Syrian Nadeem Turkia always knew he was going to work in hospitality — he just never imagined it would be in a food truck in Darwin.

After topping his class in his hospitality degree, he was about to leave Jordan for a coveted scholarship in the United States when being Syrian became an obstacle.

"The head of my university told me, 'they didn't accept you because you are Syrian. There is nothing we can do.' That was the moment my dreams stopped," he said.

Mr Turkia was born in Jordan, his mother's country, and lived there for most of his life.

But when the Jordanian Government changed its policy on Syrian nationals having rights to work and residency as it became inundated with hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing war, Mr Turkia became an illegal immigrant in his own country.

"It was like you were in a big jail," he said.

"You couldn't work, you couldn't do anything, because they would send you back to hell, to Syria."

Syrian refugee Nadeem Turkia hands out a heart-shaped falafel to a customer. ( ABC News: Peta Doherty )

'In our food you will taste our culture'

In Jordan, citizenship is conferred through the paternal line, and children are not automatically eligible to be citizens just because their mother is a citizen.

Mr Turkia's mother Taghreed said watching her husband and three sons lose their rights to citizenship filled her with anger and sadness, and frustration at the patriarchal system.

"I thought, 'why am I not Jordanian … what am I? If a man married a woman from another country, in three years she would become Jordanian, but I had no rights," she said.

The family of seven arrived in Darwin almost a year ago after being accepted as part of Australia's Syrian refugee commitment intake.

Before war broke out, the Orthodox Christian family spent the holidays in their Syrian home, Wadi al Nasara, or Valley of the Christians, a village on the outskirts of the northern city of Homs.

Mr Turkia describes it as paradise; a picturesque mountain village where food was plentiful and five minority groups lived together in peace.

It is a vision of Syria that he is keen to share with Australians who, he said, associate his homeland with war and conflict.

And to do it he has adopted the age-old Middle Eastern tradition of giving away falafel to anyone who walks by the window of his Darwin-based food truck, Flavours of Damascus (formerly Damascus Kitchen).

The truck moves around different suburbs and markets in Darwin during the week.

Nadeem Turkia with his mother Taghreed and father Saied in Darwin. ( ABC News: Peta Doherty )

"When they taste it they start asking us where the food came from, and then we start talking to them about our culture and all the good things about Syria that they don't know about," Mr Turkia said.

"In our food you will taste our culture, you will taste all the spices that have thousands of years of history."

His family planned to use their culinary skills to bridge the cultural divide even before they set foot in Australia.

"When we heard Australia would take us, we wanted to say thank you for accepting us as part of your country," Mr Turkia said.

"This is the way I can say thank you."