All Ingredients

This fish isn't a looker, but it has a flavor and texture that's been compared to lobster and scallops.

This exquisite Japanese delicacy has the texture and richness of a choice pâté de foie gras. It's usually poached, steamed, or sautéed before serving in order. Look for it in well-stocked Japanese markets.

You'll probably have to go to Florida to find this bizarre tropical fruit. It looks like a banana covered with green scales, which buckle and separate as the fruit ripens. Beneath the scales are kernels of pulp, which you scrape off like corn from a cob. The kernels have a pleasant tropical flavor and creamy texture. Wait until the scales separate before eating the kernels--unripe monsteras can irritate your mouth.

This French cow's milk cheese is a mild blue cheese that's soft and creamy like a Brie. It's coated with ash.

During their Harvest Moon Festival each fall, Chinese families decorate their homes with lanterns and eat moon cakes from beautiful lacquered boxes. The cakes come in different flavors, but they're all rich and subtly sweet.

These dark purple elongated sweet seedless grapes are unusually shaped and well regarded.

These are mung beans that have been skinned and split, so that they're flat, yellow, and quick-cooking. They're relatively easy to digest.

This is a smoked and dried red jalapeno pepper. It's very hot.

This creamy and mild cow's milk cheese has a dark stripe running up the middle, a reference to earlier times when a layer of ash was added to the cheese to protect it from insects. Morbier has a rich, earthy flavor. It's a good melting cheese, but you might want to cook with a cheaper cheese like Lappi or Havarti.

This is the Portuguese version of blood sausage.

This is Spain salty version of blood sausage, usually made with onion or rice as a filler.

Morels are highly prized for their rich, earthy flavor, and also because their caps are hollow, which allows them to be stuffed. Dried morels are very flavorful, and they're an excellent substitute for fresh in sauces and stews.

Like the larger mora chili, this is a smoked and dried red jalapeno. It's very hot.

These are shriveled black olives that are somewhat bitter. They're best used for cooking rather than snacking.

This exquisite smoked pork sausage is similar to bologna, only it's flavored with garlic and has bits of fat and sometimes pistachios in it. It's a key ingredient in a muffaletta sandwich. Always serve it cold.

These beans have a rich, creamy consistency that works well in soups and casseroles.

These "little mustaches" are tubes of Italian pasta cut on the diagonal.

The family of moyas includes atemoya, cherimoya, soursop, and sweetsop, all of which can be used interchangeably. All these fruits have scaly peels and hard black seeds, which you need to remove before eating.

Mozzarella is a soft, white Italian cheese. The most common type is low-moisture mozzarella, which is often sold in bricks or firm balls, or is shredded and sold in bags. Don't confuse it with fresh mozzarella = high-moisture mozzarella, which is a fresh cheese used for salads and appetizers, and is often sold in tubs of water. Low-moisture mozzarella is one of the few cheeses that doesn't turn rubbery or ooze oil if cooked too long or too hot, so it's a key ingredient in pizzas and casseroles. It's also stretchy--the long white strings that you often see draped over the sides of pizza boxes are usually mozzarella. It can also be frozen and thawed without too much damage to its texture. Buffalo milk has a much higher fat content than cow's milk, so buffalo milk mozzarella, or mozzarella di bufalo, is creamier and also more expensive than cow's-milk mozzarella = fior di latte.

This unusual variety of Italian pasta consists of poorly wrapped straws of dough, about 8 inches long.

When produced in Europe, Muenster is a mild-mannered member of the normally stinky washed-rind Cow's milk cheese family, though it becomes more pungent as it ages. It's delicious with dark breads and beer or Gewurztraminer wine. American muensters are much milder.

This very popular chili looks like the ancho, but it's darker and sweeter. It's fairly mild and has an earthy flavor.

These are so fragile that almost no markets carry them.

This category includes red mullet, white mullet, and the fattier black mullet = striped mullet.

Whole mung beans are small and green, and they're often sprouted to make bean sprouts. When skinned and split, the beans are flat and yellow, and called moong dal.

These are the large sprouts that are common in supermarkets. They're crisp and nutty, and they're the best sprouts for stir-frying, though they can also be served raw. Select bean sprouts that are crisp and white with just a tinge of yellow. To keep them fresh, rinse them off and immerse them in cold water, then store them in the refrigerator. They're very perishable, so try to use them within a day or two. Canned bean sprouts are a very poor substitute for fresh.

Indian cooks use this to make breads and dumplings.

This is a district in Brittany, France, that produces a crisp, light white wine that's especially good with seafood. Always serve it chilled. Don't confuse this with Muscatel or Muscat, which are both dessert wines.

Muscadine grapes are native to the American Southeast. The flesh is sweet but the skin is tart. It is easy to remove the skin.

Made from muscadine grapes, this is a redder, tarter version of grape jelly.

This is a sweet and fruity dessert wine made from Muscat grapes. Don't confuse it with Muscadet, which is a dry white wine.

These are large and very sweet.