Aboukir (Abu Qir / Abukir)
The Bay of Abu Qir, Egypt, between the Rosetta mouth of the Nile and
Alexandria, is where the English defeated a French fleet in August
1798.
There is a cake (bombe) which has chestnut cream in it, named Aboukir,
and there is a petit-four made with almond paste and whole almonds,
also named Aboukir.
Any solid proof of a connection between the name of the place and the
name of the two desserts. My Larousse Gastronomique mentions Aboukir
Almonds but gives no background on the name; Alan Davidson is silent
on the topic (in The Penguin Companion to Food). No mention that I can
see in "A Culinary History of Food" (Flandrin et Montanari).
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