[Sca-cooks] totally confused marbled, caulifowered, leaded???

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Galefridus wrote
>I saw something that leads me to believe that isfidaj might be used as a 
>generic word for white things/ingredients. That would explain how it 
>might be translated as cauliflower, a white vegetable. I do not have the 
>source with me right now, but it was something I saw in al-Warraq. I'll 
>try to chase it down tonight.

The word "isfidaj" comes from a Persian root "sefid", meaning "white". The "-aj" ending seems to imply that the item, a noun, has the quality of whatever the suffix is attached to. So the dish may be an adaptation of a Persian dish.

The Arabic for "white" is "abyad / bayda" (masculine & feminine forms).

Urtatim