Kencur. A plant similar to ginger but with a distinctive flavour. The rhizome is smaller and more shrivelled than that of ginger. It is used both medicinally and in the cuisine of much of the Indian Subcontinent and South East Asia, but not of Thailand where is it used only medicinally.
Gewürz means 'spice'. A variety of flushed blushed, striped red eating apple received from Germany in 1951. This late-season variety is harvested from mid-October in South-East England and is at its best from December to March.
"Sweet pepper." Red pepper (US: sweet red bell pepper). The large varieties are used as a vegetable and can be used either cooked or raw. Other varieties are smaller, long, with a pointed tip and filled with pungent seeds. They are used for seasoning, either dried or fresh. These peppers are not so strong in flavour as the chilli or cayenne pepper.
A high quality white grape which produces classic varietal wines, famously in the Alsace region of France. Gewürztraminer is the second most common vine in Alsace and the most widely planted in the Haut-Rhin where it is particularly well suited to the clay-rich soils found in the Vosges foothills. It is normally fermented dry and produces golden, medium to full-bodied wines. It attains naturally high sugar levels far in excess of Riesling and this makes it ideal for sweet, late harvest wines. These can be rich and sweet and the finest can last for decades. It is also planted in Germany, mainly in the Rheinpfalz and Baden regions, Austria, the Alto Adige in Italy and to a lesser extent in Australia, New Zealand and California. Gerwürz means spice in German, although this pink-skinned grape tends to produce exotically perfumed rather then spice laden wines.
Yellow stainer. A mushroom to be avoided. Some sources refer to it as toxic.
Yellow stainer. A mushroom to be avoided. Some sources refer to it as toxic.
False morel mushrooms. They are deadly poisonous if not cooked, closely resembling real morel mushrooms, being wrinkled and brown in the same way. However, morel mushrooms are symmetrical while false morels are irregular in shape and look like a brown brain, while true morels are more like a sponge. True morels have hollow stems while those of false morels are solid. Be careful to check each of these features before attempting to eat one. They have a fine flavour and are generally parboiled. They are popular in Nordic countries and in Finland especially.
