"Oh, the Places You'll Go!": An Overdue Post on A Cooking Class

Hello,

Two weeks ago, I went with a friend, Bridget to a cooking class in Amman, Jordan. While I rarely talk about food in great detail in my blog, it is an important part of culture. Plus, Bridget wanted someone to go with.

We went to a place called Beit Sitti or "My Grandmother's House". The owner of the place greeted us and told us the story of Beit Sitti. Beit Sitti is in her old grandmother's house. After her grandmother passed away, the family turned the house into a cooking school in order to help keep her grandmother's memory alive. The owner is a professional chef as well.

Bridget and I were accompanied by four other people: Two Canadians and Two people from Denmark. It was a pleasant group of people, but it was funny seeing tourists. While Bridget and I have had our fair share of touristy moments, we live in Amman. We know how things work. The other people had never had a home cooked Arabic meal or had any experience with Arab cuisine. Automatically Bridget and I got brownie points from the instructor.

However, I am not a domestic goddess. When the instructor handed me a lemon to squeeze, I literally started squeezing it in my hand. After 30 seconds I asked if she wanted me to juice it. She said yes and laughed.

We made the following dishes:
Maaloubeh
Farmers salad
Mutabal
Osmaliyeh
Is that ok with you

Maaloubeh is a staple in the Jordanian diet. It includes rice, meat and vegetables that are cooked in a pot. The order goes meat, vegetables and rice. When you are finished cooking the dish, you flip it upside down so the meat is on top of the rice. It is very delicious and argueablly my favorite dish that my host mom cooks.

Mutabal is a Levantine type of dish. It is also known as Baba Ganoush. It consists of eggplant, Tahini, leban and olive oil. You eat it with pita bread.

Osmaliyeh is a type of dessert. It consists of angel hair pasta and a custard.

We also made Arabic bread from scratch. I could have ate 30 rolls.

I am happy I took the class, but to be honest, eating the Beit Sitti maagloubeh was not as good as my host mother's. Bridget felt the same way. It was like restaurant maagloubeh and was missing the added touch of love. I kind of felt that the other members of our group were missing out.

Me after flipping over my personal sized maagloubeh

You put tomatoes at the bottom of the pot so that the rice and vegetables do not burn. This is often the most flavorful part of the dish and most people fight for the tomatoes