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Znoud el-Sit — traditional dish from Tripoli, North Lebanon, Lebanon
Dessert Vegetarian

Food Flavour DNA

Nutritional Values

🔥560kcal
💪9gProtein
🌾66gCarbs
🥑29gFat
🌿1gFibre
⚖️180 gServing

* Per serving · 180 g. May vary.

Allergens

🌾 Gluten 🥛 Dairy

Znoud el-Sit

How to order / say it
Say it زنود الست — [ZNOOD el-SIT]
Order Two znoud el-sit, please.
Locally أريد قطعتين من زنود الست، من فضلك.
Say locally

Crisp fried pastry rolls filled with ashta and soaked in floral syrup.

Why try it?

Znoud el-Sit is one of Tripoli’s most recognizable shop-window sweets, enjoyed as a quick indulgence after a walk through the old souks. Its crackling pastry, creamy center, and fragrant syrup capture the city’s exuberant pastry culture.

How it tastes

The exterior is blistered, crisp, and buttery while the ashta filling is cool and milky. Rose, orange blossom, and lemon-scented syrup provide a bright floral finish.

Origin & History — first documented: 1900

Tripoli pastry makers popularized the modern form in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, drawing on Ottoman syrup sweets and Levantine clotted-cream traditions. It became a specialty of urban confectioneries rather than a purely home-cooked dessert. By the mid-twentieth century, visitors commonly bought boxes of the rolls from Tripoli’s old market sweetsellers.

Recipe

Ingredients

  • 🌾 180 g phyllo pastry
  • 🥛 250 g ashta cream
  • 🥛 250 ml milk
  • 🌾 25 g cornstarch
  • 🍯 180 g sugar
  • 🍋 15 ml lemon juice
  • 🍋 10 ml rose water
  • 🍋 10 ml orange blossom water
  • 🥛 40 g ghee
  • 🫒 500 ml frying oil

Method

  1. 1 Cook milk, cornstarch, and sugar into a thick cream, then stir in floral waters and chill.
  2. 2 Wrap strips of phyllo around the chilled cream to form compact rolls.
  3. 3 Fry the rolls in hot oil until evenly golden and crisp.
  4. 4 Drain and dip briefly in lemon-scented syrup before serving.
All Asia recipes — Lebanon — Tripoli — Znoud el-Sit
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