Amman Food: The Legendary Hummus Circuit, the Mansaf Ceremonial Experience, the Downtown Street Food, the Mezze Culture, and the Amman Restaurant Scene
The Amman food route covers the hummus circuit as the most competitive single Arab hummus market, the mansaf as the most ceremonially significant Jordanian food, the downtown street food, the mezze culture, and the complete Amman restaurant scene.
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Amman Hummus: The Most Competitive Arab Hummus City
The Amman hummus circuit (the Hashem, the Abu Jbara, the Reem Al Bawadi hummus restaurants in the most hotly contested single Arab capital hummus market), where the freshly cooked chickpeas pureed with the most generously proportioned single raw tahini, the most freshly squeezed lemon, and the most generously applied olive oil are served at the most atmospherically unceremonious single Arab restaurant counters, is the most seriously argued single food debate in Jordanian culinary culture.
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Hashem Restaurant: The Most Famous Amman Institution
Hashem Restaurant in downtown Amman (established 1952, the most continuously operating single Amman restaurant and the most frequently cited single Jordanian restaurant in the international travel media with its 24-hour opening for the falafel, the hummus, the fuul, and the ful medames), is the most democratically priced single Amman food institution where the king and the taxi driver eat at the most identical single plastic table in the most egalitarian single Jordanian social space.
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Mansaf: The Jordanian Ceremonial Feast
The mansaf (the most ceremonially important single Jordanian dish eaten at the most significant social occasions: the wedding, the tribal reconciliation, the guest of honor feast) served at the traditional Amman mansaf restaurants involves the whole lamb cooked in the jameed (the most distinctively Jordanian single fermented dried yogurt, the product of the Badia desert sheep) sauce served on the most generously portioned single flatbread-and-rice base.
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Downtown Amman Street Food: The Falafel and Knafeh Circuit
The downtown Amman street food circuit (the Hashem falafel wrap, the Al-Quds knafeh, the Jabri hummus, and the Abu Ali liver sandwich) provides the most affordable single Amman food experience and the most directly local single Jordanian urban eating culture in the most socially animated single Amman street food neighborhood. The downtown Amman street food at 7am is the most completely working-class single Jordanian morning food ritual.
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Abdoun and Sweifieh: The Modern Restaurant District
The Abdoun and Sweifieh residential districts are the most completely contemporary single Amman restaurant and cafe neighborhoods with the most diverse single Amman international cuisine range (the Lebanese, the Italian, the Japanese, and the Peruvian restaurants in the most globally cosmopolitan single Jordanian dining circuit), catering to the most internationally exposed single Amman resident population of the expatriate community, the Jordanian professional class, and the most upscale single Amman tourism segment.
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Jordanian Sweets: Knafeh and Baklava
The Amman sweets circuit (the Jabri pastry shop for the most traditionally made single Amman knafeh, the Habiba sweets for the most generously honey-soaked single Amman baklava, and the Nafaweh for the most locally specific single Jordanian date and nut pastry) is the most calorie-dense single Amman food experience and the pastry tradition most directly identifying the Levantine sweet tooth in the most elaborately honey-drenched single Jordan dessert culture.
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More in Amman
Amman's Food & Culture: Mansaf by Hand, Palestinian Knafeh & Rome's Best Ruins at Jerash
Amman Day Trips: Jerash Roman City, Ajloun Castle, the Dead Sea Float, and the Madaba Mosaic Map
Amman's Living Culture: Syrian Restaurants, Wild Jordan Café & a Diplomatic Crossroads
Amman Essential: The Citadel with the Temple of Hercules, the Roman Theatre, the Umayyad Palace, Rainbow Street, and the Downtown Medley of Ancient and Modern Jordan
Amman History: The Ammonite Rabbath Ammon, the Hellenistic Philadelphia, the Roman Gerasa, the Byzantine City, the Umayyad Capital, and the Modern Jordanian Capital
