Description
Tulumba or Bamiyeh is a deep-fried dessert found in Ottoman cuisine and the regional cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire. It is a fried batter soaked in syrup, similar to jalebis and churros. It is made from unleavened dough lump given a small ovoid shape with ridges along it using a pastry bag or cookie press with a suitable end piece. It is first deep-fried to golden colour and then sugar-sweet syrup is poured over it when still hot. It is served cold.
Tulumba literally means ‘pump’ in Turkish. The dessert is called Pomba in Cypriot Greek and Bombacik in Cypriot Turkish. In Armenian cuisine it may be called either Pomp or Tulumba. Tulumba features in Albanian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Greek, Azeri and Turkish cuisines. The sweet is also found in Persian cuisine as Bamiyeh. In Hejazi it is called Urumba but in Egyptian and some Arab cuisines it is called Balah el-sham and in Iraqi cuisine it is known as Datli.
It is made from a yogurt and starch based dough, which is fried before being dipped in syrup. It is a special sweet often enjoyed at Iftar in Ramadan. It is also commonly served with its counterpart, the Zulbia, which is prepared the same way, but the only difference is that it has a web-like arrangement.
