Wilfred, You say <Couple of Christmases ago I made a return trip to Pakistan to meet up with my old school chums and was introduced to 'suji halwa'. Never came across it whilst growing up out there. > I know why. It is cooked on ghee. Halwa is the most popular form in which sooji (aka rawa and semolina) is eaten in the subcontinent. The equally popular South Indian 'upama' is also sooji. I have never understood the reason for it but the Brits never took to using 'ghee' or clarified butter in their cooking. For them, there was nothing beyond butter. On the other hand, Indian cooking hardly ever uses butter as such. For Indians it is always 'ghee'. Probably the Brits equated eating ghee with going native...but let me tell you that fresh ghee has an appetizing flavour and granularness which are totally absent from butter. On the subject of ghee, I had stayed in an army mess in Ladakh a couple of decades ago. I was amazed that ghee was a part of the fare there - by and large the Indian Army messes still follow the pre-1947 practices, but apparently an exception was made for ghee! Arvind Kolhatkar, Toronto, July 11, 2008.

Now ghee .... that's another subject and I absolutely agree with you, ghee on hot toast!!!! The gheewalla called regularly and my mother had huge jars which were filled to the brim, what a wonderful thought!!! The smell, the taste nothing to equal it yet and probably my reason for my high cholesterol problem - have to blame it on something eh??? Molly Sarstedt-Hamilton, Townsville, Australia