After posho, ugali, vegetable stew, millet, meat stew, roasted and fried chicken, fried cabbage, fried beans and so on, arriving in Damascus is brilliant. The first night, we stop for hot Za’atar flat bread folded with spinach and pork. Lemon and apple gelato. In the morning, we buy a bowl of hot fatteh - soaked bread, chickpeas and yogurt covered with pickles and nuts. Fresh strawberries and cups of fresh blood orange and orange juice. That evening, dinner on the terrace: bitter black olives, mild cow cheese, pickles, pickled beets, peppers and raw onions, fresh pita and fool, thumb sized kidney beans. For another breakfast, fool in dripping plates of hummus and chopped tomatoes. More fresh strawberries; sweet tea; Syrian whiskey, grainy espressos, Lebanese white wines.