Chikoo, also known as sapodilla or sapota, grows in India, Mexico and Central America, and parts of Southeast Asia. The fruit is lightly larger than a golf ball, with the brown, sandpapery skin of a potato. Inside is a slick, pale orange flesh with several black seeds. The flesh is almost candy sweet (it's sometimes called Indian butterscotch) and has the rough, soft texture of an overripe pair. Chikoo is a common ingredient in Indian ice creams, milkshades, and halwas. The latex from the stem can be used to make chewing gum.

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Asafoetida, also known as hing, is the powdered gum extracted from the root of the giant fennel. A major ingredient in Indian vegetarian cooking, it has a pungent, slightly sulfurous stink, hence it's nickname of "Devil's Dung" (I actually find it kind of pleasantly bracing, but maybe I'm a total freak). It's smell mellows through cooking to more of a standard onion+garlic odor.

Asafoetida is a crucial ingredient in many Indian vegetarian recipes, including many curries and lentil dishes. You can find it at Indian markets, maybe at a gourmet specialty store, but I've never seen it at a standard supermaket. While the powder is naturally beige, many commercial preparations include turmeric for a bright yellow color. Check out this recipe for Gujarati dal (lentils in the style of the Gujarat province of India) with asafoetida at Archana's Kitchen.

Want to know what to do when your milk has started to turn?

If you've been a reader of Slashfood for a while, then you might know that I am a huge, HUGE, fan of Indian food. Sadly, aside from a a few decent attempts at vegetable samosa, I couldn't cook Indian food at home to save my life, let alone smack a ball of dough inside a oven to bake naan.

However, if you have it in you to prepare an Indian meal and want to include that delicious fluffy flatbread, head over to Ooh You Tasty Little Things for a quick recipe for naan. From the picture, they look a bit like pancakes, but I have no doubt in my mind that these babies were absolutely delicious, especially with fresh garlic mixed in!

When you want to add some variety, some spice, to your regular diet, looking to other cultures and cuisines is a great idea. Adding some curry to your usual marinade or chipotle peppers in your bbq sauce effectively constitutes fusion cuisine and opens a world of possibilities for the home cook in the kitchen. Strangely, however, not that many cookbooks promote this type of fusion. They tend to strive for either authentic, exotic recipes or for familiar fare, with the tiniest pinch of spice that serves to differentiate it from the competition. The former strategy can be intimidating to some cooks, while the latter would hardly constitute a decent exposure to a new cuisine, let alone a good introduction. One Spice, Two Spice: American Food, Indian Flavors embraces the idea of really blending flavors from two cultures, resulting in a cookbook full of recipes that manage to be familiar and different at the same time, introducing a whole new range of possibilities in a very accessible way.

The recipes are relatively uncomplicated and primarily use ingredients that can be found at the regular grocery store, as opposed to at specialty markets. Roast Lamb with Mint–Black Pepper Sauce, Curry Leaf Lime Vinaigrette, Pan-fried Black Pepper Shrimp and Mahi mahi Stuffed With Coconut Coriander Chutney are just a few examples of recipes that incorporate Indian ingredients and condiments (which play a big role in Indian food) into more familiar dishes. Author Floyd Cardoz doesn't rely on the food to speak for itself, and takes the time to explain the inspirations for his flavor combinations and the history associated with ingredients at every possible opportunity.

Every year there are a handful of ingredients and flavors that find their way onto almost every single restaurant menu in the country. Last year, two of the most popular flavors were pomegranate and chipotle. This year, the menu trend-spotters have already made their top five predictions, some of which are bolder than before and others that are merely extensions of existing trends.

Functional flavors - Beyond green tea and pomegranate there is a whole world of functional food that will become more widely used. Açaí, acerola cherry, red wine and red tea will all step more into the limelight.

More Latin flavors - Chipotle is still popular, as is regional Mexican (from Oaxaca and Jalisco), but new flavors will step up, with more influences from Central and South America.

Sweet and savory- The pairing of salty and sweet (or savory and sweet) really hit a home run with packaged foods last year, but more mainstream restaurants will be offering salted caramels or herb-infused ice creams than in the past.

Expected flavors, unexpected fruits- Why stick with orange when you can use blood orange? The same goes for choosing Meyer lemons, Buddha's hand or other citrus over plan lemon. Twists on popular flavors will make the food seem more exotic, without taking a big risk by radically changing the flavor.

More Spice, Less Heat - Instead of the overt heat of chipotle, ancho, and jalapeño, there will be more Indian and Moroccan spices added to menus, including curry, cumin and cardamom.

Every year, over $20 billion dollars is spent on snack foods in the US, so it is easy to see why the snack industry is so interested in trying to find the next big product - or better yet, the next big flavor. Most snack products have been around for a long time and are met with only slight variations. Popcorn is healthier or more indulgent and cookies can be chewy or crispy. The flavors, however, can be used across the board in all different types of snack foods. Cheddar, for example, is a very American flavor and everything from chips to popcorn to aerosol "cheeses" come in cheddar flavor, making it one of the most popular snack flavors around.

In their efforts to come up with the "next cheddar" the snack industry uses snackologists, who observe the snacking habits of their target audience "to identify flavors the public will like and then find ways to package those flavors into irresistible morsels." A lot of research is done at restaurants, where trends are introduced to the mainstream. Chipotle and jalapeno were some of the most recent snack flavors to spring from the restaurant industry and snackologists are now pondering whether teriyaki, curry and other Asian flavors can make it into the US snack mainstream successfully. These masters of munching aren't going to reveal anything more specific just yet, but you'll know who the idea came from the ext time you see the word "New!" emblazoned on bags in the snack aisle.

The new trend in frozen foods is pushing our taste bud frontiers with exotic and unusual ethnic dishes. Supermarket surveys have shown that customers want to see more ethnic cuisines on the market shelves and that we aren't afraid to taste a few spices.

For some time brands like Ethnic Gourmet have been producing frozen entrees and sides with Asian dishes from China, Thailand, and India; now they have added other cuisines like American Southwest and Italian, amped up with a bit more spice and flair than we are used to. Many other brands are stretching the culinary envelope into areas like Morocco, with Fairfield Farm Kitchens making refrigerated soups like Moroccan Stew, Tibetan Curried Soup, and Hungarian Vegetable Noodle Soup, all based on a recipes from the well known Moosewood Restaurant. They also have other offerings like Jamaican Style Jerk Chicken with Wehani rice and Thai Style Chicken Curry. Paani Foods Inc. is exploring other areas of African cuisine with Jollof Rice with Chicken and Peas, a mainstream Nigerian dish, and a West African Meat Pie. Two frozen entrees I can't wait to try.

Expect to see Latin cuisine defined by national dishes and regional recipes from places like the Yucatan showing up in your grocers freezer. Indian food has had a strong showing lately and now we can expect to see the tastes and spices amped up so that if the box says spicy, it will be. Also you can expect many of these frozen ethnic foods to be organic and from humanely raised livestock. I love that we are going to be exposed to more varied offerings in the freezer aisle. For many this will be first tastes of new cuisines, with the opportunity to explore safely from our home. I can't think of a better way to get exposed to the varied food of our global society as we eat our way deeper into the 21st century.

The Indian health ministry issued a warning about the quality of Indian street food this week following a survey that "found many sellers oblivious to the basics of food hygiene." Most, in fact, stated that they put their "profits before customer safety" - a risky decision for the average restaurateur, since many vendors count on repeat business to keep going. As unlikely as it may seem, their strategy does not seem to be working against them. Street food is popular for three reasons: it is cheap, it is convenient and it tastes good. That last reason is why the vendors stay in business because customers say that "you think of the taste and just forget everything else you know," returning to the same stands, despite become ill after eating the food.

The health ministry is planning to offer food hygiene training for those in the food service industry and may develop a licensing system that would require such courses to be undertaken by vendors in the future.

Lentils fall into that category of staple foods that includes rice and flour. They don't generally merit much thought because they are prevalent, yet they make up a crucial part of the diet of many in southern Asia and are popular anywhere Indian food is sold. At least, they didn't receive much thought until the Indian government banned lentil exports, which has resulted in shortages in other parts of the world, including the US. As a result, lentil prices are going up and some restaurants are turning to lentils from other countries, though "there are complaints from discerning customers who bemoan inferior quality."

The dried beans are such a staple that they are often eaten several times a day, especially by Indian vegetarians, so people have turned to hoarding them while still paying increasingly high prices. Until the ban in India is repealed, it doesn't seem like prices will be coming down any time soon. Fortunately, dried lentils keep for quite some time, so if you like lentil soups in the fall, it might be worth picking up a bag or two at the store, just in case.

The Indian state of Kerala, along with several other states, implemented a ban on Coca Cola and Pepsi colas after the companies refused to reveal their recipes to the government. On Friday, the High Court ruled that the ban was illegal and immediately reversed it, saying "state government had no jurisdiction to impose a ban on the manufacture and sale of [those] products. Only the federal government can ban food products."

Coke, Pepsi and fans of the two brands lauded the decision, but the top elected official in the state said he would attempt to get the ruling overturned.

The New Delhi research group, the Center for Science and Environment, was the original driving force behind the ban and wanted it reinstated, though a spokesperson did say that, since a significant number of food products produced in India contain pesticides, that alone was not the reason they targeted the cola companies. It was "because they account for nearly 80 percent of India's $2 billion soft drink market."

At this time, it seems unlikely that the court's decision will be reversed.

The owner of a restaurant in Mumbai has, in what appears to be a case of very poor judgment, opened a restaurant called Hitler's Cross. It is covered with large portraits of Hitler, as well as the red, white and black swastika of the Nazis. The owner claims that he simply wanted the restaurant to be memorable. "This is the one name that will say in [peoples'] minds," said owner Punit Shablok. "We are not promoting Hitler. But we want to tell people we are different in the way he was different."

"Different in the way he was different"? Does that mean that the restaurant owner wants to lead a fascist nation? That he is a Nazi? Or did Hitler have some previously unknown passion for "continental food" - presumably vegetaraian food, at that - served in small restaurants in India?

Needless to say, many people in the community (and in the rest of the world) are angry about the name choice, which is offensive to many. It remains to be seen whether public outcry will be strong enough for the restaurant to change its name. Both the owner and the manager have already expressed a desire to turn the restaurant into a chain.

The Indian state of Kerala has initiated a plan to ban Pepsi and Coke for having levels of pesticides above the permissible amount. The whole thing seems to be a campaign against the products, both of which are produced locally using the local water supply. Even Indian commentators are taking note and observing that perhaps the money that the Indian Center for Science and Environment (CSE) intends to spend fighting the cola companies would be better spent running "a campaign for clean water" and reducing the levels of pesticides in all instances.

According to the same source, the CSE's "conclusions were that Diet Pepsi contained 0.36 amounts of pesticide per parts per billion (ppb), as tested by the Central Food Laboratory in Kolkata, that Pepsi contained 0.09 and that this was below the limit prescribed for packaged water by the Ministry of Health."

Other sources verify that the levels found in the soft drinks were lower than the levels of pesticide found in tea and other food products, including eggs, apples, rice and milk. So why target Pepsi and Coke? The CSE says that they cannot compare apples - which are reported to have 30200 times the prescribed limit of pesticides, versus 28,040 times the limit in tea and only 24 times the limit for Pepsi - to sodas. But the companies make convenient scapegoats in a country that seems to have pollution issues in areas other than their sodas.

Chutney is becoming a more and more popular condiment, but most people don't know exactly what it is - in large part because there are so many different kinds of chutney available.

Chutney, in its basic form, is a condiment that contains fruit, vinegar, sugar and spices. It originated in India and was discovered by the Western world when British soldiers and colonists brought recipes back to England, along with other popular Indian foods, such as curries. It can be thick and chunky or smooth, and has a heat level that can range from very sweet to very spicy. The mixtures can be either cooked or uncooked and virtually all of them rely on the addition of chilies for heat. Mango chutney is probably the most popular variety, in part because mangoes are a popular fruit in India, but also because it was the first chutney that was widely available to Europeans.

Broadly, a chutney is basically a type of relish and there are really and endless number of variations that can be made on the theme, such as Fresh Peach Chutney, Melon Apple Chutney, Green Tomato Chutney and (of course) Mango Chutney.

Are round salt granules a big deal? They are for two Indian scientists working on developing the spherical crystals. In a recent Food Navigator interview, Parthasarathi Dastidar and Pushpito K. Ghosh said that round salt granules are less apt to cake in extreme heat and would, in general, be easier to pour. The two created the dodecahedron-shaped granules of salt with the help of a glycine, a sweet amino acid. Since round salt wouldn't need any anti-caking agents, it would be totally clear, the scientists told Food Navigator. Crucial to the survival of mankind? Probably not. Neat and interesting? Sure.