[Sca-cooks] Noddled up!

[Suey]

Thank you osistito, V A and Olwen for your replies. I think I am getting 
into the hang of this one.  Anyway as you V A requested  the Perry 
translation of the Anon 13th C MSS states:

"Recipe for Fidaush (Noodles)

"This is made from dough and has three types: the long one shaped like 
wheat grains, the round one like coriander seeds that is called in 
Bijaya (Bougie) and its region humais [literally, little garbanzos] and 
the one that is made in thin sheets, as thin as paper and which is food 
for women; they cook it with gourd, spices and fat; it is one of the 
qataif. Fidaush is cooked like itriyya [see next recipe]."

(Itriyya is marconni.)

    Now yes we have a etymological problem with the word as you can see 
I translate qataif to the Americanized Turkish and  now we have atayif 
thrown in. That's why my daughter did not continue to study Arabic 
because she got to a point where she had to decide which country. To me 
no matter how we spell it seems like the same to me with the exception 
of regional recipes and progression through history. An explanation of 
the progression of the word could as interesting as the recipe itself.
    Yes its seems like we are talking today about

 
> Nowadays 'atayif are small, sort of silver-dollar-sized pancakes that are
> filled with sweetened cream (ashta) or with sweetened chopped nuts, shaped
> like pockets and served with a simple syrup flavored with rose or
> orange-blossom water.
>
>   
a dessert but Olwen wrote:
> Kataifi is what I use to make nests for garnishes.  I form them into nest 
> shapes and bake for a short while, can't recall how long but not long, then 
> I boil up a bunch of quail eggs and insert two to three eggs in each nest 
> and garnish a tray of (ugly) food.  This type of garnish is one I use for 
> our Middle Eastern feasts, which, in my opinion, is usually fairly 
> unattactive food and needs a nice or interesting visual focal point in the 
> garnish.
    Beautiful! Do we have something like blancmange that was  first 
course in the Middle Ages and now is a dessert but you Olwen are using 
it as a nest for decor perhaps for some medieval root?
    Bottom line ladies and gentlemen, can we consider this item a noodle 
or a pasta or is it a pastry?
    Olwen, by the way, don't know if my Arab grocer here has this item 
but am not telling my husband about this entire issue to avoid total 
havoc in the kitchen if not  - cause of  the "little" party he is 
planning next week.  He will cry for your little nests to be included if 
I breathe a word! I have even considered putting a band-aide over mouth 
when I go to sleep just to make sure I do not talk in my sleep, although 
he says I don't!
    Suey