Syrian food joints attract customers from across Pakistan

• Syrian shawarma and shish taouk are two most liked Arab street foods among Pakistanis
• Customers wait for hours to taste Syrian delicacies

ISLAMABAD: A group of Syrians left their country in 2011 to escape the complex civil war in their homeland and found themselves in Pakistan while searching for relative peace.
It was not easy for them to settle down in a foreign land. Yet, they managed to thrive on the deeply disruptive phase of their lives.
Struggling to earn a living, Hussam Hag Kasem, 28, met an established Afghan refugee, Saleem Shah Hashmi, in Islamabad who provided him a small space to set up a food joint and encouraged him to introduce authentic Arab cuisine in the country’s federal capital.
Kasem also introduced his friend, Abu Amir, 32, to Hashmi.
The interaction among the three men resulted in the founding of two food joints – Kasem’s “The Syrian Guys” and Amir’s “Syrian Tastes” – in the central marketplace of Islamabad’s F10 residential sector.
While customers took time to notice the two eateries among thousands of kiosks selling street food in the city, the breakthrough arrived when Abu Amir, aka Adnan, caught the media’s eye this October while preparing Syrian delicacies in his Arab clothing.
Within a matter of hours, mainstream and social media propelled him to celebrity status, making him attract previously unprecedented number of customers.
The rest, as they say, is history: The two eateries serving the Syrian food became culinary sensations, drawing foodies from across the country and beyond.
In this video, Arab News features the success story of the two Syrians and documents how their efforts to turn their life around bore fruit.