Blog 4 Jordan Day

Visitor of the day

You
from

Authors

Brag Stats

Comments:25,004
Articles:2,000
Article Hits:12,459,805
Unique Visitors:2,000,438
Rss Subscribers:3,052
Comment Subscribers:2,530
Spammers:136,315
Generated :757,671 spams
Monitoring:3,942,477 spam IPs

Powered by Qwaider Shield

Mansaf@Work!

By: Qwaider

On:Saturday, January 31, 2009 9:56:08 PM
In:Food
Viewed: (7056) times

Currently 4.6/5 Stars.
1
2
3
4
5

Rated 4.6/5 stars (159 votes cast) Thanks for your vote!

Seriously speaking, I can eat Mansaf every single day.

Mansaf, if you're wondering is the staple national dish of Jordan. It's comprised of emulsified-sun-dried-yogurt in a meaty broth (usually Lamb, but can be beef, goat, camel or chicken) Ordered by Ewwness factor from the most authentic to the least non-Jordanian

The dish is simple, the Mansaf (as stated above) is loosely sprayed over a plate of rice sprinkled with fried almonds, pine nuts and sometimes raisins with a hint of parsley.

But even though it's easy, and traditionally it's cooked by men (Men still claim their Mansaf to be far superior to that of women), you'd hardly find a single guy who has enough patience to actually do it. I know I have done it in the past, but it was very time consuming.

But thanks to the wonders of Marriage, (look-up "Domestication"), you can only imagine the look on my face when I opened my lunch box to find, yes yes ... Mansaf!

Lunch time is usually those 10 minutes that I carve out of my day to stuff something down my throat as I run around from one meeting to another, or from one fire to the next one, trying to put out.

Most of the time, my whole lunch consists of nothing more than a cup of coffee!

So you can imagine the look on my face as I look inside my brown bag to find Mansaf. The whole building was glowing with warm summer sunshine as my teeth started beaming with joy. This was no ordinary day

I silently made a make-shift "Do not disturb" post-it note, and stuck it on my door. Turned on to my favorite Jordanian radio station, and didn't even bother heating my feast. You see, hard-core mansaf fans, don't bother with the pleasantries of modern life. Room temperature Jameed (the soup part of Mansaf) is just as delicious as the super heated one that comes off the Man sized pot that is traditionally used to cook Mansaf.

Seconds later, I was floating over views of the old buildings of Amman, with overcrowded mountain sides, of one building on top of the other and the wonderful noises of downtown (I regret cursing them now). And one time when I was lost somewhere in Al Jofeh, only to discover myself on a side of a cliff at Maghreb prayer time. Then the Adhan of a 1000 minarets started echoing from every direction as I stopped to take off my jacket. I almost fell to my knees in awe at the amazing feeling.

I guess, Mansaf is that tiny piece of Jordan that I can take with me anywhere around the world, then consume it while floating atop the old building in Amman.

Memories....

#1
mohanned
Said
On: 1/31/2009 10:11:12 PM
SpamScore=[-3.3]

Raisins? Beef? WTF man!

#2
mohanned
Said
On: 1/31/2009 10:14:36 PM
SpamScore=[-3.32]

بالمرة زيد سويت اند صور صوص..

#3
Qwaider
Said
On: 1/31/2009 10:43:51 PM
SpamScore=[-48.3]

Sorry man, I know, some people don't stick to the authentic recipe. Shame on them :)

#4
hamede
Said
On: 1/31/2009 11:00:41 PM
SpamScore=[-1.62]

أنا عامل منسف اليوم وا بي صنوبر كمان
المنسف إلي بعمله بخلي السيدات يزعلن حتى زوجتي بتغار مني يلا لحدا حوش.

#5
Ammar
Said
On: 1/31/2009 11:03:07 PM
SpamScore=[0.41]

Again, Raisins?? la Marshmellows min marra!

Ya sidi Sa7tain, bas quick question: your lunch box must be of the good air tight kind, like the مرطبان مخلل, Mansaf professionals, and I'm sure you're one, except for that Raisins thing, can smell it from miles away.

#6
hamede
Said
On: 1/31/2009 11:05:56 PM
SpamScore=[-2.14]

مهند ليش السلطية بحطوا قارمة على المنسف BBS

#7
mohanned
Said
On: 1/31/2009 11:16:38 PM
SpamScore=[-3.34]

لويش؟

#8
hamede
Said
On: 1/31/2009 11:18:27 PM
SpamScore=[-2.16]

بحبش بي صنوبر

#9
mohanned
Said
On: 1/31/2009 11:24:19 PM
SpamScore=[-3.36]

قويه..قويدر المرة الجاي بتكون مقلوبة زهرة...عشان يكون أخر يوم الك بالشركه..

#10
whisper
Said
On: 1/31/2009 11:51:52 PM
SpamScore=[0.34]

sa7teeeeen ..... this is what they called "3'ada fa5er 3al2a5er" :D

#11
hamede
Said
On: 1/31/2009 11:59:17 PM
SpamScore=[-2.18]

مهند أرجو انك ما زعلت أنا بمزح مع اصدقائي السلطية زي هيك
أسف اذا أزعلتك

#12
mohanned
Said
On: 2/1/2009 12:17:15 AM
SpamScore=[-3.38]

آه زعلان وبدي منسف عشان أرظى...يا زلمه إنت زعلتني بإنك فكرت اني زعلت..ابيش اشي بزعلني إلا زبيب على منسف...

#13
hamede
Said
On: 2/1/2009 12:20:50 AM
SpamScore=[-2.2]

مش الثلاثاء ولا الأربعاء الخميس عشاكو عندنا

#14
nido
Said
On: 2/1/2009 12:34:31 AM
SpamScore=[-0.29]

I've been hearing abt this mansaf of yours for a week now...the plan, the cooking and now the eating part!! shahaitoooni...biddi mannnnsafff!!!

#15
KJ
Said
On: 2/1/2009 7:19:08 AM
SpamScore=[0]

9a77a 9a77a

mshan heik bet2olli 3andak shoghl aaah :P

#16
JUMANA :)
Said
On: 2/1/2009 7:42:52 AM
SpamScore=[0.41]

مممم ..."منسف" :) و أنا عم قول شو هل ريحة الطيبه ،، لك صحتين
أنا لو فيني باكل منسف مع الترويقة، و الغدا، والعشاء، و بخترع سحور كمان....

هيهيهي :p

#17
Rola
Said
On: 2/9/2009 3:27:03 AM
SpamScore=[1]

Mansaf is just great! But I found that my american coworkers are highly discussed by the smell of it, when I heat it in the microwave. So I guess you were better off eating it cold.

#19
Phil Leddy
Said
On: 6/24/2009 5:01:20 AM
SpamScore=[0.01]

hmmm....Mansaf..I fell in love with this food when I used to work in Amman. Now that I am in California, I was lucky enough to find a restaurant that serves pretty decent Mansaf. However I would like to attempt to cook this myself one day. I just hope that the recipe I choose from numerous ones of the internet is authentic..or at good.
One thing I know for sure is that since all the recipes I have found calls for big portions of meat...i will have mansaf for days since iI am the only one who eats it here...lol (lucky me).