Monday, October 30, 2006

regretfulness.. can be a name of dessert..

do you believe in the power of language..definition.. idioms.. sayings.. and naming..nicknaming..I do.. I believe that.. language is a living substance.. varying.. developping affected by the history.. of daily living.. and that is why it is very difficult to translate some local things.. as food.. or used objects.. because.. there is a whole history behind..how can you translate the idiom.. throwing out the baby with the water.. if you don't know how english people were living.. in medieval period..all this information.. is needed.. because I am eating pismaniye.. ( you can read it pishmaneeyae)..


I looked at the dictionnary.. where it is translated.. as candy floss or cotton candy.. which is a totally different thing..so I decided to use the local name.. and some photos to visualise this...ooo so yummy..
nasty calorie-bombe.. as a german friend of mine kept saying while she was eating turkish desserts..
the name means.. regretfulness.. it is believed to be originatied from Persia.. where it was named pesmek.. but it also believed that the name pişmaniye was due.. to the difficulty of preparing it and keeping the right texture.. and that people who tried to do it.. were regretful when they understood how hard it is to succeed ..the name differs throughout the country.. it becomes.. palace Halva.. or the stretch halva.. or the flax halva..it is not known for sure ..how and where it originated from.. and spread to the country.. but the most believed story is that one.. in 1600 some armenian cooks.. who came from Armenia and Persia to the Marmara Sea region.. and settled down there.. have started to make and sell this..
the ingrediants are 3 of the modern white poisons.. butter.. sugar.. and flour.. and a couple of strong arms.. and lots of tips and expertise.. they first cook the sugar and water.. then add some lemon juice.. the result is a taffy-like consistency ..it is then poured in a circle shape.. on a cold marble table.. flour and butter..precooked together..until they became pinkish.. is poured in the middle of the circle.. and the two are processed together.. by more then two or three people.. they take the sugar taffy and pull it hard.. as though playing cord-pulling game.. the flour mixture..and the sugar mixture have to be mixed to each other by this continous pulling motion until they get fluffy..
and you don't mind how many calories you take.. at the moment you put this delicious dessert in your mouth.. ans you think..who has to be regretfull the one who eats it.. or the one who doesn't eat it.. this is a sin.. to eat or not to eat.. well I don't regret at all as I don't sin every day.. would you??

5 comments:

jessica said...

thank you for the nice compliment on beautiful budapest.

how interesting this pismaniye is. i would agree with you, it's fine to have it some times, it would be a sin not to have it, and a sin to have it often. sounds like a lot of work too.
enjoy your pismaniye.
jessica

Anonymous said...

So if I ever come to Istanbul, will you make this dessert for me? It sounds heavenly!
Thanks for an intgeresting post about language.

Cat said...

Humn, I've never seen any thing of that texture... I imagine it melts in your mouth. I totally understand the words "sinfully delicious"!

Saucy said...

I suppose it is very delicious. You describe it so well.

It must have much air in it, decreasing the calories, do you agree?

One Crabapple said...

There is a large armenian population here. There is a middle eastern market right by my house as a matter of fact....so I can get Halva, I have seen it....but NOTHING with the beautiful texture I am seeing here....this is so intriguing. I want to dive in and make a pig of myself just seeing this photo. Can you see me, rolling around in Pismaniye ? All sticky and happy ? am I in heaven then ?

It sounds like so much work too ! I imagine after all that pulling you don't care HOW many calories.... you are due the enjoyment !

well now I am on a mission to try this Pish-man-ayea (did I say it right ???)