[Sca-cooks] Noodled up

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Jul 14, 2007, at 8:13 PM, Suey wrote:

> Lilinah wrote:
>
>> You are getting a good set of descriptions of *MODERN* kataif from
>> various messages. Today it is rather like shredded phyllo.
>>
>> But what it is today and what it was 500 or more years ago are  
>> very different.
>>
>> Which book are you referring to? Charles Perry has translated quite a
>> few Arabic language cookbooks and has written many essays on aspects
>> of historical Arabic and Arabic influenced cuisines.
>>
> I am talking about his 13th Century Hispano Arab MSS translation  
> when he
> talks about Qataif:
>
> http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Andalusian/ 
> andalusian_contents.htm
> You have my point lovey cause I don't want today's definition. 500  
> years
> ago it was related to a noodle in my book. What I search for here  
> is our
> family connection with our Senorio Pasta?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you seem to be consistently suggesting  
some distinction between "noodle" and "pasta". If so, what is the  
difference?

My own feeling is that anything that is not boiled to cook it is  
neither a noodle nor pasta (instant no-boil lasagne notwithstanding),  
so I wouldn't automatically associate itria or qaitif in any of its  
forms with pasta. Some of the older food historians seem to consider  
all these foods subdivisions of a class they call "grain pastes" (and  
Escoffier calls them "farinaceous foods").

Adamantius