Illustrated map of Syrian food: A Levantine taste of freedom

I created this illustrated map of Syrian food in celebration of the new chapter this beloved Levantine country is starting! At long last, freedom is finally here!

Illustrated map of Syrian food: A cultural travel illustration - Ruba Saqr Art & Illustration | Syria food map, Syria’s food heritage, traditional Syrian food map illustration, digital illustration, Levantine food, hand lettering, illustrated map of Syria, blue illustrated map, Syrian motifs, Mamluk patterns, Syrian food tour map, Affinity Photo 2 illustration, line illustration, line art, editorial illustration

Syria map illustration by illustrator and artist Ruba Saqr

Both my maternal grandparents are from Syria, which has led to my fondness for Syria’s rich food heritage. From a very early age, I have enjoyed a wide array of famous and obscure Syrian dishes, given that my Teta was a prolific home cook, who started cooking when she was seven years old.

A few years back, I started a notebook to create lists upon lists of Syrian and Levantine recipes, Damascene street food wraps and dishes, and Ramadan drinks known to us in the Levant and the Arab World so as to inform both my food illustrations and my fine art paintings.

My whole childhood was centred on the kitchen stories my grandmother shared with me while cooking one of her difficult recipes, often something so elaborate it took the whole day to prepare. Many Syrian women are like that; cooking for them is a form of love.

My grandmother’s Kousa Mahshi, Burek, and Kibbeh are the reason I became a travel and food illustrator and a fine artist who loves to explore her Levantine identity through food.

For all these reasons, I am illustrating this map of some of Syria’s iconic traditional dishes to celebrate the rebirth of hope in Syria in 2024.

From Kibbeh to Fattet Makdous: Scrumptious dishes from Syria

This illustration includes several dishes of Kibbeh from different parts of Syria. It also features a staple of the Damascene table, Fattet Makdous (aubergine fatteh). In the following paragraphs, I’ll try to give a short description about each dish, in hopes that it will inspire you to make it in your own home.

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Illustrated Syrian Food - Batersh Hamwi - Ruba Saqr Art & Illustration | Food illustration, food from Hama, Syrian recipes from Hama, Syrian food heritage, Syrian vs Turkish food, line illustration, digital illustration, Affinity Photo 2 illustration, Mamluk motif, hand lettering, dusty pink illustration, aubergine illustration, line illustration, line art, food tour map, cultural travel illustration, editorial illustration, illustrated recipe.

Illustrated Syrian Food – Kabab Karaz – Ruba Saqr Art & Illustration | Food from Aleppo, Syrian recipes from Aleppo, Syrian food history, Kebab Karaz recipe illustration, Mamluk pattern and motif, sour cherry meatballs illustration, line illustration, line art, editorial illustration, hand lettering, dusty pink Arabic pattern, illustrated recipe, Levantine recipes.

Illustrated Syrian Food – Kibbeh Arnabieh – Ruba Saqr Art & Illustration | Food from Latakia, Syrian recipes from Latakia, Kibbeh illustration, Mamluk motif, bulgur balls illustration, line illustration, line art, editorial illustration, hand lettering, light blue Arabic pattern, illustrated recipe.

Fattet Makdous… is basically a layer of fried pita bread squares, topped with tomato sauce, then a zesty and garlicy layer of yoghurt tahini dressing, followed – in its most authentic version – by stuffed deep-fried baby aubergines.

Fattet Makdous: Queen of the Damascene table

A couple of decades ago, Fattet Makdous was only known to Syrians from Damascus. Residents in other cities, like Homs or Hama, had no idea it even existed. Our friends from Jordan, Lebanon, Italy, France, UK and North Africa got introduced to it in my childhood household and it was always their favourite dish.

A decade ago, food blogs started picking it up from Damascene expats and refugees who wanted to share a taste of home through their blogs and socials, ultimately making this dish way less obscure than it used to be.

How is the Fatteh made?

I grew up helping out in the kitchen by doing several chores related to this dish: Peeling and crushing the garlic, squeezing the lemons, slicing the Arabic pita bread into squares, and peeling and halving the whole almonds.

For garnish, we added toasted almonds instead of pine nuts; my guess it’s because almonds were more affordable. My biggest reward came later when I delighted in dipping a handful of crispy bread squares into the tangy tahini-yoghurt sauce for a delicious pre-dinner snack – before putting the dish together to serve it.

Fattet Makdous (or “Magdous” as people from Damascus would pronounce it) is basically a layer of fried pita bread squares, topped with tomato sauce, then a zesty and garlicy layer of yoghurt tahini dressing, followed – in its most authentic version – by stuffed deep-fried baby aubergines. Before serving it hot, Fattet el-Magdous is garnished with roasted pine nuts and freshly chopped parsley.

For the older generation of Damascus-based home cooks, the original recipe calls for making stripes on the aubergines using a knife or a peeler. There’s a logic behind this and it’s about keeping the aubergines intact while allowing them to produce an exquisite taste once deep fried. The stuffing, on the other hand, is made of onions sautéed with ground beef and a pinch of Syrian seven spices, and, of course, salt to taste.

Modern families no longer deep fry the bread or stuff the eggplants. They prefer to coat the bread wedges with olive oil before baking them in the oven until crispy and golden. As for the eggplants, many people I know deconstruct the whole process by frying aubergine slices on stovetop or in the oven, while garnishing the Fatteh with a mixture of sautéed onions, minced meat and pine nuts.

Batersh Hamwi: Aubergine reigns supreme in Syrian cooking

The first time I had Batersh I fell in love. This Moutabbal-like smoked aubergine purée with a topping of meat ragù is eaten with your hands, using a piece of Arabic bread (pita bread) to scoop up the food.

Batersh Hamwi is a staple of Hama, one of the four largest cities in Syria, known for its waterwheels and steep history that goes back to 6000 BC.

This delectable dish is also prepared by families living in nearby Homs, whose agricultural lands produce an abundance of aubergine varieties, from the heirloom “Baladi Abyad” (meaning “Local White”) to the imported jumbo “Black Beauty.” There’s also those known locally as “Homsi” (a baby eggplant variety for making pickled Makdous) as well as “Hamwi.”

Syrian vs Turkish variations!

At home, we like to cook a vegetarian version of the dish as we make do with the meat, but the original recipe has minced lamb or beef in it. Here’s a recipe from Taste of Beirut, a blog that has amazing dishes from Lebanon and the Levant. It details the ingredients and the steps needed to prepare an exquisite Batersh.

Incidently, the Turkish cuisine has a spicier version with similar components, called Ali Nazik Kebab. Cooking Gorgeous, a Turkish food blog with a variety of delicious recipes from Türkiye and the world, adds red peppers and pepper paste to the meat sauce, which is what differentiates it from the Syrian meat ragù.

This goes to show that there are a lot of similarities between the Turkish and Syrian cuisines, especially among the cities near the borders such as Aleppo. The influence goes both ways as some of the border villages in Türkiye have Kibbeh dishes inspired by the Syrian cuisine.

Illustrated Syrian Food – Kutilk – Ruba Saqr Art & Illustration | Food from Raqqa, Syrian recipes from Raqqa, Kurdish Kibbeh illustration, Mamluk motif, bulgur dumplings illustration, line illustration, line art, editorial illustration, hand lettering, dusty pink Arabic pattern, illustrated recipe.

Kutilk: A Kurdish Kibbeh in northern Syria

Kutilk, Kuttelk, or Kutilke is a Kurdish Kibbeh dish famous in the northern city of Raqqa along the Euphrates River in Syria. It’s a sort of triangle-shaped dumpling with many versions, including with a beef mince filling. The shell is usually made with bulgur mixed with flour or semolina. Unlike the famous types of Kibbeh in the country, once stuffed and shaped it’s boiled – and not fried, grilled or baked.

Kabab Karaz: A sweet and sour dish from Aleppo

I tried this dish for the first time (before 2011) at an exquisite restaurant in Old Damascus, called Naranj. (The restaurant seems to have moved to neighbouring countries after the war).

These cherry meatballs are one of Aleppo’s many unique dishes, a testimony to the city’s great influence on Syrian cooking in particular, and the Levantine cuisine as a whole.

Kabab or Kebab Karaz is usually eaten with triangle slices of Arabic pita bread, placed right beneath the meatballs to create a sun-ray effect. Some prefer to eat it with a side dish of rice.

Mouna’s Kitchen, a UK-based Syrian food catering company, makes this exquisite dish with Aleppo’s special sour cherries, known as “Washneh.”

And here’s another recipe for this elevated Kebab Karaz by Syrian cookbook writer Anas Attasi of the Syrian-food cookbook “Sumac.” It adds pomegranate molasses to the cherry sauce, which gives it a bit of tanginess. The use of molasses here may be because the recipe uses a sweet type of cherry. In other words, it’s use is to compensate for the lack of sourness in the actual cherries.

Kibbeh Arnabieh: Is it from Homs, Latakia or Beirut?

Made with a tangy sauce of tahini, Kibbeh Arnabieh has a funny name, with Arnabieh meaning “rabbit-y.”

I learnt about Kibbeh Arnabieh many years ago while I was flipping through a digital cookbook by a Syrian home cook from Latakia and it stuck with me. I remember very clearly that she claimed this was a dish from the coastal city of Latakia. But now that I want to write about it, I’m finding conflicting information on the internet. Some say it’s from Homs, while others say it’s an iconic dish from the city of Beirut in Lebanon.

There seems to be a difference, though. In all three versions, Tahini seems to be the base that everyone agrees on. However, the Latakia version has grated carrots in the tahini sauce, while the Homs version seems to be made with orange, tangerine and lemon juice as well as pomegranate molasses. The Beiruti sauce, on the other hand, is a mixture of Tahini with lemon juice only.

I need to do some more research on this one, but if you’re Syrian or Lebanese (or a food historian) with in-depth knowledge about the origins of this dish, or its many variations, then please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts in the comments box below.

Illustrated Syrian Food – Kbaibat bil Sileq – Ruba Saqr Art & Illustration | Food from Tartous, Syrian recipes from Tartous, Kibbeh recipe illustration, Mamluk pattern, bulgur balls illustration, line illustration, line art, editorial illustration, hand lettering, blue Arabic pattern, illustrated recipe.

Kbaibat bil Sileq: A lemony Kibbeh from the coastal city of Tartous

This is one of a few Syrian Kibbeh dishes made with an uncooked sauce – and with no meat involved. The shell is a mixture of fine bulgur, wheat flour, and salt and pepper to taste.

The filling is unusual, too. It consists of chopped chard, boiled or sautéed with onions, a squeeze of lemon, sumac and a pinch of salt.

The sauce is what’s interesting. Just mix lemon juice with minced garlic, mild red pepper paste and some olive oil. Then drizzle over the Kibbeh dumplings, after boiling them to perfection just like the Kurdish Kutilk.

This reminds me of another vegetarian and vegan Kibbeh dish from Lebanon that Christian families make on lent fasting days. It’s called “Kibbet el Raheb” or “Monk’s Kibbeh,” a common name for all sorts of vegetarian bulgur balls in the Levant.

The unstuffed Kibbeh balls come with an indent in the middle. You can serve them with a garlicky sauce of lemon juice, pepper flakes, dried mint, and a pinch of salt.

There’s another version I have tried with crushed walnuts added to the sauce. But I have no idea where it comes from (either Hama in Syria or Tripoli in Lebanon).

An illustrated map of Syrian food created with hope and joy

Illustrated Map of Syria – Mamluk Blue – Ruba Saqr Art & Illustration | Syria map illustration, Syria illustrated map, blue Mamluk pattern illustration, line illustration, line art, editorial illustration, blue Arabic pattern, travel illustration, Syrian backgammon pattern illustration.

Syria illustrated maps

As a food and travel illustrator, I’ve had a constant mental block when it came to illustrating Syrian food.

Attempting to create an illustrated map about foods from Damascus and beyond felt like veering too close to the darkness that befell this beautiful country.

But today freedom is here. Syrians are rebuilding their country and the future is filled with hope and aspiration.

Interestingly, I’ve looked on the internet and couldn’t find any illustrated maps (in English) featuring Syrian food or travel.

This is understandable. After all, Syria hasn’t been a travel destination for artists, illustrators or lifestyle photographers the past decade or so.

Notably, American and British book publishers have published a few cookbooks about Syrian cooking. But illustrations about Syria haven’t really taken off because of the country’s isolation and state of war.

So I thought to myself, I specialise in illustrating food and travel stories from the Levant and the Mediterranean. Why not illustrate a colourful food map of Syria? This could work for editorial work or perhaps as an intro to a cookbook about Syrian food!

Syrian Glass Illustration - Handmade in Damascus - Ruba Saqr Art & Illustration | UNESCO inscribed traditional Syrian glassblowing on its List of Intangible Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding, illustrated Syrian glass, blue glass from Damascus, digital illustration, Affinity Photo V2, editorial illustration, travel illustration, Syrian backgammon pattern illustration, cultural illustration, Syrian heritage, Syrian handcrafts, Made in Syria, Made in Damascus, artisanal Syrian hand-blown glass.

About the hero map illustration

The main motif inside the Syria illustrated map is inspired by handmade Mamluk-era pottery, from the 13th to 16th centuries.

Syrian chess and backgammon boards, typically made with inlaid wood and mother of pearl, are the inspiration for the background pattern. This is a traditional handcraft from Damascus, and can be found at shops in the old city.

In the foreground, there are three illustrations depicting traditional mouth-blown vases and goblets made for generations in Damascus.

A famous glassblowing workshop near Bab Sharqi in Damascus has been there for decades. It seems to have garnered attention in recent years. In 2023, the UNESCO inscribed Syrian traditional glassblowing on its List of Intangible Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.

I made these illustrations digitally with the Affinity Photo 2 app on the iPad (using the app’s native brushes). I also incorporated some analogue watercolour elements to the artwork.

See you soon!

I am glad to add this illustrated map of Syrian food to my Illustrated Travel Stories blog series. Thanks for visiting my Illustration Blog and looking forward to seeing you in my next post!