Cuisine

Syrian

Fatteh is a construction: toasted or fried pita, a layer of pulses or meat, a yoghurt-tahini sauce, and a last fry of ghee with garlic, nuts or chilli. Syrian fatteh often leans on chickpeas, toasted bread and that yoghurt sauce, sometimes with fried mince or eggplant. It is breakfast or lunch, eaten with a spoon before the bread turns to mush. The wider Syrian table is Levantine — hummus, tabbouleh, kibbeh, grilled meats — with Aleppo's chilli-and-pomegranate accent and Damascus pastry shops. Fatteh is the plate that shows the method: stale bread made new with sauce and fat.

Levantine bread-sauce-pulse cooking is older than the modern Syrian state. Aleppo was a spice-trade city; its cuisine is famous for kebab, muhammara and a mild chilli. Damascus sweets and stuffed vegetables are another line. War and displacement carried Syrian restaurant cooking abroad, where fatteh, shawarma and pastries became the face of a much larger home table. Egyptian fatteh and Levantine versions share the bread idea and differ in vinegar, yoghurt and the topping. Naming Syria is useful for the yoghurt-tahini-ghee finish. Naming the Levant is useful when the mezze is shared.

Bread must be crisp going in so it softens into sauce without disappearing. Yoghurt should be thick and garlicky. Tahini adds bitterness and body. Hot ghee at the end is the perfume. Chickpeas should be soft enough to crush against the bread. Syrian cooking is Levantine, not a unique island, and not Lebanese mezze with the labels swapped.