Extreme Garlic Grilled Chicken!! 🍗🇸🇾 SYRIAN FOOD + Amazing Hospitality in Syria!!

how they grow the chicken in Syria so it's crispy really golden brown loaded up with the garlic sauce oh yes wow oh SAU is phenomenal today we're traveling from Latakia back to Damascus on the way we'll visit the world's best preserved 800-year-old Crusader Castle it's an architectural Marvel and look how intact it is it's a self- sustaining entire City that could house up to 2,000 soldiers at a time once a thriving tourist destination now unfortunately War torn and abandoned but one family chose to stay and they'll be cooking us a huge lunch of Syrian grilled chicken with a sauce so good you could drink it we'll also visit a rare Syrian Winery look at that color where one man is aiming to preserve 10,000 years of of wine history in [Music] Syria good morning in Arabic and oh it's a beautiful morning waking up on the Mediterranean Coast in Syria where are we on our way to this morning we are on on way to the west of uh homes the homes suburb and we will visit the Crusader Castle oh so we're going to be uh Inland yes okay so we're heading out from the coast now exactly we are heading east all right yes good morning but first we stopped on the side of the road to use the toilet but in Syria you never know what surprises are waiting for you we were invited by these friendly guys who are sitting here hanging out and drinking yba mate which is a tea which uh comes from South America Brazil Uruguay Argentina and actually it's popular I remember having it in Lebanon and then in Syria also but actually when I was in South America many years ago actually one of my original YouTube videos in Argentina and I was drinking yba mate and oh man it brings back good memories this is the national the national drink oh yeah oh a little taste of South America and [Music] Syria well that's great oh man I love mate oh yeah it's so herbal you can't go wrong with mat in the morning it's good it wakes you up more even than the C yes yes shakran shakran hello [Music] hello we made it this place is so beautiful also the main attraction that we came to visit the Crusaders Castle 800 years ago but you have a full 360 view of the anti-lebanon mountains the Green Hills surrounding and unfortunately I mean this used to be before the Syrian Civil War this was a thriving tourist area people came to see this I mean one of the world's best preserved castles Crusader castles uh but now it's just almost deserted militants destroyed so many buildings and livelihoods and so what Ramy said is though there is one restaurant and guest house where he has rebuilt and he has remained and even though his entire guest house and his restaurant was totally destroyed by the militants he has rebuilt and so we're going to have lunch uh at his restaurant before we then visit the castle oh and this is the spot right here oh beautiful it's a Siberian Husky mhm it's a restaurant and hotel as well we will try their food they do the best chicken and also they will do us some uh they will cook some local meals oh nice okay okay oh hello hello you nice to meet you very good thank you thank you nice place welcome so today you will see akam he's doing all the meals himself maybe his wife is helping right yeah and the his wife also is very C good cook so she will also help him doing some local meals amazing okay great it's amazing to see what he has rebuilt again with a over the castle and we're heading straight to the kitchen to get started cooking oh is this eggplant yes it's eggplant right okay what are they cooking for actually they are cooking something called it contains egg blunt tomato pepper garlic olive oil uh they cook it and then it's served cold oh Syrian tomatoes so good onion [Music] okay okay A little bit of oil onions go in okay so onions sweated down potatoes go in I think that the eggplant goes in as well nice stop hanging that out all that those onions smell incredible like pepper and cumin go in oh tomato goes in oh man so that's going to simmer away eggplant is one of my favorite vegetables things to eat so I can't wait to see how they prepare that especially with the cumin with the garlic in there it smells so good tomato paste Yes actually the chicken is really good here it's the village Here is known for the chicken because the chicken eats organic you know roast okay oh so she'll make the rice with noodles as well well that's it's a unique way to make make rice so she pours in some oil sizzles down some noodles Waits until they're golden brown and crispy and now she's going to add in the rice parsley meat okay lamb yeah lamb meat okay and so along with the oine along with the grilled chicken they're also making another dish in a whole pan it's going to be with vegetables with minced lamb and right now we have a pan of lamb and then also he's really finally chopping up some of that parsley releasing all of its flavor oh that goes directly into the lamb excellent is it a type of Kea Kea yes it is a type of Kea what what is the name of it uh the name is Kebab Hindi Kebab Hindi Kebab Hindi Kebab Hindi Kea yeah call it Ka here in Damascus we call it Kebab Hindi okay like translates into Indian uh Kebab Indian Kebab Indian CA nice okay onion okay chopped up some onions as well the cumin the pepper yeah pepper goes on oh man the immediately the aroma of those spices smells so good especially with the vibrancy of the parsley and onions get all of that spice massaged in and you can see the greenness coming out the greenness from The Parsley oh okay and then she makes them small little hand rolls little meatballs oh that looks very good oh okay so for that ke the tomatoes gone and also some tomato sauce juice with some spices in it pomegranate molasses yeah Granite sauce okay oh what a dish oh man that's going to be so good totally different from just little mini grilled kebabs but instead baked in a pan with juice and sauce okay over on this side of the chicken he's putting the chicken on the grill so the chicken has already been marinated because you can immediately smell that garlic on there garlic olive oil vinegar lemon juice oh that smells good vinegar I any ni okay so this is a sauce of lemon juice olive oil and garlic lots of garlic oh man that smells so good I think that's going to be for the I think that's going to be for the chicken oh he takes that olive oil lemon juice rehydrates the chicken almost once it's done and I love how he grills the chicken how they Grill the chicken in CA so it's crispy really golden brown and he added that sauce very strategically in the cuts of chicken so that the oil seeps down the garlic is just going to be infused into the chicken and the smokiness oh and he squeezes on Lemon immediately everything is ready we're going to the table to eat we're sitting down for the meal oh man this is a guest house but it's pure home cooking yes and we have Syrian beer Syrian beers Cheers Cheers [Music] okay what should we begin with it's all thighs and drumsticks I will grab a th but first we need the uh this kind of sauce they prepar it here which is combination of olive oil garlic uh lemon and some salt awesome that's it I'm going to load it up with the garlic sauce oh yes oh wow okay oh yeah what a way to eat chicken the garlic the lemon all the olive oil the juicy chicken the Smoky Char oh yeah it's so good and you can really taste the freshness of the chicken I'm going to te off this bite and I think I will go for another a dip in that sauce oh that sauce is phenomenal M I've noticed that the garlic in cereal is so good it's something young and it's used in almost everything it has the garlic has it's pungent but it also has a sweetness to it and a yes A mildness to it as well we say that the garlic is a whole Pharmacy yeah oh yeah it is how it out healthy nutritious antibiotics exactly garlic is yes yeah you can never have enough garlic y so they simmered this down with the potato with the eggplant with tomatoes onions oh man I love it potatoes everything has been just simmered down until it looks soft and tender also eat this along with the rice the rice which was cooked down with noodles saute down oil and noodles and she really made those noodles crispy oh that's just warm and comforting tender eggplant melts in your mouth the light flavor of the spices the pepper the cumin in there yes not overpowering though okay we'll try it with the bread next CU that would be the typical way to eat it oh oh the juice is just squeeze out of the egg great with bread great with rice just absorbs all the Flor mhm and the potatoes too so soft so such a wonderful texture so the potatoes have a silky texture to them wow yeah that's really good that's like fresh local there again you taste the vibrancy of all the vegetables and now moving on to the kebabs some of the tomatoes yeah oh man and you see the they're like meatball kebabs you see the tomato sauce on the bottom all the spices yes excellent oh I forgot about the pomar masses that he added mhm that you can immediately taste it has a sweet and sour taste and the tomato paste as well the lamb the parsley and onions in there as well and again they did season with cumin with pepper not overly strong but just giving it a nice like mellow spice flavor M that's like straight up tomato sauce meatballs what a fantastic meal and would these be some of the local dishes specifically in this region of no actually or entire Syria you can do this yeah it's not specific for this place but in this place they do it really well because they have the advantage of the soil volcanic okay and so the lamb here is good the chicken here is good oh and I can't resist to try the the plate of raw vegetables let's see what we have here parsley flat leaf parsley oh man that's green that's so good we have huge stocks of what looks like green onions yes massive green onions vegetables yeah why not let me try with the let's balance the meal looks chilly oh yeah and I'm going to grab this pepper here too M wow look at the the color of that it's almost neon green so good I forgot to mention that you can eat this with the this Meal musaka m yeah this is a very famous combination okay the bepper cuz you have that the Christmas of that green pepper oh man that chili this one is not spicy but it's just so the texture is just snaps really sweet and have so many different layers oh you can't have enough of this garlic sauce oh that garlic lemon combination oh oh man the garlic is incredible and again you taste the garlic in the the eggplant as well M it's is superb the mint mhm yeah the vegetables are superb here's the man thank you oh sh oh that eggplant with more garlic sauce so good oh I love the garlic Syrian garlic and that was just an incredible lunch home-cooked food and the warmth the hospitality the location but something that I've learned is when you eat in Syria it's not just about the food it's about the people and everyone and I mean everyone has a story of what's happened in the past during the war during earthquakes during so many different crisises crises that have happened and to see uh him and his family still serving it's truly impressive uh they're called B Guest House highly recommended oh man it's just so sad to see but Ramy was mentioning that before the war this was filled with buses tourist buses coming to see the the castle and this UNESCO world heritage site these were restaurants and hotels and yeah it's heartbreaking actually to see from here we are going to visit the castle now we are in k d chaler the Crusader Castle behind me it's 800 years old castle it's the most intact Crusader castle in the world beautiful up here with a view of the mountains as well in the valley it's called the Christian Valley you were saying as well right uh Valley of Christians a fertile fertile Valley uh but first we're going to yeah we're going to walk around the castle a little bit stepping into the castle walls you just feel that cool air coming from the The Arches from the stones beautiful this is a UNESCO world heritage site as well oh the horse stable yeah it has two horses Stables actually this one is smaller the other one is bigger those are catapult giant catapult rocks just look at this we have a moat here and these are the walls of the castle look how intact it is from 800 years ago it's an architectural Marvel and the Arches the circular Lookouts that's incredible you can see inside the gothic art actually in the entire Syria we don't have gothic art except you ah so European style yes this Citadel is incredible it's a self- sustaining entire city that could house up to 2,000 people soldiers at a time and from what Ramy was explaining to me they could store enough food enough olive oil enough uh grain to sustain life for 5 years without ever going to the outside world just staying within the castle it has everything from a massive kitchen and a huge oven to beautiful Gothic architecture and Designs yeah so this is the Hall of the knights they used to meet here to decide the fate of the place it's kind of the most important hle in the entire citad or C nice I love the facilities here just come back here pop a squat this is where it went where it happened the church life is too short enjoy now we're hiking to the top tower for a lookout it's so impressive though see here also the quarts actually this material is flexible more flexible than the stone so that why they use this for the earthquake oh to be more resistant to the earthquakes from here you can have an incredible view but you could see the anti-lebanon mountains in the distance with the snow capped Peaks the Rolling Hills the valley and actually Lebanon is very close by as well maybe 5 or 6 km but an impressive View [Music] highest point lookout tower almost like a helipad up here yeah oh it's so cool view of the all the surrounding mountains the hills The Villages and the entire Castle as well woo beautiful [Music] that was a beautiful drive through the valleys through the hills and we made it to a winery a Syrian Winery meet Mr Yousef okay he's the who founded Jour Winery and Jour Winery is one of the local wineries in the in this Valley beautiful Valley beautiful beautiful they serve all kind of wines but they have the blue wine as well wow and also arak they do the best AR we start the wine making here okay okay we bring grapes grapes from The Vineyard uh early in the morning you see the white dust on the berry of the grape this white dust is uh is a bacteria it's unicell bacteria and this bacteria uh converts sugar inside the berry to alcohol and CO2 after the juice is pressed and squeezed yes squeezed and now now here we get the juice the clear juice and we start the the secondary okay they call the secondary the secondary is the anerobic fermentation when you're going to taste the wine you have to make a spir like this okay just to mix it with oxygen okay okay all right here we go we're tasting it right out of the the barrel oh yes very good oh yeah three enjoyments yeah okay so now this is aged for how long this is two years oh that is wonderful oh yeah this is a line okay it's made from two strains of grapes so we're moving into the tasting Now The Tasting Room snacks all the different wies s Cheers Cheers nice oh really refreshing a little bit sweet yeah really good what is the history of wine in Syria wine in the earth started since 8,000 years ago the first registered news about lne is from 5,000 years ago from 5,000 years ago they say that that before 3,000 years there was a production of wine in Mesopotamia so wine starts here and when when they start to produce wine the government can accept wine as a tax instead of money and after that it moved to Europe and they say that this is the this is this is a drink comes from God okay spiritual drink cuz it reduces your uh your pain MH it makes you feel better 8,000 years of wine history in Syria oh look at that color blue wine but it's tasty yeah nice look at that color oh that's really good okay now for the red wine you can smell it's not regular red wine very nice yeah the Woody Woody Aroma of the oak oh yeah this is AR okay this the local this our proud now we're moving on to the arak which is the distilled grape juice juice with Anis seed and this is one of the prized drinks of Syria of the entire 11e region and then you mix it with water and then immediately turns milky cheers oh it's really good this is really one of the best ARS actually the Syrian people uh consumed a lot of AR that's why you find the commercial one in the market one actually it's not made for commercial purposes oh man and the brand here is Nadim Nadim means in Arabic the friend of drinking Ahad yeah oh man so it's very brilliant yeah that's some of the best some of the best arak you'll ever have exactly oh man so we ended up just hanging out drinking some more wine some of the arak but just a beautiful place the Rolling Hills olive trees grape vine and I mean I never expected to be in Syria at a winery drinking wine but it was so special and I mean just the immense history of wine in this region in Syria dates back thousands of years and it's a tradition that has uh gone through phases but I mean it's it's been a tradition in this region for thousands of years [Music] and for dinner we're going to a restaurant which is pretty much exactly at the hotel which is called leemon L right on name head say spee fore [Music] we got kou which is the incredible salad and then also what they call the monk eggplant so it's roasted eggplant in a pan and then he adds on yogurt tahini olive oil and pomegranate molasses this is uh spiced potato uh the pepper paste garlic and the spices [Music] nothing here [Music] yeah this is the Shak G oh it looks like [Music] a fun so we're sitting down for the next meal and a very interesting dish but we also got I mean we had to get some bat we had to get another eggplant dish and then also the potatoes let's start with those potatoes let's do it let's do it look so good don't we it anymore oh man pepper paste with spices and garlic and then he fried the potatoes and then sauteed them in this sauce and just coated them in the sauce wow so good the pepper paste the garlic the butter the olive oil and then the the potatoes are deep fried so they're crispy at the gym time so for the main dish we'll start with the rice and this is rice and you can see he sprinkled on some spice and pistachios on the top as well yes so this is to be eaten with rice right yes shakri yeah it's a yogurt sauce with chicken the chicken directly on top that really rich yogurt sauce let's try it what a dish it's so aromatic too yeah oh man I wasn't expecting it to be so creamy and like sour yeah it reminds me of a stroganoff almost yes it has a yes very similar it's almost like sour cream yeah man yeah that will wow surpris you because it's this white cream sauce it doesn't look like it's going to have that much flavor but it's actually the sourness the has this incredible depth of flavor and then you taste the chicken in there too and then with the rice oh that's really good wow it's really good yeah okay and then we have the Monk's eggplant so cold roasted eggplant and it's still whole it's not mashed up we'll grab bread to be able to scoop in and absorb as much of that sauce and dressing oh oh it feels so good in the fingers it's so soft soft and slimy oh my god oh the garlic in there too the Smoky creamy eggplant really garlicky cold and you've got the tartness of the pomegranate molasses the richness of the toini and the garlic in there yes I this addictive flavor I mean the creaminess but it's tart it's sweet it's salty it's fruity yeah that's something truly incredible really good really good so he mixed up all of the lettuce tomatoes cucumbers oh thank you and a whole bowl full of herbs so fatou oh you cannot go wrong with a fatou in chera that is so sour the lemon juice the sweetness of the pomegranate molasses the sumac and I think what I love most is he adds in an entire bowl of herbs fresh thy as well as the percan and that just gives it such a like green herbal flavor oh man wow and the vegetables in this region are just fresh fresh vegetables as we've learned today exactly the vegetables in this region are just to the flavor max they're just so vibrant so fresh yeah yeah I think the the addition of the onion here is really that's nice very nice yep more of that fatou oh man wow that was a great dinner and this place is just so peaceful and quiet here uh but I want to say a huge thank you to my friend Ramy and Bashar who arranged this entire trip they're from Syrian guides and I'll have their information in the description box below but this entire trip to Syria wouldn't have been possible without them if you haven't already watched this entire Syria series we're going around the country eating some of the best Syrian food you're not going to want to miss it any of it and I want to say a big thank you to you for watching this video please remember to give it a thumbs up if you enjoyed it leave a comment below I'd love to hear from you and if you're not already subscribed make sure you subscribe now for lots more food and travel videos thanks again for watching I will see you on the next video tomorrow

Channel: Mark Wiens

Views: 212,153

Keywords: Syria, Syrian food, street food, Syrian street food, Mark Wiens, travel Syria, best Syrian food, Krak des Chevaliers, things to do in Syria, Syrian travel guide, Syria tour guide, Syria tour

Id: ZvfmQ9oMEbM

Length: 40min 12sec (2412 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 16 2024