São Paulo – With the idea of using only the authentic recipes used in Syria, shying away from the excessively sugary Arab desserts sold in Brazil, bakery ArabSweets has been gaining their share of clients in Brasília.
Opened mid-October of last year, the bakery is a result of a partnership between Diana Salam, a Brazilian daughter of Syrians, and Lebanese business owner Ali Assaily, owner of two Arab restaurants in the federal capital.
Salam says that the idea to open a bakery came from Assaily, upon noticing that Brasília had numerous Arab restaurants, but not one was focusing exclusively in sweets.
To ensure that the sweets had that original taste from Syria, the business owners brought a chef directly from the Arab country. “We found a chef in Aleppo. He had a bakery there, but with the war was looking for a job abroad,” explains Salam.
“We wanted the sweets to taste the same as the ones from there, thus we brought a chef from there. We didn’t allow him to taste any sweets here and asked him to cook exactly the way he did over there,” says the business owner on the coming of pastry chef Adbel Mohem, who heads now the kitchen of ArabSweets.
Salam says that the selection of the ingredients is done in a way to be as close as possible to the way done in Syria. “They are more expensive materials, but in the end (they) give a good result,” she says.
When the bakery opened, says Salam, it gained the attention of Arabs and their descendants living in the city, but also attracted Brazilians. “Brazilians like new things and the reception by the Arab community was perfect,” she says.
The ArabSweets menu includes sweets such as the balaw, done with phyllo dough and different fillings, nests, cookies and Ma’amoul, plus pistachio, walnuts and pomegranate cakes. According to Salam, the most ordered are the pistachio balaw and the chabieth, a phyllo dough with pistachio and cream.
Among the sweet shop’s clients are Arab restaurants in the city and the embassies, since ArabSweets also cooks to order. According to Salam, the largest order received by the restaurant up until now was one from the stand of Lebanon’s embassy during the Embassies’ air, held in November. The diplomatic representation bought near 60 kg of sweets.
According to Salam, they are planning to open other sweet shops in different parts of the city of Brasília and also to open franchises in other states.
Contact info
ArabSweets
CLS 408 Bloco D – Asa Sul – Brasília
Orders can be made via (61) 3551-4720 and (61) 99943-6336.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
