After the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, 42-year-old Anas Idrees rushed back to Damascus from Lebanon with great eagerness. He told Reuters that he couldn’t wait to head straight to the long-missed ice cream shop.
Boldly, he walked into Bakdash, a century-old shop located in the Hamidiyeh Souk in the old city of Damascus, and ordered a generous scoop of their signature Arabic mastic ice cream.
It had been 15 years since Idrees last tasted Bakdash ice cream when the Syrian civil war made him a refugee.
“I swear, the taste is different now,” he said after taking a spoonful. “It used to be good, but it has changed because now we are filled with joy.”
For over a hundred years, amidst multiple wars, Bakdash has been serving up its Arab-style ice cream, incorporating Sahlab – a flour made from orchid roots, hand-pounded with a meter-long wooden mallet until soft and chewy.
A full bowl costs only $1, sprinkled with pistachios on top.
Bakdash has been beloved in Syria, but many Syrians have been unable to visit the capital since the country was torn apart by the civil war that began in 2011 when President Bashar al-Assad brutally suppressed democratic protests.
With the overthrow of the Assad regime by rebel forces, tens of thousands of Syrians from across the country and abroad have flocked to Damascus.
On Monday, hundreds visited Bakdash, many of whom were soldiers returning from the battlefield. Armed and indulging in delicious ice cream, they had ice cream on their mouths and beards.
22-year-old soldier Ahmed Aslaan, in a green camouflage uniform, said he hadn’t seen Damascus in over a decade, and relishing ice cream was a newfound freedom’s blessing.
“Thank God, we have achieved our goal. Now we can drive around Syria freely,” he said after biting into the ice cream. “Before, we were like frogs trapped in a well, now we have space.”
Shop owner Samir Bakdash reopened the shop the day after Assad’s fall to express his joy. The Assad regime oppressed the Syrian people for decades, and he had to rely on bribes to keep the shop running.
He insisted that his great-grandfather invented the signature dish in the 1890s, and the recipe has remained unchanged since then.
Even longtime customers noted a freshness.
“It tastes different – very delicious, and even better,” said Eman Ghazal, a business school student in her twenties who has been a patron of Bakdash since childhood.
“This is not just about ice cream, it’s about life in its entirety,” she said. “It’s like the walls are smiling, and the sun has finally come out.”