“Do you have mansaf?” I asked our server. I’d seen shots of the dish — a layered platter of bread, rice and lamb in spiced yogurt sauce — while researching Mal Al Sham online, but it wasn’t listed on the restaurant’s Syrian menu. “Yes,” she answered, and she soon returned carrying the dish. Mansaf is often called the national dish of Jordan, although it’s also beloved in nearby countries. This one ranks among the best versions I’ve had in restaurants across the United States. The sauce, made with a key ingredient of preserved and reconstituted yogurt called jameed, had the exact right sharpness.
Five-year-old Mal Al Sham resides on the main road through El Cajon, a city with one of the country’s largest Iraqi immigrant and refugee communities. The restaurant honors the population with a weekend special of quzi, another lamb and rice dish more peppered with sweet, bright spices (but no yogurt sauce). For a feast, surround these dishes with other regional staples: silky hummus, fattoush tangy with pomegranate molasses, beefy kibbeh in fried or grilled variations and extra-crunchy falafel. For seekers of outstanding Levantine cooking, El Cajon is a worthwhile 20-minute drive from downtown San Diego.