Dinner Party

After a long day at Petra, we were invited to dinner at a friend's house. The family prepared a traditional Jordanian meal of chicken, rice, and vegetables called, Maqluva. In typical fashion, they arranged a monstrous tray of food, which we circled around on the floor and shared family-style. A plastic sheet below the food made clean up effortless and we were able to enjoy learning more about the culture from an insider's perspective.

Dessert—hot tea/coffee and cookies

The food in Jordan and throughout the Middle East is delicious and quite different from the East Asian cuisine I had been eating the past year. In addition to the Maqluva above, we enjoyed several other dishes, including:

Shwarma: Meat (chicken or beef) shaved off an oversized kabob and placed in a pita with vegetables, french fries, falafel, and mystery mayonnaise.

Falafel: Fried chickpeas in a ball or patty shape

Hummus: Chickpeas and Tahini dip served with pita

Lamb

Goat cheese

(All pictures courtesy of Melissa W.)