Hehe, actually when Pizza Hut first opened in Germany people would pronounce it with a german accent: "Pizza Hoot". The reason is that "hut" (spooken as "hoot") actually means the english word "hat" in German. And the logo fitted it, too, similar to this "Pizza Hat" there in Baghdad.

Many thanks, Mark. When I arrived home today there was a nice little plastic bag with the seeds waiting for me

Thanks, very interesting. That place is a teppan-yaki bar now?! 

For some reason I'm under the impression that Ady's 'Curried Away' opened up after going through Julian's book ?! If that's true then it just makes sense to make videos together. I might be completely mistaken, though.

One problem could be frying saffron or using too much of it. If you actually fry saffron and/or use too much of it, it will make a dish bitter. Very bitter indeed. Not a very pleasant taste as properly treated saffron produces.

Whenever I use saffron I put the strings in a bit of water, let them do their thing and then add that water to whatever dish I'm making.

BTW: In another thread I mentioned that at least one of our better Indian Restaurants here in Germany actually uses saffron for their Tandoori dishes (I assume mainly as colouring). This might be due to many people here not liking artifical colouring very much.

I finally got me some Deggi Mirch/Kashmiri Mirch. It sure is a different beast from just regular Chilli Powder. It appears to be very heavy on Paprika and some other spices. I can see how that could improve (or destroy) a lot of dishes.

To me both rice pics are appealing, however the first doesn't look like a Pilau rice to me. It's a "spiced rice" by the looks of it. A Pilau rice should look like exhibit B in my book. I guess it depends on what you name your rice

I follow the technique outlined in the "A Hamburger Today" post I linked to earlier in this thread and get excellent results.

Basically, the whole post just duplicates a process a company that makes french fries called "Simplot" apparently patented (to the best of my knowledge):
1. Cook the pre-cut and thoroughly washed (remove all starch you can) french fries in water for about 10 minutes (or until thoroughly cooked). By adding just a tad of vinegar to the water (see recipe from that article), the french fries will get sort of a skin which will prevent them from going mushy. This the first key.
2. Let these cooked potatoes cool and dry on a wire rack (gets rid of all the water)
3. Do an initial first fry of the french fries. For the really skinny McDonald's style french fries that's about 50-60 seconds at 200

They're not there yet. I was referring to german customs probably not knowing what type of seeds they are and was expecting a raid at home (thinking they're some Killer-Marijuana or whatever they might think it is). But - no seeds yet.

Chewy: many thanks, I have the same reasoning that I should have proven recipes by then (also for the other snacks) About "profitability" regarding Biryani -> "Profit" always sounds good. Ok, it's back in the pool of dishes to be evaluated, hehe.