Jordan is famous for its spectacular food filled with Levantine flavors. There is no real count for the most delicious traditional dishes that the Jordanians pride themselves with. Some of them, though, you cannot leave Jordan without trying.

Mujadara is a healthy protein-filled dish which is easy to prepare. Raw rice and lentils are cooked together and seasoned with lots of cumin and spices. Some like to add partially burned onions atop their plates, but it is best eaten with yogurt, salad, or both.

Rashouf is another deeply oriented food tightly linked to the Jordanian culture, and is also served as a winter dish. Adding the same yogurt essence used in cooking mansaf to a blend of lentils, groats, and wheat, is it cooked over medium heat and served with sour pickles and vegetable. Careful though, as beneficial as this dish is, it is also very high in protein and fibers, so don’t eat it and take a nap.

This is an old Jordanian-oriented dish, eaten mostly by people in North Jordan. Some Jordanians might not even recognize it, nonetheless, it is a traditional Jordanian dish deeply rooted to the country life. Makmoura, meaning buried, is exactly what it sounds like. Boiled chicken and onions are buried under a thick blanket of dough and cooked in the oven until well-done. It is later served in triangle pieces, exactly like cake.

Jordan’s most famous traditional dish and a nationally celebrated pride is mansaf. It is enlightening to know that Jordanians go back to solid Bedouin roots, from which the concept of mansaf has seen life. The very fatty dish consists of rice stirred with heavy domestic margarine, cooked separately from the thick yogurt essence, and is stirred until boiled. 

Musakhan is another dish orchestrated with both the genuine Jordanian and Palestinian tastebuds. It is yet another odd-looking food which the kind people of Palestine cannot keep only for themselves. Upon first look, Musakhan would look like a rather incomprehensible pile of bread. It is basically nothing more than taboon bread, soaked in olive oil and decorated with heaps of onions and sour spices with out-of-the-oven chicken on the side. At last, when you dare to take the first bite, the hideous vision will melt away into sweet and sour goodness in your mouth.