning classes, I get something to eat - falafel sandwiches or schwarma are common. Across the street from the university is a fast food restaurant called Lebnani Snack, and I go there a lot. In addition to delicious wrapped sandwiches, they have amazing fruit cocktails (here, the word doesn't generally have any alcoholic connotations). There are also a number of little shops around school and near my internship offering sandwiches for as little as 30 garsh (less than 50 cents). When I get home, no matter what time it is, my mother will have some "lunch" for me. Lunch, which is eating sometime in the afternoon, is the biggest meal of the day. If I stay up late enough, there will also be dinner, probably just a sandwich with cheese or yogurt.

I've learned to cook a number of Arabic dishes - most of them aren't really that hard, just some combination of rice, vegetables and meat. One of the things I was most excited to learn was mansaf, which is basically the Jordanian national dish and seems pretty hard to find in the US, since most Middle Eastern restaurants are Lebanese (although I've done some research and there is a Syrian restaurant in Portland that serves it). My host mom has been promising all semester to show me and finally last Friday she made it on a day when I wasn't in school. The way she makes it, its not that difficult, but I've heard that it's supposed to be very time consuming, so possibly there's another way.

I had another cool cooking experience two weekends ago. My Arabic professor is totally awesome and very sweet, and since there were only four girls in my class she invited us all to her house to cook with her. We made a number of really delicious dishes, including tabouli with spinach and a eggplant-pita-yogurt layered thing, but the things I was really excited to learn were stuffed grape leaves and stuffed kousa (a vaguely zucchini-like squash, but one that I actually like). I've watched my mom and her sisters rolling grape leaves, but I've never actually tried it myself. It's difficult, but I think with enough practice I could be pretty good at it. The kousa is easier, the hardest part being hollowing it out, but they have specific utensils designed for the purpose.

Other favorite foods:
Mamoule, which are date-filled cookies made for the Eids. My mother's are amazing, and she gave me her recipe...
Kenafa, another sweet, made of crunchy, sugary stuff over cheese, which sounds weird but is actually delicious.
Magloubeh, literally "upside down" because you cook rice, potatoes, meat, and vegetables all together in a giant pot and the turn it upside down onto a tray.
Kubbeh, which my host mom said is actually more Syrian/Lebanese, but she showed me how to make. Basically a bulghar wheat shell stuffed with meat.
Manaqish, Arabic pizza without sauce, generally just cheese, zattar, or both.
Spicy eggplant in a jar, which I forget the name of, but my host mom's sister made a big batch for us and it is so delicious. My professor described how to make it, so I may be able to attempt it at home.
Basically any sandwich with french fries on it. It's amazing how the most basic turkey sandwich can be improved by the addition of hobez arabi (Arabic bread) and batata (potato).

Also, I am learning to love cucumber, which has never been a food I've liked much, and even to tolerate olives - they're actually pretty good raw and plain, though I still prefer to avoid them on sandwiches and pizza and the like. The one thing I've been served that I really just couldn't deal with was the yogurt-milk-salt drink, which I'm sorry but ick. My salt tolerance has definitely increased since I've been here, but still! Fortunately, that's pretty much the only thing I've found that I don't like. Everything else is at least edible.

Basically, you should all just be prepared to eat lots of Middle Eastern food whenever I'm cooking.