Sweets Capital · Cheese Pastry
Knafeh bi Jibn
Photo: Rain7105 / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Tripoli's benchmark sweets house, nicknamed 'Kasr el Helou' — the Palace of Sweets — has been baking this dish in the old souk since 1881, now run by the founder's descendants.
Semolina dough is layered over stretchy akkawi cheese, baked until the top turns deep orange-red, then doused in scented sugar syrup and scattered with crushed pistachio. Tripoli's souk-front sweets houses slice it warm straight off wide copper trays.
Why it's made this way: Tripoli's abundance of milk and sugar, combined with Ottoman-era confectionery techniques, turned the old city into Lebanon's sweets capital, and knafeh bi jibn remains the signature order at century-old shops like Hallab's.
More from Lebanon
Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries.
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