Shaabiyat

Buttered sheets of pastry are stacked, cut into even squares and given a filling of milk, starch, sugar and thick cream. The square is folded on its diagonal into a triangle, baked until it colours, and then covered with cold syrup scented with rose and orange blossom water. Hot pastry, cold syrup — that is why the layers stay layers.

Whose sweet it is

In Syria it belongs to the Idlib region, and the town of Ariha in particular is named for it; there it stands as the governorate’s sweet for guests. In Aleppo, texts written in the middle of the nineteenth century list it as a breakfast food, so the regional record runs back at least two hundred years. In Jordan the same pastry is warbat, in Turkey şöbiyet; the Gaziantep version received a geographical indication in 2022.

What is inside

The standard filling is thick cream or a semolina custard. Versions with pistachio, walnut, almond and sweet cheese also exist. Crushed pistachio usually goes over the top. Served with qishta, sweet shops in Damascus and Amman call it warbat bi-qishteh.

When it is eaten

A sweet for visitors, and one of the best sellers after the evening meal in Ramadan. Plain coffee or tea beside it. It is not a single portion dish — it is cut from a tray and several pieces arrive at once.

Where a traveller finds it

In the sweet shops of Idlib and Ariha, and on counters in Aleppo and Damascus as well. Ask for a piece cut fresh from the tray. In one that has been standing, the syrup sinks, the bottom layer goes wet, and the layering that is the whole point disappears.