It seems that these fritters were invented by the Arabs who, as they ground their chickpeas, a legume from the East, first discovered chickpea flour and then a method of frying them. The fritters were first shaped by special moulds of wood that bore an embossed floral symbol or logo that was to indicate the ‘fritter-maker’ who had made them. Another little curiosity about the fritters: they used to be eaten - and still can be – in a specific bead roll, the ‘Mafalda’.