Hey Alex, Astefida is a powder you add to Indian foods to stop the body's natural urge to form gases. In other words..... well, you get the point. Many cuisines have a version of it. It is a good thing in dal's etc!! So how come we sophisticated American's don't use it? Linda ----- Original Message ----- From: "Alex Silbajoris" <asilbajo@hotmail.com> To: <chile-heads@globalgarden.com> Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2003 7:58 AM Subject: [CH] Achar masala and momoya xo-jan > > 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 >