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''Booza'' ( ar, بُوظَة, Būẓah, lit=ice cream) is an Eastern
Levant The Levant () is an approximation, approximate historical geography, historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology an ...
frozen dairy dessert made with milk, cream, sugar, mastic and ''
sahlab Salep, also spelled sahlep or sahlab,( tr, salep, sahlep; fa, ثعلب, ; ar, سحلب, ; al, salep; az, səhləb; he, סַחְלָבּ, ; el, σαλέπι, ; Serbian language, Serbian, Macedonian language, Macedonian, Bulgarian language, Bu ...
'' (orchid flour), giving it its distinguished stretchy and chewy texture—much like
dondurma Dondurma is the common word in Turkish for all kinds of ice cream that is often used to refer to Turkish mastic ice cream in English. It typically includes the ingredients cream, whipped cream, salep (ground-up tuber of an orchid), mastic (pl ...
. Booza is traditionally made through a process of pounding and stretching in a freezer drum, instead of the more usual churning method used in other ice creams, leading to a creamy yet dense texture.


History

Booza origins dates back to at least 1500 AD in
Greater Syria Syria ( Hieroglyphic Luwian: 𔒂𔒠 ''Sura/i''; gr, Συρία) or Sham ( ar, ٱلشَّام, ash-Shām) is the name of a historical region located east of the Mediterranean Sea in Western Asia, broadly synonymous with the Levant. Other ...
and is sometimes referred to as the "first ice cream in the world".


Ancient Damascus

In Al-Hamidiyah Souq in the Old City of Damascus, there is an ice cream store named Bakdash that is known throughout the Arab world for its stretchy and chewy ice cream. It is a popular attraction for tourists as well.


International usage

A brother and sister team (Jilbert El-Zmetr and Tedy Altree-Williams) pioneered and created the first packaged version of ''booza'' in Australia in 2011. Using local ingredients together with
sahlab Salep, also spelled sahlep or sahlab,( tr, salep, sahlep; fa, ثعلب, ; ar, سحلب, ; al, salep; az, səhləb; he, סַחְלָבּ, ; el, σαλέπι, ; Serbian language, Serbian, Macedonian language, Macedonian, Bulgarian language, Bu ...
and mastic (from the island of Chios, Greece), they recreated the traditional form of ''booza'' and packaged this in a take-home format available to consumers. In 2018, a ''booza'' scoop-shop named Republic of Booza opened in
Williamsburg, Brooklyn Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordered by Greenpoint to the north; Bedford–Stuyvesant to the south; Bushwick and East Williamsburg to the east; and the East River to the west. As of the 2020 Unit ...
, US, by Tamer Rabbani and Michael Sadler.Baker, Abbe https://guide.michelin.com/en/article/dining-out/republic-of-booza-ice-cream-brooklyn


See also

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List of dairy products This is a list of dairy products. A dairy product is food produced from the milk of mammals. A production plant for the processing of milk is called a dairy or a dairy factory. Dairy farming is a class of agricultural, or an animal husbandry, ente ...
*
List of ice cream varieties by country This article is about the ice cream varieties around the world. Argentina While industrial ice cream exists in Argentina and can be found in supermarkets, restaurants or kiosks, and ice cream pops are sold on some streets and at the beaches, the ...


References

{{Levantine cuisine Mastic ice creams