Abstract

The city of Tripoli, Lebanon, is often disparaged for its social issues but praised for its formidable Middle Eastern sweets. My research examines why Tripoli became renowned for sweets, and why this craft endured in the faceFace of urban change. I briefly outline the features that facilitated the productionProduction and trade of sweet goods for many centuries, suggesting that their subsequent commodificationCommodification at the dawn of modernity helped cement their place in the city’s identityIdentity. Today sweets are arguably the city’s most successful product—a point of pride for many residents, but of frustration to some who see this as indicative of failings in heavy industry, or a shallow representation of their city as a whole. Following from Barthes’ division of the nutritional and protocol valuesValue of foodFood, I find that while Tripoli’s sweet pastries provide a caloric source of varying need to consumers, they have singular importance in social and religious occasions, signifying status, hospitalityHospitality, and in-group identityIdentity, among other dynamic meaningsMeaning. Their shifting meaningsMeaning also reflect changing tastesTaste and healthHealth narratives, as seen in hybrid and “diet” varieties, emblematic of the modern period.