AMMAN, Jordan — For Syrians, no visit to Damascus’ Old City is complete without a stop at a more than century-old ice cream parlor in its main souq where you can watch them make their distinctive dessert by pounding it into shape with giant wooden mallets, then enjoy a bowl of it sprinkled with pistachios.
Now those who fled their country’s civil war can savor a nostalgic taste from back home. Damascus’ most famed ice cream shop, Bakdash, has opened a branch in the Jordanian capital. Both Jordanians and Syrians living here are flocking to it.
“Once or twice I saw people cry,” said Yarob Ababneh, the Amman branch’s assistant manager. “Bakdash has been in Syria since 1895, so those who grew up there know the place.”
Bakdash’s owners — third-generation Bakdashes — keep the Damascus parlor running. But they have set up shop in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, hoping the new businesses will help keep the store at home afloat.
Jordan alone is home to more than half a million Syrians who have fled into neighboring countries with no prospects of return.
