There is now a local style with a wide selection of cakes and pastries that includes influences from other cuisines and combines traditional European ingredients with Mediterranean and Middle Eastern ingredients, such as halva, phyllo dough, dates, and rose water.
Bulgarian cuisine tends to be fresh, simple and healthful (including the fabulous yogurt), although desserts like Turkish delight and halva can add calories.
With an assortment of Iranian snacks like shahtoot (dried red mulberries), chagaleh badoum (salted unripe almonds) and halva, coupled with Persian music, the evening sparked nostalgia for many.
The mixture of chocolate spread and halva "filling" combined with thyme, hazelnut and banana cake is rich, fragrant and just delicious.
There's fruit and veg from the farm, dried goods such as rice cakes and halva, dairy products, wines, beers and even ecologically friendly body-care and household products.
The drinks list features local and Lebanese beers, plus an arak (an anise-flavoured spirit) of the day, and the standout dessert is the fatayer pizzetta, filled with banana and halva.
At the packed Eid prayers I narrowly missed out on the breakfast boxes being handed out, stuffed with puris (puffs of unleavened bread) and halva - a sweet made from semolina.
Laledan restaurant and patio offers a breakfast buffet of more than 300 items, including local baklava and halva, and a Sunday brunch with its own chocolate room.
The gifts will include wine, olive oil, body cream, and halva, the Israeli embassy told The Huffington Post.
But I found it impossible not to incorporate several other key pudding players of my youth: crumbly halva, chopped pistachios or walnuts, dried rose petals, creamy tahini, citrus zest, saffron infusions, cardamom, juicy dates and syrupy date molasses.
