[Sca-cooks] Real Cubebs?

[silverr0se at aol.com]

I get my cubebs from DragonMarsh.com. I'd love to know what those not-cubebs were.

Renata






-----Original Message-----
From: lilinah at earthlink.net
To: west-cooks at yahoogroups.com; sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Sent: Wed, Jun 9, 2010 12:46 pm
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Real Cubebs?


I love cubebs. I first bought them in a spice shop in the mid 1970s just because i had no idea what they were. Yeah, i do that, buy mysterious ingredients, then find out what they are. 
 
Cubebs look like black peppercorns but a bit larger and with a fine stem (tail). They have a peppery scent with a hint of citrus and resin. In my experience they are not as hot as regular peppers, but are more aromatic (plus i don't have the reaction to them i have to pepper skins.... which is why i tend to use white pepper). 
For more info: 
http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/Pipe_cub.html 
 
I buy a lot of spices at Lhasa Karnak, in Berkeley, which is generally reliable. But a few years ago there was a problem with cubebs (i forget which, a disease or insect infestation). Since then LK has been selling as cubebs something that definitely is not cubeb. They are tinier than cubebs, have no tail, and pretty much no flavor. The wrinkled black skin slips off easily revealing a red-brown smoothing skinned sphere. 
 
Does anyone know where to get REAL cubebs? 
(not a random link on the internet that i could find myself, or ''i think so and so sells them''. I want to know i'm getting the real thing rather than i buying more of something that isn't cubeb.) 
Or are they still unavailable in the US? 
 
With hope and thanks in advance, 
-- Urtatim [that's err-tah-TEEM] 
the persona formerly known as Anahita 
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