Foraging for mushrooms in the brush near Umm Qais, fishing for tuna in Aqaba, visiting grape farms with volcanic soil in the fertile Mountain Heights Plateau, enjoying a fine-dining menu of locally sourced ingredients in Fakhreldin, one of Amman's most famous restaurants. These are only a few activities that will make up Farm to Fork Jordan's culinary-focused travel itineraries.
Concept founder Nico Dingemans hopes to draw conscientious travellers and food lovers from around the world to the country through the new tourism strategy, which will take in the guided tours mentioned above.
“You can learn so much about a country through food,” Dingemans says. “When you visit Italy or China this is normal, but not in Jordan.”
Dingemans says the country primarily banks on people visiting Petra, the Dead Sea or Wadi Rum. Each is absolutely worth seeing, he says, but visitors don't get the chance to learn about Jordan's culinary heritage, which is where the Farm to Fork project comes in.
Tourists get to meet people off the beaten track, those they wouldn't normally seek out
Farm to Fork: a history
Dingemans, whose new book Farm to Fork Jordan is due to be published in August, kick-started the concept in his native Netherlands. He is half-Indonesian, half-Dutch, and grew up all over the world, eventually starting a career in hospitality working for Hyatt, then Hilton. His job took him back to Indonesia, to Belgium and the US; he wrote about traditional Chinese medicine in Hong Kong, microbiotics in spa cuisine in Thailand, the benefits of the Mediterranean diet in Italy and agriculture in the Netherlands. This led to the publication of From Farm to Fork in the Netherlands, a book featuring 24 chefs from the country's 12 provinces.
"It was the culinary identity of the region at that moment," he says. The book discussed soil, ingredients, the food chain and, most importantly, highlighted Dutch farmers and chefs. "It's very difficult to get Dutch chefs to be proud of their culinary heritage. They're not like the Italians or French or Spanish," Dingemans says. A pride in their culinary culture aside, the project spurred chefs to work more closely with local farmers.
Jordan has this mother goose kind of position. She has her own eggs, the Bedouin and those from mountains, and external eggs, and all are welcome
Dingemans took on a similar project in Curacao, then headed to Amman in August 2019 on a short consultancy project to help Jordan River Wines restructure its tasting room. When the coronavirus pandemic hit, he was stuck and, without much else to do, he began to delve into Jordan's food history, where he found similarities with the Netherlands.
“There is no lack of food stories and history or tourism businesses, but they lack this sort of pride. There’s a tendency to fall faster in love with foreign food concepts,” he says. “But I’m a foreigner, so I see it differently.”
Variety is the spice of life
Dingemans says Jordan’s diversity is admirable. “You have people from Syria, Palestine, Egypt, you have all these influences from the Umayyad to Roman Empires, Chechen, Druze, people from Saudi. But Jordan has this mother goose kind of position. She also has her own eggs, the Bedouin and those from mountains where it’s more green … and all are welcome.”
Jordan is part of the Fertile Crescent. Its low elevation and dense oxygen makes for exceptionally fertile soil. The country's agricultural history goes back to the Nabateans, famed for their ancient irrigation system. It is also one of the few places on the planet identified by historians where humans began to domesticate plants and animals. It is home to some of the world's first known forms of bread-making and has hectares of olive trees.
“You can’t explain Jordan in two minutes. But once you’re in the story and it grabs you, it has so much to offer,” Dingemans says.
Hooked by the book
In Farm to Fork Jordan, Dingemans's goal is to highlight ingredients and the country's culinary history through storytelling. The book features 24 food items, 24 farmers, 24 chefs and 48 dishes across Jordan's 12 governorates.
Hotel owners should increase the percentage of products they buy from these farms. If everyone does that, we're talking big numbers
It introduces readers to myriad culinary concepts: from products such as khobesi, a leafy green, and jameed (dried yoghurt), to how the country is growing tomatoes in hydroponic greenhouses. The chefs, meanwhile, range from Bedouins in Wadi Rum to Um Suleiman, the woman running Beit Al Baraka, a boutique hotel and restaurant in Umm Qais, to the team behind Fakhreldin. The hope is that visitors will read the book, and visit the restaurants or embark on a culinary tour.
Culinary tours
Farm to Fork's guided tours will take visitors across the country, from the mountains to the sea, and include trips to date and olive farms, walks to forage for herbs and mushrooms, diving for tuna and meals at the restaurants featured in the book, all while learning about the histories of the ingredients and current innovations.
"We're looking at Jordan through the lens of food," Dingemans says. Again, this is not a novel idea, but one he feels hasn't been tested in the Middle East in the same way it has elsewhere. He cites the example of truffle-hunting in Italy, which he says has become something of a phenomenon. "You have tourism, TV shows, articles … truffles are on the menu at every restaurant, there are tours. People know if they go during a certain period, they can buy truffles, do a cooking class with a nonna ... There's a whole campaign around it."
Dingemans thinks olive oil and dates can be Jordan's truffles. Its expanse of olive trees aside, Jordan has about 500,000 medjool date palms and plans to expand to a million over the next decade. A superfood, dates have become even more of a necessity during the pandemic and are also becoming more popular abroad.
Dingemans has begun conducting tours at Al Maida olive oil farm, and Farm to Fork's book and tours will also weave a narrative around dates, drawing in their history as a Bedouin staple, their health benefits, why they're eaten for the slow release of nutrients and sugar during Ramadan, and how modern restaurants are elevating them.
“Tourists get to meet people off the beaten track, those they wouldn’t normally seek out,” he says.
The future is local
The end game is to get visitors excited about Jordanian cuisine and to get chefs interested in cooking with local ingredients. “If you’re going to boost a country’s culinary tourism, the goal is to have more local sustainable agricultural products end up on the plate of Jordanian hotels and restaurants, to help farmers more,” he says. “Hotel owners should promote that and increase the percentage of products they buy from these farms. If everyone does that, we’re talking big numbers.”
Dingemans says this attracts guests, too. “Then you can say: ‘Oh, Marriott has a sustainability programme’ – and it will draw visitors.”
This, he feels, is mandatory. Worldwide, a younger generation of travellers is interested in socially responsible, sustainable travel. The European Commission released a Farm to Fork strategy as part of its European Green Deal, which requires 20 per cent of farmers within the region to be certified organic by 2030. That's millions of farmers whose food ends up in supermarkets.
Dingemans says the teenagers of today will become adults in a world where sustainable food is a minimum expectation. “They’ll take that expectation to any tourism destination they visit, so if you’re not prepared, you’ve got a problem,” he says.
Tourism makes up about 16 per cent of Jordan's GDP, so it's important that the country keeps up with trends, and attracts a new generation of discerning, conscious, adventurous travellers, those who are more willing to delve into a place and spend money within local communities.
“People like to do something good with their tourism dollars,” he says. “This gives them a way to do that while showcasing Jordan’s culinary strength.”
Farm to Fork Jordan will be available on Amazon, in bookshops and museums, and at the hotels and restaurants featured in it. It will also be available in the Gulf states, and Dingemans hopes it will inspire people to visit Jordan and take a soon-to-be-launched Farm to Fork tour once it's safe to travel again.
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
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MATCH INFO
Champions League quarter-final, first leg
Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester City, Tuesday, 11pm (UAE)
Matches can be watched on BeIN Sports
The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup – Sep 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
FIXTURES
All kick-off times UAE ( 4 GMT)
Brackets denote aggregate score
Tuesday:
Roma (1) v Shakhtar Donetsk (2), 11.45pm
Manchester United (0) v Sevilla (0), 11.45pm
Wednesday:
Besiktas (0) v Bayern Munich (5), 9pm
Barcelona (1) v Chelsea (1), 11.45pm
Recent winners
2002 Giselle Khoury (Colombia)
2004 Nathalie Nasralla (France)
2005 Catherine Abboud (Oceania)
2007 Grace Bijjani (Mexico)
2008 Carina El-Keddissi (Brazil)
2009 Sara Mansour (Brazil)
2010 Daniella Rahme (Australia)
2011 Maria Farah (Canada)
2012 Cynthia Moukarzel (Kuwait)
2013 Layla Yarak (Australia)
2014 Lia Saad (UAE)
2015 Cynthia Farah (Australia)
2016 Yosmely Massaad (Venezuela)
2017 Dima Safi (Ivory Coast)
2018 Rachel Younan (Australia)
The specs: 2018 Maserati Levante S
Price, base / as tested: Dh409,000 / Dh467,000
Engine: 3.0-litre V6
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 430hp @ 5,750rpm
Torque: 580Nm @ 4,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 10.9L / 100km
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
The specs: 2018 Chevrolet Equinox
Price, base / as tested: Dh76,900 / Dh110,900
Engine: 2.0L, turbocharged in-line four-cylinder
Gearbox: Nine-speed automatic
Power: 252hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: Torque: 352Nm @ 2,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 8.5L / 100km
Skoda Superb Specs
Engine: 2-litre TSI petrol
Power: 190hp
Torque: 320Nm
Price: From Dh147,000
Available: Now
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Expo details
Expo 2020 Dubai will be the first World Expo to be held in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia
The world fair will run for six months from October 20, 2020 to April 10, 2021.
It is expected to attract 25 million visits
Some 70 per cent visitors are projected to come from outside the UAE, the largest proportion of international visitors in the 167-year history of World Expos.
More than 30,000 volunteers are required for Expo 2020
The site covers a total of 4.38 sqkm, including a 2 sqkm gated area
It is located adjacent to Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai South
Five expert hiking tips
Always check the weather forecast before setting off
Make sure you have plenty of water
Set off early to avoid sudden weather changes in the afternoon
Wear appropriate clothing and footwear
Take your litter home with you
Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
Command%20Z
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
It Was Just an Accident
Director: Jafar Panahi
Stars: Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr
Rating: 4/5
SPEC%20SHEET%3A%20APPLE%20M3%20MACBOOK%20AIR%20(13%22)
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MATCH INFO
First Test at Barbados
West Indies won by 381 runs
Second Test at Antigua
West Indies won by 10 wickets
Third Test at St Lucia
February 9-13
Company profile
Name: One Good Thing
Founders: Bridgett Lau and Micheal Cooke
Based in: Dubai
Sector: e-commerce
Size: 5 employees
Stage: Looking for seed funding
Investors: Self-funded and seeking external investors
Heavily-sugared soft drinks slip through the tax net
Some popular drinks with high levels of sugar and caffeine have slipped through the fizz drink tax loophole, as they are not carbonated or classed as an energy drink.
Arizona Iced Tea with lemon is one of those beverages, with one 240 millilitre serving offering up 23 grams of sugar - about six teaspoons.
A 680ml can of Arizona Iced Tea costs just Dh6.
Most sports drinks sold in supermarkets were found to contain, on average, five teaspoons of sugar in a 500ml bottle.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Pad Man
Dir: R Balki
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Sonam Kapoor, Radhika Apte
Three-and-a-half stars
More on animal trafficking
More on animal trafficking
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The specs
Engine: 2.4-litre 4-cylinder
Transmission: CVT auto
Power: 181bhp
Torque: 244Nm
Price: Dh122,900
Company%20Profile
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If you go
The flights
There are direct flights from Dubai to Sofia with FlyDubai (www.flydubai.com) and Wizz Air (www.wizzair.com), from Dh1,164 and Dh822 return including taxes, respectively.
The trip
Plovdiv is 150km from Sofia, with an hourly bus service taking around 2 hours and costing $16 (Dh58). The Rhodopes can be reached from Sofia in between 2-4hours.
The trip was organised by Bulguides (www.bulguides.com), which organises guided trips throughout Bulgaria. Guiding, accommodation, food and transfers from Plovdiv to the mountains and back costs around 170 USD for a four-day, three-night trip.
STAY%2C%20DAUGHTER
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Emergency
Director: Kangana Ranaut
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry
Rating: 2/5
Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
Price: From Dh126,000
Available: Now
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ICC Women's T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier 2025, Thailand
UAE fixtures
May 9, v Malaysia
May 10, v Qatar
May 13, v Malaysia
May 15, v Qatar
May 18 and 19, semi-finals
May 20, final
