Food
What to eat, where to find it, what it costs.
235 Food
Aleppo za’atar
Thyme, cumin, anise and sumac. What separates the Aleppo blend from the rest is where the sourness comes from: dried sumac flower, not citric acid crystals.
Variable — ask the price by the kilo at the counter · Aleppo
Haytaliyyeh
A cold sweet made of milk, starch and sugar. Its name goes back to a state founded in Central Asia, and its story to the Umayyad court in old Damascus.
Variable — ask the price of a bowl when you order · Damascus
Ghraybeh
A pale butter cookie with no egg and no syrup, one pistachio pressed into the middle. It collapses in the mouth, and it shares the Eid tray with maamoul.
Variable — sold by weight, ask the price as it is weighed · Damascus
Halawet al-Mahya
Hama’s once-a-year sweet: semolina, sugar, butter and rose water, cut into diamonds. Outside the month of Shaban it is on no counter in the city at all.
Variable — ask the price by the kilo at the counter · Hama
Erq Sous
Licorice root steeped in cold water: almost black in the glass, capped with foam, sweet at first and bitter after. The Damascus street drink of Ramadan.
Variable — ask the price of a glass when you take one · Damascus
Bazargan
Soaked fine bulgur worked with tamarind or pomegranate molasses, walnuts and cumin. Aleppo’s sour-sweet cold mezze, and no relation at all to tabbouleh.
Variable — ask the price of a mezze plate when you order · Aleppo
Burbara
Boiled wheat with sugar and pomegranate seeds. A bowl cooked for one night of the year, handed to the children who come knocking at the door in costume.
A home sweet — not sold · Tartus
Burghul bi Dfeen
Coarse bulgur with chickpeas and onions browned in clarified butter, warmed with cinnamon and allspice. The name means buried bulgur, and the chickpeas are buried.
Variable — ask the price of a portion when you order · Damascus
Awarma
Lamb cooked down slowly in its own tail fat and packed into jars. This is winter meat from before refrigeration, and still the costly shelf of the pantry.
Variable — sold by weight in jars, ask as it is weighed · Aleppo
Shakriyeh
Lamb cooked in yoghurt, served with vermicelli rice. A dish for feast days and for Christmas, and in some places its name is simply his mother’s milk.
Variable — ask the price of a plate when you order · Damascus
Harak osbao
Lentils, boiled squares of dough, fried onion and pomegranate molasses. A Damascus winter dish named after a man who burned his finger tasting it hot.
Variable — ask the price of a plate when you order · Damascus
Foura
The winter breakfast of Deir ez-Zor: last summer’s kishk, dried cowpeas, garlic and clarified butter. Eaten hot, and in most houses on a Friday morning.
A home dish — not on restaurant menus · Deir ez-Zor