Buckwheat

The context in which your average modern American is likely to find buckwheat is so widely divergent that it is hard to imagine so many foods made from the same plant. Eastern Europeans brought to our shores kasha, or buckwheat groats, toasted and eaten cooked with milk as as porridge or mixed with bowtie noodles in the Jewish dish kasha varnishkas. In Japanese restaurants one encounters soba noodles, made from buckwheat flour, floating in broth. One might also find an authentic Breton galette—a thin buckwheat crepe filled with jam or something savory. Buckwheat is also commonly found among those grains marketed as wholesome and good for health, as it is gluten-free and offers a wide array of amino acids, in particular lysine, which is missing from other grains.