The Aleppo Sandwich Updated (Pt 3)

Today, we have an update on one of our most popular Sporkful episodes ever, about a beloved sandwich shop in Aleppo, Syria, and an exiled aid worker named Shadi Martini. When the brutal regime of Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad fell last December, we got back in touch with Shadi. Earlier this year, after 12 years in exile, he returned to Aleppo, and visited his favorite sandwich shop. He tells us about the whole experience in this week’s update.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Dan Pashman?

  There's nothing quite like Aruba. The white sand beaches are truly unlike anything you've seen. But what really stands out is the food. Because Aruba's not like other Caribbean islands. French pastries, Spanish paella, Peruvian barbecue, papardelle that has no business being that good that far from Florence. Not to mention the local fair. Aruba's food scene pulls you in with its astonishing variety of cuisines and beyond satisfies you with its unexpected flavors. So plan your escape to culinary delight at aruba.com. Your taste buds will thank you. As we turn to fall and the weather starts to cool down, I think of things like crunching leaves. I think of cheering from the sidelines of a soccer game, walking the dog in the woods. And when I think of doing all those things,

• 0:43Dan Pashman?

  I'm usually wearing something from LL Bean. Whether it's my puffer vest, my puffer coat, my scarf, whatever you're doing outside this year, you probably need something from LL Bean. Whether it's their boots, their Scotch plaid flannel, their rugged field coat, or more. Grab the layers and people you love and get outside. Visit llbean.com to shop the fall collection. LL Bean, be an outsider.

• 1:09Dan Pashman?

  Thanks for listening to The Sporkful. Be sure to tune in each week for new episodes on Amazon Music or just ask Alexa, "Play the podcast The Sporkful" on Amazon Music.

• 1:21Dan Pashman?

  Previously on The Sporkful.

• 1:25Dan Pashman?

  People are walking in and they see us and they're like, "Ah, you're here for the sandwich." Do you remember that sandwich? Oh, yeah, yeah, I remember every sandwich.

• 1:36Dan Pashman?

  This was a pilgrimage spot.

• 1:38Speaker 01

  Clearly, that place is long gone. Who knows whether the owners are alive or dead?

• 1:44Speaker 02

  People started avoiding coming into hospitals and that was when we started trying to help them. We had one doctor that was kidnapped and tortured. I interpreted as a warning. I was informed by a colleague of mine who worked with me, "Don't come back. We are discovered. Our names are on each and every roadblock, so stay out."

• 2:08Speaker 03

  They said, "We're coming back to rebuild this place. We will never leave Alipu."

• 2:15Speaker 02

  You taste, you got flashbacks, you know. That's the problem that we're always all facing. We try to remember the good stuff. Then when you get something like this, you get everything back. You know, you recognize that you're not coming back. You're not going back anymore there.

• 2:35Speaker 03

  Hello? Hello? Hello, how are you? How are you? Hello? How are you, Ahmad Serjia?

• 2:42Speaker 02

  Wow, this is emotional. I thought we were talking about sandwiches and then you surprised me. All these stuff and nope and these floods of emotion that I wasn't prepared to.

• 3:05Dan Pashman?

  This is The Sporkful. It's not for foodies, it's for eaters. I'm Dan Pashman. Each week on our show, we obsess about food to learn more about people. In 2017, we aired one of our most popular Sporkful episodes ever, about a beloved sandwich shop in Aleppo, Syria. When the brutal regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad fell last December, we heard from so many of you asking for an update on this story. Over the past week, we've reshared the original two-part series. Today, we have that update, including our main character, Shadi Martini's return to Aleppo after 12 years in exile. But if you haven't heard parts one and two, please go back and start there. When we left off, we had tracked down Ahmad Serjia, owner of the sandwich shop Serjia. We learned that the place was still around,

• 3:50Dan Pashman?

  and it had such a following that one of Ahmad's former employees opened an outpost in Istanbul, where many Syrian refugees have relocated. A Syrian-American named Fadya helped me find Ahmad. We also heard the story of Shadi Martini, who couldn't return to Aleppo because of his aid work. He was helping people who were targeted by the regime, which made him a wanted man in Syria. He hadn't seen family and friends in many years, and hadn't eaten at his beloved sandwich shop. Going to the place in Istanbul was the closest he could get. Our first update picks up the story three years later, in 2020, when the country was still under the Assad regime. I got back in touch with Fadya, because I heard she had some news.

• 4:29Dan Pashman?

  This might be the most important question of all, Fadia.

• 4:32Speaker 03

  Uh huh.

• 4:32Dan Pashman?

  Are you still making knafe?

• 4:34Speaker 03

  Yes, yes.

• 4:35Dan Pashman?

  Oh my God, every, every time I see knafe anywhere, I think of you.

• 4:40Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah, yeah. You know what? Anytime. You're more than welcome.

• 4:44Dan Pashman?

  Oh, thank you. I have not had knafe since I had it at your house because every time I see it somewhere else, or I see a recipe and think maybe I would try to make it, I'm always like, but if I do that, it's not going to be as good as Fadia's. And I'll only be disappointed.

• 4:58Speaker 03

  No, no, it will be very good. I can, I can walk you through all the detail.

• 5:06Dan Pashman?

  We weren't there just to talk about knafe. Fadia had recently been to Aleppo, and she was really excited to tell me about all the food she ate there.

• 5:13Speaker 03

  You eat the tomato, it's just like so juicy. You eat their olives, it's just great.

• 5:20Speaker 03

  Some sort of sweet that they do it with semolina. They fill it with pistachio and they add on the top of it marshmallow. Oh.

• 5:29Dan Pashman?

  Fadia, you're reminding me once again that Aleppoans love food.

• 5:33Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 5:37Speaker 03

  They have Big Beni, everyone knows them.

• 5:39Dan Pashman?

  That's right. I mean, man, it's all coming back to me now, working on this episode a few years ago. Like every time I talked to an Aleppoan, they were like, oh, you gotta go to this, oh, the olives, oh, the lemon juice, like, oh, the brain, like, just like, the passion is like, it's infectious.

• 5:57Speaker 03

  The food has to be really, if I'm cooking, it has to be good.

• 6:02Dan Pashman?

  To get to Aleppo, Fadia had to fly to Turkey, then to Lebanon. Then she took a taxi to Aleppo, about an eight-hour ride. It was her first time back in 15 years.

• 6:11Speaker 03

  I mean, to be honest with you, where we live, it didn't change that much. It's clean, it's, uh, it's nice. People are like really back to normal. But when they took me to the places where that gets destroyed. Your, your heart will get broken. It's just too much destroyed.

• 6:32Dan Pashman?

  During the conflict, the areas of Aleppo controlled by the opposition were bombed heavily. And throughout the country, there were severe shortages of many basic commodities. On top of that, inflation had spiraled out of control. While Fadya was in Aleppo, she asked her nephew to go pick up some sandwiches from Sergia. Both locations of the shop were still open. Fadya remembered the sandwiches being huge when she used to go there. But during this last trip, she says they were much smaller while remaining the same price. So basically shrinkflation. So the sandwiches were smaller than you remember, but do this, do they still have the same taste?

• 7:06Speaker 03

  Same taste. It's like yesterday. Same taste, never, never change. I had what they call a sijjuk. Sijjuk mean it's like sausage.

• 7:17Dan Pashman?

  Right.

• 7:17Speaker 03

  But they add spices into it. They made their own mayonnaise, but they add to the mayonnaise like grated lemon.

• 7:25Dan Pashman?

  Oh, like, like lemon zest.

• 7:27Speaker 03

  Lemon zest.

• 7:28Dan Pashman?

  And how did it feel taking that first bite in 15 years?

• 7:32Speaker 03

  It's just, it's just, it's just heaven.

• 7:38Speaker 03

  You feel like 15 years younger and you eat it and you don't want to refinish.

• 7:50Speaker 03

  Oh, now it's really, oh god, let's hope.

• 7:53Dan Pashman?

  Of course, there was one more person we had to try to get in touch with.

• 7:59Speaker 03

  No, okay, I don't must have shared or say that I might keep Sahab.

• 8:06Dan Pashman?

  It was 6:00 PM on Saturday in New York, meaning it was 1:00 AM in Aleppo. Imaad Sergia had just closed up shop for the night.

• 8:12Speaker 03

  I'm, I'm, I'm listening, Mike, I'm listening, Mike. He was like too much happy that people heard him when, you know, from New York, so it's good. Okay, but you want to ask him, Dan?

• 8:24Dan Pashman?

  How, how are you?

• 8:25Speaker 03

  Uh, he, he, I'm, he's like, you know, Kifah, Kifah Sahab.

• 8:33Speaker 03

  He said that he's all doing well and thank God every single is okay.

• 8:38Dan Pashman?

  And I, I want to know what kind of pickles he's making this time of year.

• 8:42Speaker 03

  He said that he's doing cucumber pickles. We have a long green pepper. It's hot and it tastes very, very good. So they do it for the winter.

• 9:04Dan Pashman?

  Tell Imaad that everyone I've spoken to tells me that the sandwiches are as good as they ever were.

• 9:10Speaker 03

  Oh, I'm a little.

• 9:13Dan Pashman?

  That year, 2020, they were celebrating 60 years since the original Sergia first opened its doors. But Sergia is not just sticking to the classics. Imaad told Fadiya there were some new items on the menu now. A sandwich called Mexicano, chicken breast stuffed with peppers, corn and spices topped with ketchup and broiled. They have Turkish shawarma now too. And Sergia remained a popular late night hangout spot.

• 9:36Speaker 03

  The young people, young generation always goes and buy sandwiches from that. And now he opened two branches. One is in Fulkhan. He just opened it and one is a place in Mogamba, which they are very crowded.

• 9:51Dan Pashman?

  This was big news. Imaad was expanding Sergia. In the midst of civil war, brutal dictatorship and coronavirus, they weren't just surviving, they were growing. Well, Imaad, thank you, thank you, thank you so much for speaking with us.

• 10:07Speaker 03

  He said, thank you.

• 10:09Dan Pashman?

  And good luck, good luck with all the new restaurants.

• 10:11Speaker 03

  Inshallah.

• 10:16Dan Pashman?

  Fadiya and Imaad said their goodbyes and hung up.

• 10:20Speaker 03

  It's not easy. Being there and everything is so expensive. I mean, I don't know how he's coping with, you know, a lot of stuff. So many people, they are like, they could have been outside. Probably he has money to live, you know, to go outside, but he decided to stay. People are attached so much to their land and to their property and they don't want to live. But, you know, he's hoping that one day it's going to get changed.

• 10:49Dan Pashman?

  It's a very positive sign to me that he's opening two new restaurants. I mean, that's.

• 10:53Speaker 03

  You're telling me about the Alipino. Alipino people are just all like this. You brush their head and they stand up and they said tomorrow is going to be better.

• 11:08Dan Pashman?

  I left that conversation feeling grateful that Sergio was still there, but uncertain about the future. I mean, it was incredible that this sandwich shop had survived the worst of the civil war, but could it also survive these economic challenges? Then, last year, seemingly overnight, everything in Syria changed.

• 11:26Speaker 04

  We begin with breaking news tonight out of Syria, where rebels may be on the verge of toppling President Bashar al-Assad's regime. The rebels keep pushing.

• 11:34Dan Pashman?

  All that, plus shabby martinis return to Aleppo, coming up. Stick around.

• 11:49Speaker 05

  Time to cook up some advertisements.

• 11:54Dan Pashman?

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• 12:37Dan Pashman?

  I'm usually wearing something from LL Bean. Whether it's my puffer vest, my puffer coat, my scarf, whatever you're doing outside this year, you probably need something from LL Bean, whether it's their boots, their Scotch plaid flannel, their rugged field coat, or more. Grab the layers and people you love and get outside. Visit llbean.com to shop the fall collection. LL Bean, be an outsider.

• 13:01Dan Pashman?

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• 13:43Dan Pashman?

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• 14:01Dan Pashman?

  Welcome back to The Sporkful. I'm Dan Pashman. Back in June, we looked into the iconic Texas treat, the kolache. In parts of Texas, a kolache is about as common as a donut, but it's relatively unknown outside the Lone Star State. The kolache is a traditional Czech pastry made with a sweetened, yeasty dough that filled with either fruit, cheese, or sausage. It got a foothold in Texas after a wave of Czech immigrants came to the state more than a century ago. Now, some entrepreneurial Texans are bringing kolaches to New York. I talked to the owners of King's Kolache in Brooklyn, who think kolaches could be the next big thing in the Big Apple.

• 14:34Speaker 06

  I think that everyone, everyone is born ready for this amazing, because every culture has some version of a kolache and it's, you know, they're, they're easy to eat, they're crushable, they're delicious, they're good breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack. So are they ready? Yeah, they might not know they're ready yet. They've always been ready. They were born ready. That's right.

• 14:57Dan Pashman?

  So can kolaches be bigger than Texas? We try to find out. Check out that episode where you got this one. One more quick note before we get back to the show. I want you to stay tuned to the end of this episode for a special segment presented by Samsung, where I test out an all new AI-powered Samsung fridge. This thing blew my mind, so make sure you stick around for that. All right, let's get back to the show. We've covered the 2020 update on our Aleppo sandwich story. Now we're up to today. For years, Shadi Martini has been living in Michigan and working as the executive director of the MultiFaith Alliance. This organization provides food and medical aid all over the world, and Shadi is often on the ground, traveling to war zones or disaster areas.

• 15:40Dan Pashman?

  In 2024, he'd been traveling back and forth to southern Turkey, right on the Syrian border. The MultiFaith Alliance was providing aid to refugee camps in the area. But despite being so close to Syria, Shadi couldn't cross the border. He was still wanted by the Syrian government. Then, in November of 2024, when he was on one of those trips to Turkey, he started getting some news. The situation in Syria might be changing.

• 16:04Speaker 02

  We have a lot of medical staff and hospitals. So when there is something happening, they always tell, like, give, like, be prepared for emergency services. There might be something brewing. There was this news for a year, but we got used to it. Like, throughout the years, a lot of times we'd get these messages, but they turn out to be false. But anyway, we were, knew that something was going to happen, or we didn't know where and when, or, or how big.

• 16:34Dan Pashman?

  As it turned out, it was very big. On November 27th, rebel groups launched a large-scale attack on Assad's forces in the province of Aleppo, gaining control of towns, villages, and an air force base. The government responded with airstrikes.

• 16:48Speaker 02

  I was a lot worried about refugee camps who are along the borders. You have like 4 million people in that area that is outside of Syrian control. And we were worried that they're going to be bombed and there are going to be high casualties. So our lower staff was in, on high alert. And it, you know, bombing did happen, but it wasn't as intense as we used to. Like, they usually hit medical facilities. They did. But not as intense as before. So we were watching very anxiously. And on the second day of the offensive, I was actually playing cards with friends of mine, like late night, a very Middle Eastern thing, in a coffee shop.

• 17:29Dan Pashman?

  Shadi got a call from someone on his team.

• 17:31Speaker 02

  They called me and said, you know, they're telling us tomorrow we are going into the city of Aleppo.

• 17:37Dan Pashman?

  This was the first time rebel forces had gone into Aleppo since they'd been pushed out in 2016. Aleppo was a stronghold for the Assad regime. It seemed impossible that the rebels could get there so quickly after how fierce the fighting was a decade ago.

• 17:51Speaker 02

  Like, there was battles for neighborhoods in Aleppo that took months. So two days, the city, it was a big shock for us. But true to behold, next day, I was seeing pictures of opposition fighters inside the city, going inside the city.

• 18:09Dan Pashman?

  The Syrian government launched another counterattack with more aerial bombardments.

• 18:13Speaker 02

  And actually, we, we lost two people in one of the ambulances that was hit by air bombardment in front of the biggest hospital, the University Hospital in Aleppo, which is very close to my home.

• 18:27Dan Pashman?

  I'm very sorry to hear that you lost those two aid workers.

• 18:31Speaker 02

  They were just trying to help because during fighting, a lot of the staff of hospital leaves. So we were trying to come in and help during this very tough moments. And they are very seasoned emergency workers that are used to work during military activities. It was very tough losing two of our folks.

• 18:53Dan Pashman?

  This was a tragedy for Shadi and the multi-faith alliance. But he says if there was a silver lining, it was the casualties were minimized because of how quickly the rebel groups won over Aleppo. The fighting was over in 11 days. On December 8th, the rebel group took control of the Syrian capital of Damascus, and Bashar al-Assad fled to Moscow.

• 19:12Speaker 02

  Hundreds of tanks were abandoned, thousands of soldiers just put civilian clothes and left. And all of a sudden, the regime that controlled Syria for 50 years disappeared.

• 19:28Dan Pashman?

  So you're you're sitting in Turkey, just on the border of Syria, watching all this unfold. When you start seeing those videos from your home city, how are you feeling?

• 19:42Speaker 02

  I can't tell you how how happy I was. It was unbelievable. For some time, like the last like couple of years, we were getting depressed. We thought we will never be able to go home. We will never see our friends, our neighborhoods again. So that's it. Like, we were destined to live in exile. We were all wanted by the regime. We were all marked for arrests and probably execution. And all of a sudden, we could go back to Syria.

• 20:17Dan Pashman?

  So that's exactly what Shadi did. A few weeks after the regime change in late December, Shadi flew to Jordan, got on a bus to the Syrian border, and then took a cab to go inside Syria.

• 20:27Speaker 02

  And I went in and I saw the first roadblock that the regime held after the border. And I was asking the driver, he said, this is one of the worst like checkpoints that the regime had. He said, like, a lot of people were arrested here or some are like killed.

• 20:45Dan Pashman?

  So before the regime fell, if you had attempted to enter Syria through this border, you probably wouldn't have made it 10 feet past the checkpoint.

• 20:55Speaker 02

  No, no, I would have been arrested immediately. My crime was supporting terrorism. And the only thing I did in Aleppo was try to help people who were like getting hurt in back in 2012.

• 21:09Dan Pashman?

  But now Shadi passed through the checkpoint without any issue. For the first time in 12 years, he was back in Syria.

• 21:16Speaker 02

  You know, you could see that people are tired, worn out. It's a mix of shock, of tiredness, and happiness.

• 21:24Dan Pashman?

  His first stop was the capital city of Damascus. Being back was surreal, but in the midst of trying to wrap his head around what had happened, Shadi also had to eat.

• 21:33Speaker 02

  The most thing we were anxious to eat is actually breakfast food that Damascus is very famous for. It's called fette, pita bread that is fried to be crispy. They mix it with yogurt and tahini and check peas with nuts covering it and with ghee butter. It's a very nice specialty food for Damascus.

• 22:00Dan Pashman?

  That sounds really good.

• 22:01Speaker 02

  Wonderful.

• 22:02Dan Pashman?

  Do the pita chips stay crispy or do they get a little bit soft because they absorb the different things?

• 22:07Speaker 02

  The way they do it there is they put it at the end on the top so it could stay crispy while you eat it. But once you start eating, you can mix it and then it becomes more moist. So it's a little bit crispy with a little bit moist. It's a very unique way they do it and it's really, really good. And you have like different type of pickles and greens beside it that you eat with it.

• 22:31Dan Pashman?

  This sounds so good.

• 22:32Speaker 02

  It's, it is pretty good. And this place in Damascus, like they do it like no one else.

• 22:39Dan Pashman?

  And how did that first bite feel?

• 22:41Speaker 02

  Oh, man, it was magic. I went there like probably two times after that.

• 22:47Dan Pashman?

  From there, Shadi headed to other parts of Syria to see family and friends. I was surprised that he didn't make a beeline for Aleppo, his home city. But he says in a way, he was stalling. He knew going back would be very intense and he was worried about what he'd find there. After a few days of zigzagging, he arrived in Aleppo.

• 23:05Speaker 02

  When we were driving and I started seeing Aleppo, and there was, there was a lot of emotions, like I could, you know, I cried, I cried a lot. I, I, I, I never thought that I'll be driving this road again and driving into the city again. And it was very emotional, to be honest, very, very, very, very emotional. And, but we made it.

• 23:37Speaker 02

  You know, my dad and mom passed away during that time and I couldn't speak to them for five, six years prior to their passing away because they were always harassed, targeted just because of their relation to me. So it was a decision to try to minimize communication with your loved one because you don't want them to get hurt because of you.

• 24:06Speaker 02

  It's really tough because you have to choose sometimes very high choices in your life, like the pressure was always on them for me to stop what I'm doing, to stop what I'm talking about and just, you know, go do something else. And it was a very hard choice. You know, that was the biggest sorrows to my heart that I couldn't say goodbye.

• 24:33Dan Pashman?

  Shadi wasn't able to see his parents before they died, but during this trip to Aleppo, he did get to visit their graves.

• 24:41Dan Pashman?

  Once word got around that he was back in town, Shadi was deluged with invitations. Everyone wanted to have him over for a meal. He got to eat dishes he'd been craving for years, including one particular Aleppoan specialty.

• 24:53Speaker 02

  It's called cherry kebab. It's like a sweet and sour type of food. They take the juice of the sour cherry and then they boil it.

• 25:03Dan Pashman?

  So you boil the sour cherry juice until it becomes like a syrup. You add a bit of sugar to cut the tartness, then you cook lamb kebabs on the grill. And once they're smoky and charred, you add the lamb to the cherry syrup.

• 25:14Speaker 02

  They boil it together, then they prepare a big plate of pita bread that is cut into triangle shapes. Then they pour this cherry juice, the sour cherry juice with the kebab over the pita bread and then over it they put cinnamon and parsley.

• 25:32Dan Pashman?

  Oh my goodness.

• 25:33Speaker 02

  And you take each of these triangle pita bread that is soaked in cherry sauce and you take one kebab and you eat it. And it's something that I really like wanted to eat. The one of the first thing that I wanted to eat. Because it's hard to get the taste outside of Aleppo. And it was amazing.

• 25:55Dan Pashman?

  Shadi obviously enjoyed all the home cooked meals. Get and eat all these dishes he grew up with. But of course, there was one special sandwich that he had to go out to get.

• 26:04Speaker 02

  I'm here at Sergio's Sandwich Shop. This was the first sandwich shop in Aleppo that does unique sandwiches, including like brain sandwich, tom sandwich, sujuk, which is an Armenian type of spicy meat that they put in a sandwich. It's located near the Central Park of Aleppo. Now it's considered the central in Syria. A lot of people in Aleppo loves coming here, especially at night. It works 24 hours. So people can come at any time and eat the sandwich. Now I just got a brain sandwich that I'm trying to see what changed.

• 26:51Speaker 02

  Hmm. Oh, wow. Actually, nothing has changed. You can hear the crispiness of the bread. And it's it's brain and with it has seven spices, some pickles and tomatoes and it's really unique. It's something that. The bite actually takes you back in time. The bite reminds me of the first time you ate there and who you ate it with and and what happened. So it's a lot of memories that are brought back through the the food, the taste of the food.

• 27:26Dan Pashman?

  I was curious if they still had any of those new sandwiches that Ahmad Sergyia mentioned in 2020. But Shadi wasn't much help on that front.

• 27:32Speaker 02

  I I don't look at them. When you go in, you don't look at them. Like you.

• 27:38Dan Pashman?

  You know what you want.

• 27:40Speaker 02

  This is what I want. This is what I want. This is what I want. I don't care about anything else.

• 27:44Dan Pashman?

  Shadi says the brain sandwich was still prepared perfectly. And cooking sheep's brain isn't easy. Cook it for too long and it turns to mush. Not long enough and it stays tough. But for Shadi, the highlight is always the perfectly crisp baguette. While he was there, Shadi got to speak with Amir Sergiye, Ahmad's son. Amir is now the owner. When we spoke to Ahmad back in 2017, he had to be so, so careful about what he could say for fear of the Assad regime. Now Shadi was able to talk to Amir more openly.

• 28:20Speaker 02

  They struggled a lot during the war in Syria. There was a lot of pressures or hardship. But now, after the fall of the Assad regime and liberation of Syria, they are very hopeful. I can tell you from my experience, when you come at night here, you would see like tens of cars and the place is packed. It's not a huge place, but it's a very unique place because it has very important memories to the people of Aleppo.

• 28:51Dan Pashman?

  So Sergiye is still going strong. I was curious, though, how the rest of Aleppo's restaurant scene is doing. I mean, I remember when I first spoke with Shadi, he talked about what a big food city Aleppo was before the war. I asked him what that scene is like today.

• 29:05Speaker 02

  It's good that you asked me this question because I don't think it's that good, to be honest. I was shocked. There are some restaurants that are outliers that kept their exactly how I remember them, like Sergiye and some other places. But a lot of the old traditional places are gone. So I was surprised that it's not the same quality. My hope is with people coming back from their forced displacement or being refugees around the world and hundreds of thousands are coming, if not millions. I think this will pick up again.

• 29:43Dan Pashman?

  It's interesting that you say that you're shocked that some of the food scene has deteriorated. I mean, obviously, you know Aleppo a lot better than I do, but I would almost say the opposite. Like, I'm shocked that Sergiye is still so good. Just considering how much they've been up against for so many years, how even even staying open must have been such a struggle that to on top of staying open in the midst of everything that's been going on to to also maintain a high level of quality is like another very high hurdle to get over.

• 30:16Speaker 02

  Actually, you're absolutely right. Now I'm thinking about it. We we're halabi are very picky about our food like we and we and we don't we don't shy from kids. We don't care if you're in the middle of the war and your standard has to be tough.

• 30:32Dan Pashman?

  That's no excuse.

• 30:33Speaker 02

  That's no excuse for us. Like, get us good food. Like, come on.

• 30:43Dan Pashman?

  As for the situation in Syria overall, it's tenuous. There's an interim president and a provisional government, but they don't control the whole country. There are sectarian groups in control of various regions that oppose the new government, and there's ongoing violence. Many Syrians and world leaders are still trying to get a sense of how the new president Ahmed al-Shara plans to govern. He used to lead a group affiliated with al-Qaeda, but in recent years, he's projected a more moderate image. Shadi went back to Syria in June, and because of all his work in the region, he actually got to spend two hours with the president.

• 31:16Speaker 02

  When I met their president, he's a very soft-spoken person. He's not intimidating. He doesn't want to intimidate you, but he wants to talk to you. And he was explaining his position and and his vision. And to be honest, I was I was very pleased with the rhetoric, the attitude, the vision, where he wants to take the country. And I could see it as a type of moderation.

• 31:45Dan Pashman?

  So Syria's long-term future remains unclear. But there's more reason for optimism than there's been in a long time. Meanwhile, Shadi and his team are expanding their work in Syria, especially in Aleppo, providing medical support to people in refugee camps, which led me to ask him one more question. One of the things you said to me in our original episode that motivated you to put your life on the course that it's been on now for a number of years was that you thought someday your kids would come to you and they would ask you about Syria and they would want to know what did you do? Since we last talked about this, have you had that kind of conversation with them?

• 32:27Speaker 02

  Well, not typically, but they know about what I do. You know, they came to some of the events that I spoke at. And they were like a little bit surprised because somehow I tried to keep them away from learning what I'm doing because I don't want to scare them. A lot of the things that I had to go through are very dangerous. But they are really now more aware of what I do. And actually, I think they're very proud. They think that it's something that is unique. And I told them, you know, someday, you know,

• 33:09Speaker 02

  people are gonna write about the work we have done and me and my colleagues and everyone. And at least we put some foot known in history of that we did something good.

• 33:21Dan Pashman?

  That's Shadi Martini, Executive Director of the MultiFaith Alliance. If you want to learn more about their work or make a donation, you can find them at multifaithalliance.org.

• 33:32Dan Pashman?

  Next week on the show, the Salad Spinner is back. Our rapid fire roundtable discussion of the latest food news. We've got some major news in the world of pasta science. And we'll ask if your favorite fast food sauce is available at the store. Is it still special? That's next week. Why wait for that one? Check out some of our other recent episodes like our Food Dispute episode with Paula Velez and James Park, our episode on the history of the Texas Colochi, and the story about a restaurant critic who was confronted by one of the most celebrated chefs in America. Those are all up now. And hey, did you know you can listen to The Sporkful on the SiriusXM app? Yes, the SiriusXM app, it has all your favorite podcasts, plus over 200 ad-free music channels curated by genre and era, plus live sports coverage. Does your podcasting app have that?

• 34:15Dan Pashman?

  And there's interviews with A-list stars and so much more. It's everything you want in a podcast app and music app all rolled into one. And right now, Sporkful listeners can get three months free of the SiriusXM app by going to siriusxm.com/sporkful.

• 34:31Dan Pashman?

  This episode was produced by me along with managing producer Emma Morgenstern. And senior producer Andres O'Hara. Our engineer is Jared O'Connell. Music help from Black Label Music. This is a production of Stitcher Studios. Our executive producer is Camille Stanley. Until next time, I'm Dan Pashman.

• 34:45Speaker 02

  And this is Shadi Martini reminding you to eat more, eat better, and eat more better.

• 35:02Dan Pashman?

  This segment is brought to you by Samsung Bespoke Appliances. Here's an issue I run into. I try to make a list of groceries and then I get to the store and I see something on the shelf and I'm like, do I have mustard? Do I have apples? Now I can't remember if there's other things that I need that I might have forgotten. I don't know what I have.

• 35:23Speaker 07

  Well, first I want to say you're not alone. There's a lot of people that also struggle with that.

• 35:27Dan Pashman?

  I'm in the Samsung test kitchen with my buddy DJ. I'm the Senior National Training Manager for Samsung Digital Appliances. So basically like a nerd who can talk to regular people. Sure.

• 35:37Dan Pashman?

  As DJ explained, the sleek Samsung Bespoke refrigerator we're standing in front of today has the answers to my shopping list woes.

• 35:44Speaker 07

  So what's cool about this particular refrigerator is it has something called AI Vision inside. When we think about Samsung and AI, AI is really all about how can I save you time and money? So for your particular situation, you don't want to have to run back home and see, do I have milk? Do I have apples? This will let you kind of see exactly what's inside by creating like a digital inventory list. Not only what you have, but when you actually purchase that and put it inside the actual refrigerator.

• 36:08Dan Pashman?

  It can tell me how long the thing has been in there?

• 36:11Speaker 07

  Correct, yes. So once we go into this AI Vision application, you can see these are the things that we have inside the refrigerator. That's where really the fun begins because knowing what's inside your refrigerator is one thing. Maybe it's Friday night and you don't want to call the pizza man to come and deliver some food. How can I use up more what's inside of my refrigerator? So this will search for recipes based on what's already inside your fridge.

• 36:32Dan Pashman?

  So it can not only tell you what's in the fridge, it can tell you what to cook with it?

• 36:35Speaker 07

  Correct.

• 36:36Dan Pashman?

  And I should add, the fridge shows you recipes on a beautiful 32 2-inch touchscreen that's flush with the door. So there's photos on the screen of all the things in the fridge. There's chicken, there's tomatoes, there's eggs, there's olives. And so you just checked chicken, olives and eggs?

• 36:52Speaker 07

  Eggs.

• 36:53Dan Pashman?

  And you clicked search for recipes?

• 36:55Speaker 07

  Search for recipes, yep. It's finding all kinds of different options that we have right here.

• 36:58Dan Pashman?

  French's crunchy onion chicken.

• 37:00Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 37:00Dan Pashman?

  You click on it, prep five minutes, cook 20 minutes.

• 37:02Speaker 07

  Yep, there's our egg that we have on hand, there's our French onion.

• 37:05Dan Pashman?

  Oh wow, so not only did the recipe come up, it told you which ingredients you have and which ones you need.

• 37:12Speaker 07

  Yes.

• 37:12Dan Pashman?

  And you can send the ones you need to your shopping list.

• 37:15Speaker 07

  Correct.

• 37:15Dan Pashman?

  So this will just send it to your phone?

• 37:17Speaker 07

  Yeah, and then if you don't have the time, maybe you do Instacart or something like that, it can send that to them to be able to get that already ready to go and brought to you. So you can make that dinner.

• 37:25Dan Pashman?

  But this huge screen isn't just for the AI vision. The screen acts as a hub for your whole kitchen. Once you pick a recipe and have all the ingredients.

• 37:33Speaker 07

  You can actually select how you're gonna cook it.

• 37:35Dan Pashman?

  Oh kitchen.

• 37:35Speaker 07

  Microwave or.

• 37:36Dan Pashman?

  Microwave or oven.

• 37:37Speaker 07

  So we're gonna do oven. All right, you wanna pick any of these we have here?

• 37:41Dan Pashman?

  Let's check out these 30-minute chicken tenders.

• 37:42Speaker 07

  Okay, I can actually send the recipe over to the oven and it'll actually automatically start the oven process for me.

• 37:48Dan Pashman?

  Whoa, and the oven is just gonna start preheating?

• 37:50Speaker 07

  100%.

• 37:51Dan Pashman?

  And it's gonna know which setting. It says air fry 375, 30 minutes.

• 37:54Speaker 07

  Yep, and once you have that in there, you close the door and it'll do the rest. And then send you that notification while you're watching that game on the couch.

• 38:00Dan Pashman?

  From the couch, you can use the Samsung Smart Things app to watch your food in the oven on your phone to keep an eye on it. Not that you really need to, the oven already knows what to do. And for the part where you actually have to assemble the dish to get it in the oven, the AI Family Hub Plus screen on the fridge helps with that too. So here's an issue that I run into sometimes, DJ, is that I'll see a cooking instruction video.

• 38:21Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 38:22Dan Pashman?

  But it's on my phone and then once I start trying to do it and cooking, now my hands are messy or I can't find my phone and it's annoying. As I understand it, like this fridge has YouTube.

• 38:33Speaker 07

  It has YouTube, but the beauty of it is you can kind of watch what you're watching on your phone and then you can continue that on the actual 32-inch screen. So much bigger real estate. And so the idea is you can kind of multitask here. I know my wife will probably argue to say I can't multitask, but I can still see the video of how they're preparing something. But then at the same time, I still can kind of see who's at the front door.

• 38:52Dan Pashman?

  When you go to answer the door, you can check on what's in the oven.

• 38:55Speaker 07

  Sure, you could also lock the door if you don't want them to come in.

• 38:57Dan Pashman?

  Yeah, like I can't come, I'm cooking a focaccia.

• 39:00Speaker 07

  I love it, I love it, yeah, 100%, 100%, yeah.

• 39:02Dan Pashman?

  I'm on the couch watching my focaccia rise.

• 39:04Speaker 07

  Exactly, exactly.

• 39:05Dan Pashman?

  I can't answer the door right now. Thanks again to our sponsor, Samsung, for inviting us to test out their new product features. And there's so many other cool features of this fridge that I didn't get to cover with DJ. Like with the giant screen, you can have the weather up on the screen so your kids can check that out. Then they know what to wear. They don't need to bug you about it. And you can even import your own recipes, like your grandmother's pie recipe. And after you've done a bang up job with your grocery shopping, how do you open the fridge? Because your hands are full from the grocery haul. Well, guess what? You could open that fridge with ease, thanks to auto open door. Just a light touch of the door sensor and the fridge opens. Samsung has thought of everything. This fridge is not just a hub for your kitchen. It's like a hub for your family for your whole life. It is the nerve center of everything. And it

• 39:50Dan Pashman?

  also keeps your food cold. Samsung's new line of bespoke AI appliances simplifies your time in the kitchen. Visit samsung dot com slash bespoke to learn more. The SmartThings app is available on Android and iOS devices. A Wi-Fi connection and a Samsung account are required. An automatic closing function is not available.

• 40:10Speaker 08

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• 40:33Speaker 08

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