Story: Sweets from the Middle East

If you’re on a diet, than a sweet shop in the Middle East is a wicked place to be. Giant round trays of baklava, mini mountains of nut filled goodies oozing in syrup are displayed in sweet shops daily.

I was amazed at the sheer quantities on display. Neatly piled stacks almost reaching the ceiling and giant round trays tightly packed with glistening pastries. Families are large in the Middle East and family gatherings can mean 50 people and more at a get together. It’s not unusual to see someone leaving a shop laden with kilos of goodies.

Since I find sweet shops so fascinating, I visited several but I always end up buying at my favourite, Zalatimo Brothers in Amman, to me the king of confectioners. The sparkling clean, marble tiled shops are a picture to the eye. The glass displays are spotless and all the sweets perfectly aligned in their trays. Uniformed assistants, all wearing thin plastic gloves, stand behind the counters filling up the blue and cream boxes on order. Some special gift boxes are very elaborate, inlaid with wood and mother of pearl.

It all started in Jerusalem with Mohammed Zalatimo, the great grand father of the present owner of Zalatimo Brothers way back in 1860. 147 years later, the original shop can still be found in Old Jerusalem, near the wall surrounding the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It is said that the first shop was so small that Mohammed could only offer one type of sweet, the Mutabbaq as take away for breakfast. He later extended by buying the shop next door, thus being able to prepare more types of sweets for his growing clientele. 5 generations later, the family which has branched out in the last generation, now have a further 4 shops in Amman.

On my first visit, I didn’t know what to buy. I kept peering into the glass display like a child let loose in a candy shop. I surely wasn’t going to leave this sweet heaven without a few kilos of the goods. I started asking one of the shop assistants what the sweets on display were and was immediately handed over one of the confections on a napkin to sample. “Would you like to taste Madam? and a moment later after the first morsel of heaven “I’ll take a kilo of that.”

The problem was they didn’t come in confections of less than 1 kilo. With sweets, there were no half measures here.

They looked exotic and rich. Here was gourmet craftsmanship at its best. The names were also exotic – Asabi, Ush al-Bulbul, Faisalieh, Nabulseh, Barazek, Griebeh, Basmeh, and my all time favourites Mamoul, with fillings of pistachios, walnuts or dates, not to mention the fresh cakes filled with cream cheese. Only the finest ingredients are used, with some recipes handed down the generations of Zalatimo.

They let you sample any of the sweets before you decide. If you have a large order, like many tourists from the Gulf have, you can sit at one of the tables at the Shmeisani Branch and order a coffee whilst you wait for the boxes to be filled. Boxes are vacuum packed in plastic for travel. All under the watchful eye of old Mrs Zalatimo, whom I befriended after several visits to Amman and to the shop for their pastries.

After letting me sample several pastries on display, I was becoming familiar with the different varieties.

The Baklawa was like nothing I tasted before. Layers of thin pastry, pistachio nuts and syrup that made you reach out for yet another piece. Crisp and crunchy with the right amount of syrup, it meets your taste buds as your mouth waters. I’ve even caught myself closing my eyes whilst eating these. It even comes in a sugar free version for diabetics.

The Mamoul was just as wicked. Soft pastry made with real butter, filled with either dates, pistachios or walnuts, then shaped according to the type of filling. The date filled mamoul are round and flat, the pistachio variety oblong with pointed edges whilst the ones with walnut filling rectangular, all with elaborate markings from the different wooden moulds that are used to prepare them. I bought a kilo of mixed mamoul and afterwards wished I bought more.

The Faisalieh, a triangular shaped sweet made with thread like pastry filled with green pistachios are amazing. Apart from being delicious, they were so beautiful to look at. I couldn’t leave without a box of that.

Barazek, thin butter cookies with slices of pistachios on the bottom and covered in toasted sesame seeds on top. You eat one and there’s no stopping. Thin and mouth watering, they melt in your mouth.

I had to stop at around 4 to 5 kilos, not wanting to be overweight at the airport. The good news is, that should you run out of the supply you brought back from your trip, you can order online and they ship world wide. But I prefer to have an excuse to fly back to Jordan and to get them myself. I like to say hello to old Mrs Zalatimo.