AMMAN – An enticing aroma of boiled milk, vanilla, gum Arabic and pistachios; the rhythmic pounding of wooden mallets deep into stainless steel vats; the clink of spoons on glass accompanying cheerful conversation.



These are the sights, sounds and smells of Bakdash, billed as one of the oldest shops in the world selling Arabic ice cream and located in Al-Hamidiyeh bazaar in the world’s oldest capital, war-rattled Damascus.



These sensual delights make people’s mouths water in Jordan’s capital Amman, but memories of them are also bringing tears to the eyes of Syrians who have fled the conflict in their country and are nostalgic for a taste of home.



What they are missing is Bakdash’s “booza”, a uniquely Middle Eastern type of ice cream that is elastic in texture, like taffy. Adding to its distinct flavor and texture is salep, a flour made from the tubers of the mascula orchid.



Mohammad Hamdi Bakdash opened his shop in Al-Hamidiyeh in 1895, and it is still going strong there despite the civil war that has killed more than 94,000 people and is increasingly threatening the capital.



Earlier this month, a Bakdash franchise opened in Amman on Madina Munawwara Street. The decor is identical to the fast-food ambience of Bakdash itself, with its glaring neon lights, large mirrors, long rows of tables and waiters squeezing past customers ordering cones to take away.



“I am so moved,” said Sleiman Muhanna, a Syrian architecture professor who teaches in both the Syrian and Jordanian capitals. “They have recreated the spirit of Damascus.”



Janoub, the 25-year-old Jordanian who runs the Amman shop, said 60 to 70 percent of his customers are Syrian, many of them among the nearly half a million of their countrymen who have fled home and are now living in Jordan. He also speaks of the emotional impact of the place. “I have seen elderly ladies weep” when they come in, he said.



Janoub speaks as two young men, white bandanas wrapped around their heads, pound the booza with long wooden clubs that look giant pestles to soften it and make it more elastic. What is pulled out of the containers could look to the untrained eye like pizza dough or even chewing gum.



As he works, 24-year-old Mohammed tells of how he came here to work from the mother store just a few weeks ago.



Damascus “is not like it was before. The situation is getting steadily worse. Here it’s like being at home, but it’s not really Damascus.” “They say the perfume of Damascus is here, but they all long to go home.” – AFP