A unique ingredient from southern Turkey, pepper paste is a highly concentrated puree made from various types of cooked, peeled capsicums. It comes in a few permutations, tatli (or “sweet” ) and aci (“hot”), with a mild version in between. Called biber salçası in Turkish, pepper paste is incorporated into a wide variety of dishes…

Mmm… maple syrup. Sounds sexier than ‘xylem sap’, doesn't it? Which, botanically speaking, is actually what it is. There’s more than a little romance around this most Canadian of products – yep, that’s a maple leaf adorning their striking national flag. Most of the world’s maple syrup (a whopping two thirds) comes from Quebec…