Culture and Tradition

Last week we were invited to a traditional Jordanian dinner by a kind Jordanian family. First let me tell you about the family.

Abu Wassam is the father of the family. Abu Wassam means "father of Wassam." We have known the guy for about 3 months and we still don't know his real name. We just call him Abu Wassam. We met him at Mt. Nebo and he had a large van to rent. So that is our relationship. He is the owner of the van that we drive. He has a lovely wife, twin daughters (age 15), and two boys (ages 14 and 8).

They served Mensef. Mensef is basically rice, lamb, and thin Arabic bread. Then you boil a yogurt sauce to pour over it. Traditionally it is eaten with only your hands. You pour the sauce over the rice so that it sticks together and you put it into a kind of ball. You only eat with one hand--the right. It's a technique that you make the ball of rice and then make a fist and the ball sits on top of your thumb and forefinger. I know I'm not explaining it right but when you see Todd ask him to show you because he's got the technique down.

We had a bit of trouble finding their home but we only were a few minutes late. They brought us in to their front room where we visited and drank soda. Well, I should say Todd and Abu visited. Abu doesn't speak great English and his wife really doesn't speak any. Abu's kids speak minimal English as well. And since Todd is the only one in our family that speaks Arabic, he had to carry the conversation for our side. The rest of us just smiled pleasantly.

It came time to serve dinner. Todd and I had been to a Mensef dinner before so we sort of knew how this worked. They put out a table cloth under the table to catch spills then put newspaper on top of the table. Then they brought out the meal.

The interesting thing was that Abu's family ate in the kitchen and we ate by ourselves in their front room. After they set out the meal for us I started taking pictures. This is a picture of the main course--skull and all. This is looking down at the main course with the rice, meat, nuts, herbs, spices . . .



My photographing ablilities are not the greatest so hopefully you can tell that this is indeed the true skull of the lamb they cooked for us. Teeth and tongue are still intact. While Batman was eating he couldn't look at the skull. Every time he saw it he would start dry heaving. He could eat it, he just couldn't see it and think about it.



This is our family just after they brought it out. Critter was sick that day so he stayed home which is why he's not in the pics. But check out the looks on the kids' faces--especially Batman's and Red's. If you'll also notice, they brought out a pitcher of water but only two glasses. The thought of sharing backwash with my kids sicks me out so I didn't drink anything during the meal. They did also bring out dishes and utensils. Todd was the only one from our family who ate in the traditional way.



This next picture is after we had been eating a while.



Abu had come back into the room to make sure we were all ok and to ask if we needed anything. Todd was the only one who really liked the food. I thought it was interesting and decent but nothing I'm anxious to fix for our family again. When Abu came in he sat on a chair, pulled the tongue out from the skull and started throwing pieces onto everyone's plates. You should've seen the "big eyes" from the kids. And I'm sure I had some as well. Petey was holding her plate back and telling him she was almost done and was too full. The other kids weren't sure what to do. I politely thanked him for putting some on my plate with the intention of giving it to Todd once Abu left the room again. Wouldn't you know it though, Abu sat there and watched us eat. I was trying to come up with all sorts of ways I could get out of eating that piece of tongue that I had just seen ripped from the actual skull of that lamb. I was trying to think of ways I could bury it in the rice, cover it with some bread. Anything but actually eat it! Evidently it is one of the prime pieces of the meat so for him to give it to us is an honor. Fortunately, Abu did leave the room after a few minutes and as soon as he was out of sight I threw my tongue piece onto Todd's plate. Ewwww!

After dinner, they cleaned up then we (or Todd) visited some more. They brought out juice for us to drink. We all got our own glasses this time. Then they brought out platefuls of fruit. Then of course they brought out tea and were shocked to hear that we don't drink tea or coffee. We get that a lot here. But once we explain that it is "haram" (forbidden) in our religion--similar to pork for them, they understand. They still don't understand how anyone can do without tea or coffee but they respect it.

And just before we left we took a picture of Abu Wassam, Wassam, the two daughters, and T.



These are the cultural experiences we hope our family remembers from our time spent here in the Middle East.