[Sca-cooks] Outlandish Seige contest - further thoughts

[Susan Fox]

Devra at aol.com wrote:
> Hm--- cubebs are round, with little tails on them, not small pointy 
> things. Grains of paradise are small and brown, not black. Caraway are 
> shaped a little like a canoe, with points on both ends, and stripey. 
> Cardamon seeds --the pod is green and shaped like a very fat pepita 
> seed, triangular (three sided).  The seeds are also long and thin, 
> like a caraway sort of. Not black, anyway.
>  
> I am still voting for nigella, whihc look like black sesame seeds.
>     Devra
I think we figured out that the critters were cubebs.  There was no 
nigella in the spice box, I know that. 

I love nigella seeds.  They are not really "peppery" so much as mild but 
pleasant.  Mostly we see them imbedded in Armenian string cheese, the 
kind that looks like a real braid of yarn;  and on top of Afgan flat 
bread. I might strew them over a salad or creamy soup like a Vichyssoise 
some time. They are often labelled as "Black Caraway" but are actually 
unrelated.

Cheers, Selene