Food Triplets

I have failed you all. I haven't written in over two weeks!! Sorry about that. I have been suffering (slash absolutely loving) from massive amounts of food intake and you know, trying to master Arabic. I may have mentioned this before, but Arabic is essentially two languages plus. So we learn both the Levantine dialect (spoken in Palestine, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon) and Fusha (the written language). So there are two words for more words than I can handle. But it doesn't end there. I now have friends from Iraq so they tell me a third word in addition to the ones I already know. Then of course there are a collection of words within the dialect in Jordan itself. Just today, for example, Ata asked the word for misquitoes (he was unfortunately recently bitten alive in Wadi Rum) and Munther proceeded to give us 7 words. 7!!! This could possibly be a combination of what people say if they are Bedoin, what people say in Jordan, what people say in Syria... etc. And what is worse is you can't really just learn one because every person only seems to know one version of a word, so we are constantly corrected even though we are often just saying another version of a word. Exhausting!!

Onto my most recent adventure. So not this past weekend but the weekend before that, Hanan, Selowa and I went to none other than Munther's family's house. Two of his brothers have families that live in Sahab, a town nearby, and their houses are literally back to back. So Munther set up a trip for all the girls to visit both of the wives (each one has individually cooked with us at our apartment), cook with them and then spend the night. Unfortunately Leyla, Reem and Sarah were all feeling sick so it ended up just being the three of us.

So we arrived in Sahab at about 1 PM and Munther's brother (Abu Fadi) picked us up and drove us to his house. It was incredibly nice and perhaps the most spotless house I have seen in my life. So we came in and were greeted by Om Fadi and 20 Ahalyn wa Sahalyn's, the greeting that means "welcome" in Arabic.

Cultural note: the father in a family is refered to as "Abu ____" (fill in the name of the first son) and the mother is "Om _____" (fill in the name of her first son). This is common to refer to people in the Middle East and it is a sign of respect. Unfortunately, the name that they use to fill in the black can only be filled in by the eldest son's name, never a daughter. What happens if a family only has daughters, you ask? Then you are Abu or Om ____ (fill in the blank with the name that you would give your son if you had one). Ah... equality.

Back to my story. So we set down our things and went straight to the kitchen. Now, we were under the impression that we were to be cooking with the wives, but this was not the case apparently. Since we were "late," aka 30 minutes late, Om Fadi said she had cooked everything. We were hungry anyway so no problem. We walked in the kitchen and there was a gigantic plate of delicious rice with chopped almonds. Admire its beauty below:


So we were very thankful and shocked at how much she had cooked. This was about as much rice as she had cooked with us previously at our apartment and that was for all 12 of us. Oh how little we knew. Then she said she also had made chicken. Two. Full. Chickens. ....stuffed with rice. So naturally we thought that was crazy since we were only three people. It didn't stop there. Next came the grape leaves... approximately about enough to feed a full army.

And mashey which is hollowed out zuchinni and eggplant with meat and rice. (Note the two full chickens in this picture).


Now note the change on Hanan and Selowa's faces as she then brought out two huge salads, stuffed cabbage and yogurt with pieces of lamb in it.
This one is just Hanan looking adorable haha.

So with another Ahalyn wa Sahalyn, we began to eat the feast that she had cooked for 100 people. And oh was it delicious. I refilled my plate maybe three times and we STILL barely made a dent in the food. This is a picture of the rice after we were finished.


At one point during the meal I reached with my fork to grab two pieces of grape leaves. Om Fadi then asked me if I like them and I told her the truth, they are one of my favorite foods. Never tell the truth! She proceeded to insist on giving me a giant spoonful of 15 more. As if I didn't have enough food on my plate! Here is my plate when I was finished... unable to finish all the grape leaves of course.


Oh and here is the chicken that I personally tackled (Hanan is a vegetarian). I think I ate half.

You see... there is this thing about eating at someone's house in the Arab world ... you feel guilty. So saying "no thanks I'm full!" is not an answer. The hosts get visibly upset and think that you do not like their food because you didn't lick the plate. I think we had to say about 20 times that we are full and had no room left in our bodies until Om Fadi stopped pressuring us to eat more. It's worse than you everyday peer pressure.

So after lunch/the biggest meal I have ever eaten in my life, we went to drink soda (as if I wanted something carbonated) on the porch. We had a nice discussion with Om Fadi and Abu Fadi too. It was just hilarious to us because every time we would say something nice about Jordan or nice about the food they would say Ahalyn wa Sahalyn. Not only that but there was a time when there was a break in the conversation, a brief moment of silence, and Abu Fadi said Ahalyn wa Sahalyn.

After we were served a round of tea and then a round of Turkish coffee, we decided we should head over to Muna's house (the wife of Munther's other brother). So we walked around next door. I love Muna! She is so warm and nice to talk too. Plus she has four boys and no daughters so I think she really loved talking to us and just having women in the house. After talking for a while with her, her husband and three of the sons, one of the son's brought out a gigantic cake for Muna's husband's birthday. I was joking around and said that Hanan was hungry and wanted a big piece, so Basil (the eldest son) proceeded to cut literally an eighth of the cake as one piece and hand it to me. It barely fit on the full size plate. Ahalyn wa Sahalyn.

So a little later on we had dinner. Note: a "light" dinner. Which was of course, still way more than enough. Also they had the largest bread I have ever seen!

Here is the dinner. Pretty normal to spread out a plastic cover on the floor and everyone eat on the floor. I love it like that! There were a ton of vegetables, bread, hummus, foul (bean mix) and this weird spam that Arabs seem to love.

Much easier to handle than our lunch. So we spent the night at Om Fadi's house and returned to Muna's house the next day at around noon to cook lunch. Surprise, surprise - Muna had already cooked it. Unfortunately I do not have a picture of this lunch but it was just as large and buffet-worthy as Om Fadi's lunch. It was a platter of rice with about 2 chicken's worth on top, a potato and meat dish, yogurt and salad and about a million grape leaves. Nearing the end of room in our stomachs, Muna left the room for a moment and we all fell over on the ground saying that we were going to die. I felt like a stuffed pig. Good metaphor Jill, because 10 minutes later she brought in a gigantic platter of fruit. Finish it off with an apple - why not? This was then followed by two rounds of sugary tea and sweets.

Overall we LOVED the weekend. It was so fun to actually have a homestay even if we were treated as the guests of the century. Later in the day we talked to Munther about it and told him all the food they gave us. He knew exactly why. So apparently when he goes to his brothers' houses he refuses to eat anything. Anything! It was difficult enough to say no after three plate-fulls! He said he did it because he wants to show them that they don't need to do all that just for one guest. His little "lesson" seemed to have the opposite effect. He thought they partially might have wanted to prove to him that people will eat and enjoy their food so as a jab at Munther, they stuffed us to oblivion. Nice on, Munther.

More than that, apparently there is a rivalry between the two wives since they do not like each other. A little silly in my opinion since they have lived next to each other for 9 years. So most likely they were also competing with each other trying to see who could make the most amazing meal. This perhaps is why each one of them made 6 meals worth and enough to feel a hundred people. Crazy!

Moving on to more recent news... we just had our first day of school after a break. Munther was giving a lecture in Germany so we had Wednesday through Tuesday off from class. It was awesome. Leyla, Jafar and Nasr went to Syria; Reem, Ata, Ghawwar and Sarah went to Wadi Rum for two night; and five of us stayed in Amman: Hanan, Selowa, Khalid, Yacoub and me. I finally got to catch up in a few things I had been putting off and I spent a ridiculous amount of time with Mazin, our Iraqi friend from the school I have been teaching at. I'll save that for an upcoming post though!

So now we have school for three days and then we are on break yet again! Horray for the month of March! Anyone know what else makes March so amazing - you guessed it those of you who love me the most, my birthday! I can't believe it is already tomorrow! So I planned for all of us to go to Dubliners, an Irish pub oddly located in Jordan, tomorrow for the celebration. I invited a few of our Arab friends too although most of them cannot go because they live in Zarqa, which is about an hour away from where we live in Amman. Regardless I am super excited to have my first legal beer (considering I am turning 21) in Jordan at an Irish pub. I seem to like spending my birthdays abroad considering for my 20th I was in Nicaragua. Who wouldn't want to pick pineapples in Nicaragua for their birthday. And I am totally not being sarcastic.

I shall write about other recently adventures in teaching English to Iraqi Refugees in my next post. Insha'allah I will write on Thursday before I am off to Syria!