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haresfur, I want to make clear that I'm also interested in particularly great spices or spice mixtures. Kenneth, I'm very much aware that Kalustyan's is not a bargain store. Dual has much better deals, though Kalustyan's has a wider selection. That Malaysian curry paste sounds like it gets used up too quickly to be the kind of product I currently want to carry, though I'd be interested to try using it myself and I'm glad it's available in New York. I'm glad to have the mustard recommendations and will look into them further.

Thank you, Cronker. I'm not expecting those items to be among the first products I would carry, but I'll keep them in mind. Where have you found good bulk buys?

Prepared sauces are interesting to me, as long as they aren't likely to be used up quickly. So yes, I am interested in particularly great chutneys and mustards. Kenneth, I'm surprised to hear about a good Malaysian curry paste being made in Queens. Just how much did it cost, if you remember?

Thanks for all your wonderful suggestions! gfweb, you're right that I'd love to look for products not distributed by Amazon, but I might also consider some that are, because Amazon has a wide selection, whereas my concept would be to sell only a limited number of great products that I've used myself and whose deliciousness I can personally vouch for. Alex, thanks for your welcome back. I will look into all the products you have recommended, and I'm definitely still interested in any more suggestions people have.

Hi, everybody! I'm thinking of starting a business selling great condiments that are hard to find. Do you have any favorite condiments that you have trouble finding near where you live? I'm looking for hot sauces, chili pastes, or other ready-to-use condiments like non-perishable barbecue sauces, salsas and chutneys that aren't mass-produced or normally found in supermarkets, and have a fairly long shelf life until they're opened. Secondarily, I would also be interested in products that can be used in cooking, such as spice rubs or other seasonings. Any information you can give me about the names of products, what they are and what makes them special, the name of the manufacturer and their address or at least the name of the town where they're produced, and their website, if they have one (though if they have no web presence, that's great!) would be really helpful to me in researching more products that could meet my high standards. It doesn't matter what country the items are from; if they're great and don't require refrigeration before opening, I'm interested.

Those pigeons for sale look exactly like the pigeons I see on the street in New York. By the way, about city pigeons being dirty: It's really just due to the environment they live in, much as it's difficult for people living on the streets to get and stay clean. I've observed that the pigeons who roost on the ledge across from my apartment spend a lot of time grooming themselves and their mates. Back to food, though: I've certainly eaten pigeon and like it, and it's not quite like chicken, but I've never eaten pigeon eggs. I'd be curious to read a follow-up on whether they do in fact taste a lot like chicken eggs; I wouldn't assume so.

I'm currently eating my masala oatmeal, but it isn't really that, exactly. On the first attempt, it was a smashing success, although it took a long time to cook and I think next time, I'll use my wok. Ingredients: About 1 inch of fresh ginger, chopped 3 cloves of garlic, chopped 1 large white onion, chopped 3 plum tomatoes, chopped 3 scallions, sliced (optional) 4 mushrooms, chopped About 5 tablespoons steel-cut oats 3 tablespoons urad dal 3 tablespoons or so of roughly crumbled "raw" cashews 2 dried curry leaves, crumbled into small bits 1 heaping teaspoon cumin seeds 1 teaspoon garam masala 1 teaspoon ground turmeric 1/6 teaspoon ajwain seeds 1 teaspoon amchoor powder 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/3 to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1 flat teaspoon sweet paprika 3 organic free-range eggs about 1 1/2 cups full-fat yogurt juice of 1 lemon, seeds removed a neutral oil (I used canola) as needed Method: Put a bit of oil into a wok or pan. Add the ginger and garlic, stirring until they are mostly cooked. Add the onions and more oil as needed. Cook until the onions are close to done, then add the scallions if you like and repeat the process. After that, add the spices and mix thoroughly. Then add the oats, urad dal, cashew pieces and curry leaf bits. Again add more oil as needed. When the cashews seem cooked, add the tomatoes. You will probably need to raise the heat a little, but be careful not to burn the oats or dal. When the tomatoes are mostly cooked and the liquid is somewhat reduced, add the mushrooms. Wait until the mushrooms are cooked to add the eggs, but it is not necessary to wait until the water evaporates. Mix, making sure to coat everything with egg. When everything is thoroughly mixed and the eggs are cooked, add the yogurt, mix thoroughly, and add the lemon juice. Simmer a bit to reduce the liquid somewhat and cook the mixture. The result should still have a good deal of liquid - indeed, the texture should be something like oatmeal, but crispier. Distribute it into bowls for eating. Thoughts on this improvised recipe: First, it was delicious. However, I couldn't taste the scallions, so I think I'll use them in something else. The ginger was somewhat present, but I think I'll at least double the amount next time to taste it more. I used few ajwain seeds because when I opened my newly-bought bag, they smelled strong, but I couldn't taste them much, so I'll put at least 1/3 of a teaspoon in next time. I also will use an entire container of mushrooms if I have one handy next time (I had only half a container left). The quantity of tomatoes seemed good; I didn't really taste them separately, but they were part of the mix and also helped add water to it. But more worked than didn't work. The texture of the oats was pleasant, in this combination. The lemon juice was great, and I don't think vinegar would be as good. The spices all came through except for perhaps the paprika and to a large extent the ajwain (and turmeric just gives food a subtle earthiness, so I'm sure it helped, but the taste wasn't that present even with a whole teaspoonfull), and the curry leaves were especially nice. The cashews also really helped. By the way, the cayenne was definitely present and the large amount of yogurt cooled it off some, but if you are sensitive to chili, decrease the cayenne or omit it, then taste it to see if any should be added. Next time, I may try using some mustard oil. I thought I had some, but I couldn't find it. I also would love to add some really substantial green vegetable to this like kangkong (water spinach), adding it before the tomatoes (or possibly in lieu of them, for a different variation). Final comments: The urad dal and oats form a paste, so be careful of that. If you prefer, add more oil (but I wouldn't have wanted more than I used, which I'm guessing was perhaps 1/8 of a cup in total at most). Some people might prefer using less oats, but the result was very good. Also, for those who like it (and aren't trying to avoid them because of their glycemic effect), you could easily add some raisins to the combination of urad dal, oats, cashews and dried curry leaves. And finally, I'm not sure what role the eggs had in this dish. I suppose they could be omitted, and I don't know what it would have been like if I had used 5 instead of the 3 I had left.

That's a really good thought. Maybe I'll try some with various other ingredients in scrambled eggs and yogurt see how that works.

Any favorite recipes for a masala oatmeal, anyone? I don't love oatmeal but will start eating it again for health reasons (oats lower LDL cholesterol, according to the Pritikin website). I want to use Indian spices and techniques to make the oatmeal taste good. No salt, please (low-salt diet, too), but I can easily leave the salt out of most recipes that call for it, as long as there is a lot of taste, otherwise.

Edda Servi Machlin's cookbooks are excellent. I want to remind everyone that tomatoes are an American plant, so any tomatoes or tomato sauce would be anachronistic for a recipe from outside of the Americas before the conquistadores.

Thanks for the link. Have you tried that recipe, by the way?

Hi, everyone. I made goulash today, using the Round the World Cookbook's recipe minus most of the salt, since that was the recipe my mother used and I always enjoyed it. I also made a rather dangerous dish for someone on a low-salt diet: uborkasaláta (Hungarian cucumber salad). Why dangerous? Because to get the right texture for the cucumber slices, you must salt them, and then it's very difficult to rinse the salt off completely. But that aside, I found that a recipe in the Gundel Cookbook that my father bought on the street for $1 but which we threw away when vacating his apartment because it was falling apart was the one that really tasted like the salad I had enjoyed so much when I was in Budapest. I tried to find the same recipe online and didn't, really. As near as I can reconstruct the recipe, it had these ingredients: 2-3 cucumbers, sliced and salted all over, then left to sit until water has come out of them, then optionally rinsed and patted dry onions (I don't know how many - we used 2 very long hothouse cucumbers and 1/2 large white onion, and it seemed like enough onion) vinegar mixed with water (but how much?) pinch of sugar generous amount of paprika I don't remember whether black pepper was asked for, but some recipes call for it, and I figure it couldn't hurt to use a little. I can't find the online recipe I mostly consulted, but it called for 1/2 cup of vinegar and 1/2 cup of water. I used cider vinegar; maybe I should have used white vinegar, but in any case, it really came out too vinegary and with too much liquid for my taste, or compared to what I enjoyed eating in Budapest, and I added more sugar than I would have wanted to (5 or 6 pinches, I think). However, it did taste a lot better when I added additional sweet paprika to both the goulash (for which I used spicy paprika while cooking) and the salad. So my question for you: Next time I make this salad, how much vinegar, water and sugar do you think I should use? And do you have a favorite recipe? I should add that while it's perfectly valid to add sour cream, dill and various other ingredients to your version of uborkasaláta, I'd rather not. The only additional ingredient I might consider is garlic, which some recipes suggested, but I don't remember there being any in the Gundel Cookbook.

I would more or less deny that. If I remember correctly, Laut always served Malaysian and Thai food and pretty quickly also added sushi. They did have more Malay dishes than some other "Malaysian" restaurants in Manhattan, but you had to know which dishes on the menu were really Malaysian, and even then, getting them to be made spicy and real was a bit hit or miss. Sanur (this is the place on Doyers St., right?), if I remember correctly, was - at least the last time I went there (probably well over 10 years ago) - run by a husband-and-wife team, both Overseas Chinese people. One of them was from, I think, Batam, an Indonesian island just south of Singapore, and the other was from somewhere in Malaysia (Ipoh? Penang? I don't remember). It is not easy to find specifically Malay, as opposed to Malaysian food in New York. What follows may not be as knowledgeable a discourse as you'd get from a real expert, but here goes: My experience in terms of rendang is that in Indonesia, they cook it down longer than in Malaysia, so that it has a more refined taste and more tender meat. More generally, since many Sumatrans (especially but not only in Riau and Palembang) are basically Malay and loads of Minangkabau came to Malaysia starting in the 19th century, not surprisingly, there is more overlap between Malaysian and Sumatran cuisines than there is between Malaysian food and the styles in Java, Bali and other Indonesian islands. But even talking about "Malaysian food" ignores the large differences between West Coast and East Coast styles. Kelantanese food, for example, is quite distinct from West Coast food, and unfortunately, I don't think you're ever likely to find items like Ayam Percik or Nasi Kerabu in Malaysian restaurants in New York.

I don't have a pressure cooker. My girlfriend has been talking about how good they are. I agree that 1 teaspoonfull of caraway seeds is insufficient, and I would recommend more vinegar but also more apples.

Sure. By the way, my refrigerator is so small, I've just left it out, covered, on my stove, so I'll make sure to reheat it thoroughly when I have more tonight.

By the way, the cabbage is a little chewy. I'm glad I'm eating this now, not a couple of weeks ago, as I had a tooth extracted on Jan. 5. One other thing, the parsley is a great idea. I think I used more than 4 tablespoons' worth, and I would seriously consider using about twice as much next time; I may add some fresh parsley tomorrow. This tastes very good.

OK, I just pretty much finished making it. It's come out well. The cider was fine, and I'll bet this would be OK with beer, too. I was impatient and didn't completely evaporate it, but I think that's alright. I ended up adding additional caraway seeds, for a total of 2 1/2 teaspoons, and yellow mustard seeds, for a total of about 1 1/2 teaspoons, but I don't have a mortal and pestle, so that makes a difference. I also added about a half tablespoon more vinegar, for a total of 6 teaspoons and 1/2 tablespoon cider vinegar. Next time, I think I'd up the number of apples by as many as 2, for a total of 4. I also used enough black pepper to make the dish slightly peppery. I added 1/2 teaspoonfull of allspice. At that amount, it doesn't taste much, but that's fine. OK, now I'll eat some. By the way, I could not have fit more than one head of cabbage in my large saucepan, and I also inaugurated a ladle I bought at Pearl River the other day. Thanks, everyone!

Will do. I like cloves, but I'm sure my mother didn't use any when making this dish.

Thanks for the info. In that case, I'll use the Granny Smiths in this, and I'll bake the McIntoshes in the oven with cinnamon, allspice and ground ginger.

I guess I'll stick with 1 head, then. This is just for me, but it would be great for it to last for a while. I will keep this vegetarian, not because I don't eat meat but because my mother didn't use any animal ingredients when she made this (unless maybe butter), and I don't want to deal with salt. I do have some allspice and cloves. How much would you use? I don't have bay leaves but can easily buy them.

I didn't get around to making this today. If I make 2 heads' worth of cabbage, should I double all the other ingredients? If not, which ones should I avoid doubling, and maybe keep the same?

I'll look into that. Thanks for the suggestion.

My mother's recipe never had mustard seeds in it. As a child, I wouldn't have liked that. I suspect it used lemon juice, rather than vinegar, but I'm not sure. She often used it as a side dish for goulash or chicken paprikas, but I'm not going to make either of those today (maybe another day). I could also look for half-bottles at my local discount wine and liquor store, but I have the general sense that they're usually a bad value.

Looks like an excellent recipe. I may use olive oil instead of butter and will indeed omit salt, but otherwise, I think I'll follow your recipe. So no alcohol?

Excellent. Thank you!