Food
What to eat, where to find it, what it costs.
235 Food
Potato Kibbeh (Kibbet Batata)
The meatless branch of the kibbeh family: boiled potato, fine bulgur, onion and dried mint. A fixture of the Lenten table in Homs and the Valley of the Christians.
Potato kibbeh spread on a tray, with olive oil and mint · Variable — a home dish; if a restaurant has it, ask the price of a plate · Homs
Kebab Khashkhash
The hot end of the Aleppo grill: minced lamb worked with garlic and chilli, cooked over charcoal and laid on a sauce of charred tomato. Sold by the skewer.
Garlic-and-chilli kebab on a sauce of charred tomato · Variable — ask the price per skewer when you order · Aleppo
Kafta bi tahini, the Damascus tray bake
Minced meat spread in a tray, potatoes laid over it, finished in the oven under a lemon and tahini sauce. A Damascus home dish, baked at the local oven.
A home dish; if a restaurant has it, ask the price · Damascus
Fasoulia bi zeit, green beans in olive oil
Green beans cooked down with onion, garlic, tomato and plenty of olive oil. No meat in it, served at room temperature, a fixture of the Damascus mezze table.
Mezze prices; it arrives by the bowl, so ask when you order · Damascus
Syrian falafel
In Syria falafel is made from chickpeas, not the fava beans used in Egypt. Raw soaked chickpeas, ground and pressed flat, fried at a morning counter in Damascus.
Among the cheapest filling meals in Syria; ask at the counter · Damascus
Abu Abdo, the ful house in Aleppo
Selling ful in the Jdeideh quarter of Aleppo since 1885. Left overnight in copper vats over a low flame, it is served from morning with tahini and olive oil.
Aleppo-style ful medames with tahini, olive oil and a little pepper paste · Variable — ask at the counter · Aleppo
Awassi Sheep: the Lamb Behind Syrian Cooking
White body, brown head, drooping ears and a fat tail. This is the animal under Syrian kebab and kibbeh, and at the butcher’s counter it is called Naimi.
Mince worked with tail fat; lamb and animal clarified butter · Variable — sold by the kilo; ask the counter for the day's price · Hama
Zarb
Lamb and vegetables cooked over embers in a metal drum sunk into the ground. This is the cooking method of the steppe, and the dish of the Palmyra desert.
Variable — the pit is not set for one person, the price is discussed by the tray · Palmyra
Lahme bil Siniyeh: The Damascus Tray Bake
Meat, potato, tomato and onion laid out in one tray, thinned tomato paste poured over, then the oven. In Damascus that oven is often the neighbourhood one.
Variable — a home dish; ask the butcher for the meat and the neighbourhood oven for the baking · Damascus
Ouzi
Rice cooked with minced lamb, peas and carrot, finished with pine nuts and almonds fried in butter. In Damascus this is the tray for weddings and holidays.
Rice with vegetables and minced lamb, under fried pine nuts and almonds · Variable — priced by the tray rather than per person; ask when ordering · Damascus
Tahini
Roasted sesame ground on a stone mill. It is the layer under hummus, msabbaha, mutabbal, batersh and fatteh, and the raw material of halva and karabij.
Variable — ask the price by weight for the loose kind · Aleppo
Samneh
Sheep or goat butter boiled, skimmed, strained into a clay jar and salted. This is the fat that separates Aleppo cooking from the olive oil of the coast.
Variable — ask the price by weight; the animal kind costs clearly more than the vegetable blend · Aleppo
