Experiencing Jordanian Culture in Amman

We got to go on a tour around Amman to experience Jordanian culture. Amman has nearly 5 million people living there, and in biblical times it was called Philadelphia. First we met up with Miriam our tour guide, she bought breakfast pizza called Za’atar for everyone to try. Za’atar is a pizza with primary thyme, oregano, and marjoram, mixed with toasted sesame seeds, sumac, and salt, it tasted very good. We were going to get tea but the shop was closed, we started walking to a different tea shop this one was open so me and Brooklyn got a local herbal tea, while our parents and Miriam got Bedouin coffee with cardamom. We also got cold dates, I liked them better than the ones at home because they are more refreshing and just delicious, everyone loved what they got!

Later we walked to The Jordanian Kitchen, where we learned to cook with local people, they taught us how to cook traditional foods. When we arrived there were already two people there, we got served black tea with fresh mint, I thought the tea was delishouse. First we created Maqlubeh which is the second most popular dish in Jordan, we got to layer the Maqlubeh, I got to layer the eggplants around the rim. Brooklyn layered the cauliflower flower down to make it look pretty so that when you flip the dish it looked pretty, our dad aggressively placed the chicken on top of all the food, then our mom placed the spiced rice on top of everything, then they place it in the oven to cook.

When it was cooking we made the Jordan valley salad, the names are very literal like Maqlubeh in English means upside down the chef told us all the names are literal, Jordan valley salad is called that because you can find all the ingredients in the Jordan valley. We also made hummus and eggplant Mutabbal, the chef told us to take are knifes and mash the eggplant in till it’s mush (it was fun).

When making the humus, we mixed together tahini and lemon juice which created a chemical reaction. It went from liquid to solid after mixing but if you mixed it too much it separates and the only way to save it is to put it in a food processor.

When the Maqlubeh was done cooking we flipped the Maqlubeh, its a tradition for everyone to hit the pot, so we all hit the pot to relies the food, but when we lifted it up it somewhat fall apart but luckily we were going to break it anyways so all the food mixes together. In addition they gave us flat bread and stuffed flatbread, called Arayes the other bread we had was called Taboun. We sat down and ate it all I went up for seconds and thirds, because it was so good. They served us Muhallabeyyeh it was the texture of flan.

Once we left we went to a little cultural centre ouside, where we got hibiscuses iced tea it was really refreshing because it was really hot outside. We were going to go to a calligraphy class but the person was sick so that was sadly cancelled, to make up for it Miriam let us pick out an art piece.

We finished the tour and headed to Amman Citadel. Citadel is thousands of years old and was an ammonite stronghold for the bible it was built on the tallest hill, the city is built on seven hills! On the top of hill we could look down at a roman calcium were they used to have gladiator fights. Amman Citadel is the oldest continuously inhabited places in the world! Amman Citadel was built in 1,800 BCE.