Custard apple. Sitaphal. A tropical fruit which comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. When buying choose very soft fruits indeed. The skin of all of them is green or purplish-green and scaly, almost fir-cone patterned, in appearance. Inside, the flesh is creamy in colour and consistency, but has to be sucked from the shiny black seeds. The flesh has a sweet-sour flavour, sometimes slightly custardy and larger ones have the luscious and complex taste of banana, mango and vanilla. They are often made into fritters, or sliced and steeped in wine. The custard apples include cherimoyas, sweet sops, sour sops and atemoyas.

Custard apple. Sitaphal. A tropical fruit which comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. When buying choose very soft fruits indeed. The skin of all of them is green or purplish-green and scaly, almost fir-cone patterned, in appearance. Inside, the flesh is creamy in colour and consistency, but has to be sucked from the shiny black seeds. The flesh has a sweet-sour flavour, sometimes slightly custardy and larger ones have the luscious and complex taste of banana, mango and vanilla. They are often made into fritters, or sliced and steeped in wine. The custard apples include cherimoyas, sweet sops, sour sops and atemoyas.

Vermicelli. Thin, fried, string-like preparation made from gram flour. At "eeds" this is often as part of a celebratory breakfast dish called senvaya in which it is cooked in syrup until the liquid evaporates, becoming sweet and slightly crunchy.

Vermicelli. Thin, fried, string-like preparation made from gram flour. At "eeds" this is often as part of a celebratory breakfast dish called senvaya in which it is cooked in syrup until the liquid evaporates, becoming sweet and slightly crunchy.

Split gram lentils. Split chickpeas (US: garbanzo beans). Darker and smaller than the chickpeas generally available in the West.

Gram flour. The fine, pale yellow chickpea (US: garbanzo bean) flour made from channa dhal (the ones which resemble yellow split lentils). It is used to make pakoras and for binding dishes such as kebabs as well as making excellent batter.