Deep-fried unleavened whole wheat bread, similar to chapattis but smaller. Dry, unleavened bread usually made from wheat flour, salt and water, cooked on a tawa. Common in the North of India. They puff up when cooked.
Chirongi nuts. They are similar to pine nuts and are small, rounded nuts resembling Egyptian lentils. They are used in India to garnish halvas, cakes and creams and in puddings and pillaos.
Mustard oil. Siddharth Dasgupta provides fascinating information. The pungency of mustard oil is from a compound called allyl-iso-thio-cyanate. This is attractive to Bengalis but others may find it too pronounced. Unfortunately mustard oil also contains erucic acid, which is a low grade neurotoxin. It turns out that long term heavy use of mustard oil is injurious. All mustard oils imported to the US from India or Bangladesh) have to be labelled "For external use only". For many years Australia tried to grow a low erucic acid variant, but this was not successful.
