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Sticky fingers By Ronit Vered Tags: Israel News As Christmas approaches, foreign magazines are featuring seasonal specialties from all over - exotic Japanese sweets, Twelfth Night cakes, sugary macaroons and ginger candies. We find ourselves filled with an obscure longing for intoxicating adventures from faraway lands that will add something new to the sweetest holiday in the Jewish calendar, Hanukkah. The attempt to find a local confectioner who can make soft clouds of marshmallow mousse like the French La Dora, has brought us much sadness in the past, and the price of the luxury candies made by French experts makes importing them out of the question. Therefore, we've decided to focus on commercially produced sweets, but only the best of them: neither the victims of globalization that drably adorn most supermarket shelves, nor the colorful Russian delicacies. We went in search of the truly unique. Treasures from Jaffa and Nazareth The loveliest candy shops, those that still have entire walls of colorful candies from all over the world and drawers that pull out to reveal sweet surprises, are found in Israel's Arab areas. Here, sweets play an important part in special ceremonies and events: A suitor coming to ask for a girl's hand in marriage brings her parents an offering of chocolate and candies. At the start of a wedding female guests receive little tulle sachets of Ms or Jordan almonds. Chocolates wrapped in blue or pink are de rigueur to celebrate the birth of a son or daughter. Upon returning from Mecca the new hajjis receive chocolate. And at holidays, like last week's Id al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice), it is the custom to visit one's extended family, where guests are greeted with trays of chocolates and other sweets. Advertisement The nature of the event dictates the presentation: Most items are sold in bulk, not prepackaged. Wedding favors are wrapped in tulle and trimmed with white and gold lace decorated with flowers and tiny bridal figures. To celebrate a baby's birth, there are shiny ribbons with minuscule teddy bears. The candy stores of Nazareth, Acre and Jaffa carry the standard selection of chocolates and candies from the major importers, but the best part of these shops is the pralines, baklava and hard candies that come from Jordan, Syria and the Gulf states. New Guinea, or the general neighborhood of India is thought to be the birthplace of sugar, but it was the Arabs who improved the refining and cooking techniques and spread the sugar culture to Europe. By the 10th century, when sugar was practically unknown in Europe and there were still centuries to go before France's confectionary artists would be vying to outdo one another in creating sculpted sugar towers to adorn the dining tables of the nobility, sugary sweets and intricately carved sugar monuments were already gracing banquet tables in Arab capitals. And the tradition has been preserved. When we first came across the chocolates and candies of the Damascus candy manufacturer Semiramis, we were stunned by the colorful packaging and huge selection of unfamiliar sweets. The taste, though, seemed to come after esthetics and exotica. But in the past year Belgian investors have partnered with the Syrian family business. The quality of the chocolates in recent shipments to Israel, bearing a joint Belgian-Syrian imprint, pleasantly surprised us. This combination of East and West worked wonders, producing such delicacies as sugared apricot coated in dark chocolate, or chocolate-covered, pistachio-stuffed dates. Fashion designer Safinaz Grabli used to fill her suitcases with Syrian sweets and decorations every time she visited relatives in Jordan. A year ago, with the opening of her lovely chocolate shop near the Clock Tower in Jaffa, this informal personal import business of Semiramis products became official. Buyers Mohammed Saadi and David Dan have a discerning eye - or an especially sweet tooth - for the most delectable treats. Some of the products imported by the company, like Toggi wafers and Lu cookies (from Switzerland), are among the finest of their kind. The shop's Middle Eastern department carries sweets from Jordan that are sold under the family label of Cafe Saadi. For the upcoming yuletide holiday they are bringing in a selection of high-quality Christmas candies from Germany. Shokolada, 10 Nahum Goldmann St., Jaffa 03-681-5511 Cafe Saadi, Paulus St. (next to the Diana restaurant), Nazareth 04-655-6717 Healthy candy Evolutionarily speaking, we are programmed for sweetness. Breast milk contains sugar, which may explain toddlers' mania for sweets. Sweet foods are also among the most calorie-dense. An appreciation of sour or bitter tastes is a later stage of human development: in ancient times they warned of poisonous foods. Liat Saguy and Liat Tiberg began their candy import business as a solution to the dilemma familiar to many parents over whether to allow tempting sweets in the house. Even those who try to limit their children to candies made with natural fructose, or go so far as to insist on uninspiring carob as a chocolate substitute, cannot successfully buck modern consumption trends, or Grandma, for that matter, that find a way to get the devilish sweets into the house anyhow. The two young mothers, both marketing professionals, discovered through diligent Internet research that the Industrial Revolution did not completely do away with quality candy, and that the health revolution that has managed to frighten everyone about the dangers of too much sugar, preservatives and food coloring also offers some alternatives. In the United States, hundreds of companies that make sweets using only organic or natural ingredients have been established in the past few decades. Most are small, family-oriented businesses that tend to adhere to other "green" agendas such as fair trade, environmental protection and a close connection to the local community. The result is first of all pleasing to the eye: Some of the products are hand-crafted and their simple, naive design stimulates nostalgia as well as tickling the palate. Marich is a small company outside San Francisco run by a family of Dutch heritage that is responsible for inventing Jelly Belly gourment jelly beans. Marich offers colorful jelly beans made with pectin, honeycomb and food colorings produced from natural extracts. The orange beans have a wonderful mandarin orange flavor, the white ones have an addictive vanilla aroma and the purple ones spur sweet memories of bunches of purple grapes. Loli Natural and Organic Candies, 054-397-3439, 054-578-0029 Bookmark to del.icio.us   Knesset express Rightist party offers Jonathan Pollard top spot on Knesset list. Mahmoud's Gospel Ahmadinejad: If Jesus were alive, he would stand in opposition to U.S.

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