LEBANON-ICE CREAM Ottoman inspired ice cream churns in Lebanon

Record ID: 150803

  • Title: LEBANON-ICE CREAM Ottoman inspired ice cream churns in Lebanon
  • Date: 9th June 2015
  • Summary: TRIPOLI, LEBANON (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING IN THE OLD CITY EXTERIOR OF DABBOUSI FAMILY ICE CREAM SHOP SIGN (Arabic) THAT READS: "HAND-CHURN ARABIC ICE CREAM" VARIOUS OF THE INGREDIENTS OF THE ICE CREAM ON THE TABLE ICE CREAM MAKER AND SHOP OWNER, MOHAMED DABBOUSI, MAKING ICE CREAM DABBOUSI SHOWING THE INGREDIENTS (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SHOP OWNER AND ICE C
  • Embargoed: 24th June 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Lebanon
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA6T19RJ0JSV6C17YZZMJG6WM0W
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: An ice cream parlour in Tripoli's old city is keeping the tradition of hand-churned ice cream alive.
    Lebanese Dabbousi family have been making ice cream here for decades using natural ingredients like rose water and orange blossom.
    Shop owner and ice cream maker Mohamed Dabbousi inherited the business from his father.
    The technique used to make the dessert comes from Turkey, where it's called Dondurma, made typically by using milk, sugar, mastic and salep.
    According to Dabbousi this way of making ice cream has been around for a century.
    "The ice-cream origin comes from Turkey, it was and still is called Dondurma in Turkey. It reached us in Lebanon's Tripoli as well as Syria's Damascus more than a hundred years ago," Dabbousi said.
    Unlike factory produced ice cream, preparing and processing the ingredients take just under two hours, and that's before the churning.
    "We make the ice-cream in the basic traditional way, we don't use any preservatives and our ingredients are all natural," Dabbousi said.
    The shop is a favourite spot among locals.
    "This is the traditional ice cream. When we were young, Hajj Abu Bachir, God bless his soul , was famous for the traditional ice-cream, he used to hand-churn it and hang it to look like wires. It was delicious, not like the current commercial ice cream full of artificial colours. That was ice-cream you can eat, you can't find it nowadays," said local, Nabil Malla.
    The ice cream comes in several flavours, pistachio, mulberry, lemon, and carob.
    Shoppers can enjoy a cup of the ice cream on the premises or take a kilo of the Dabbousi ice cream away for the equivalent of around 12 U.S dollars.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register