country Essentials · 12 foods
Syria Essentials
A considered first route through Syria: the foods that carry its everyday habits, celebrations, ingredients, and memory.
Explore all Syria foods →THE
ESSENTIALS
The complete shortlist
12 foods to know.
Each selection includes the reason it belongs here—so this is a guide, not just a pile of names.
Antakya, Lebanon
Red Pepper and Walnut Dip
محمرة
Aleppo pepper and walnut pounded with pomegranate molasses into a gritty, sweet-sour red dip.
Aleppo, Lebanon
Kibbeh
كبة
Bulgur and lamb paste layered round a pine-nut filling, scored into diamonds and baked.
Aleppo, Syria
Cherry Kebab
كباب كرز
Lamb meatballs in sour morello cherries — Aleppo's dish, and only for a few weeks each summer.
Damascus, Syria
Booza
بوظة
Mastic ice cream pounded elastic with a wooden pestle and rolled in pistachio at Bakdash.
Lebanon
Shanklish
شنكليش
Fermented cheese balls rolled in za'atar and aged to a pungent crumble, served with tomato and oil.
Aleppo, Syria
Aleppo Pepper
فلفل حلبي
Halaby chilli crushed with salt and oil into sticky red flakes with a slow, raisin-sweet heat.
Syria
Shakriyeh
شاكرية
Lamb in a hot garlic-yoghurt sauce that splits if you stop stirring, poured over rice with pine nuts.
Lebanon
Stuffed Pickled Aubergines
مكدوس
Baby aubergines stuffed with walnut and pepper and kept under olive oil for the winter.
Homs, Lebanon
Halawet el Jibn
حلاوة الجبن
Stretchy semolina and cheese dough rolled round clotted cream — Homs makes the best.
Damascus, Lebanon
Sesame and Pistachio Biscuits
برازق
Sesame on one face, pistachio pressed into the other; Damascus's biscuit and its standard gift.
Syria
Yalanji
يالنجي
Vine leaves rolled round rice and pomegranate molasses, cooked in oil and eaten cold.
Syria
Syrian Mate
متة
Yerba mate brought home from Argentina in the 1800s and now drunk in rounds in the coastal mountains.