Tonight's Installment

Hmm, what to write?

Ah yes, something utterly banal and blog-like! As well as the general sense of unwellness permeating me, my broken filling is making the right side of my mouth gently throb with a pain which is not agonising, but is sure telling me "Hey! I'm here! Pay me some attention, idiot-boy!"

The moral? Never eat Quality Street hard toffees in industrial amounts at Xmas time and post-Xmas time, and a few months after that, just because a colossal box of chocolatey-sugared QS evil happens to be sitting on the hallway cabinet like a multitude of candy sirens calling me on to the rocks of dental hell. Then don't continue consuming them when you notice they are taking out chunks of filling that have resided in your mouth since the late 1980s.

Thus, it is food and drink -yowsers, it aches. Nice segue...

Food & Drink
1. Combining white rice (chalow), meat and stock and topped with fried raisins, slivered carrots and pistachios, Qaboli Palao or Qabili Pilau is the national dish of which country?
2. What company, which is based in an eponymous mansion in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, introduced white chocolate to America in 1955?
3. Buko pie, which is made with young coconuts, is a popular dish in which country?
4. The West Indian variety produces a namesake edible starch used for thickening stews. What is the common name of Maranta arundinacea, aka the obedience plant?
5. Regarded as a Javanese invention and a local adaptation of soy-based food fermentation and production, it is a staple source of protein on the said island. It is like tofu (which is said to be more versatile), but is a whole soybean product with different nutritional and textural qualities and comes in cake form. Which “Javanese meat” comes in such types as bongkrèk (made with a coconut press cake), gódhóng (made in banana leaves) and bosok (rotten)?
6. What is the Arabic name for Mallow-leaves from the plant Corchorus and is the main ingredient of a popular, namesake Egyptian dish?
7. Joseph F. Steinwand developed which cheese near an eponymous Wisconsin village in 1874?
8. Which Russian cold soup, whose name originates from a word meaning ‘to chop’ or ‘to break into small pieces’, combines raw vegetables, boiled potatoes, eggs and ham with kvass?
9. Which 17th century chef from Modena, who moved to England due to his being a Protestant, wrote Brieve Racconto di Tutte le Radici di Tutte l’Herbe et di Tutti i Frutti?
10. Which 30% by volume Israeli liqueur was developed in 1963 by Edgar S. Bronfman and has a rich chocolate flavour cut with the sweet and sour taste of Jaffa oranges?

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F&DAns
1. Afghanistan. Variations include Yakhni Palao, which adds meat and stock and creates a brown rice, Zamarod Palao, which has Spinach qorma mixed in before the baking process (hence zamarod or emerald), and Shebet Palao, which has fresh dill and raisins added during baking.
2. Hebert Candies (founded in 1917)
3. Philippines. It is made with with young coconuts (buko in Tagalog) and sweetened condensed milk. Macapuno pie uses a special type of thick and sticky coconut.
4. Arrowroot. Napoleon supposedly said the true reason for the British love of arrowroot was to support their colonies.
5. Tempe (or tempeh)
6. Mulukhiyah. Many Egyptians consider it to be the national dish along with Ful medames (mashed brown fava beans) and kushari (rice, lentils, chickpeas, macaroni, tomato sauce).
7. Colby. It is similar to cheddar, but does not undergo the cheddaring process.
8. Okroshka. Most people top if off with a spoonful of sour cream and bittermustard. An alternate version uses light or diluted kefir (fermented milk drink) instead of kvass.
9. Giangiacomo Castelvetro (the book's title means ‘A Brief Account of all Vegetables, Herbs and Fruit’)
10. Sabra liqueur. Sabra is an affectionate term for a native-born Israeli Jew, which is derived from the Hebrew name of a prickly pear cactus that grows in Israel.