Lebanon… once the “Paris of the Middle East” but more recently torn by religious and political tensions: my original trip plans didn’t include this small, French-influenced country. Then, I heard it was also the capital of Middle-Eastern sweet-making… and I thought it might be interesting to see how violence disrupts the candy industry. So, off to Lebanon I went!

I spent most of my time in Beirut: a thoroughly modern, clean, and correspondingly expensive city. Perhaps the most interesting thing was the normality of the place: bullet-holes pepper walls, tanks line the streets, barbed wire fences protect government buildings, UN soldiers stay bunkered down out of fear of violence, while all the time well-dressed teenagers go see Western-style movies, girls show skin at cocktail bars, and the guys’ hair glistens as a result of their weekly hair-styling and enormous jugs of hair gel.

I went to several candy stores to try and get a handle on how the stormy Lebanese history has influenced the sweets trade, but the most famous, and my personal favorite, was Rafaat Hallab’s delicious Tripoli location. The counters here are lined with trays of cashew and pistachio baklava of various shapes and sizes, display cases show off luscious French pastries, and the scents of sweet cheese, syrup, and roasted nuts fill the air. Crisply dressed counter workers wait to dispense orders, and I only required a few minutes explanation of my candy travel project to be granted an interview with Rafaat Hallab himself!

Mr Hallab is educated and liberal, and spoke philosophically about peace, Lebanon, and Barack Obama. Because of the various military conquests of Lebanon over the past two thousand years, much of their culture of sweets is a result of external cultures: the Ottomans and French especially. Still, this has led to a blending of flavors and a much subtler sweet than most Middle Eastern treats. In particular, the delicious Tripoli baklava has less than half of the sugar of a traditional Turkish pastry, which results in a fluffier, lighter baklava, where the flavor of the cashew or pistachio is emphasized rather than the overpowering sweetness.

In fact, the baklava from this store is my favorite Middle Eastern treat and absolutely unbeatable (actually purchasable online - I heartily recommend this particular variety, although there are many more tasty treats on the website.) The ability to focusing on pastries while violence reigns may seem incongruous, but much as in the rest of northern parts of the country, maintaining a relatively normal life amidst the difficulties has helped many Lebanese adjust to life as it is. With the cultural importance of sweets in Lebanon and their traditional place as gifts for the different religious holidays, the success of Rafaat Hallab and other sweet stores throughout the country is no surprise.