Across

1. Treat with contemptuous disregard  (non-food)
4. Tropical American flat-jointed  prickly pear; Jamaica. Also a food  fish.
9. An English, snow, sugar or chick
10. Arab cookery: Thick soup  with sheep tail and mutton, and  beans or chickpeas.
12. The back part of the hindquarter  of a meat animal
13. French: Pomelo or Shaddock
15. Any of various squash plants grown  for their elongated fruit with  smooth dark green skin and whitish  flesh
17. Coin machine
18. Moroccan stew.
24. A type of root
25.  The whole wheat berry broken into  coarse, medium or fine particles. (7,5)
26. Sex hormone 'estrogen' was first  made from a compound in this tuber.

Down

2. An tropical American evergreen  tree with leathery, ellipsoid, ten- ribbed fruits borne on the trunks  and older branches.
3. A chemical phenomenon in which an  organic molecule splits into  simpler substances
5. Whiskey is derived from this  Gaelic word.
6. Sliced apples layered and baked  with sugared crumbs, spices.
7. Swiss flour manufacturer who  introduced bouillon cubes  commercially in 1882.
8. Having or producing a comfortable  and agreeable degree of heat or  imparting or maintaining heat
11. Whole-wheat
14. French: Cute, dainty, tiny.
15. Smooth and soft to touch or taste
16. Pan with a convex bottom, used for  frying in Chinese cooking
19. Japanese: soup
20. European red deer.
21. Russian for a fish soup frequently  clarified with caviar.
22. A canned meat made largely from  pork
23. A sweetened beverage of diluted  fruit juice