Food
What to eat, where to find it, what it costs.
235 Food
Toum, the garlic sauce
That thick white paste that arrives beside the chicken. Garlic, salt, oil and lemon; no egg in it, and the body comes from garlic and oil holding together.
Usually comes with the plate; ask the price if you want a separate bowl · Aleppo
Tannour bread
Bread slapped onto the inner wall of a clay oven and baked over a wood fire. Wholewheat, thick and brown, it is still the daily loaf in the countryside.
Variable — ask the price per loaf at the bakery · Latakia
Samke harra
A whole fish stuffed with coriander and garlic, with peppers and tomatoes over it. The name means hot fish, and that is why you look for it on the coast.
Variable — ask the price per kilo as you choose the fish · Tartus
Sahlab
The hot cup passed hand to hand on a Syrian winter street: thickened milk under cinnamon and crushed pistachio, and the base of Damascene ice cream too.
Variable — ask the price of a cup when you order · Damascus
Riz bi Haleeb
Rice swelled slowly in milk and poured into cold bowls. Unlike muhallabiyeh the grain stays whole, and unlike Turkish sutlac it never sees an oven at all.
Variable — ask the price of a bowl when you order · Damascus
Muhallabiyeh
Milk set with starch and poured into small bowls, with ground pistachio and a dried rose bud on top. In Syria the name is often shortened to mhallayeh.
Variable — ask the price of a bowl when you order · Damascus
Msabbaha
Hummus with the chickpeas left whole, swimming in tahini and oil. The name says exactly that, and it is the second plate in the hummus shops of Damascus.
Variable — ask the price of a plate when you order · Damascus
Madlouqa
The hot semolina is poured straight into the serving dish, then covered with cream and pistachio. The name comes from that pouring, and the sweet belongs to Ramadan.
Variable — ask the price by the kilo or by the piece · Damascus
Malfouf Mahshi
Cabbage leaves rolled as thin as a finger around rice and mince, then cooked with whole garlic, lemon and dried mint. This is the Syrian winter pot itself.
Variable — ask the price of a portion when you order · Damascus
Maqaneq
Small sausages of spiced minced meat in a casing, fried until they crisp. They reach the table with pomegranate molasses, and the name goes back to Latin.
Variable — ask the price of a portion when you order · Aleppo
Kibbeh bil Sanieh
Two layers of kibbeh dough around fried mince and walnuts, scored into diamonds and baked in a tray. This is the household kibbeh, not the restaurant one.
Variable — ask whether it is sold by slice or by portion · Aleppo
Kallaj
Thin pastry dipped in milk, folded round clotted cream, finished with pistachio and syrup. The sweet of the Ramadan counter, and mostly only that month.
Variable — ask the price of a portion when you order · Damascus
