Damascus

Taste of a City
By Rafik Schami and Marie Fadel

It is said that when a man has lived seven years in Damascus, Damascus lives with him.

Damascus was Rafik Schami's home for 25 years before he went into exile, and he never forgot it. This 'Pearl of the Orient' is still the city he loves more than any other.
Thirty years later, and now a prize-winning novelist, Schami leapt at the chance to write  a culinary-cultural book on his former home town. There were, however, two seemingly insurmountable barriers - time and geography.
So Schami's sister Marie wandered through Damascus for a year on his behalf, relaying curiosities, sounds, personalities, tastes and the smells of the Old City, while Schami wrote them down, relishing the diverse mark left on Damascene cuisine by its multifarious history.

Also available as a hardback edition.

'Done with aplomb, it has both logic and charm... will no doubt delight foodies'
The Spectator

The Guardian Weekend - 2 January 2010:

'Here is a great recipe, taken from Marie Fadel and Rafik Schami's evocative Damascus: Taste Of A City (Haus Publishing, £7.99), which solves the oil problem altogether:

500g dried chickpeas
300g ground sesame paste (tahini)
2 lemons
2 garlic cloves
2 tsp salt
2 tsp cumin
1 bunch parsley
1 tsp paprika
100ml olive oil
200g pine nuts

Wash the chickpeas, soak in plenty of water overnight (they will double in volume), then boil for two hours. Drain, reserving the broth, and chop in a food processor to a smooth cream or paste. Add the tahini, the juice of two lemons, peeled and crushed garlic cloves, salt and cumin. Purée until smooth. If necessary, add a bit of the reserved broth, so the porridge becomes really creamy. It must be smooth but thick, neither soupy nor full of dried lumps. To serve, garnish the surface with chopped parsley, paprika and olive oil. Fry the pine nuts until golden brown and sprinkle on top.' - Matthew Fort, Food for Fort, 2 January 2010 

To read additional reviews, click here.


Rafik Schami wasborn in Damascus in 1946. He emigrated to Germany in 1971, where hestudied Chemistry in Heidelberg. Schami is a prize-winning novelist, and the author of The Dark Side of Love (Arabia Books, 2009), an international bestseller. His works have appeared in 21 languages.