We raised a glass (of water, because the restaurant is dry) to the Syrian people at Aleppo’s Kitchen, praying that the new government would not be worse than the last and that peace would return to that afflicted land.
As Syrians Revolt, A Syrian Dinner At Aleppo’s Kitchen In Southern California
I’ve written about Aleppo’s Kitchen before, a Syrian restaurant in Anaheim, California that my family loves. I don’t usually write about our family restaurant visits, but our latest dinner took on a whole new meaning after the Syrian people overthrew the regime of Bashar Al-Assad in the completion of a revolution that began over a decade ago.
It’s difficult to topple a government…but it is even more difficult to secure the peace.
In fact, I’m not even sure if commemorate is the right word. Perhaps recognize? As a traveler, I had hoped to visit Syria during the Assad regime and appreciated its protection of Christian minorities, but also recognized that this London-trained doctor was a butcher…and so was his father. There is a price to pay, sometimes via the sacrifice of civil liberties, in order to keep the peace, but there seemed to be a disproportionality at play here…
I’m not celebrating that the mausoleum of Hafez al-Assad was desecrated yesterday…the monuments of the past are a necessary (and harrowing) reminder of what we must guard against in the future and a vivid reminder that history is doomed to repeat itself if we let it..
But the Syrian people are a hard-working and proud people…that is no trite cliché and we see it locally at restaurants like Aleppo’s Kitchen…and part of me is hopeful…perhaps naively so…that the new government will not just represent a different flavor of dictatorship and oppression but a golden opportunity to transform a nation that has been shackled for far too long by a cabal of self-interest.
So I may have celebrated with mansaf, the Jordanian national dish (I just cannot help myself when we drive down here with this superb Bedouin dish), but we had a wonderful feast of salads, yogurt, hummus, falafel, and kabobs…plus decadent desserts. It was an amazing meal as always, but it took on new meaning in an era of decisive change in Syria.
Lol this a slow day or something?
I quite enjoy these topics.
You know, I was planning to visit Syria. I had everything booked. Hamas attacked Israel just a few weeks before I was supposed to go. I was even planning to still take the trip, up until Israel started bombing Aleppo and Damascus. The tour operator tried to assuage me by saying “they don’t bomb the areas we visit.”
I fear the poor people of Syria will end up with a regime worse than the last one. The new leader is an Islamist and nothing good ever comes out of that.
@Chi … +1 . Actually , revolutionaries who overthrow despots are usually more despotic than the last one . Cuba , Nicaragua , China , and Russia are examples .
The favourable outcome was USA , which became a light for those who wish to be free .
The Assad regime being gone is good. Too bad Israel is bombing and invading the country as well.
Can hardly blame Israel for ensuring Assad’s weapons do not fall into the wrong hands, no?
Israel (and Turkey) sponsored and supported the overthrow of the Assad regime, no? What wrong hands? And what does weapons have to do with them occupying and stealing more land? Besides their Greater Israel expansion plans being driven by the settlers…
Remember Libya, when Gaddafi fell and the vast array of weapons left behind from the ancient regime fueled a (still ongoing) brutal civil war. ‘Aaron’, you’re an intellectual pygmy, blighted by stupidity, cursed with ignorance, and blinkered by hate.
Aw, nice try “Ahmad”. But Libya and Syria are 2 different countries with different geopolitical realities. If you had any sense, you’d notice Israel isn’t just bombing weapons depots, but your ignorant and myopic worldview, “Ahmad”, won’t let you see that.
Your useless sock puppet comment also doesn’t address my point about Greater Israel’s colonial expansion.
@’Aaron’
There you go with your delusional greater israel expansion blah blah blah If the Israelis wanted a huge swathe of territory, they could quite easily conquer Syria, Jordan and Egypt in very short order. Like literally at any moment. But you try and rejigger facts to your paranoia and just end up looking like, well, the chromosomally-deficient child of incestuous rape that you clearly are lolol buh-bye loser
Lol ok “Ahmad” but be careful your comments might belie your true identity…
As for greater Israel’s expansion, this isn’t some deluded fantasy but a reality, which many people in Israel, some in the government, are either alluding to or outright stating. The fact that you can’t some up with a credible counterargument but resort to the usual homophobic attacks pretty much says it all, doesn’t it?
STFU Aaron
Make me, you human equivalent to an ingrown hair on a rhino’s testicle.
Go fart in a spacesuit, homo
Just because you enjoy doing that doesn’t mean the rest of us do.
Is that your lame version of “I know you are but what am I?”
I suppose when it comes to the issue of something being lame, you would know, seeing as you are a master at it.
Notable is that HTS has been pretty accepting of the Israeli attacks and raids in Syria. But what HTS doesn’t get is that Netanyahu and his fellow travelers don’t want a stable and unitary Syria encompassing all of the lands which are UN-recognized as Syrian territory.
I’m wondering if you will beat me to Damascus when things open up. In a way I hope you do, because then I’ll benefit from your trip report.
I hope to go!
Yeah, a toast to the internationally wanted terrorists running the show and beheading people!
I’m not toasting any such people…
Nice article. Food looks delicious. I’d love to visit Iran and Syria, and an Iraqi friend told me Iraq is very safe now …
Closest I’ve been is jordan and Israel (including the West Bank) which were all phenomenal.
Some random performative White nonsense as per usual.
Syrian refugees do not care that you ate at Aleppo’s Kitchen
Delta will serve Damascus…on the A350-1000!
“it is even more difficult to secure the pace.”
Did you mean “peace”? Even when you try to write something profound, your spelling gets the best of you.
lol. yes, indeed.
Rather early on, the Assad family got in the business of gassing Kurdish-heavy communities and never got out of the business of such industrial scale violence from crimes against humanity to war crimes to more “run of the mill” human rights violations. They terrorized all, including religious and ethnic minorities. The Assads managed to cut enough deals to stay in power longer the Saddam Hussein — GHW Bush even helped “rehabilitate” Hafez Al-Assad — but they were always rotten and brutal to the core. That interested guys could check out Syrian women in bikinis at the Syrian hotel pools was no evidence of Syria being liberal or open — it was a veil to how deeply illiberal Syria was.
My bad about the Kurdish gassing thing. That was the Iraqi Baathist Saddam Hussein. Syrian Baathist Assad was also brutal to the Kurds but those were other massacres.
I had the privilege of visiting Syria 4 or 5 times during 2003-2004, mostly Damascus but also a couple of visits to Aleppo. Damascus old town was beautful, was was Aleppo and the view from the Citadel was quite something. The people I met were wonderful, warm, hospitable and welcoming.
I sincerely hope that the new leaders will enable Syria to rebuild, recover and reopen to welcome tourists and other visitors soon.
Oops, I meant “Damascus old town was beautiful, AS was Aleppo…”