Fruit

This was a family favorite.

This is very sweet, but it is a syrup and not to be compared to orange juice. We used the smallish, slightly acid oranges with thin skins for this, but now that we have bottled freshly squeezed orange juice, that is what we use. Dilute 2 tablespoons in a glass of iced water.

A famous North African specialty with an exciting bittersweet flavor.

The flavors here are rich and exciting.

This can be served as a sweet, with thick cream to accompany. Or plunge 1–2 tablespoons of it into a glass of iced water, then drink the syrupy water and eat the fruit left at the bottom. Use an olive pitter to pit the cherries.

In Egypt, vendors sold crates of rose petals, in their season, for making rose water and rose jam. Certain varieties of rose, such as the wild eglantine of Turkey and Syria, are the best for jam-making. I have not been able to make a good one with the roses from my garden. The petals remained tough under the tooth.