I forgot to mention: while in town, I also looked for cumin. It's a spice used for proper pilaf. (see, for example, the book “Kazan, Mangal, and Other Male Pleasures” by the famous Eastern LiveJournal cook Stalik).
Strangely enough, I couldn't find it anywhere, not even in hypermarkets. We actually have a special shop for this sort of thing called “Garšvielas” (“Spices”, literally “flavouring substances”). But this wonderful establishment, ridiculous as it may sound, is closed on weekends. Even though it's located on the main street, where the rent is hardly cheap.
I tried calling my aunt, who knows a lot about plants, but couldn't reach her. But when I got to my parents' place, I asked my mother. She thought for a long time, and only when I said that cumin is often incorrectly called caraway did she realise that it was the “black caraway” she had recently bought to “boost immunity”. In Eastern countries, this spice is called zira, and the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was very fond of it.
In European languages, this spice is usually called caraway because of the similarity between the seeds of these plants. How they manage to cook when different things are called by the same name is beyond me.
This is cumin: (cumin)
And this is caraway: (caraway)
It's not easy to tell them apart. Mine, however, is black cumin, like this:
This one no longer looks like caraway. They apparently taste similar, though cumin is stronger. Incidentally, it's used in curry and other Indian spice blends. So a second attempt at making proper pilaf awaits me, this time done correctly—with the main ingredient. The first was the day before yesterday and was generally successful; at least it tasted good.