Hamadiya Souk in Damascus, Syria

Hamadiya Souk in Damascus, a shopper's paradise

I don’t think a person could ever get tired of wandering through the Hamadiya souk in Damascus. I’ve decided to show a few photos to give you an idea.

This is an ice cream parlor called Bakdsh. Arabic words often have vowels left out, but native speakers can fill them in. I think we would say “Backdash” but don’t drawl.

Bakdsh, an ice cream parlor that has been open for more than 100 years

Ice cream has been made here for more than a hundred years, back when they had to bring ice from the mountains during winter time and store it (where?) to use during the warmer months. (Syria has 4 seasons and a cold winter. I’d always thought that it was hot year round!)

 As I passed Bakdsh, on my first day in Syria, I was swarmed by crowds of Syrians rushing into the shop and sauntering back out holding huge ice cream cones. It had to be good!

The Syrians use a recipe similar to Turkish ice cream, that is, they use gum mastic. The mastic gives the ice cream a ‘chewy’ consistency. I thought the Syrian version contained less mastic than the Turkish. They had one flavor, vanilla and they topped it with the freshest pistachio nuts I have ever eaten. 

The problem with me is that I can only think of one thing at a time. The shop was well worth photographing, but all I could think of was buying my ice cream. Now, I’m hoping that things will change for the better in the Middle East and maybe one day I’ll photograph Bakdsh.