My first real purchase of pashmak – also known as fairy floss, cotton candy and dragon’s beard – was at the fabulous food hall of David Jones in Sydney. The soft, delicate, pastel-coloured wool is actually spun sugar and sesame. It tastes like threads of halva, with a mild, elegant, nutty sweetness that melts away in your mouth. It’s the texture that I find so intriguing: like fine cocoons of silk-like thread. It looks quite spectacular adorning cakes and desserts.

Fairy floss comes in an array of colours and flavours: vanilla, cocoa, rose, orange blossom, pistachio, saffron and now geranium and sour cherry. This authentic Arabic sweetmeat is often eaten with tea or coffee.

A few years ago on a trip to Bahrain I hunted it down and stuffed copious amounts of it into my suitcase, even getting my fellow travelling partner, food journalist Graham Howe, to catch on to my sweet obsession.

Since discovering pashmak I have tried to research how it is made. At last I found a video on youtube in which American chef David Arnold demonstrates this fascinating way of spinning sugar. It certainly is an art.

He forms a hard set piece of sugar and glucose into a doughnut shape and then continuously pulls the sugar and dips it into corn flour as he goes. He makes a figure eight, then folds the two loops together to form one ring, which he pulls again. He does this until a glorious mass of silky subtly perfumed threads (more than 16 000) are formed.

I might consider trying it out one day, but until then I am quite content to purchase my little packets. So it was with much delight this week that I found a local supplier (Gourmet Cravings) who’s bringing it in to South Africa.

Good things come to those who wait.

Have a great foodie week! 
Abigail

Image by jamieanne