Ginger! Per Wiki, they crush it with sap from mango trees to make tangawisi juice in Congo, where it's considered a cure-all. In Indonesia, it cures "winds in the blood", "poor dietary habits", and fatigue. It's sold over the counter in the US as a dietary supplement thought to mitigate motion sickness. I at least suffer from more than one of these ailments, so this weekend appears bound to include an attempt at ginger soda, if not some gingersnaps.
By the way, speculoos, or speculaas, is a German cookie very similar to a gingersnap, and I've recently seen it on menus in Chicago, Houston, and at a Brooklyn coffee shop (thus branding it indelibly as a trend). So what's the deal? The ingredients, texture and flavor are pretty identical to gingersnaps (click on the link to see a picture: speculoos or Ginger Snap?)
[answer: speculoos!]
Is this savvy marketing or an unfettered embrace of flavors from afar? And how did the trend get started? Is it because people want to savor the unknown? Perhaps in this case, menu marketing is a positive reflection of an open-minded populace. If so, at what point will Nabisco start producing speculoos cookies?
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