Dafâir: deep-fried braids. An arabic recipe from the 13th century.
(printout version recipe november/december 2004 (1 page A4) 

Ingredients:

150 gram (1 cup - 3 Tbsp.) semolina (coursely ground durum wheat)
100 gram (3/4 cup + 2 Tbsp.) wheat flour
1/2 decilitre (1/4 cup) water
1/2 decilitre (1/4 cup) sourdough
1 egg
pinch of salt (even sweet pastry needs some)
1/2 tsp. saffron, ground in 2 tsp. hot water
oil for deep-frying
optional:
50 gram (1/3 cup) finely chopped pistacchio nuts or almonds
sausje:
1,5 decilitre (2/3 cup) runny honey
black pepper to taste (but be generous), freshly ground
1 tsp. cinnamon (cassia is chinese cinnamon)
1/2 Tbsp. finely ground lavender flowers

Preparation in advance: 
Prepare the dough: Moisten the semolina by adding the water little by little. Then add sourdough, salt, and 50 grams flour, knead until you have an elastic dough. 
Stir the saffron through the egg, incorporate this in the dough. Now you add the rest of the flour, little by little, until the dough has the consistency of a soft dough for bread (like when you are making brioche). Put the dough in a bowl, covered with a moist towel, and leave it somewhere warm (I prefer the closet where the water heater is). You should let the dough rise for at least two hours, because sourdough takes longer than commercial yeast to work.
If you wish, you can add finely chopped nuts to the dough. 
While the dough rises, you can make the sauce: temper the honey with finely ground pepper, cinnamon and lavender.

Preparation:
Divide the dough in six or eight portions. Sprinkle the worktop and your hands with flour. Take one portion of the dough, and roll, pull or manipulate it until you have a long, thin string. Cut this in three equal strings of equal length, and plait them into a braid. Take care to pinch the ends of the strings together. Make six or eight braids in this manner. Let the braids rest for fifteen minutes before deep-frying.
Heat neutral oil in a deep-frying pan to a temperature of 170 dg C (or ... F). Fry the braids one or two at the time until they have turned golden brown. Turn them once while deep-frying. The process will take just a few minutes. Drain the fried braids on paper towels.
Heat the spiced honey slightly in a microwave to facilitate pouring.

To serve:
Put the braids on a decorative plate. Drizzle some of the spiced honey over them, and sprinkle with sugar. This should be powdered sugar, but I chose coloured granulated sugar instead.