SMALL ONION (SAMBAR ONION)

The name "shallot (also known as small onion)" comes from Ashkelon, an ancient Canaanite city, where people in classical Greek times believed shallots originated.The term shallot is usually applied to the French red shallot (Allium cepa var. aggregatum, or the A. cepa Aggregatum Group). It is also used for the Persian shallot or musir (A. stipitatum) from the Zagros Mountains in Iran and Iraq, and the French gray shallot (Allium oschaninii) which is also known as griselle or "true shallot"; it grows wild from Central to Southwest Asia. The name shallot is also used for a scallion in New South Wales, Australia and among English-speaking people in Quebec. Anglophone Quebecers and British English speakers stress the second syllable of shallot, as "shall-OH" and "shall-OT" respectively (Australians and New Zealanders also say "shall-OT"), while other varieties of English pronounce it as "SHALL-?t".