Mushabbak

A loose yeasted batter is piped over hot oil in rings and thin overlapping lines. It browns fast. Then it is lifted out and dipped straight into qatr. The name comes from the shape: mushabbak means latticed. In books the same sweet is zalabya; on a Damascus stall it is mushabbak, and so it is in Damietta in Egypt.

How it differs from awameh

Both belong to the fried-and-soaked family. Shape and fragility separate them. Awameh is a sphere, soft inside. Mushabbak is a lattice as thin as a leaf, and it snaps in the hand. On the stall they usually sit side by side, and buyers take both.

In the mosque courtyard

During Ramadan it is handed out on trays in mosque courtyards, as a vow fulfilled or as alms. So it is not only sold. It is given. The street stall and the courtyard tray work in the same month.

On the Christian table too

Arab Christians in the Levant eat the same sweet on Saint Barbara day, 4 December, and at Epiphany. One fried sweet sits in two calendars and keeps the same name in both communities.

Where to eat it

At street stalls in Ramadan, at sweet shops the rest of the year, sold by weight. Buy it hot. A ring left standing draws the syrup in, softens, and loses the snap that makes it worth eating.