Jordan

Arayes is a Levantine snack of pita or flatbread stuffed with spiced minced meat and grilled or toasted until the bread is crisp and the filling cooked through.

Deep-fried balls or patties made from raw-ground soaked dried chickpeas (or fava beans in Egypt) seasoned with herbs and spices, typically stuffed into pita with tahini and fresh salad.

A Levantine chopped salad of raw seasonal vegetables and crisped pita bread, unified by a sumac-forward lemon-and-olive-oil dressing that delivers bright, tangy acidity.

Dried fava beans slow-cooked until completely tender in their own starchy liquid, then dressed at service with olive oil, fresh lemon juice, and cumin — the foundational breakfast of Egypt and a staple across the Levant, Sudan, and the Horn of Africa.

A Jordanian breakfast dish of tomatoes sautéed with olive oil and garlic, traditionally finished with or served alongside eggs.

A silky-smooth purée of slow-cooked chickpeas emulsified with tahini, fresh lemon juice, and garlic, finished with extra-virgin olive oil and served as a communal spread across the Levant.

A hard, dried and fermented ball of salted goat or sheep yogurt that is reconstituted into a tangy, savory sauce — most famously the cooking broth of Jordan's national dish, Mansaf.

Ring-shaped or braided shortbread-like cookies scented with anise and mahlab, often crusted with sesame, baked for religious holidays.

A thin leavened flatbread baked by slapping the dough onto the inner clay wall of a hot tannour oven, giving it blistered, char-spotted faces.

A Levantine hot dessert of shredded wheat pastry (or semolina crust) packed over mild, stretchy white cheese, baked until golden, drenched in rose-scented sugar syrup, and finished with crushed pistachios.

A Jordanian Bedouin feast dish of bone-in lamb slow-braised in a sauce of reconstituted jameed (dried fermented sheep- or goat-milk yogurt), layered over rice and thin flatbread on a communal platter and finished with ghee and toasted nuts.

A festive Levantine one-pot dish of spiced long-grain rice layered over fried vegetables and braised meat or chicken, cooked together in a single pot then dramatically inverted onto a platter to reveal a structured tower of rice, vegetables, and meat.

A Palestinian and Jordanian feast dish of sumac-rubbed chicken roasted with deeply caramelized onions and generous olive oil, layered over taboun flatbread that absorbs the cooking juices, and finished with toasted pine nuts and additional sumac.

A hot, thick, milky winter drink traditionally thickened with ground orchid-tuber flour and scented with cinnamon and rose water.

A Levantine fish-and-rice dish in which white fish is cooked, the rice is tinted and flavored with deeply caramelized onions and warm spices, and the two are layered together and topped with toasted nuts.

A Levantine street food of spiced marinated meat stacked on a vertical rotisserie, slow-roasted and shaved thin into flatbread with sauce and pickles.

A Levantine herb salad of very finely chopped flat-leaf parsley dressed with lemon juice and olive oil, with tomato, scallion, and a small amount of fine bulgur.

A Bedouin feast of marinated lamb, chicken and vegetables slow-roasted on tiered racks lowered into an underground pit oven sealed with sand and embers.