I'm going to add a little bit more of
this I think this is the prettiest one
I've made so far
absolutely oh
yeah that is a one
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biter good morning everyone it's Mark
weans with migrationology dcom It's a
beautiful morning I am enjoying the
views of this Canyon and we're about to
head to breakfast and then after
breakfast they have booked us for a spa
treatment and then after that we are
heading back to Aman and we have been in
Jordan for over a week now and we have
yet to try Jordan's national dish so I
am looking forward to that for lunch and
that's the plan for the
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day thank you I got a bunch of
vegetables I topped with some nuts and
then some olive oil and I'm just going
to squeeze
on all of this lemon
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juice there are cucumbers and oh and a
lot of
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arugula we're walking down the canyon to
the spa one of the things that's really
cool about this place is that the ma in
Hot Springs right right where we are
right now these Hot Springs were
formerly used by King Herod thousands of
years
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ago we made it to the spa it's really
nice they have their own private
waterfall outside but we are getting
ready for an hour Spa session so I'm
going to turn off the camera now I will
give you all an update in an hour from
now it is over that was an entire hour
that went by way too fast and it went by
in a little bit of a
blur that was
fantastic
finished Ying was in the room a separate
room from me I finished a little bit
before you you have key wow
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nice the private swimming pool and
waterfall hot spring they have at the
spa is really beautiful but
unfortunately we don't have time to use
it because we got to get back check out
of the hotel and we're on our way back
to
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Aman the drive to Aman took probably a
little over an hour and we have made it
back to Aman we are having lunch today
at a restaurant called tawah Al Hawa
which is a well-known restaurant in Aman
it's a it's a giant restaurant they can
accommodate huge groups and this
restaurant is especially known for
serving Jordan's national dish which is
called mansaf and that is the one main
dish that we have not yet tried or I
have not yet tried since being in Jordan
so I am looking forward to eating it in
the the center of the table is a giant
golden tray um which is the traditional
mansaf feasting platter and we're
waiting on our food now in Jordan they
take the raw vegetable platters to the
next level look at this look at this um
just structure of raw vegetables I'm
going to grab a
cucumber cooling cucumber and I love how
they just they just put whole vegetables
on there you got whole cucumbers
Tomatoes they're just whole entire
lemons on this plate wonderful they have
just brought us our tray of of mansaf it
is it is stunningly beautiful I'm going
to do my best to just quickly explain
what the dish is because it's very
unique and I can personally say that
I've never eaten anything like it so
there are a couple of main components to
Mansa the first is rice and so on the
bottom of the tray is rice and then on
top of the rice are big big huge chunks
of Jordanian lamb which are cooked in a
yogurt which I will explain more about
very soon and then over the everything
is a a big sprinkle of pine nuts but the
probably the most important component of
mansaf is the dehydrated goat yogurt
which is known as jamid they have
brought out a chunk of jamid and this is
dehydrated goat yogurt and often times
you'll see them drying this yogurt on
top of the roof in the sunlight or on
top of their tent B and tent in the in
the desert dehydrated this and
preserving it but in order to prepare
this dish they take this they take take
the jamid and they make it into a soupy
sauce and so this is actually like a the
gravy which is made from the jamid and
this is what the lamb is cooked in and
then also this is what you your pour
over the rice and the lamb to eat it and
before I dig into the main platter I
have a cup of the jamid which is I'm
just going to sip
on
M you can definitely smell goat you can
yeah you can really smell goat in
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that
wow that is sour and very goaty it kind
of has a cheese a Cheesy yogurty taste
to it but it's salty and sour and yeah
very goaty that's
delicious
wow pour the jamid like this on the Mena
for people to start all around start
eating so this is what we
do you pour the
jamid so you ball it up yeah with a
piece of meat inside it and maybe some
of
the some of the shr this is the sh bread
yeah see bread you just go like
this
there's nothing like it it's the best
meal ever there is a very traditional
process and method of eating Mansa and
so F just showed it to me and I'm going
to do my best to to try it out get a
spoon of the jamid and pour it over the
the rice and area and my lamb chunk and
the rice and those pine nuts you can
only use your three fingers well your
two fingers and your thumb and what you
do is you grab a piece of the lamb and
by the way this is local Jordanian
grass-fed Freer range lamb and you take
a little piece of the lamb and then you
get it
into you mix it in with some rice and
make sure you get a lot of that jum meat
in there cuz that's where a lot of the
flavor and the the the hardiness of the
dish comes from and then once you have
kind of a good
a good amount within your your fingers
like that then you transfer it to your
palm and you start to to work it into
a a
ball not see the squeezing but the
motion like this yeah you have to make a
circular motion so it becomes like a bow
oh yeah okay so there's a definitely a a
unique um it definitely takes some skill
to do this because the not bad for a
first time the rice um is sticky so it
sort of it sticks to your fingers but so
you don't want to really squeeze it too
tight but you more want to yes play with
it a little bit to get it into a a
circular that's very good a circular
shape this is my very first Mansa ball
and you want to eat it again you want to
eat it only with your your three fingers
your thumb and your two fingers and then
another thing is that you don't want to
touch your fingers to your mouth so that
your fingers remain
clean
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wow that is
awesome that lamb is so silky tender the
rice has a little bit of a a sticky
texture to it kind of a um you can tell
that it's been cooked for a long time
with some spices and then yeah it's all
about that jamid that is really the the
main component of this of the entire
mansaf that is what gives it the flavor
the richness the sauce the gravy and
additionally those pine nuts are also
fantastic they're they're crispy and
fragrant
and wow yeah again this is a dish that
I've never had I've never had any dish
even close to this I don't think this is
very unique very
interesting and extraordinarily
delicious a little bit more of that
jamed in
there to hold it all together and
ensuring I just go in with the three
fingers another thing I wanted to
quickly mention is traditionally you
will stick your left hand behind your
back when you eat and so you only eat
with your right hand oh yeah there you
go you can see if you don't if you don't
squeeze it too hard you can see that the
it sort of forms into a ball much easier
you just kind of play with it in your
palm roll it around and that way the
rice all sticks to each other and you
got to have that little piece of lamb
right in the middle after eating this
ball of Mansa I'm going to follow it by
a bite of
onion wow and the onion is topped with
uh
sumuk oh I love that combination it's
quite mild but just oh but just juicy
and crisp and refreshing that really
contrasts the the richness and the
saltiness of the Mana that's
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fantastic cheers
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buddy this restaurant is also well known
for their chili olives so I've got some
of the chili olives and a piece of chili
on my plate I'm going to pick them up
together oh wow
M really
salty
spicy and that that just compliments the
meal one of the things that I've already
learned about eating Mansa is that you
have to have the right ratio of rice to
meat to jamid Yogurt because if you
don't have the right ratio it won't
stick together and make a ball I'm G to
add a little bit more of
this to my rice portion and then also
it's served with um this this bread
which is called sh sh and also this is
common you can eat it with some of this
tear off
a a layer under piece you mix that into
your
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bite with
everything making sure you have that
right ratio of everything I think
that'll do such a fantastic way to
eat I think this is the prettiest one
I've made so far absolutely that's like
a golf ball siiz and then well another
thing I love is how you just drop this
into your
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mouth oh
yeah that is a one biter m
that is not light food that that that
will fill you up for sure I am stuffed
right now the lamb the jamid the entire
the entire dish was just stunning and
one more thing to show you your hand
should look something like this when you
are finished eating once you are sure
you're finished you can lick your
fingers this is exactly what I want to
do when I see my hand like
this oh that's just like the the final
the final little bites of
flavor oh you can taste that goat it's
fantastic and then finally a quick wash
there's some mint in here and some
lemon they don't do anything small when
you are having a feast like this so they
have just brought out dessert a giant
platter of fruit and another plotter of
different desserts mainly what I want to
eat for a dessert though after that Ms
up is this orange and he peeled it very
nicely leaving the the hat on and then
folding back the
skin that is so juicy and a little bit
sour and a little bit sweet I am now
sitting leaning back in my chair and
having a cup of mint
tea oh yeah you can taste that mint so
nicely in there
this
is probably the best way to end a Mansa
feast and also it is traditional to take
a nap after eating Mansa and I think
perhaps that tradition was born because
not only is it a tradition but I think
it's a mandatory thing to do after you
eat Mansa you you just naturally start
falling asleep going for a
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cup we're having one last cup of coffee
on our way out of the
door yeah oh that's good what I loved so
much about that dish is that you can
actually taste the fields or the
pastures where the goats and the Lambs
have grazed you can taste the land in
that m
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back to the same room
yes after we finished with that
incredible lunch we drove back over to
lokanda hotel which is the hotel that we
stayed at when we first arrived to Aman
our trip with Jordan tourism board is
finished right now but ying and I are
going to be here in Aman for the next
two full days tonight for dinner a local
friend has invited ying and I over to
their house to have dinner so a local
homemade family Jordanian meal for
dinner coming up very
soon we are all sitting down there is a
beautiful spread of food and I'm going
to begin with the fat which is is um a
dish that includes hummus and a variety
of other sauces and and Seasonings which
is then mixed with bread which has been
soaked and has absorbed a bunch of broth
and so then that's mixed with the hummus
and then it creates it creates kind of a
fluffy hummus and then it is topped with
some minced meat and some fried pine
nuts oh wow m m the that is amazing you
can really taste the garlic in there and
then yeah it's like a it's like a fluffy
hummus it's creamy and Rich but at the
same time as opposed to a a pure hummus
it's it's more more fluffy one of the
main dishes that we're eating tonight is
called ukusa and it there is both
zucchini and grape leaves which are
filled with a combination of rice and
minced meat and then cooked along with
some lamb ribs and some lamb fat as well
as some some seasonings and also some
olive oil I got to go in for one of the
the grape leaf rolls
first
W that is amazing
amazing it's
sour and then what I really like is the
rice inside the rice inside sort of just
melts together because it's so it's
almost like a a pudding texture it's so
so melted all together and it's it's
mostly kind of sour and salty and you
can taste that fragrance of the of the
lamb in there because it's all cooked
and just mingled together oh a sushi M
yeah it's like a sushi
roll it's amazing this one is zucchini
which is filled with the same mixture oh
yeah you got to see that cross-section
and the MST meat in there and the rice
and then it's all filled into a
zucchini oh yeah that's amazing as well
it's like a similar texture as eggplant
because it's been cooked for so long so
it just it just dissolves in your mouth
and then again that Rice meat mixture is
is just silky silky creamy I also got a
little piece of the Lamb fat which I
will break off a piece with bread and
you can already see how caramelized that
lamb fat
is yeah it
is you can you can just taste
lamb and that is so soft and
tender and just you full of lamb juices
and and flavors ying and I just made it
back to the hotel after a fantastic home
family cooked Jordanian meal ying and I
are going to be in Aman for two more
days so that's going to be it for today
thank you all very much for watching
please remember to give this video a
thumbs up and also make sure you
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see you tomorrow for another day in
Jordan that's a big bite that's the
Mansa bite that's the Mansa
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bite
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he