Then Jawan the Kurd put out his hand, which was very like a raven’s claw, scooped up therewith half the dishful and drew out his neave as it were a camel’s hoof…
-Arabian Nights, from the tale of Ali Shar and Zumurrud, on the 321st Night, translated by Richard Burton
This is what it is to eat asīda when hungry, you reach into the bowl with fingers extended like a dainty bird’s foot and pull out a fistful of millet paste so lumpy that it fills the hand as if it were a misshapened camel pad.