Glossary A
Ajoarriero also spelled Ajo Arriero refers to a Spain's mortar paste made of garlic, red peppers, potatoes, parsley and often served with eggs, vegetables and olive oil of Basque origin. The name appears to derive from the Muleteers called Arrieros in Spanish who may have invented the dish.
Most frequently, salt cod is added to the dish and different varities may also contain tomatoes, chillis and paprika and sometimes shellfish is also to the dish.
Ajoarriero also means "garlic in style of muletters or mule drivers"
Ajoarriero is most famously used in a dish called Bacalao al Ajoarriero, a dish made of salt cod usually with red peppers.
Muleteers are persons who drive mules and is called in Spanish Arrieros
Anardana (Pomegranate Seeds) (Punica granatum) refers to the seeds of the pomegranate fruits which is used as a souring agent. They are small, sun-dried seeds of the wild Indian pomegranate plant which have mildly fruity, sweet and sour flavor. Their tangy, sweet, slightly sour taste is added to curries, chutneys, dals and even desserts and also used in pastries and breads in the Middle East. These seeds are also used in tangy lamb and chicken dishes and the powder or grounded form can be sprinkled over salads or vegetable dishes. Anardana are available is spice shops in seed or powder form.
Ai Wo Wo refers to the Mandarin name of a typical Beijing snack made of sticky Rice with sweet fillings. Ai Wo Wo
was once a court snack in Yuan Dynasty, and became popular since then. Ai Wo Wo is available from the Chinese Spring Festival until the late summer. It is made in a complicated process, first, the sticky rice is steamed, pounded into pulp, shaped into a ball and then filled with sesame and white sugar, pea flour, jujube paste or some other fillings such as walnut-meat, melon seeds, greengage etc. And then it is spread over with rice flour. Ai Wo Wo tastes smooth and soft while its fillings are loose and sweet.
Ashura refers to Albanian special pudding made of cracked wheat, sugar, dried fruit, crushed nuts, and cinnamon prepared and eaten by the members of the Islamic Bektashi sect to mark the end of the ten-day fasting period of Matem.
Matem falls on the first ten days of the month of Muharrem and commemorates the battle of Kerbela in the present-day Iraq in 680 A.D. in which Imam Husein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, was killed. It is a period of fasting or at least of abstinences from drink in memory of Husein and his troops who were encircled by the enemy and left without water before their death.