Knafeh Cafe
Pastry shop · Anaheim ·
Family recipes for knafeh, baklava, and Middle Eastern sweets
Family recipes for knafeh, baklava, and Middle Eastern sweets
"Longtime IT engineer Asem Abusir grew up in Nablus on the West Bank and now serves his city’s signature dessert in Little Arabia. His family has been making knafeh since 1918 and still runs shops in Jerusalem and Jordan. At his tiny Anaheim cafe, Abusir spins lacy shredded phyllo strands on a giant wheel in the kitchen, baking and cutting them to form crispy kataifi he features in knafeh. He makes vivid orange slabs — soft and crispy — with two different doughs for contrasting textures. Both versions feature stretchy white cow’s milk cheese, a generous simple syrup drizzle, and crushed pistachios. Other sweet highlights include hareeseh; warm Syrian-style semolina cake soaked in honey and simple syrup, topped with pistachios; and mamool, crumbly semolina cookies stuffed with fillings like date paste and walnuts. — Joshua Lurie" - Anne Marie Panoringan
"Longtime IT engineer Asem Abusir grew up in Nablus on the West Bank and now serves his city’s signature dessert in Little Arabia. His family has been making knafeh since 1918 and still runs shops in Jerusalem and Jordan. At his tiny Anaheim cafe, Abusir spins lacy shredded phyllo strands on a giant wheel in the kitchen, baking and cutting them to form crispy kataifi he features in knafeh. He makes vivid orange slabs — soft and crispy — with two different doughs for contrasting textures. Both versions feature stretchy white cow’s milk cheese, a generous simple syrup drizzle, and crushed pistachios. Other sweet highlights include hareeseh; warm Syrian-style semolina cake soaked in honey and simple syrup, topped with pistachios; and mamool, crumbly semolina cookies stuffed with fillings like date paste and walnuts." - Joshua Lurie
"I discovered a tiny strip-mall shop where Asem Abusir spins kataifeh on a giant wheel—using century-old family recipes—to produce knafeh that literally shines like orange gold (likely from saffron, though he’s secretive about his methods). He offers two main versions: crispy slabs ($5 each) layered with kataifeh pastry, stretchy white cow’s milk cheese he makes in-house, a healthy glug of house-made simple syrup, and crushed pistachios; and a soft, buttery knafeh made with a different dough for those who don’t crave crunch. For Lebanese customers he also serves sesame-studded discs with the airy texture of Jerusalem bagels so you can tuck knafeh in and eat it like a sandwich. His family has made knafeh in Nablus for 100 years and still runs a shop in Jerusalem plus five in Jordan; Abusir himself left a 30-year IT career to become a pastry pro in 2013. The case also features other Middle Eastern favorites—textbook baklava (which he dismissively calls “almost more American than Middle Eastern”), hareeseh with nuts ($3.50), helbeh ($2.50) studded with fenugreek, balourieh ($4) of kataifeh and rosewater, and creamy refrigerated treats like roz bhaleeb and halawet jebn filled with ashta. The shop is intimate—two sidewalk tables and five small tables inside, yellow walls hung with photos of Nablus and his old family home—and before you leave Abusir often pours concentrated Turkish coffee from a long-handled urn while telling a story, serving cups with sooty bottoms and minimal foam." - Eater
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