On 8/4/2006 04:21pm, Mamta posted:

Hello Phil

Sak in Dhansak is a corruption of the word ‘shak’, meaning a vegetable, any vegetable. It is pronounced as shaa+k. 'K' is a soft sound, as in ‘cup’. It is synonymous with the word ‘sabji’ or ‘bhaji’, more commonly used words for vegetables in North India. To make it more confusing, people from Bombay/Gujrat often call Pakoras as Bhajis!!

Saag in ‘aloo saag’ means a leafy vegetable, in this case spinach, often mixed with fenugreek leaves. It is pronounced like saa+g, 'g' being soft as in 'gut'. Any leafy vegetable can be a saag, like spinach, fenugreek leaves, amaranth leaves, bathua or pigweed, kulfa, radish leaves and so on.

Mamta