Golden Sixthread Tesselfish. A silvery estuarine fish which shoals around reefs, rather similar in appearance to a grey mullet. It is a bottom-feeder, feeding on small crustaceans and bottom-living organisms, adding to its own flavour. It is sold in Bengal and Bangladesh fresh, frozen, dried and salted.
Chickpeas (US: garbanzo beans), Bengal gram, channa. Darker and smaller than the chickpeas generally available in the West.
Black chickpeas (US: garbanzo beans). Darker and smaller than the chickpeas generally available in the West.
Indian plum or ber. A plum-like fruit which is a small, sweet, reddish-black berry which fruits during the monsoon. The term is also used to describe a type of pantua, a confection which is fried to resemble this berry. There are sweet versions (narkel kul) and sour versions (topa kul). The latter are used to make pickles and chutneys.
Nigella. The small, black, bitter seeds of a relative of "love-in-a-mist". Nigella is often incorrectly called wild onion seed or black onion seed. The seeds have a sharp, pungent flavour with a hint of a smell of strawberries and are used for flavouring confectionary and liquors.
Black salt. A type of rock salt, dark grey in colour. It tastes of sea water and is relished in India.
