The Red Hot Aleppo Pepper

By Nancy Harmon Jenkins

I’VE BEEN TO ALEPPO TWICE and I realize now, sadly, that I will probably never again visit what was one of the most ancient and alluring cities in the entire Middle East. Admirers used to say Aleppo was the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. That may be a stretch — Damascus claims it too — but it’s darned close.

I first went back in the ear…