The World's Kitchen

This post has been sitting in my blog outbox for quite a while now so I thought I'd just post it. Enuwy solved the long held (how long has it been now? 5 years?) mystery of the Turkish dessert I ate once in a small Turkish dessert shop in Brunswick where all the signs and desserts all Turkish.

Some (probably) 3 years ago, I related the story to enuwy about how, in 2001, I wandered into this Turkish shop in Brunswick and tried a dessert that was a much loved favourite of all who was in this shop. It had just come out fresh from the oven, I had no idea what it was, all the women there were raving about it, but in Turkish, and I had no idea what to have. In the first place, I had wandered in not knowing it was a Turkish dessert shop.

Though it sounds like a dream, I kid you not that the nice people at the shop were so in love with that dessert that they gave me some to try for free. They were so adamant that I tried this just to find out what it was instead of buying the baklava and walking out of the shop. And the better I was for it.

From the first taste, it was obvious what they were raving about. To date, this remains the most amazing dessert I have ever eaten, combining everything I love about dessert (cheese, sugar, texture, chewiness... )and then some. Unfortunately, from that day on, while the tastes and textures remained firmly on my tongue, the alien name didn't stick quite as well.

So began the quest for the mysterious Turkish dessert. I got so far as to realize it was made up of kataifi, a sort of shredded soft filo pastry, but I didn't get to what the dessert's name actually was.

Trust enuwy to be the one to resolve this for me - and with no better blog post than the one she sent across. Reading through the entire post resolved more than just kunefe for me. It reminded me of what I remembered so fondly and missed so much about Alcuin Block A. I came across some photos the other day I snapped of food and smiles, both broad and generous, and it brought a smile to my face to know that I've had those memories of running clandestinely to the next block to snip rosemary for the roast chicken upstairs.

So thank you, enuwy. I had forgot to mention in person that the post reminded me of York but made a mental note to say that here. Oh, and that I know what I am going to get for a Christmas present (hint: Justin Quek).