anzu

The lime is to ensure that the pumpkin maintains a firm texture. I'm extrapolating from sweets made from preserved squash in both Indian and Chinese cooking (the Indian one is called petha, and is preserved wax gourd, the Chinese one is preserved winter melon. Winter melon and wax gourd, I'm fairly sure, are actually one and the same vegetable.) Should you just boil the pumpkin in syrup, it would break down and become mushy. If you soak it first in lime, however, it has a firm, almost crisp feel when you bite into it. One of these days I'll find the seven days necessary to make petha. Meanwhile, I'll watch Adam working with pumpkin.

Rather than restaurant suggestions, here is a brief (and over-simplified) outline concerning Rajasthani foods, and some dishes specific to the region. A couple of years back I spent 6 weeks or so in Udaipur while my husband was teaching a course there, and I spent most of that time cooking with and collecting recipes from the ladies who lived in the neighbourhood of where we were staying. I hope this run-down might help you in knowing what to look out for in restaurants, whichever restaurants you may end up in. First off, a couple of words of warning. Rajasthani food tends to use a lot of oil or ghee, and a lot of chili. That bright red coloring in certain dishes is not going to be from tomatoes, but from a frighteningly high amount of chilis. Unless your body is accustomed to this type of fare, going all out on purely Rajasthani dishes might actually make you ill - maybe certain dishes would be better tried from a buffet or shared, so that you can take a small amount to get the taste while also eating a substantial amount of milder foods. Incidentally, my neighbours claimed that an extremely high oil intake (easily an inch of oil floating on the top of each dish) was essential in the hot arid climate of Rajasthan. The dryness of most of Rajasthan means that fresh vegetables tend to play a smaller role in the cuisine that many other regions of India. Certain vegetables - such as greens and tomatoes - tend traditionally to be used very little. The souring quality that tomatoes bring to dishes is instead provided by using amchur (ground dried unripe mango) or kachri (a bitter melon which grows in desert regions and is dried and ground to a powder), or sour yogurt. The heat and sun is used to good effect for souring and for drying foods out, a couple of examples: - vegetables are dried, and are rehydrated for cooking. My neighbours all had pantries filled with dried vegetables, most of which they had dried themselves. - chaach (a type of drink: more on this later) is prepared by being placed in the sun for several hours. The dishes I'm mentioning are so much associated with Rajasthan that they are almost a cliche, (but are nonetheless worth eating) 1) Dal, baati, churma. This is actually three foods, but they 'belong' together. The dal for this dish is usually panchmel dal, prepared with five different types of lentils. Baatis are balls of dough (wheat flour + semolina, or wheat flour + besan) around tennis ball size. They are boiled, then baked in a tandoor, in hot coals, or the oven. Before eating, they are dipped in melted ghee. To eat, you break them open and eat with the dal. Churma are a type of sweet made from the same dough as the baati. The dough is formed into rounds, deep fried, then broken up into small chunks, mixed with sugar, and formed into balls. 2) bajra roti (In Gujerat, these same breads are called rotla) Flat breads made from bajra (a type of greyish millet). The flour is grey when milled, and so the bread is rather an unappetizing color. Don't let this put you off. Often served with a generous amount of ghee. My neighbours all claimed that Bajra roti would only have the right taste when cooked on an earthenware skillet (tava). Keep an eye out when you see people selling large earthenware pots (for water storage) on the side of the road. In Rajasthan, many are selling these earthware skillets as well (slightly rounded, no rim around the edge). 3) Chaach. This is a chilled drink made from besan, bajra flour, buttermilk, and water. These are mixed together, then placed in the sun to 'cook'. The mixture is then boiled, then chilled. It has a slightly sourish, interesting taste. 4) Laal Maas. Literally, 'red meat' (meat when referred to like this always refers to mutton/lamb.) The main spices in this are chili, Indian bay leaves, cloves, coriander, black pepper, large (black) cardamom. It's very tasty, but also extremely spicy. 5) Safed Maas Literally, 'white meat' Lamb cooked with yogurt, boiled onion paste, cream, cardamoms, cloves, cinnamon, Indian bay leaves, mace, and white pepper. 6) Ghatte Think Rajasthani gnocchi . This may be served in a sauce, or as part of a pulao. Lightly spiced besan is formed into a dough with yogurt, rolled into a 'sausage' shape, and boiled. The boiled dough is cut into lengths, then cooked further in a sauce or a pulao. 7) Mungodi ki subzi Papad ki sabzi The two are different, but the principles are similar. Mungodi are small balls of cooked, spiced mung bean paste, which have been dried in (yes, these too) in that relentless sun. The dry mungodis are lightly fried, then a spiced sauce is made with yogurt, chili, coriander powder and amchur, and the mungodis are cooked further in this. Papad are pappadums - like those often served fried as an appetizer in Indian restaurants. Here, they are dipped briefly in hot water, torn into strips, then added to a similar sauce as the sauce for mungodi. Often, these pappadums will have been homemade (and yes, dried in the sun), so that they make be quite a bit thicker than the commercially available ones, and the spicing will be varied more to taste. Our neighbours made their own papad from corn, as well as from the more usual urad dal. 8) Ker Sangri Both are plants indigenous to Rajasthan and have no English name. They are not - as far as I know - actually cultivated, but are nonetheless widely harvested and dried. Sangri are the pods of a leguminous tree. You can read more about sangri here Despite the reference here to sangri as 'famine food' it is a common food in Rajasthan. Ker are a small berry. I have eaten both only in the form of pickles. Both are meant to be extremely good for the health. Try them if available, as you probably will not get the opportunity anywhere else. 9) Ghevar A type of sweet made from flour and ghee, that is fried in ghee. It may be served with syrup or rabri/rabdi (thickened sweetened milk). Often, the sweets you find for sale in India in sweet shops are a case of repeating the same old favorites the length and breadth of the country, regardless of where they actually originated. (although of course, the sweets in some places will be better than in others). If you eat ghevar in Rajasthan, you are at least eating this sweet in its region of origin. Also, as you need a special mold for shaping the ghevar, and a large amount of ghee for frying, this is one sweet that one will most probably never try to make at home. It should be available in Lakshmi Mishtaan Bhandar, mentioned by SDSeth. 10) Malpua Small wheat pancakes that have been dipped in syrup. There are many different possible flavorings, such as pepper, anise, saffron, or rose water. These can be very very good if done well.

Makki di atta is finely ground yellow cornmeal. If you can't find it in an Indian grocery (the ingredient is used predominately by Punjabis and there may not be enough demand to make it worthwhile keeping in stock), I would suggest substituting the finest ground yellow cornmeal you can find from a regular supermarket. Please don't substitute masa harina, as someone suggested. They are very different. This would rather be like substituting masa harina for polenta - you might get something edible from it, but it would be far removed from polenta. My Punjabi mother-in-law makes these quite frequently, but I have never heard of having wheat flour mixed in with it. It is usually made entirely from cornmeal. No leavening. Just flour and enough water to make a firm dough. Knead for around 5 minutes. When entirely from cornmeal, this dough cannot be rolled out in the same way as one rolls out chappattis - the dough will stick and tear and will have jagged edges. Instead, one breaks of pieces of dough and flattens them out to chappati shapes using the fingers and between the palms of the hands. Alternatively, roll out between two pieces of plastic wrap or wax paper to prevent the problem of sticking. You might need to trim the edges off with a knife to get perfect rounds. Roll to the shape and thickness of a chappati. A non-stick tava or skillet is not necessary, any normal (unoiled) one will do. Unlike chappatis, makki di roti do not puff up as they cook, so check that the underside is done on the basis of smelling 'cooked' and on the basis of color (intense golden color, possibly with a few darker spots), then flip and cook the other side. If mixed with wheat flour, the dough will probably be somewhat more workable, and therefore it might be possible to roll these out with a rolling pin. They also might actually puff up like regular wheat chappatis do (or should ) when cooking. Don't worry if it doesn't roll out easily or puff up, though - neither normally occur with makki di roti. Just read Muichoi's post. Frying with ghee is another alternative, and possibly easier for novices to cook. However, most people I know make it without the ghee in a dry skillet/tava, and then serve with huge amounts of ghee.

Finally getting back to you. As I stated before, I haven't actually eaten in any of these apart from the Tadschikische Teestube. Aigner at Französischer Strasse (Gendarmenmarkt) is supposed to be good, though I find their web page a bit irritating. Fridericus, at Opernpalais, Unter den Linden. Allegedly 'Modern German with a French touch' Operncafe also at Openpalais, Unter den Linden. Not sure if their offerings go beyond cakes, but I'm tempted to try this place out. This is more a vague guideline than an actual reccomendation. However, the area near Gugelhof that you are thinking of (i.e. Kollwitzstrasse, Knaackstrasse) is pretty much one restaurant after another. If you can live with uncertainty, it might be worthwhile just taking a wander through the area and going with what looks good. The area - like a lot of Prenzlauer Berg - is also an interesting juxtaposition between up-and-coming renovated trendiness and unrenovated and run-down East German era shabbiness. Cafe Einstein. This is (obviously) more a cafe than a restaurant, though it also serves food. It has two locations: one at Unter den Linden 42, the other on Kurfurstenstrasse 58 (in Tiergarten). My husband has had the coffee there and recommends it. The Unter den Linden location is allegedly a favorite spot for German politicians to hang out in. Altberlin. No idea what this restaurant is like, but my eye was caught by the menu offerings on their blackboard yesterday. It had specialties such as mashed potato with linseed oil, which is I believe a specialty of the Spreewald area about 2 hours by train away from Berlin. This was on Nurnberger Strasse, just off Kurfurstendamm - close to the Kaiser Wilhelm church. Not German cuisine, but if you're in the mood for something different and feel like having tea in the afternoon, you might want to consider the Tadschikische Teestube (Tajik Teehouse). This is an extremely well hidden place on the second floor of the Palais am Festungsgraben - find the Neue Wache on Unter den Linden, go to the building behind it - fortunately that at least is labelled - up one flight of stairs, turn left and then left again, then walk more or less straight on till you find it on your right (if you're lucky they may have put up a portable sign on this floor pointing to the place, but don't bet on it). It's open from 3 pm (?) onwards, and serves mostly tea (don't believe what you might read in guidebooks about them serving Tajik dishes as well - I haven't ever seen that happen), including one samovar deal (the one I would most recommend) that is easily enough for 4 people. The samovar comes with a whole set of things for flavoring your servings of tea - a couple of types of jelly, fondant, raisins soaked in alcohol, preserved citrus peel, a few very uninspiring cookies, and vodka. Don't try to get into this place on a weekend without a booking, you won't get in. Weekdays you might have more luck. Even if not intending to eat or drink there, it's worth a look, as it is a genuine Tadjiki teahouse which was dismantled and brought to Berlin as part of a temporary exhibition, and which turned out to be so popular that they decided to leave it. The entire interior is made of carved wood, and the tea is drunk from low tables while one sits on cushions on the floor (yes, you need to remove your shoes). Finally, two anti-recommendations, because thenextmeal recommended street food. Yes, street food here can be good, but there are also plenty of places which fry food in quite disgustly rancid oil. Try standing downwind from a place first and smelling for rancid oil before handing over your money. I've learnt this the hard way, and other people standing in line for something and walking away eating it with apparent satisfaction is not necessarily an indication that the food is actually okay. The other street food to avoid, IMO, is Currywurst. Unless, that is, you like the idea of a sausage doused in huge amounts of ketchup which is then sprinkled with uncooked curry powder. I know some people here on eGullet have said they actually like the stuff, but I think it's utterliy vile and that a warning about the stuff is in order. This way, if you do order it, you at least have some idea of what to expect.

This question is inspired by eating bigoli during a recent trip to Vicenza. Has anyone tried making extruded pastas at home? I have an Indian sev press (this functions basically the same as a cookie press, but the patterns in the molds are all vermicelli/pasta shaped in varying sizes). Sev is (usually) made from a besan (chick pea flour) dough that is pushed in long strands directly into hot oil. The same press is used for making rice flour noodles, and also falooda - thin vermicelli made from cooked cornstarch that are pressed into iced water to set firm. One thing I notice with all the doughs used with the sev press is that they are not going to have any gluten. The difference in dough quality makes me uncertain as to whether it can be used for extruding pasta - would there be too much resistance from the dough? Adding to my doubt is the fact that a friend from Vicenza has a bigoli press at home (which I haven't seen). She says it's huge, and that a lot of energy is required to extrude the bigoli. Because of this, I'm wondering whether the sev press (or my hands) would be sturdy enough. I could of course simply experiment, but I'm worried that I might break my press or injure my hands if this turns out to be a bad idea. Has anyone tried anything along these lines?

Brauner Sirup = a thick brown syrup obtained from sugar beets. Substitute treacle or molasses? Susse Mandeln = these are regular almonds, they're simply labelled 'sweet' to differentiate them from bitter almonds. Susse Sahne = regular whipping cream. Labelled 'sweet' to differentiate it from sour cream. Schmalz = PORK fat. Use lard. (Going from your recipe ingredients, you are making one of the typical German Christmas cookies, they use pork fat, and other recipes with similar ingredients specify this even more clearly by calling it Schweineschmalz). Pottash is often used in German cookies, but only in Christmas cookies, many of which tend to have a slightly different texture to other cookies. Maybe someone who knows more than me about baking could say if it essential to texture? Incidentally, Pottasche and Pfefferkuchengewurz tend to start appearing on supermarket shelves here around September, and disappear again in January. They are sold in flat foil packets, and are cheap. If you're stuck, PM me, and I'll send you some. Given the packaging, mailing them should be easy.

Pan, not powdered resin - that's commonly available - what I'm discussing is buying resin that is still whole. It's a translucent darkish brown, has no smell, and you break small pieces off when you want to use it, then smash them up further in a mortar and pestle. Apart from the lack of smell, it's better than the ready powdered stuff, as the whole resin is guaranteed to be pure whereas the powder is most often mixed with other ingredients such as gum arabic, wheat and/or rice flour, and turmeric for color.

I almost never bake anything, but make an exception for panforte, which I do make quite often. Since yours was so hard, it sounds as if you baked it for too long. Since the cake is so dense I always find it close to impossible to check for doneness in any normal way. Instead, one needs to be fairly sure of one's oven temperatures and to take the time given in the recipe completely on faith, pulling the panforte out of the oven immediately at the time the recipe says it should be fully baked. The only time I didn't do this and left it in for slightly longer, I got the hardness you described. Do try it again though, as panforte is , and if even a baking amateur like me can manage it, then your lack of success was just plain bad luck plus a slightly too long baking time.

I agree that the resin is better. However, I never found it to be available readily outside of India. (I buy mine on my visits to India). Therefore, Muichoi, where did you buy asafoetida resin? I quite like the smell too. Incidentally, it's German name is Teufelsdreck - Devil's Dung

Not sure if this got answered by PM, or if it got lost along the way. Just in case, here goes: A while back there was a discussion about kosher substitutes for fish sauce which gave a few suggestions without fish. In addition, a very dear friend of mine is Chinese-Vietnamese and is a devout Buddhist who will not eat anything which necessitated the taking of life. She regularly goes back to Vietnam to visit relatives. According to her, there is a strong vegetarian Buddhist tradition in Vietnam where fish sauce is NOT used. Some people eat vegetarian food on the first and fifteenth days of the lunar month, others eat vegetarian food at all times. She says that a type of fish sauce substitute is used in Vietnam that, she thinks, is based on fermented pineapple. Even though I quizzed her about the details, she didn't know more than that (she's not a foodie like me). Even the use of pineapple might be inaccurate here. It could well be something else. At home, she simply uses soy sauce where fish sauce would otherwise be used. So if you are making Vietnamese food at home without fish sauce, it is not necessarily as inauthentic as you might think. Theoretically, also, this means that if you were armed with the right vocabulary, eating in Vietnam would not be totally out of the question. However, it's still not something I would stake my life on. Changing the subject entirely to what Snowangel can do with the pumpkin: cut into very thin slices and pan fried in butter with sage leaves and a little salt and pepper is absolutely delicious. I learnt this one years back from Italian neighbours.

I suspect I'm the only Berlin resident on eGullet, and I'm afraid my tips wouldn't be overly helpful as I tend to avoid eating in restaurants as much as possible. The massive clouds of smoke in German restaurants repel me. I might be able to find some information based on reviews and such like, but it would help if you said what type of price range you are looking at and what type of cuisine you would prefer. Re your earlier query about lunch followed by the opera: what is your mode of transport? Would a restaurant close to the opera or on the same subway line be ideal, or is it unimportant? Are you looking for a 'proper meal' on that occasion, or would a more informal brunch arrangement be acceptable too? (I'm asking as these are especially popular on Sundays). My bank is right next to the Deutsche Oper, and I'm going there tomorrow, so I'll have a look and see if any of the restaurants near there look suitable (or are even open on Sundays!). However, knowing that you would prefer, say, Swabian specialties, would make this easier.

There's a link here (in German) specifically about Oktoberfest food, complete with recipes. Translating the list of recipes given: Pretzel soup with chives Liver dumpling soup White sausage with pretzels Bavarian sausage salad with onions and chives 'Obatzen', radish and pretzels (obatzen is a type of homemade cheese mixture - here, Camembert mixed with other flavorings). Roast chicken Roast leg of pork with coleslaw Roast pork with caraway flavored cabbage and bread dumplings Roast sucking pig with a potato and cucumber salad Wild mushrooms with bread dumplings

China also has 'Crossing the bridge noodles'. (Guoqiaomian) This one has a long story to go with it about how a dutiful daughter used to carry a freshly made bowl of noodles in broth every day to her father working in the fields (crossing a bridge along the way). By the time she arrived, however, the dish had cooled down. Then, one day by chance, the broth had a thicker layer of fat on top. Lo and behold, the dish retained its heat all the way to the field. So crossing the bridge noodles is a winter dish consisting of noodles in broth with a fairly noticeable layer of fat on top. It's very delicious, too. Moving away from China, there are many other fancifully named dishes I can think of in other places too. I'll name just one: Angels' double chins - the version I know of is Brazilian and is a egg and flour based sweet baked in the oven and then drenched in sugar syrup.

You can use milk powder, but just milk powder alone won't usually give the right consistency for a khoya substitute. There's a page on khana khazana which explains about different types of khoya, and gives nine possible substitutes. Has anyone tried sweets using milk powder? I tried making milk powder peDas a couple of times, and while they were more or less okay, I wouldn't bother making them again. A friend of mine kept saying how wonderful her milk powder gulab jamuns were, but when I tasted them, both taste and texture were pretty awful. (She doesn't actually eat sweets herself, so always makes them for other people, and I suspect everyone is too polite to tell her). I do use milk powder for thickening milk for rabri, kulfi, kheer, etc., and find it okay there. So to me, there seems to be a crucial difference between using the milk powder to thicken (where its okay), and using the milk powder to make up almost the entire body of the sweet (where the flavor and texture are less desirable). What are other people's experiences?

I'm lucky that most of the Asian groceries in this country cater predominantly to Thai customers, and always sell cilantro with the roots attached. One reason for selling the leaves without the roots could be that, in some cases, the roots are actually being sold separately to Thai restaurants. This is just a guess, based on the fact that here in Germany cilantro roots are sometimes sold alone, without the leaves, to Thai customers. Otherwise, I think they are supposing that no-one has any use for them and that the bunch looks 'cleaner' without the roots. They will also wilt more rapidly, generating increased sales. Can you find out if any Asian grocery you visit caters more to Thai customers? (There must be some, surely?) Or maybe even phone some Thai restuarants and ask them where they are making their purchases? As far as growing your own is concerned: I've done it several times, with results ranging from overwhelmingly successful - basically thickets of the stuff - to very meager and sparse growth. All in similar growing conditions. So if you try once, and it doesn't grow well, don't give up straight away. The softest roots I obtained when growing them myself was when I sowed the cilantro in very low-lying soil. It was almost waterlogged. The cilantro grew more rapidly than other times, and the roots were softer.

I know you were talking rhetorically, but I was more-or-less in this situation for a while. It's interesting, but not necessarily much fun when you're doing it out of necessity. I was living for several years in New Delhi, (several years back) and the only Chinese flavoring available was soy sauce. A fairly nasty type of vinegar was available too. Western ingredients mostly weren't available either. Getting stuff from abroad wasn't possible - by mail it was too likely to 'disappear' before it got to you, and who had the money to get stuff from abroad when our very low income was in rupees? I was getting pretty desperate for Chinese and Western ingredients and I did try making my own tofu, brewing wine, etc. When you're already working a full-time day job (well, being a student in my case), and convenience products are almost non existent (and due to some complex health issues, not bought in our house anyway), and each grocery shopping trip means going to a different place for vegetables, a different place for fruit, for spices, for rice, etc., then making your own stuff is really, really exhausting...

I use my cleaver for everything except fiddly little tasks better done with a paring knife. When I cook at someone else's place and have to cut things without a cleaver, I start getting very unhappy. Because most were gifts, I have ended up with 3 cleavers - 2 Chinese and 1 'Chinese-style' made in India, as well as 1 Japanese chef's knife. Of these, I only use the 'Chinese-style' cleaver, though I did go through phases in the past where I used the others. One gets used to a certain feel and weight, and finds it easier and more comforting to stick with it. It also suffers less from oxidization. One thing NOT to do with a cleaver is to use the blade end for smashing coconuts. My husband did this once (against my wishes ), and it ended up with a notch being taken out of the blade. This was a cleaver that I had used for cutting through bones, so obviously coconuts can be a different level of magnitude. I would actually suggest a hammer for use on coconuts - less spectacular than thwacking it with the back of a cleaver, but gets the job done without a sharp blade being brought unnecessarily into the process. It's not just garlic that one can thwack with the side of the cleaver. Try it with ginger too. If your piece of ginger is particularly fibrous or thick, you might need to cut it lengthwise first in half or even quarters, but then just flatten it out with the side of the cleaver (you might need to bring additional pressure to bear by leaning your other hand also on the side of the blade so that your whole body weight is pressing it flat), and then mince further as desired. The size of the blade make them useful for cutting through anything particularly large. Not just the squash mentioned above, but large unwieldy things like cabbage and watermelon are more easily cut with a cleaver IMO. But the BEST thing about a cleaver is being able to use the side of the blade as a scoop to carry vegetables etc. from the chopping board to the pan (or wherever). As far as the risk of cutting yourself goes: the risk is exactly the same as any other sharp knife, no less, but certainly no more. The usual rule applies about keeping it sharp - the only time I ever got hurt by a cleaver was when I had let it get a little too blunt and it bounced off the skin of a bell pepper and onto the hand I was holding the bell pepper with. And finally, yes, it does make a good weapon. I lived in China for about a year (which is probably why I love using cleavers so much), and did actually once see an enraged housewife chasing her husband (presumably it was her husband and not an unlucky stranger ) down the street while screaming at him and wielding a cleaver. They disappeared round the corner of the street, so I don't know if she caught up with him, or what happened after that - I think that's what makes it so memorable, seeing a glimpse of someone else's drama without knowing the outcome. Anyway, it's not just in movies, but in real life that a cleaver can be wielded as a weapon. Mind you, I'd prefer that such a weapon be a cleaver than a chain saw for example (a chain saw-wielding lunatic attacking and seriously injuring a couple of random passers-by actually happened recently here in Berlin. And unfortunately it wasn't an event reported in the equivalent of The Weekly World News but something that really did happen). As for getting started on using it. I would seriously suggest that you give yourself two weeks or so in which you use only your cleaver and, when necessary, a small knife for fiddly small things like apple cores or peeling ginger (my Chinese friends use the cleaver for those tasks too, but I find it a little unwieldy). That way you'll start really 'getting the feel' of the cleaver, i.e. how it's weight and shape work for you. Then, after the trial period is up, see if you still want to keep using it. If you're like me - and a few friends I've managed to convert by having them cook in my kitchen with my tools - you won't want to be without it.

Here you go. I suspect that none of these are actually available in the US. I do seem to remember (I could be wrong) that the other study, concerning taste, did cover some brands also available in the US, such as Bertolli as well as others. It was in Stern magazine, but I really don't recall exactly when.

I wouldn't be sure about this. First of all, the marketplace has to realize that a fast one is being pulled. Germany has an independent consumer organisation that chooses certain products to test each month, and then publishes its results. The products to be tested are bought at standard retail outlets. The results of their research can be pretty eye-opening (and can have a major impact on sales of the product). Just this last month, they published the results for their tests on olive oil. All of it had been marketed for human consumption, labelled as 'pure, Extra-Virgin' etc., etc. Many (and not just sleazy brands) were below par, and many contained some type of contaminant (e.g. chemical softening agents). Some were rancid even while still sitting on the shelves waiting to be sold. One of the olive oils was so bad that it was not even food grade. Apparently 3 tablespoons of the stuff per day (if I recall correctly) had so many non-edible contaminants that it could cause heart failure. A couple of years back, in another (highly reputable) German magazine, they did a similar study on olive oil. In that case, they didn't check for contaminants, etc. but for taste. They took all of the 'Extra-virgin' olive oils available in Germany and got professional olive oil tasters in Italy to taste and rate them. Again, most didn't pass muster. There was no correlation between quality and price, or between quality and famous brand names. The highest rated one cost only about 2 dollars for a 750 ml bottle, and is available at a very ordinary supermarket chain. Unless you read this type of report, you honestly won't know whether your olive oil has some type of contaminant. Obviously, people were (and are) buying the sub-par stuff. I'm sure this type of report must be available in the US also, covering the brands available locally?

Indian spices shouldn't be a problem. Sendlinger strasse. Also, most Chinese/Thai/Vietnamese places stock all the standard Indian spices in a separate section (though maybe not things like ghee or pappadams). My standard way of finding ethnic grocery stores in a new place is to approach someone of the appropriate ethnicity, even in the street, and ask them where to get stuff. Works amazingly well. No idea what their stock is like, or whether the place is even still in existence (usually when I try to track down an ethnic grocery listed on the web, I find that it closed down a couple of years before), but there is this place (scroll down a little) for Mexican ingredients. I've never seen canned pumpkin filling anywhere yet in Germany. However, most places are selling fresh pumpkins around this time of year. Mostly these are butternut squash (available much of the year in Thai groceries also), Turk's turban, Halloween pumpkins, and sometimes Hokkaido pumkins (these are all still so foreign to the average consumer that many shops are offering guidelines on what they are, and how to prepare them. Quote: 'Butternut kann als Rohkost verwendet werden.' ). Not sure if it's possible to make pumpkin pie filling from any of those pumpkins - I love pumpkin, but hate it as pie, so I've never tried. What else? Rather to my surprise, I found good quality maple syrup in Reichelt the other day. So unless Reichelt doesn't exist in Munich, that should also be available. Maybe also available in Karstadt (?) where their 'American section' covers mostly wheat tortillas, bottled salsa, Hershey bars, pop tarts , corn chips, and not an awful lot else.

I also want to know what the 'real' oyster sauce tastes like. And is it being used in different dishes than the commercial one?

That triple burger on the Wendy's page looks scary somehow. How to get your mouth around it? But seeing the shrimp burger brought back memories. We'd been living in Japan close to a Wendy's, and this was the only thing I ever ordered there. Then we spent several years in a country without Wendy's before moving to Columbus OH - birthplace of Wendy's. Getting shrimp burgers again was one of the things I was most looking forward to. And then I found that they don't sell shrimp burgers in the US.

I don't think anyone answered Abra's query about how long the raisins will last seeing as no sulfur dioxide was used? I understand that the sulfur dioxide might preserve some vitamin C and A, but it's use is primarily cosmetic. So if the raisins are fully dried, there shouldn't be any problem Here's another way to dry raisins: Years back, I spent some time in the town of Turfan, in North-western China. The town is situated in the middle of a rocky desert, and water is brought in traditional underground channels from the snow-capped Tianshan mountains that can be seen far off in the distance. The main industry of the town was raisin production. In fact, grapes were all over the town: grown up high so as to cover the streets and adjoining sidewalks. This gave welcome respite from the sun, as well as being a means of obtaining more growing space. There were signs along the road asking people not to pick the grapes as they were not public property. The grapes were dried in special structures built for that purpose alone. These structures were square in shape, made from brick and about three stories high. They were open at the top to allow evaporated moisture to escape easily, and had numerous holes built into the sides of the structure so that fresh air could easily enter. Turfan is extremely hot in summer (average temperature well over 40C, about 115F,) and the structure being heated in the sun was sufficient to dry out the grapes. Essentially, I suppose, they were functioning like giant ovens, with good air circulation ensured due to the holes. I'd love to know if this was a structure unique to that area, or if it's found in other regions as well. Ethnically, the people in Turfan are mostly Uyghur, so I'm wondering in particular if similar drying methods are employed in neighbouring regions with a similar culture, such as Uzbekistan.

None of my family and friends in Australia would call that a 'barbie'. Seeing as Australia is a nation of immigrants, I should qualify here. My family is of UK/ German background, but four generations back. In the 60s and 70s, when I was growing up, a 'barbie' referred to a round grate and food was cooked over coals. Usually sausages and steak would get turned to charcoal on the outside, while the sausages at least remained raw inside. Some time in the 80s, around the same time that other food in Australia was also really taking off, the Weber barbecue kettle started making huge inroads. I think every person I know in Australia owns one. Well, every family, at least. This includes my Chinese and Vietnamese friends. I can only say what my relatives and friends cook: pork roasts, lamb roasts, beef roasts, 'gourmet sausages' (i.e. likely to be flavoured with porcini, basil, pine nuts, merguez spices, etc. etc.), whole fish, pumpkin cut into large wedges, red bell peppers. Roasts are almost guaranteed to be studded with garlic, rubbed with salt and olive oil, and may well have bits of rosemary thrust into them as well. Fish seasonings will either be Lebanese inspired, Greek inspired, or Italian inspired (all three are major ethnic groups where I come from). My Chinese and Vietnamese friends cook mainly pork roasts, and fish on the Weber. Sometimes chicken. It didn't use to be a tradition to barbecue at Christmas. Instead, people I knew (my family included) would laboriously make traditional English Christmas fare - heating up the house by roasting chicken in the oven when the surrounding temperature was already sometimes over 40 Celsius , boiling Christmas pudding, etc. No-one ever had much of an appetite for the food because it was just too heavy and filling for the weather you were eating it in. I'm sure there are still people who do all that, but no-one I actually know. Instead, people I know will cook the type of things I just described, eat outside in the shade of some trees, sit around and chat, drink plenty of Australian wine . Not having Christmas in summertime is one of the worst things about no longer living in Australia! No one I know barbecues anything for New Year (though other people may well do so, I just don't know them). It will usually be done for most large parties though - and quite a lot of smaller ones as well.

I just bought some Lotte Xylitol Blueberry Mint gum today. Though made in Japan, it's labelled entirely in simplified Chinese, so obviously intended for export to China. Now for the fun part: so as to be able to sell it in Europe, where the ingredients apparently have to listed in a language that can be read locally, they've stuck a little paper label onto the back of the pack. It lists the ingedients in six languages, and then has another sticker again with Nutrition Facts - Calories, Fat, Protein, Sodium and 'Hydrocarbons'. Okay, I can sort of understand getting carbohydrates and hydrocarbons the wrong way round, but it has still made my day.