Ginger beer is a non-alcoholic soda beloved of the young heroes and heroines of British adventure stories for children, like Enid Blyton's Famous Five series. And it is packed lovingly into the Tuck Boxes of young boys sent away to boarding schools.

It's a pleasant option for people who don't want beer or wine with their Oriental or Caribbean meals.

Buy brands in glass bottles, not in the cheaper cans or plastic liter bottles which add too much sugar to compensate for lack of flavor and spice. To make it yourself, click on Recipes.

Once Kaz Okochi completed the fine arts course in Oklahoma he had come from Japan to the U.S. to take up, he headed home to enroll in the prestigious Tsuji Culinary Institute in Osaka. When he told its career counselor he'd like to cook in America, the counselor suggested he focus on becoming a sushi chef.