The kebabs, loaded with spices, upset his stomach. He finds the rice and mutton too fatty, though he enjoys the hoshaf they serve at the end—a bowl of sugary water with stewed fruits. Like Queen Victoria, the Turks have a sweet tooth and consume a dazzling variety of desserts, some with bewildering names—Bottom of the Cauldron, Lips of the Belle, Wife’s Belly, Floozy’s Treat, Vizier’s Finger…But the one Arthur prefers is the ashure—Noah’s Ark pudding, a recipe with forty ingredients, said to have been invented on the coracle to celebrate surviving the Flood. It is still alive, in this part of
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