When I first heard “Bakdesh” had
opened up in Amman, I had to find out where and go immediately. Someone
wrote an article on NPR entitled, "As Syria melts, ice cream shop opens in Amman." I thought the title was distasteful and too soon. What should have
been a happy moment was darkened by the fact we all knew why this shop opened
at this time.
Bakdesh is the ice cream of Syria, hand made in the ancient souk al Hammidiya in the Old City of Damascus. I was dying to have a bite of the treat I thought could only be had in Damascus. The last time I had been there, the city of my birth, my home, was in the summer of 2010 and all I wanted
was to go back. Since the revolution started in 2011 and the now ongoing civil war, I haven't been able to return, despite living a few hours away in Amman, Jordan.
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| Bakdesh in Damascus |
Finally, the opportunity came and my
friends and I drove down to this Bakdesh- Amman branch. It was on a busy large
street of Amman, not tucked away into an ancient souk. To my surprise, my heart started beating faster as we approached. Did I think I was about to have a bit of Damascus again? Afterall, the biggest pain of being in Jordan was knowing how close I was to Syria yet there was little to nothing I could do to get there.
I ordered a cup for myself. The ice cream was hard and sticky at the same time. I could barely finish it. I heard they shipped this ice cream from Bakdesh in Syria so at first I didn't get why my appetite wasn't opening back to it. That's when I realized half of enjoying Bakdesh is the experience that surrounds it in Damascus. It's walking at midnight from rukn-a-deen to the Old City to see the only bit of light coming through that shop. It's feeling icky from a hot day in the souk and stopping there to cool your lips. It's telling baba we can't leave till we each got a scoop of Bakdesh with pistachios. It's running out of the prayers from Jami’ al Ummuyeen with your older brother to its sweet reward. It's all that and so and so much more.
I ordered a cup for myself. The ice cream was hard and sticky at the same time. I could barely finish it. I heard they shipped this ice cream from Bakdesh in Syria so at first I didn't get why my appetite wasn't opening back to it. That's when I realized half of enjoying Bakdesh is the experience that surrounds it in Damascus. It's walking at midnight from rukn-a-deen to the Old City to see the only bit of light coming through that shop. It's feeling icky from a hot day in the souk and stopping there to cool your lips. It's telling baba we can't leave till we each got a scoop of Bakdesh with pistachios. It's running out of the prayers from Jami’ al Ummuyeen with your older brother to its sweet reward. It's all that and so and so much more.
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| The side of the carton that the Amman Bakdesh branch put the ice cream in. Just seeing this link of a living Damascus so close yet so far away broke my heart a little. |
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| Backdesh, Amman, Jordan branch |
May Syria come out of this war, a light. May we be free from those that seek to destroy it. May we all be reunited in beautiful Sham once more. <3
