Melba's Jammin' wrote:
>
> This oughtta be good.
> We had lunch at a Middle Eastern Restaurant today * Holy Land in NE
> Minneapolis. Rob remarked that much of the food seemed to have a strong
> flavor of *** something. He didn't know what it was. Said it wasn't
> necessarily unpleasant except that it was prominent. I said I'd "ask my
> people." What do you think it might have been? I wondered about cumin
> but don't even know if that's common in that kind of cookery. OTOH, I'm
> pretty sure Beef Teriyaki and Chicken Alfredo aren't common to middle
> eastern cookery, but they were on the buffet line. :-)
> He had kofta with vegetables, falafel, tandoori chicken, some gyro meat,
> and I'm not sure what else. Is there a common spice in all of those?
> If it makes any difference, the owners are Palestinian.
>
> Save any smartass replies for another time. :-)
> --
> -Barb, Mother Superior, HOSSSPoJ
> http://web.me.com/barbschaller
> "What you say about someone else says more
> about you than it does about the other person."

Cardamom is another possibility.