akla! akla!

since i've been here i've been treated to middle eastern dishes on a daily basis. treated is putting it mildly. even after a second helping i'm routinely instructed 'akla! akla!' (eat! eat!). the food is always fresh (the family here doesn't even have a microwave) and flavorful. even after six weeks here i don't think i've had any dish more than twice. here are some of the highlights..

• stuffed kusa. the best translation for kusa would be cucumber, though they're smaller and tastier than any cucumber i've ever had at home. the veggies are hollowed out and filled with rice and spiced ground meat and cooked in a tomato sauce
• dawali. this is a variation on turkish dolma, but smaller and presumably more time-consuming. one of the few dishes i've helped in preparing, dawali requires a full day (at least) to make. ahab, the uncle, told me it was the 'stupidest middle eastern dish' because it takes hours to make and just seconds to eat. it's true enough - each one requires a pinch of rice and meat inside a tightly wrapped grape leaf. it's a tedious process and one that's generally carried out by all the women sitting with trays in front of the tv. but once they're cooked (usually along with the kusa) and served with yogurt no one's complaining. partially because their mouths are all too full.
• molokhia. an egyptian soup consisting principally of spinach (or something very much like spinach). i have to say this dish is not my favorite. perhaps because on wikipedia it was described as 'mucilaginous' (i had to look it up but it's basically what it sounds like - mucus-y), a characterization i would have to agree with.
• maftool. this dishes it one of my favorite. described to me as 'pure palestinian', it's a dish that's made in great quantities and served at big family affairs. the maftool itself is made of cracked wheat, dampened and rolled with flour to make little balls - something like couscous but bigger. usually it's served with chicken, onion and chick peas but i could eat a plate full all by itself. i was told the name means 'twisted' first because of how they make the pearls and then because of how your stomach feels after you eat them. i admit i was pretty full after that second helping.
• labnah. is an interesting mix between cheese and yogurt. as i understand it, labnah is yogurt that has been strained of its whey and usually left in olive oil for days at a time. the result is balls or chunks of something that has the consistency of cheese but tastes like (mediterranean-style) yogurt
• knafeh. this one has to be one of my favorites. just the mention of the name is enough to make me salivate. a traditional palestinian pastry, it's prepared by heating pastry dough and covering it with butter and oil, then spreading on (Nabulshi, from Nablus) cheese and topping that with a sugary syrup and crushed pistachios. basically all of that just means gooey, greasy deliciousness. for a real treat, you can go to arafat or habibeh (the two most famous knafeh shops) that are always packed - even late into the night
• honey cake. another sweet that's made its way here is honey cake. the name might make it sound like the sweetness would be overpowering but in reality it's just the right blend of cake, honey, almond and pistachios. delightful.
• musakhan. when we had this meal i was told not to eat anything all day. after lunch (usually served around 3) i was glad i had listened. this meal is a feast in itself. huge trays come out stacked with taboon (palestinian) bread slathered with fried onions and roasted chickens baked with onions, pine nuts, and all kinds of spices. normally (like most dishes) accompanied with yogurt and eaten with your hands, it makes for a messy, filling meal.
• mansaf. i would be remiss (or worse) if i didn't mention the national dish of jordan. because there are so many foreigners (palestinians mostly) who've settled in jordan the delicacies come from all over. but mansaf is totally jordanian and any jordanian will proudly claim it as the national dish. it consists of lamb cooked for hours in fermented yogurt and served with rice. you'll inevitably be asked if you ate it with your hands or utensils so you might as well just get messy and dig right in.

these are the big dishes that i can recall. but even the simplest dishes are so flavorful that i could eat them over and over. fried zucchini with yogurt, rice and lentils (mjaddrah), stewed tomatoes and garlic with bread, coriander seeds and garlic in olive oil, rice and pine nuts, potatoes and eggs, green beans or okra in a tomato sauce, soup with yellow lentils and lemon. and the list goes on..

then of course there are the snacks, what you might have for 'dinner' (a light meal eaten later, around 9 or 10). one of my favorites is za'atar, a mix of dried spices (oregano, basil, thyme.. who knows what else) served with olive oil and used for dipping. then there's nablus, a salty cheese offset by bread or watermelon. any variety of fresh fruits, homemade pickles.. ah, just thinking of all this makes me sad to leave.

of course i'll try to recreate these dishes when i go home, but somehow i know that they won't taste quite the same coming from my kitchen.