Aleppo Pepper Paste

Possibly the best ever pepper paste although those from south eastern Turkey come very close

The last time I was in Syria was in October 2010, a few months before the uprising that turned into a bloody civil war that killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions. And all this thanks to the greed of the fallen regime of Bashar al-Assad, who took over from his father Hafez, who was also responsible for, amongst other atrocities, the 1982 massacre of Hama where more than 40,000 were killed and much of the city destroyed.

Then, I promised myself that I wouldn’t return, however much I loved the country of my father, until the regime changed. And this finally happened just over two months ago — I went to Lebanon a month or so after Bashar fled to Moscow and decided to go to Damascus from there, by car, despite everyone (or almost everyone) telling me not to.

I spent a few days roaming all of my favourite Damascene haunts which had not changed much except for a pervasive air of shabbiness, both on the street and in people, not to mention the lack of hot water in the two hotels I stayed in.

Most of my beloved street food vendors were still there, making the same delicious specialties — and in the case of 3owwamat (round fritters dipped in syrup), making them in the most entertaining way as you can see from the video below — and it was great speaking freely about the fallen regime with everyone.

I then went to Aleppo where I had meant to go to the souks, where I used to stay in the late Julien Jalal el-Dinn fabulous medieval house; also to Jdeydeh, the now demolished Christian quarter, where I used to stay with my groups in the most delightful boutique hotel — all gone sadly — but I ended up spending the day with my lovely friend, Lena Antaki, who gave me a delicious black carrot (in season then) dish cooked with meat in an intense pomegranate molasses sauce for lunch.

And before I left, Lena had her cook pack the most delicious pepper paste that she had made to benefit her charitable oeuvre. It is so good that I have it simply on sourdough toast (top picture). However, I will use some to make muhammara (recipe below paywall) to give to my Sicilian friends when I have them over. I bet they will be more than impressed. I am also sure that none of them will have had it before. By the way, my article on Syrian food and my visit there was published in Bloomberg this weekend for those who have a subscription.