Damascus Street Food: Shawarma, Falafel, Pounded Ice Cream and More

Damascus eats in the street. From morning to midnight there are carts and hole-in-the-wall shops where people stand and eat, at prices that suit everyone. This is our list of what you should not miss.

Damascus shawarma

Shawarma in Damascus is different from anywhere else. Chicken shawarma is rolled in very thin bread with toum — garlic whipped until it is like cream — pickles and chips, then toasted on the griddle until it crunches. There is also meat shawarma with tahini, parsley and onion. Ask for a "sandwich", or a "sahn arabi": the wrap cut into pieces with chips and garlic.

Falafel

Hot fried patties of chickpea (sometimes fava bean) in bread with tahini, tomato, parsley and pickles. Every neighbourhood has its own; the best is usually the one with the longest queue.

Pounded ice cream

Halfway down Souq al-Hamidiyeh is Bakdash, serving ice cream since the late nineteenth century. Damascene *booza* is made from milk, sahlab and mastic, pounded with wooden pestles until it turns stretchy, then rolled in Aleppo pistachios. Watch the men pound it in front of you — that is half the fun.

Street drinks

• Licorice juice (erq sous), sold by a man carrying a great copper jug on his back and clicking brass cups. Cold and refreshing in summer.
• Tamarind and jallab with pine nuts and raisins.
• Hot sahlab with cinnamon in winter.

More in our guide to Syrian drinks.

With tea and coffee

• Sesame ka'ak from the carts.
• Grilled corn, lupin beans and sprouted fava beans in the evening.
• Knafeh and ma'rouk — see our guide to Syrian sweets.