At a shop nestled in a busy, crowded Beirut district, Hasan El-Makary is weighing out containers of warm, fragrant mufataka, a traditional sweet in the Lebanese capital that is rarely found in stores.
A kind of rice pudding made with turmeric, tahini sesame paste, sugar and pine nuts, mufataka is traditional in Beirut but less known even outside the city.
The shop used to sell other desserts but now only sells mufataka, because it is so popular with customers who cannot make it at home.
Hasan El-Makary's son, Samir, now owns a dessert shop too, where he also makes mufataka.