All Ingredients

Longans are very similar to lychees and rambutans. You can buy them fresh (in the summer), dried or canned.

Longanisa is a Filipino sausage that resembles a chorizo. It's often served for breakfast in the Philippines.

These are popular in Asia, where they're eaten raw and cooked into sauces that accompany meat. They bruise very easily, which may explain their rarity in American markets

These leaves open up like butterfly wings, each about two feet high. They're often wrapped around rice and other fillings, to which they impart an earthy aroma when the bundles are steamed. The leaves are available either fresh or, more commonly, dried in Asian markets. Soak them for at least an hour in warm water before using, and keep fresh leaves in a cool, dry place or else freeze them.

Slices of the lotus root have a beautiful pattern. The fresh version is available sporadically; if not, the canned version is almost as good. Rinse and drain before using. Look for it in Asian markets.

Look for fresh and dried lotus seeds in Asian markets.

This spicy Greek sausage is made with lamb, pork, and orange rind. Cook it before serving

Lovage tastes like celery, but it's even more pungent and flavorful. The only drawback but it can't withstand long cooking like celery can. Use it in any recipe that calls for celery, but use less and add it to cooked dishes at the last minute.

Look for this in the deli section of your grocery stores.

These green olives are brine-cured.

These are salty Italian/Swiss brownish-black olives.

Lumache (Italian for "snails") are shells that are often served with chunky sauces. A larger shell, called lumaconi, is usually stuffed and baked.

This is an outsized version of the Italian pasta shape called lumache, which resembles a snail shells. Lumaconi are usually stuffed and baked.

Lumpfish roe is relatively cheap; the eggs come in red or black.

These thin wrappers are used to make lumpias, a Filipino type of egg roll.

These large Italian beans resemble fava beans, only they're slightly bitter. They're often marinated and served in salads.

These look like rust-colored fuzzy apples.

These rich and creamy nuts hail from Hawaii and Australia, where they're eaten as snacks, or incorporated into cookies or other desserts. They're hard to crack open and tricky to roast, so they're almost always sold shelled and roasted in vacuum-pack containers. After you open these containers, you should store any uneaten nuts in the freezer or refrigerator, since they're high in fat and therefore prone to rancidity. If you want to roast your own macadamia nuts, put them in 275° oven for about 15 minutes.

This tubular Italian pasta used to be made by wrapping pasta dough around knitting needles. The term now refers to any small tubular pasta, all of which go well with chunky sauces or in pasta salads. Elbow macaroni is curved, and is traditionally used to make macaroni and cheese.

These are soft cookies that are made with either almonds or coconut.

This is a long, tubular pasta. It's good with heavy sauces or in casseroles.

This is the lacy wrapping that covers nutmeg when it's plucked from the tree. Its flavor is similar to nutmeg, but slightly more bitter. It's usually sold already ground, but you can sometimes find blades of mace that you can grind yourself.

Unopened canned mackerel can be stored for up to a year in a dry, cool place. Once opened, it will keep for up to two days if you wrap it well and refrigerate it.

This juicy apple is good for eating out of hand.

This fortified wine is named for its birthplace, an island off the coast of Africa. Madeira wines first became popular back in the days of cross-Atlantic sailing ships, because they were able to survive long, hot trips in rolling ships. And they didn't just survive, they actually improved, so much so that sending them off on long round-trip sea voyages eventually became an integral part of their production, though the practice has since been abandoned. Madeiras are used both for cooking, and as after-dinner drinks. Varieties of Madeira (in order from driest to sweetest) include the Sercial Madeira, Rainwater Madeira, Verdelho Madeira, Bual Madeira = Boal Madeira, and Malvasia Madeira = Malmsey Madeira. "Reserve" Madeiras are aged at least five years, "special reserve" for at least ten, and "extra reserve" for at least fifteen. Madeiras from Portugal are considered to be far superior to domestic brands. Once opened, Madeira should be consumed within a week or so and stored in the refrigerator.

These are rich, cake-like cookies that are shaped like shells. They're often flavored with lemon, orange, chocolate, or almonds.

These are flat, rectangular noodles with ruffles along both edges. The singular form is mafalda. Includes mafaldine (pictured at left).

This is a short, tubular variety of pasta.

Magnolia cheezee is made from cheddar cheese and is similar to Velvetta. It is popular in the Philappines.

These leaves have been used to wrap meat for flavor and to tenderize while cooking.

Though leaner than, say salmon or tuna, mahi-mahi packs a lot of heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids.

Ground kernels of cherry stones. Middle Eastern grocery stores.

This well-regarded Spanish cow's milk cheese is a terrific snacking cheese, but it's also incorporated into casseroles. Try it with sherry.

This is a German cow's milk aromatic cheese. Use within a few days after purchasing. For best flavor, serve at room temperature.

This Japanese mushroom is reputed to have numerous health benefits. It also has a nice, earthy flavor.

This is cooked much like spinach, but it's a bit slimy like okra. It occasionally shows up in Asian markets

Like taro and cassava, malanga is used in tropical countries in much the same way that potatoes are used in more temperate climates.

Malaysians are fond of yellow Hokkien noodles and white laksa noodles, which they use in soups. Malaysians also use rice vermicelli (which they call beenhoon), medium rice sticks (kway teow), beans threads (tanghoon), and Chinese wheat noodles.

This red wine is similar to Merlot. It's a good choice if you want a decent but inexpensive red wine to serve with red meat and pasta.

Malfatti means "poorly made" in Italian, and cooks use the term for broken or irregular scraps of pasta, or for a ravioli filling without the pasta covering.

This Sardinian pasta is very similar to gnocchetti, except that it's often flavored with saffron.

This mild sweetener is sold as a syrup or powder. Diastatis malt is used by bread makers to feed the yeast and improve the texture. Nondiastatic malt is used in bread as a flavoring and preservative.

This is similar to lager beer, only it's higher in alcohol.

You can make malt powder by allowing whole grains to sprout briefly, drying them, and then grinding them into a powder. Commercial malt powders are usually made with barley, and they're used extensively by commercial bakers. There are two main types of malt powder: diastatic and non-diastatic. Diastatic malt contains active enzymes which help break starch down into sugar. The extra sugar feeds the yeast in the dough, helping the bread to rise, and also gives the bread a browner crust. It's often used to make crusty breads. Non-diastatic malt doesn't have active enzymes, but it gives baked goods better flavor and a shinier, browner crust. It's used in everything from bagels to croissants to breakfast cereals. Don't confuse malt powder with malted milk powder, which also contains powdered milk and wheat flour and is used to make beverages. Look for malt powder in health food stores or baking supply stores.

Look for this in Asian markets.