Food
What to eat, where to find it, what it costs.
100 Food
Raha (Syrian Turkish delight)
Syria calls Turkish delight raha: starch and sugar scented with rose water or mastic. It is made in Daraa and the Hauran and eaten with tea or between two biscuits.
Plain and mastic raha; pistachio, almond and coconut kinds · Variable — ask when you buy · Daraa
Mlabbas, Syrian sugared almonds
Toasted almonds coated layer by layer in rose-scented sugar in copper pans: the Damascus sweet handed out in small bundles at weddings, Eid and a baby’s seventh day.
Varies — ask by the number of bundles and what goes inside · Damascus
Mehîr
Husked wheat cooked in ayran, the thinned yoghurt drink, with garlic added once it cools. A Kurdish spoon dish of Qamishli and Derik, and an Armenian Easter plate.
Pounded wheat cooked in ayran with garlic; the herb version with wild mint and gundelia · Not a plate you buy — it belongs to the home table · Qamishli
Qudameh, the roasted chickpeas of Damascus
Qudameh, the roasted chickpea of Damascus, takes more than a month of heating and resting. Its yellow, salted and sugared kinds, a family name and a wedding song.
Varies — ask the price per kilo at the roaster · Damascus
Kusaybeh, Latakia’s Ramadan sesame paste
Unhulled sesame is roasted, ground and kneaded with salted water until the oil separates, leaving a dark, faintly bitter paste eaten in Latakia with halva and dates.
Varies — ask the seller for the price per kilo · Latakia
Qozla bread, the Eastern New Year loaf of the Syrian coast
Baked once a year in village tannour ovens around Latakia and Tartus for Qozla on 13-14 January, with red pepper, olive oil, sesame and nigella seed in the dough.
Not known as a bread sold in shops — it is baked at home · Latakia
Kbeibat bi-silq, chard-filled bulgur dumplings from Tartus
Small balls of flour and fine bulgur stuffed with chard and onion, boiled and dressed with garlic, lemon and sumac: the feast-day dish of villages around Tartus.
Varies — mostly a home-cooked feast dish · Tartus
Kibbeh mashwiyeh, the grilled kibbeh of Homs and Qusayr
Kibbeh cooked over charcoal, not fried: in Homs two discs sealed around lamb and tail fat, in Qusayr a family job at the fire on the morning of Eid. How it is made.
Varies — a home and Eid dish; if a restaurant has it, ask the portion price · Homs
Khmei’a
Torn saj bread with melted ghee and hot milk poured over it. A winter breakfast and Ramadan dish from the Arab villages around Hasakah, Qamishli and Deir ez-Zor.
Saj bread, melted Arab ghee and hot milk · Not a plate you buy — it belongs to the village home table · Hasakah
Mahshi jazar, the stuffed yellow carrots of Homs
A winter dish of Homs: large yellow carrots are hollowed, soured for a few days, filled with rice and minced meat and cooked in pomegranate molasses. How it differs.
Varies — ask the price per kilo of hollowed carrots in the market · Homs
Hbeit (Deir ez-Zor date and lamb broth)
Lamb simmered in plenty of broth with dates and onion, coloured with safflower. A big-pot dish from Deir ez-Zor, and the Euphrates plate that puts dates with lamb.
Lamb in a broth of dates and onion, coloured with safflower · Not a plate you buy — it belongs to home and hospitality tables · Deir ez-Zor
Zeit al-Khraij, the boiled-olive oil of the Syrian coast
In the hills behind Jableh and Baniyas, olives are boiled, fermented on rooftops and pressed into khraij, a near-black, sharp oil poured over bulgur and shanklish.
Varies — half as much again to double the price of ordinary olive oil; ask the producer · Latakia