Aleppo

Aleppo is the gastronomic capital of the Levant, a Silk Road city whose cooks claimed to master seventy-seven kinds of kibbeh. Its pantry runs on Aleppo pepper, walnuts, pistachios and pomegranate molasses. The signature muhammara — roasted red peppers and walnuts ground with pomegranate molasses and breadcrumbs — was born here and traveled the world. Kibbeh is the crown: raw kibbeh nayyeh, cherry kibbeh, sumac kibbeh, tray-baked kibbeh, each a study in shaping bulgur and minced lamb. Basterma, the garlic-cumin-cured air-dried beef, is an Aleppo specialty. The sweets are pistachio-led: balourieh wraps the nuts in stringy dough, mamounieh simmers short-grain rice in butter for a breakfast sweet. Aleppo's cooking is the most complex, most spice-forward table in Syria.