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Do you know ' Turkish Delight'?

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mooonlight

Turkey

Turkish Delight, lokum, or loukoum is a confection made from starch and sugar. It is often flavored with rosewater and lemon, the former giving it a characteristic pale pink color.

Food historian Reay Tannahill suggests that the Persian confection ahbisa (a sweet jelly) was the ancestor of Turkish rahat lokum, the long name for the sweet. According to the Ali Muhiddin Hacı Bekir Confectioners company of Istanbul, founded in 1777, lokum has been produced in Turkey since the 15th century. Originally, honey and molasses were used as sweeteners, and water and flour were the binding agents. The recipe for lokum as we know it today, using the new ingredients of sugar and starch, was invented and popularized by the Hacı Bekir company during the 19th century.

Lokum was introduced to the west in the 19th century. An unknown Briton became very fond of the delicacy during his travels to Istanbul, and purchased cases of lokum, to be shipped back to Britain under the name Turkish Delight. It became a major delicacy not only in Britain, but throughout continental Europe.

The Turkish word lokum may come from lokma in Turkish or لقوم luqūm, the Arabic plural of لقمة luqma(t) 'morsel' or 'mouthful'. Alternatively, it may have derived from Ottoman rahat hulkum or Arabic راحة الحلقم raḥat al-ḥulqum 'contentment of the throat'. In Libya, for example, it is known as حلقوم ḥalqūm. In Bosnia, its name "rahatluk" clearly relates this etymology.In English, it was formerly called "lumps of delight".