Maarouk

Maarouk sits on the bread side of the counter rather than the biscuit side. Milk, butter, egg and sugar go into the dough, which makes it heavy and soft and pulls apart in strands. Mahlab carries the smell of it, and some bakeries add orange blossom water as well. The top is brushed with egg and covered in sesame. Torn open while hot, it steams.

Why it belongs to Ramadan

The name is spoken together with the month, and the classic filling is date paste. Cheese, clotted cream, pistachio and chocolate versions exist now. The date one is still the common one, and in most bakeries it is what fills the tray in the front row, the others waiting a step behind it. For someone fasting the logic is plain: a slow dough, sweetened by fruit rather than by syrup.

When and where

During Ramadan the bakeries carry their trays out to the street in the late afternoon. An hour or two before the call to break the fast the queue reaches the pavement and the bread is sold hot. In Damascus the stalls spill off the kerb in bakery-heavy quarters such as Midan and Mezzeh. Then the trays are empty. It is baked the rest of the year too, but the fresh one belongs to the month.

How to eat it

Hot, with tea. Once it cools the crumb tightens; anything left to the next day wants a few minutes in an oven. One is enough for most people, and the sight of a full tray makes buyers regret their arithmetic.