SC - Qata'if -- duck and bread

[david friedman]

At 10:35 PM +0200 8/25/00, TG wrote:
>Adamantius, in response to Margali and Selene, said:
>
><< Is there any evidence to suggest that the modern qata'if product of
>shredded phyllo/borek is what is referred to in Al Baghdadi, etc.? >>



>Now, strolling through the paper copy of 'A Baghdad cookery-book', I
>find that one of those poets is quoted there (Mas'udi, 947/957):
>
>"When in my friends the pang of hunger grows,
>I have QATA'IF, like soft folios;
>As flow of lambent honey brimming white
>So amid other dainties it is bright,
>And, having drunk of almond-essence deep,
>With oil it glitters, wherein it doth seep.
>Roser-water floats thereon, like flooding sea,
>Bubble on bubble swimming fragrantly;
>As foliated book, laid fold on fold --
>Afflicted hearts rejoice when they behold:
>But when divided, like the spoils of war,
>All have their hearts' desire, and sated are." (Arberry 1939, 29)

Thanks--I'd forgotten that one.

Note that the description is pretty clearly not of a shredded pastry, 
but of thin sheets--consistent with the material I quoted earlier.

David/Cariadoc
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/