Queen Rania: 'I like my children to see Arabic food on the table'

The Jordanian royal revealed one of her family's favourite meals as she met a number of Jordanian home cooks that sell their food online

Queen Rania of Jordan met with the team of food app Bilforon this week. Instagram / Queen Rania

After coming home from university, there's one particular dish the children of King Abdullah II and Queen Rania Al Abdullah crave – mansaf.

The Jordanian royal, who has four children, opened up about the importance of teaching families about their local cuisine this week, as she spoke with the team behind a home-grown food app.

Queen Rania met the founder of Bilforon, a platform that allows home cooks to sell meals online, on Sunday, June 21.

Mohammad Albattikhi launched the app in 2016, to provide talented chefs a platform to start their own business and reach customers from their very kitchens.

Bilforon also started offering grocery delivery services as Jordan introduced restrictions on movement during the coronavirus pandemic.

"Couldn’t get enough of my conversation today with the talented cooks working with Bilforon – and I can’t wait to try their dishes!" Queen Rania said of the meeting on Instagram, as she shared an image from the day.

"Hats off to the team behind this innovative app making it easy for women to market and sell their delicious homemade meals online."

The meeting was conducted with social distancing measures in place, with the Bilforon team wearing face masks and sat metres from the royal.

'The first thing my kids want when they come back from the mosque is a mansaf'

Queen Rania also shared a number of clips from her conversation with Bilforon chefs on her Instagram Stories, where she revealed her family's fondness for mansaf.

"Through your efforts you're doing something that I think is very important – that our children stay connected to the Arabic kitchen, the Jordanian kitchen," she said.

"The first thing my kids want when they come back from university is a mansaf. They got used to it."

The lamb and rice dish is considered one of Jordan's national plates, with the meat cooked in fermented dried yogurt.

"I always like for my children to see an Arabic dish on the table," said Queen Rania, mother of Crown Prince Hussein, 25, Princess Iman, 23, Princess Salma, 19, and Prince Hashem, 15.

"In addition, our food is healthy. Whatever we cook at home is healthier than the fast food that they get."

Bilforon, which worked with 30 supermarkets and stores to ensure residents could order groceries during lockdown measures, requires cooks to pass hygiene and food safety tests before they can join the platform.

The app can be used by people keen to order a home-cooked meal, as well as companies or events in need of larger-scale catering.

The platform also stocks fresh home-made produce, such as jams, pickles and pasta, and has more than 200 cooks on its roster.