Mabroumeh

The name says what happens to it: mabroumeh means twisted. Kadayif threads are wound around a stick of pistachio into a long cylinder, cooked in samne — clarified butter — and dropped while hot into qatr, the cooled sugar syrup. In Damascus it also goes by al-burma, and the same pastry is made in Turkey as burma kadayıf.

How to recognise it in the window

Look at the cut end. The twisted threads sit tight along the outside and a single green stick of pistachio runs through the middle. Whole pistachio rather than crumbs is the mark of mabroumeh; a roll filled with broken nuts is a different sweet.

Why it belongs on the feast tray

Damascene sweet shops split the tray in two: nawashef, the dry sweets, and the ones with cream. Mabroumeh stands at the head of the first group. It has taken syrup but carries no cream, so it keeps for days — which is why it goes onto the feast tray and into the gift box people carry abroad.

Where it sits in the family

It comes out of the same three things: dough, pistachio, syrup. Ballorieh puts the pistachio between two layers of kadayif and leaves it white, osh el-bulbul winds the kadayif into a nest, mabroumeh twists it into a cylinder. All three sit on the same shelf of the same window.

Where to eat it

At the sweet shops of Damascus and at the larger chains, sold by weight. It is rarely ordered on its own; a few cylinders come in the mixed box. Bitter coffee goes beside it.