The first time this writer tried kunafa was in the Middle East. Pure, decadent and full of stringy cheese, it changed our view of what traditional desserts in deserts (pun intended) can taste like. It is made with shredded pastry called kateifi that looks like ultra-thin vermicelli or laccha sevaiyan that is soaked in a sugar syrup and layered or wrapped with cheese and other ingredients like cream or nuts. Popular in Egypt and the Levant region, it’s a speciality that we were excited to try.

Kunafa World, a tiny café at Pali Naka with its three tables for outside seating and battery-lit candles in a lantern, makes an earnest attempt to bring in the cafe feel, but the place is more of a delivery outlet. You could stop by for a quick post-meal dessert treat but that’s that. At the outset, we had our eyes set on Nabulsi cheese kunafa (R396), a specialty that originated in the Palestinian city of Nablus and uses a local white-brine salty cheese called Nabulsi as the filling. The blend of stringy Nabulsi cheese balanced perfectly with the crunchy, buttery semolina crust that had turned just the right shade of golden. However, we felt there could have been more of the cheese for that well-rounded, goodness feel in the mouth that a well-made kunafa can give. We even watched it getting made on rotating burners while the staff rolled out kunafas like clockwork, packing them neatly in to-go boxes for the delivery crew waiting outside.