Mansaf

The name means a large tray. Lamb is cooked in a broth loosened from jameed, a dried fermented yoghurt, and laid over local wheat bread or rice, with toasted almonds and pine nuts on top. The yoghurt broth is both the sauce and the salt of the plate.

What jameed is

Yoghurt is strained, salted, rolled into balls and left in the sun until it dries hard as stone. On cooking day it is crushed in water and goes into the pot. Cooking meat in milk is the oldest and most argued-over part of the dish, and the region carries several stories about it.

Where it stands in Hawran

Mansaf is known as a Jordanian dish and is the national dish of Jordan; in 2022 it entered the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage under Jordan’s name. But the tray belongs to the whole Syrian desert belt between Iraq, Jordan, southern Syria and northern Arabia. In Hawran, meaning Daraa and the villages around it, this is what is cooked for a wedding or a wake. A traveller heading to Bosra who lands on an invitation will meet mansaf there.

How the table works

The tray is shared. Everyone eats the part in front of them and no one reaches into the middle. The good piece of meat is pushed towards the guest and is not refused; the insistence is part of the courtesy. Tables where people stand and eat by hand still exist, so look before you ask for a fork.