Hnaini

It has two ingredients: soft dates with the stones removed, and Arab ghee. The two are worked together in a bowl until the dates drink the fat and the mixture turns into a single paste. Nothing is cooked and nothing waits; it goes to the table as soon as it is ready.

Why the Raqqa version differs

The name is known elsewhere in the Euphrates basin, but the Raqqa kitchen keeps the recipe to dates and ghee alone. No flour, no semolina. People in Raqqa describe the dish through that plainness; some cooks do add other things, and then it becomes something else.

When it is eaten

It is a suhoor plate in Ramadan. The calories are high, it holds through the day and it starts you full. Outside Ramadan it appears in winter, on cold days and at tribal gatherings. Raqqa counts it as intangible heritage, which makes it more than a sweet.

Where to find it

It is not on any restaurant menu. This is a house and hospitality dish, and in Raqqa or along the Euphrates you are unlikely to see it without being asked to a table. Dates and ghee are in every grocer’s, but the proportion and the kneading make the plate — the recipe is simple, the hand is not.