Cotton candy, or candy floss, is a snack that brings out the child in all of us - even if we can't appreciate the taste of it quite as much as an adult as we did when we were young.

I once helped to cater a carnival-themed party and had first dibs on operating the cotton-candy machine, which melts sugar and blows it into very fine strands. Unfortunately, I barely had a chance to use it - all the guests wanted to try their hand at making it, too. While I'm sure they would have baulked at the thought of eating a straight spoonful of sugar - because that's what cotton candy is, just sugar and food colouring - they happily munched on the floss that they had made.

There is a much more delicious type of cotton candy called pashmak (and other names, depending on where it's made), which is often referred to as Persian candy floss or fairy floss, and which is similar to the dragon's beard candy you find in Hong Kong (although not as easily as you used to).