h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

More familiar with smoked puffins and rotten shark, eh?

PC: I'm quite sure you don't actually _need_ vanilla sugar. The strongest flavour is being supplied by the tahini (I hope you have a good-quality one... here it's of course quite easy to come by. I'd send some, but not sure how well it'll travel). You can maybe put a few drops of vanilla extract in the dough if you want - could be very nice to try some other spice though. I suspect a hint of cinnamon or allspice might work well, or possibly a tiny little bit cardamon (if you have a spice or coffee grinder, it works quite well to grind the little black seeds with some sugar; this is what I do when making vetebrod). Perhaps even a bit of lemon zest. They are such simple cookies, improvising could be a lot of fun!


Edward: That does sound lovely... unfortunately, there are not many Indian restaurants around here. There are some places with a bigger Indian community (mostly Cochin Jews), but other than that the choices are quite equally divided between a few 'serious' - and expensive - restaurants, and very basic little vegetarian restaurants. Both can be nice, but neither is common. In the States, I've been to some wonderful Indian lunch buffets, and really miss that option.

No decent Indian food around here, either

Though there is an Indian restaurant that's unfortunately a bit expensive in Göttingen - the main attraction is the toilets, since they're decorated with scenes from the Kama Sutra!

I have ground green cardamom, as well as whole pods both green and black. And an electric spice mill. I might try the cardamom. I'm also hopeful that the tahini I get is pretty good. It seems nice enough to me.

I won't brag about the plethora of Indian food around here (so much I've never even tried them all), with many of them being quite wonderful. A couple are strictly vegetarian, but not all.