[Sca-cooks] Indian food questions

[Christiane]

I've been exploring the Indian grocery store in my area. Besides picking up some prepackaged heat-up meals for work (mostly Ashoka brand Kashmir dum aloo, Bombay Biryani, and palak paneer), I scoped the huge bags of dried chickpeas and lentils and the spice mixtures. Here's my problem, a lot of the spice mixtures had the Indian names for them. 

So what is anise in Indian, and curry and fenugreek? What is in garam masala anyway?

Thanks!

Gianotta