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Syrians have, like their Jordanian neighbors, a tendency to seek desert scents, and it is often a pleasure to
taste dishes perfumed with saffron, cumin and other perfumed herbs which are one of the delights of the cuisine
of this country. You will enjoy in particular the Mezze, an assortment that may be endless of small hors d'oeuvres
served without much cooking complications, or that may be carefully cooked and perfumed. Fish, game, vegetable,
and meat contribute to the Mezze of a rich table.
The Syrians are extremely fond of hommos: chickpeas finely ground, to which is added Tehineh (sesame oil mixture)
with garlic, lemon juice and covered with oil and parsley. Tabbouleh is also popular: it is a kind of salad made
with Burghul (boiled, then dried and coarsely ground wheat), finely chopped parsley, onions, and tomatoes, with
olive oil and lemon juice. The Mezze also includes eggplant crush, cucumber salad with yoghourt, white cheese puff-paste,
rissoles with meat, etc...As you have not had the chance to live in Syria at the time of the extravagant Caliph
El-Hakim (996-1021), you may have a desire to taste MIoukhieh. This delicious dish was prepared for Abou-Bekr,
the first successor of Mohammed, and for Moawiya, the founder of the Omayyad dynasty. It was forbidden by El-Hakim.
This sovereign, who from the age of 15 spent his time in promoting killings, when he did not require the extermination
of dogs to stop their barking and forbade the manufacture of ladies shoes, an amusing but good way of keeping women
at home, had the bad taste to forbid the cooking of the MIoukhieh, a dish made with a herb called the Jew's mallow,
under the pretext that it had been four centuries earlier one of the favorite dishes of Abu-Bekr. This costly caliph's
mallow is now served in season (end spring-early summer), accompanied with chicken cooked to a complicated recipe,
or with mutton shin.
Almost all people have a more or less pronounced taste for rich and sweet foods. Some resist this temptation, others
not. Arabs belong by large to the latter group and Syrians are no exception, but do not like to mix the rich and
the sweet, except in pastries.
Other dishes, undoubtedly less rare, but with a less perplexing taste, will be proposed to you, such as the Kebbeh,
prepared with burghul, meat, onion and various spices. It may be eaten raw, grilled, fried, as well as grilled
on skewers or boiled (this latter method is less tasty). It is a national dish.
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