Petra Food: The Mansaf National Dish, the Zarb Underground Barbecue, the Bedouin Mezze, and the Wadi Musa Restaurant Scene
The Petra food route covers the mansaf as the most ceremonially important single Jordanian dish, the zarb Bedouin underground barbecue, the Bedouin mezze spread, and the Wadi Musa restaurant circuit.
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Mansaf: The Jordanian National Dish
Mansaf (the most ceremonially important single Jordanian food, the whole lamb cooked in the jameed fermented dried yogurt sauce, served over the flatbread and the rice and topped with the pine nuts and the almonds) is the most socially significant single Jordanian food preparation, served at the most important single Jordanian social occasions (the wedding, the funeral, the tribal reconciliation) and eaten standing from the communal platter in the most directly Bedouin single social eating ritual in Jordan.
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Zarb: The Bedouin Underground Barbecue
Zarb, the Bedouin underground barbecue (the lamb and the chicken slow-roasted in the sealed underground clay oven over the charcoal embers for 3-4 hours in the most completely smoke-sealed single cooking method in the Bedouin culinary tradition), is the most dramatically presented single Jordanian food experience with the unearthing of the zarb pot from the sand providing the most theatrical single food reveal in the Petra and Wadi Rum tourist circuit. The zarb is the most frequently cited single Petra and Wadi Rum food memory by the international visitor.
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Bedouin Mezze: The Desert Hospitality Spread
The Bedouin mezze spread (the most elaborately generous single desert hospitality food display with the hummus, the mutabal eggplant dip, the fattoush salad, the tabouleh, the olives, the labneh yogurt cheese, and the freshly baked taboon bread) is the most universally offered single Jordanian restaurant meal starter and the food tradition most directly expressing the Bedouin diafa hospitality obligation to feed the guest the most abundantly possible.
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Wadi Musa Restaurants: The Practical Petra Dining
The Wadi Musa restaurant circuit (the Al-Arabi restaurant for the most traditional single Jordanian home cooking, the Cave Bar in the ancient Nabataean cave tomb for the most atmospherically unique single Petra bar experience, and the Movenpick hotel restaurant for the most completely international single Petra dining) provides the most practically complete single Petra visitor food circuit in the most compactly walkable single Jordanian tourist town.
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Jordanian Coffee: The Cardamom Ritual
The Jordanian coffee (qahwa, the most specifically Jordanian single hot drink: the lightly roasted green coffee bean ground with the cardamom and the saffron in the most aromatic single Arab coffee preparation, served in the most traditionally shaped single small handle-less cup with the dried dates), the most universally offered single Bedouin and Jordanian hospitality drink, is the most completely sensory single Jordanian food experience and the drink most immediately associated with the Bedouin desert hospitality culture.
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Knafeh: The Levantine Sweet
Knafeh (the semolina and cheese pastry soaked in the rose water and the orange blossom sugar syrup and topped with the crushed pistachio, the most beloved single Levantine sweet pastry), sold at the Wadi Musa town center pastry shops and the Petra visitor center cafe, is the most unanimously praised single Jordanian sweet by the international visitor and the pastry most directly identifying the Levantine pastry tradition to the non-Jordanian guest.