I went grocery-shopping all around the world yesterday. Well, actually, I wandered around a small shopping center that has groceries with foods from from Mexico, India, and Japan. Browsing the spice aisle in the Indian grocery (Patel, a branch of Raja Foods) my eye landed on an invitingly red bag of Achar Masala under the Swad brand name that Raja sells. Unfortunately the bag I bought has a smear on the ingredient label, so I can't quite make out what's in it. There is red chili powder and mustard, and then something I can't read. Asafdenda? Then salt, fenugreek, and edible oil. I tried a small taste, and it's quite nasty. All right! I browsed rajafoods.com a bit, and although the site does not mention this product, some of the cooking tips mention heating a spice mixture in hot oil for a minute or two before adding the rest of the ingredients. So I'm guessing that this is not intended for snacking right out of the sack. I also bought a jar of Swad brand ginger and garlic paste, whose only ingredients are ginger, garlic, water, vinegar, and salt. Oh yeah, this is good stuff. I can imagine mixing this with a good hab sauce, and some orange juice concentrate. At the Mexican grocery (El Inka, does anyone else have these?) I bought some of the addictive peanuts seasoned with chile and lime. I love these things, and they're easy to find. At the Japanese store, I was immediately drawn to a markdown shelf. I got a small jar of fine-ground black pepper, in part just for the jar - the type used for nanami tagarashi, with the single shaker hole. These are great give-away sample jars. I also got a jar of "momoya xo-jan" without knowing what it is. But hey, it has red pepper in the ingredient list (after dried shell, dried shrimp, onion, vegetable fat, and sugar) so I'm willing to try it. *opens jar* Smells and tastes a bit like crab; this might be a nice secret ingredient in a shrimp-ramen lunch. *G* actually my first stop was at a used CD store, where I got History of the Grateful Dead Vol. 1, so now I have the refrain "I been all around the world" playing in my head. - A _________________________________________________________________ Our best dial-up offer is back. Get MSN Dial-up Internet Service for 6 months @ $9.95/month now! http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/dialup