Food heritage specialist Zeinab Jeambey, went on a trip around the country and visited its main cities looking for the locally famous pastries and the stories of their pastry chefs.
Her visit to the old city of Saida, South of Lebanon, lead her to Sanioura family whose fame in pastry making dates back to 1859!
The chefs at Sanioura pastry shop explain that their ancestors were experimenting with different ingredients and they came up with a “strange” dough, thus the name “gharibeh” from which derived the name of the dessert “Ghraybeh”. Later on, they remolded the dough into lozenge shapes, easier to fill with dates and pistachio, and to pack for export to Damascus and Palestine. The new shape was called Sanioura after the family name of its master pastry chefs. Made solely from ghee, flour and powdered sugar, Sanioura sweets preserve very well.
To try genuine “Sanioura”, contact Sanioura Pastry shop at: 07 724157, Saida – Riad el Soloh Street
The original article “The sweet tooth of the Levant” was featured in Lebanon Traveler Magazine