Of all the styles and shapes in the pantheon of pastry, kataifi is the most playful. It loves to be twisted and turned, bathed in butter or oil, baked or fried until glowing with the promise of crispy flakes on your chin, lap and heart as you crunch into its golden, glassy fuzz.
Since they’re often interchangeable doughs, it’s easy to assume that kataifi pastry is simply shredded filo. But rather than being rolled and stretched into paper-thin sheets like filo (or phyllo, depending who you ask) kataifi begins as a light, pourable batter which is streamed through fine nozzles on to a rotating heated plate, where it cooks almost instantly into a cascade of fine vermicelli-like strands, delicate yet strong, like spun silk.
