[Sca-cooks] re: Lemon Syrup

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

>margali wrote:
>>  > > On the other hand, I just got back from my favorite middle
>>  > > eastern market and was talking with the persian woman who ownes
>>  > > it and found a new drink to try - willow water with a few drops
>>  > > of rose water in iced water with pinch of a little seed that
>  > > > looks like an oval nt-quite-a-poppy-seed.
>  >
>  > Well, the name in persian is tokhme sharbati,

Selene wrote:
>Rather like oval not-quite-poppy-seed, which is why I thought it
>might be the same
>thing.  Still could be;  I've encountered nigella seeds in real
>Armenian-type string
>cheese, a substance almost but not completely unlike the common
>String Cheese you
>find in American supermarkets.  Nigella seeds lend the cheese a nice
>flavor;  I
>think it's a relative of the onion.

If these seeds kinda look like black sesame seeds, only not quite so
flat, they aren't nigella. They're used in South Asian and Southeast
Asian iced drinks. You soak them and they get a sort of "gelatinous"
coating. South and Southeast Asians think they're great. American
might think they look "funny". The Indonesian name is "biji selasi",
but they're really.... ch... ch... ch... chia seeds.

Anahita / Subaytila