Try Traditional Food
Aqaba Food

On your list of things to do in the beach city should undoubtedly be local cuisine. Aqaba provides a wide variety of cuisines to suit all tastes. Start with the well-known Sayadieh meal, a popular Aqabawi dish of fish and spiced rice, for those who want to sample some traditional cuisine.

By getting all the spices from Al Baba’s spice store, you may make the recipe at home. The renowned Jordanian Mansaf is another classic meal and the one thing you must have when visiting Jordan. Rice, lamb, and jameed—a dry yoghurt sauce—make up the meal known as mansaf. It is not just one of the most cherished Jordanian foods; it is also regarded as Jordan’s national cuisine.

Get a shawerma or falafel sandwich for a quick dinner on the road, or even better, try a fish sandwich! The Arabic pistachio ice cream is a delectable treat from the area that we heartily suggest for those with a sweet appetite!

Sayyadieh recipe

Sayd, which in Arabic means to hunt or fish, is the root of the term Sayyadieh. Most often, fish is used to produce this meal; however, chicken is also occasionally used. It is a Jordanian meal that some claim is from Palestine and others claim is from Lebanon, but it is actually very well-liked in Aqaba.

Ingredients:

  • 2 Hammour fish (5 kg)

  • 1 kg red onion

  • Cloves garlic

  • 11/2 kg small-grained rice corn oil for frying

  • 2 to 3 tbsp. butter ,1 hot chili pepper ,2dried lemons

MANSAF IS WHERE THE HEART IS

This well-liked Jordanian cuisine is equally delicious and nutritious. Chef Sana’ Madanat substitutes broken wheat, the native grain of earlier generations, and whole-wheat shrak for rice (flat sheets of bread common in the Middle East).

Mansaf Ingredients

  • 2cups gareesh (cracked wheat)

  • 6cups water

  • I tbsp. salt

  • ¼-cup vegetable oil

  • 250g jameed (dried yoghurt)

  • 11/2 kg lamb with bones, cut into big pieces

  • Shrak bread (flat bread common in the Middle East)

  • ¼-cup almonds

  • ¼ -cup pine nuts

  • Onions (optional-to serve on the side)

Houh

The Aqaba region, like other governorates of the Kingdom, is famous for a type of sweet called Al-Houh, which is considered one of the main dessert dishes in the holy month of Ramadan, such as Qatayef sweets.

Houh ingredients

  • 1-cup flour

  • ½-cup water

  • Pinch of salt

  • Butter

  • For the filling

  • A mixture of crushed walnuts with coconut, sugar, cardamom and cinnamon (measure to taste)

Zarb 

Traditional Bedouin herding tribes on the Arabian Peninsula cook their food in subterranean ovens called zarb. The procedure begins with excavating a hole in the soft sand, much like a barbecue. Cook the wood until it turns to coals, then put the meal on top of the coal and plug the hole with sand. During several hours, the meal is not touched. At last, open the oven and remove the food off the ground.