UMM ALI

Yesterday, I had someones tits for lunch. Ah! This statement has just the right amount of shock value, well, enough at least to grab your attention. Now, before my disgusted audience sets their imagination in motion and visualises me chomping on a pair of goat teats or something equally gross, (and some may have thought of even worse) I should hasten along with my narrative.
So, yesterday I made my acquaintance with ‘Umm Ali’ (literally ‘Mother of Ali’), an Arabic gastronomical delicacy, which tastes quite a lot like the ‘Shahi Tukda’ that we get in Mominpura in Pune, especially during Ramzan. In essence, it is sweet bread with sweet milk and raisins. Now the name ‘Umm Ali’ sounded innocuous but interesting so I asked how this dish got its name. Like so many things in Arabia, the history of this dish too is violent and brutal.
Long ago in Egypt, there was a queen called Shajraht Al Durr. She fell in love with and married one of her army generals called Eszz El Din Aibak, and then promptly fell out of love with him. The story goes that she killed him (or got him killed). This angered EED Aibak’s first wife; a commoner named Umm Ali. To avenge he husband, she fought with the queen, killed her, cut off her tits and ate them with bread and milk. That, ladies and gentlemen is the history of this sweet-dish. This is not apocryphal but authentic recorded history.
The passing centuries have altered the nature of the dish somewhat. Thankfully, the queens’ tits have been replaced with raisins and the result is quite tasty.