The Wizard’s Table Codex
Food Is Weird: Bite-Sized History
— Entry 003 —
The Dessert That Remembers Fire
Mersu — Sweetness of the Sumerian evening.
Name: Mersu
Origin: Sumer (Mesopotamia, 2100 BCE)
Type: Ritual Confection / Ancient Energy Ball
7 dried figs, split open.
3 tbsp honey
1 heaping spoon cracked roasted barley
A splash of wine that’s seen war (or at least an awkward dinner)
1 tsp ground black sesame
A whisper of rosewater
Salt—just enough to make you wonder if it’s a dessert
Crushed almonds or walnuts (optional)
Instructions
In a saucepan, combine figs and wine. Let them stew together.
Add the honey, barley, and sesame. Stir well.
Simmer until thickened, until it coats the spoon.
Finish with rosewater and salt. Taste it.
If it makes you wonder, you did it right.
Spoon it into clay bowls, or leaf cups, or your hand.
Eat warm.
Notes from the Dust:
This dessert is believed to have been served after battle victories, in temples. Or was it? That’s the thing about unwritten history, we can make it up.
What’s in a name.
“Mersu: a word carried across millennia, dense with meaning. To name something sweet was to name it sacred—to honor what fed the gods and those who were grieving.”
Food for Thought
Mersu was more than dessert. It was devotion shaped into bite-sized prayer.
Entry 001