Syrian cookbook

Mezze

Dips and mezze dishes are the bedrock of Syrian cuisine. Mezze is an Arabic word that stems from the verb ‘tamezmez’, which means to enjoy something so much that you savour it slowly.

The question isn’t so much when do Syrians eat mezze, as when do they not? If you go to someone’s house in Syria, there’s no way you’ll skip the mezze on your way to the main course. We’re not talking starters here, these dishes might start to arrive before the bigger meat or rice ones, but they’re just as much the focus as what comes later. Cooking a single main course is pretty much unheard of. A proper meal consists of loads of dishes that you all dive into armed with pieces of freshly baked bread between thumb and forefinger. Any vegetable can become part of the mezze. With a bit of garlic, some parsley or a hit of cumin, the humble, pious runner bean or cauliflower is transformed into a proper treat. Kids don’t have to be forced to eat their greens in Syria.