Name Origins
Asha Vahishta Nut (Truth Cookies)
True or false? In Zoroastrian belief, Asha Vahishta is the divine attribute of truth. (The answer is: true!)
Idzumo Honey (Truth Cookies)
In Japanese mythology, Idzumo was ‘The Central Land of the Reed Plains’, the first part of the earth to be inhabited. Back in those days, so the legend goes, trees and flowers were able to speak but have long since been silenced.
Dum’zani corn (Cupid Cakes)
I love this one! If you have read Cupid Cakes, you will know that Lulu has to fertilise this plant using her own tears. It is named after Dumuzi, the ancient Sumerian god of fertility and vegetation. Every June, large groups of women would get together for a good old blub as the fields dried up in the blazing sun because Dumuzi had descended into the underworld. He would be retrieved each autumn by his wife Inanna. (this is seriously ancient stuff, by the way, going back nearly 3,000 years B.C.E.!)
More Nuggets of Information
The quote, ‘they that sow in tears shall reap in joy’, is from the Book of Prayer.
Lada flour (Cupid Cakes). Lada is the Slavic goddess of love and beauty. In Russia, when a couple is happily married, it is said they “live in lada”, in love. Aah.
Osun plantain flakes (Cupid Cakes)
Osun (pictured right) is a Yoruba goddess of water and fertility.
Honeydew (Chocolate Wishes) This is not made up, I promise! The hardened blobs of clear syrup were long thought to be the weeping sap of the tamarisk tree, until in 1927 it was discovered that they were excreted by the female scale insect Coccus manniparus. Altogether: eeeeyew!
Wormwood seed (Nuggets of Information)
Wormwood is a bitter herb and not, as it sounds, a wormy kind of wood. In Chocolate Wishes, I mention a dance the Aztec women did with it on their heads in honour of their goddess of salt, but I don’t tell you the goddess’ name. Do you want to know what it is? Huixtocihuatl. There. You know now. So next time someone asks you, ‘hey, what’s the name of the Aztec goddess of salt?’ (like they do), you’ll be able to tell them: Huixtocihuatl. And then they’ll say, ‘bless you!’