What I don't know I know people who know

monshu and me met for dinner before the preview party for ArtChicago (six-word review: good thing our tickets were free) at Klay Oven, a modest upscale Indian joint in the shadow of Fort Kennedy with the sort of brief North Indian menu you'd expect. One entry stood out for me, though, from the list of breads: "ajwain paratha". We racked our brains, but neither of us could remember coming across "ajwain" before.

Our server did her best to describe it, but it mostly came down to saying what it was not: it wasn't cumin (either kind), nor caraway, nor fennel, nor kalonji, though it bore a resemblance to several of those spices. "You can Google it later," she told us.

"I've got something better than Google!" I replied. "I have tyrannio!"