Featuring the National Dish of Jordan and Authentic Arabic Coffees

The American Museum of Natural History and Restaurant Associates (RA) have opened the Petra Café on 4, offering a menu of Middle Eastern cuisine in conjunction with the new exhibition, Petra: Lost City of Stone.

For the exhibition, the Museum's Café on 4 has been transformed into a dining space filled with the aroma of traditional Bedouin Arabic coffee scented with cardamom. The café offers visitors a menu highlighted by mansaf, a Bedouin celebratory dish consisting of lamb cooked in yogurt and aromatic herbs that dates to antiquity and is the national dish of Jordan. Other offerings include authentic mezzeh platters of hummus (mashed chickpeas), baba ghannoujh (grilled eggplant puree), khiyar bil laban (also known as tzatsiki, a traditional garlicky yogurt-cucumber dip popular in the Middle East), and lamb and chicken shish kebabs.

The mouth-watering desserts, delicacies featuring nuts and honey, range from baklava to bird's nests, kaniffi (a mixture of shredded wheat around a filling of nutmeats) and halvah (sesame candy). There is also a selection of apricots, figs, dates, roasted almonds, pistachios, and pine nuts. Beverages include Arabic coffee, mint tea, ginger-and-anise tea, and the traditional yogurt drink called ayran.

The Petra Café on 4 is open daily from 11:00 a.m. until 4:45 p.m., October 18, 2003-July 6, 2004. See complete menu here.