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Municipal workers plant flowers around the model of a rooster made of plants in a public park in downtown Hanoi yesterday. Known locally as Tet, the celebration of the Lunar New Year is Vietnam’s most important holiday. — AFP Berlin now 'home sweet home' for Syrian pastry chefs

Employees and a customer are seen in the ‘Konditorei Damaskus’ pastry shop in the Neukoeln neighborhood of 'Only music, language and pastry can transport you to these pleasant memories, it's universal' Berlin.

Syrian family of pastry chefs, the Sakkas, once delight- this , the Germans won't like it, it's too heavy for a pas- ed the people of with their sugar-soaked try," said Tamem. But he was proved wrong and now says ALevantine delicacies, until a rain of bombs turned them Berliners can't get enough of his sugar treats. into refugees. Now, after a four-year odyssey, they have reopened the family's sweet-tooth haven in Berlin, a 'Music, language, pastry' shop called the "Damaskus Konditorei". In a bittersweet tale of During a recent visit, most customers were Syrians eager war, loss, exile and rebuilding, the family was granted asylum for a taste of home, a cheese pastry called knafeh soaked in in Germany and, against the odds, opened their new patis- sticky syrup. Some who have lost everything say they feel tak- serie last summer. "Even though it's very difficult to find a job en back to peacetime , the memory of afternoons in the in Germany, we said, 'let's go and try!'" said Tamem, 42, the shade of bougainvillea. "Only music, language and pastry can youngest of three brothers. transport you to these pleasant memories, it's universal," Four years have passed since the Sakkas fled Homs, Syria's smiled Sabet. Many German customers, who gingerly peek Tamem Al-Sakka is seen working in his pastry shop, third biggest city, which became a rebel bastion early in the into the shop, go on to take their first steps on a new culinary ‘Konditorei Damaskus’ in the Neukoeln neighbourhood of war that started in 2011. Suffocated by a long army siege, the journey of discovery. "When they come in here, they watch, Berlin. city saw fierce fighting that pushed many of its residents to Tamem Al-Sakka is seen working in his pastry shop, sometimes they seem afraid!", laughed Tamem. leave everything behind and run. The family of 16 -- the three ‘Konditorei Damaskus’ in the Neukoeln neighborhood "What they like is the baklava", he added, pointing to brothers, Salim, Rami and Tamem Al-Sakka, with their parents, of Berlin. Syria's signature pastry made of layers of filo, stuffed with wives and children-first fled to Lebanon, then Egypt. They chopped nuts and held together with honey. The artisan's made it to Berlin over two years ago with hopes for a better Before Syria's deluge of fire and death, the country was eyes grow misty when he thinks about Syrian pistachios-"the life, like more than 600,000 fellow Syrians who have gained known throughout the Middle East for the refinement of its best in the world"-which he can no longer grate to produce safe haven in Germany. sweets. "This is due to the quality of raw materials, such as his delicacies. The Sakkas now get their nuts from , Aleppo pistachios," explains French-Syrian pastry maker and their cheese from Italy. "In Homs, our shop employed 40 Master artisans Myriam Sabet, who runs the Maison Aleph patisserie in Paris. people, the pastry was laid out on 150 square meters (1,614 In their flight, all they could carry was the know-how "And to the ancestral know-how of the master artisans who square feet) on two floors, and on top of that we had a big passed down by their father, Suleiman, 83, who founded the jealously guard their manufacturing secrets." In Syria, different workshop", Tamem recalled with nostalgia. The more modest Homs pastry shop more than 40 years ago. The sweet fruits of cities-whose names now evoke the horrors of war and suffer- Damaskus Konditorei is located on a Berlin avenue nick- their labor are on mouth-watering display on large metal ing-have long been associated with their regional specialties. named the capital's "Arab street"-a long way from the 13th trays-pyramids of small green nut cakes, covered with shred- While the capital Damascus loves barazek honey pistachio century souks of Homs, filled with the scent of spices, per- ded pistachio and moistened with . The aromas of and sesame cookies, the commercial center of Aleppo was fumes and pastries. For now, home is just a sweet memory orange blossom and almond waft through the room, the eye known to have a weakness for and almond. The jew- for the Sakkas. — AFP The Konditorei Damaskus pastry shop is seen in the lingers on shredded pastry bird nests called esh Al-bulbul, and els of central Homs and Hama are sweet cheese rolls known as Neukoeln neighbourhood of Berlin. maamoul shortbread filled with dates, pistachios or walnuts. halawet El-jibn. "At first my brother said to me, 'Let's not make

Tamem Al-Sakka is seen working in his pastry shop, "Konditorei Damaskus" in An employee drizzles honey onto a Knaffa in the ‘Konditorei Damaskus’ pastry An employee is seen working in the ‘Konditorei Damaskus’ pastry shop in the the Neukoeln neighbourhood of Berlin. — AFP photos shop in the Neukoeln neighborhood of Berlin. Neukoeln neighbourhood of Berlin.