Kataifi

Kataifi is a Greek term for pastry in thin strands. A food dictionary explains that the dough is squeezed through a perforated disc onto a hot metal plate, where it is dried in long strands. The same word also names rolls made from these strands, filled with chopped nuts and sugar, baked and served drenched with syrup.

The pastry is also called shredded phyllo, and the thin strands look like fine vermicelli.

Baked with butter, the strands turn crisp and golden. In the classic form they wrap around chopped nuts and sugar, and the baked rolls are soaked in syrup so the crisp strands become sweet, sticky and tender at once.