Global Crossroads Study Abroad Blog

It’s a little awkward to be a tourist in a place like this. Everybody who lives here already can tell that I’m new to this city, but taking pictures just screams foreign. During our orientation week, I spent more time photographing all of my new adventures. But now that we’ve all settled down into our host homes and started classes, it’s starting to seem less appropriate to run around everywhere with a camera.

I really wish I could record some of these TV shows in more than just memory for you: from Arab Idol to Turkish soap operas to Arabic news channels. Right now Reem has the TV on a prayer channel, where no mosque is being shown but rather this gorgeous Arabic calligraphy is being dropped onto the screen following the words of the prayer. Arabic calligraphy is so incredibly intricate and creative. And hard to read! Allah was the only word I could read on the screen without using the audio of the prayer for help. (The name Allah has a special marking on the letters that isn’t in any other word, so it’s very distinctive). It’s hard to tell if calligraphy of that quality is really meant to be readable.

But what a tangent! This post was meant to be about food. Like I was saying, it’s usually awkward to take pictures of these people and places that I’m getting to know. But the food is just begging to be photographed!

Here’s how my average day looks like. In the morning, I wake up to a kitchen counter full of pita bread and toppings for it. You’ve got your honey, jam, and peanut butter if you’re feeling sweet. But most often it’s about the yogurt and deli meat. I typically spread a really salty yogurt, lebana, onto my pita and toss a few slices of (as yet unidentified) meat on top. If I want just a little extra to fill my belly, I tear off pieces of bread and dip it in olive oil, followed by the tasty Jordanian zaTir. It’s the same, or at least similar to, the spice added onto a Napoli pizza at Punch, if you’ve been there.

Then I get to the SIT center and spend a couple hours in class. By our second break, I’m usually getting pretty hungry, so I mix myself a bowl of yogurt (not so salty this time) and honey. Kind of like Greek yogurt?

Lunch time is at noon. We get an hour before our last class, so if we want to treat ourselves to a restaurant we need to act fast! We grab a taxi to Abdoun Circle, just a couple minutes ride, and choose one of the many restaurants there. A crowd favorite is shawirma, which you may have had at home. Kalha makes a delicious chicken shawirma wrapped in pita, with peppers, tomatoes, olives, and pickles on the side. “On the side” is my favorite part of it! I need to learn to be less picky. We add fries and a water, and if we want we can take it to-go!

Shaving slices of chicken and seasoning off for the shawirma.

There are plenty of other places to eat in Abdoun Circle, restaurants for hummus and felafel, Asian, American, yummy drinks, argeelah… But so far I’ve found it easier and more fun to walk down to the grocery store instead. There, we stock up on pita bread, olive oil, spices, cheeses, deli meats, and dessert. Rachel and I were a little too ambitious with our cheese – next time I get a chance I’ll take a picture of it, and you’ll see what it’s covered with, and the peppers inside. Spicy!! If I’m missing food from home, a nice little ice cream treat at this nearby store is just the thing to satisfy my tastebuds.

My favorite meal is dinner, because my host family always has something with rice! During our orientation week, we were mostly at restaurants, and they’re definitely lacking in rice. My host mother makes us rice with lentils, rice with chicken, rice stuffed in grape leaves and vegetables… And more pita, of course. Then there’s always a plethora of bananas, cherries, and cucumbers. I was so excited when my host father told me the neighbors grow raspberries and green cherries along their fence!

Grape leaves! Very difficult to make.

Raspberries, green cherries, and small green apples grow near our house.

Pita is present at basically every meal, and a lot of it. So if you ask for more khubz, you’d better make sure you want it!

The other day, I finally had the chance to eat mansaf, the famous rice dish born in Jordan. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a chance to eat it fresh off the stove, nor by the communal serving plate traditionally used for the dish. I’ll have to give a better explanation of it when I eat it properly in the Badia. For now, here’s a picture and an ingredient description.

A yogurt sauce poured onto white rice, mixed in with huge pieces of lamb. Not a very appetizing photograph, but I swear it was good!

Lastly, I recently had the chance to eat at a true Jordanian barbeque. We started cooking at someone’s host home around 9 at night. The host brother set the girls to preparing the meat, while the boys all sat around watching one of them stoke the fire. (Don’t get me started on how we thought about THAT gender role assignment.) Then it was onto the “grill,” to be barbequed by the coals. I can’t remember what meat the kebabs had, but the lamb stuffed in pita bread was delicious, and then there were huge chunks of chicken to top it all off. We left all the cleaning to the next day, which I feel pretty bad about because I had to leave before they opened that can of worms.

My favorite out of it all? Honestly, a little pita and lebana in the morning is always a nice way to start off my day. Plain and simple!

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