Food
What to eat, where to find it, what it costs.
100 Food
Akkoub, the spring thistle
A thorny wild thistle of spring. What is eaten is the unopened flower head and the young stem, picked between March and May and, in Syria, baked into pies.
Seasonal and unsteady — ask the price of a bunch at the market · Idlib
Tahini Halva
Tahini, boiled sugar and soapwort extract pulled together until the mass turns pale and fibrous, then set into a sliceable block. A grocery shelf staple.
Tahini halva with pistachio, cut from the block · Variable — ask the price per kilo; the pistachio one costs more than plain · Damascus
Naem
Flour and water, nothing else. Discs rolled and dried months ahead go into the oil on the first day of Ramadan, brushed with molasses and grated on top.
A thin fried disc, brushed with molasses and grated on top · Variable — ask the price per piece at the stall; it has moved a lot lately · Damascus
Mushabbak
Loose batter piped into hot oil as a lattice of rings, lifted out and dipped straight into syrup. The name means latticed, and that is the whole of it.
A crisp syrup-soaked ring piped into oil as a lattice · Variable — ask the price per kilo at the stall · Damascus
Mafroukeh
Semolina roasted in butter and kneaded with sugar, under a layer of clotted cream and crushed pistachio. The records give its origin as Lebanon. Share the plate.
Variable — ask the price of the plate at the counter · Damascus
Mabroumeh
Kadayif threads twisted around a stick of pistachio, cooked in samne and dropped into cold syrup. The single green core in the cut is how you know it.
A kadayif cylinder twisted around a stick of pistachio · Variable — ask the price per kilo; it moves with the amount of pistachio · Damascus
Qurmashliyya, the Halva of Homs
Homs in pink and white: paper-thin sheets dried, matured in sugar, then fried and soaked in syrup. Inside the city people call it khubziyya. Sold by the kilo.
Variable — ask the price per kilo at the counter · Homs
Lazaqiyat
Thin breads poured onto a hot griddle and stacked the moment they come off, with sheep samne and honey between the layers. A sweet of the Syrian south.
Griddle breads stacked with sheep samne and honey between the layers · Variable — a home sweet, so there is no set price · As-Suwayda
Karawya, the Syrian Meghli
Rice flour simmered with caraway, anise and cinnamon into a dark pudding. The bowl that announces a birth: served warm in Syria, cold in Lebanon. Nuts go on top.
Variable — a home dessert, rarely sold over the counter · Damascus
Qashtalia, the Syrian Layali Lubnan
A cold dessert in two layers: semolina pudding below, clotted cream above, crushed pistachio and syrup on top. Lebanon calls the same plate layali lubnan.
Variable — ask for the price per portion or per kilo at the counter · Damascus
Ballorieh
Aleppo pistachio between two layers of kadayif, heated only enough to cook and never to colour, then soaked in rose syrup while it is still hot from the oven.
Pistachio between two layers of kadayif; the slice that stays white · Variable — ask the price per kilo; the pistachio sets it · Aleppo
Balah el-Sham
Short ridged fingers of dough piped into hot oil, then dropped hot into cold syrup: crisp outside, hollow within. A fixture of the Ramadan iftar table.
Ridged fingers piped into oil and soaked in cold syrup · Variable — ask the price of a bowl or a kilo at the stall · Damascus
