How to survive an Arabic dinner...

Eating slowly is the trick...

Last Sunday some of the people who attended to aforementioned football game were invited home to dinner by one of the locals. Eight of us took taxis to a remote town an hour away called Sahaab and were greeted warmly by Aiman and his family.

They took us into a room on the side of the house that I assume is the guest room. Everything inside it was purple and there was one table in the middle of the room and no chairs. Instead, they had cushion-like-chairs all around the walls (also purple) that were very comfortable. In Arabic culture it is offensive to point your feet at someone so finding a comfortable position without doing this was a little challenging, but it was easy to get used to.

We talked for a while discussing the game and being introduced to the family (which included a mum, brothers, sisters, brother's wife, and children), until it was time for dinner. The menu for the day was mansef, the traditional meal of Jordan. I had it the first week I was in Jordan at a restaurant and loved it. 

It is a rice and meat dish that is fairly simple to make. If I have understood it correctly you boil the rice along  with some spices while boiling the meat (either goat or sheep) in a sort of yogurt broth in another pot. Then you pour the broth over the rice and sprinkle cilantro and roasted nuts on top of it. I actually got to help prepare this meal (the putting together part of it) and it was wonderful! Especially when they scooped out the two boiled sheep's heads from the pot and placed them neatly in the middle of the tray of rice. 

They filled three large trays with this, brought it out and exclaimed "tfadlou!", the Arabic equivalent to "bon appetit" or "værsågod". Instantly my mind flashed back to warning I had heard from people who had eaten at Arab houses before. "Eat slowly. Very, very, slowly..." I tried very hard to follow their advice but realized that even this tactic would only help so much. They started off by filling up my plate and kept reloading it every time I took a bite. It was kind of like trying to defeat the Hydra, but instead if heads it was bites of food; for every one spoonful I ate, three more were put on my plate to replace it.  

About halfway through the meal one of our hosts asked "bidkum lisaan il kharoof". Translation: "Do y'all want the sheep's tongue?". Three of us tried it. I'm still not sure if it was a good idea or not. I thought, I might as well since I would be able to say that I have eaten sheep's tongue but looking back on it now I'm not sure if I want to admit to that. The taste really wasn't that bad, and the texture was even okay, it was more the idea of it that still makes me a bit queasy... Later on they offered the brain as well and that time only two of us accepted. I chickened out on this one... I don't know... maybe next time I am invited to eat mansef I'll give it a go, but I was already having a hard time keeping all my food down with the amount that I had eaten and the small bite of sheep's tongue... Anyway, this is what I missed out on:

Okay, imagine the fullest you have ever been... then multiply it by six! And then they came out with fruit... not just an apple each, but a plate filled with apples (note the plural), an apricot, an orange, a banana, and a mango... each... By this time some of our hosts started pitying us and told us to hide the fruits in our bags while Aiman, the main host, wasn't looking. Which we did. And then they brought out nuts... a plate full of them for each of us... 

It was a super fun experience. I just loved how wonderful all the people were. Super kind, and friendly and warm hearted. There definitely is a different culture of hosting here. There isn't just supposed to be enough food for everyone, there is supposed to be more than we could ever be able to eat. This just doesn't happen in the west because no one wants to spend money on something they know will go to waste, but in the minds of the Arabs it isn't waste, it was there way of showing how welcome their guests are and how much they want them to feel welcome. It was a wonderful night, with the people, and the food, and the cultural experience. Definitely one I will remember.