Bazargan

The fine bulgur is never cooked, only soaked and left to swell. Then it is worked into a dark dressing: tamarind concentrate or pomegranate molasses, tomato paste, olive oil, cumin, Aleppo pepper. Coarsely broken walnuts go in, sometimes pine nuts. It is eaten cold, lifted with bread or a lettuce leaf rather than a spoon. The colour is deep red and the texture is dense.

How it differs from tabbouleh

Tabbouleh is really a parsley salad; the bulgur in it is a minor part, the taste is lemon and olive oil, and it is eaten fresh. Bazargan runs the other way, mostly grain, and its flavour moves between sour and sweet. One is light, the other is filling. If both reach the same table the difference is obvious: the green one is tabbouleh.

Where it comes from

It came out of the Jewish kitchens of Aleppo and settled onto the city’s mezze table. The name looks towards the bazaar, the place the spices were bought. The same line runs north to Antakya, where related dishes rest on the same trio of bulgur, walnut and sourness. Aleppo’s habit of pairing sour with sweet is at its clearest here.

Where to find it

Among the cold plates at restaurants that lay out mezze, and on home tables. It is not everywhere, and where it exists it often arrives inside a mixed mezze plate instead of appearing as its own line on the menu. Asking is worth it, because kitchens will send it out separately.