BS”D
Dafina is the Moroccan and perhaps Tunisian variant; it has been 17 years since I have had it but at the Moroccan shul I used to daven at they would make the potatoes and wheat separately from the meat part of the stew. Spices included cumin and garlic and undoubtedly pepper. Eggs were cooked with one part or the other as well; they turned brown and picked up the spices – I’ve done this myself with cholent and it comes out very delicious!
I think that they also added dried apricots to the meat but that may have been something I had at a simcha in Montreal. Unfortunately, the kosher restaurants in Morocco are not glatt as the supply of glatt meat is very limited so I never tried any Moroccan Jewish food in Morocco.
Lahmacun (the real spelling, so there) is actually Turkish in origin; in Turkey it is sold like pizza in large, round pieces cooked in a stone oven. Syria was part of the Ottoman Empire and that is how it made its way to Syria. I’ve never tasted or even seen the Brooklyn or Deal Syrian version, nor have I seen it in EY.