Jordanian food is generous, communal, and better than most travelers expect. The cooking is rooted in the same mezze tradition as the rest of the Levant — small dishes shared around a table — but with its own Bedouin inflections and a central role for lamb.
Mansaf is the national dish and the one you should go out of your way to eat. It is lamb cooked in a sauce of jameed — a fermented, dried goat's milk that gives the broth a sharp, funky depth unlike anything else in Middle Eastern cooking — served over rice or bulgur on a large communal platter, garnished with almonds and pine nuts, and eaten traditionally standing up with the right hand. It is served at weddings, feasts, and family celebrations, and at restaurants that know what they are doing. The taste is unusual the first time; by the second bowl you will be converted.
Mezze is what you eat at most other times: hummus, baba ghanoush, tabbouleh, fattoush, labneh, kibbeh, stuffed vine leaves, pickles, and always bread. Jordanian hummus tends to be thick and generous. Order a spread and share it.
Zarb is a Bedouin method of cooking — meat and vegetables slow-cooked in a pit oven buried in desert sand. You will encounter it in Wadi Rum camps, where it is served as the centerpiece of the evening meal. The slow cooking produces meat that falls off the bone.
Street food in Amman's downtown is excellent and cheap. Falafel sandwiches, shawarma, ka'ak bread rings dusted with sesame seeds, and knafeh — a warm cheese-and-pastry dessert soaked in sugar syrup — are all worth seeking out. The area around the Roman theatre and the old souq is the best place to eat this way.
Alcohol is available in Jordan, though not everywhere. Amman has bars and restaurants that serve it. In smaller towns and more conservative areas it is harder to find. Arak — the anise-flavored spirit common across the Levant — is the local spirit of choice when it appears.