On Independence Day, jameed showcased as key element of Jordanian heritage

AMMAN — Marking the Kingdom’s 69^th Independence Day, a festival held this weekend celebrated a must-have ingredient of Jordanian cuisine — jameed.

Aiming to engage women in the local economy and preserve Jordanian culture by showcasing different home-made dairy products, the Hashemite Fund for the Development of Jordan Badia in cooperation with Maan’s Future Makers Centre, held a festival on Friday to display the dried yoghurt used in Jordan’s national dish — mansaf.

The festival, which took place at Al Hussein Park, was “the first of its kind in the Kingdom”, according to organisers, for selling goods made at home by women from the southern, central and northern badia.

The event hosted NGOs from the badia that specialise in dairy products made in the bedouin style. 

Sharifa Zein Al Sharaf Bint Nasser, who chairs the fund’s board of trustees, said the showcased products represent an important part of Jordanian culture and heritage.

She added that the dried yoghurt is a key ingredient in traditional dishes such as mansaf — rice, lamb, pine nuts — and rashoof, a soup made of jameed with ghee, lentils and ground wheat popular in the badia and southern regions in winter. 

“Fourteen organisations are participating with us today from the southern, central and northern badia and rural areas from all around the Kingdom,” Sharifa Zein noted.

She emphasised the need to preserve national heritage and promote local goods through such festivals.

“The prices are the same for all products of different organisations and are affordable,” she added.

“This festival promotes our bedouin heritage among all segments of society and the people of Amman in particular, since they are somewhat distant from our bedouin traditions.”

Alia Neimat, a participant from the Mawasem Al Kheir organisation in Maan, some 220km south of Amman, told The Jordan Times the dairy products displayed by the NGO were made using milk distributed by the badia fund in the region.

US Ambassador to Jordan Alice Wells attended the festival, emphasising the importance of preserving culture.

“As I am having my first trip to the badia next week, I am glad I got a taste of the Jordanian badia, and the home-made goods taste delicious,” Wells told The Jordan Times.

“It pleases me to see women in particular making goods and bringing them to the market to sell them,” she said, noting that they “are contributing to their families’ economies”.