Spice

It was a perfect Autumn morning earlier today.

Bright, sunny, chilly, an autumn wind but not too strong.
A morning full of promise.
Just like those mornings when you were little and most days were full of promise.
Before you became a grown up and were ground down by responsiblity and disappointment.

Speaking of ground, let's talk about spice shall we?

After taking the dogs out on a gallivant, I realised I still hadn't bought any brown tea for breakfast. The cupboard holds nothing but herbal as far as the eye can see.
So it's back up the street to the local spice market: purveyors of all things aromatic. Except I think they operate on Sri Lankan time. Despite official trading hours printed on the sign, they're still closed.

I amuse myself for a while documenting one of the shop cats who appears deceptively meek and mild soaking up the morning rays nestled into her basket of dried curry leaves surrounded by suitably armour-like glinting stainless steel cookware and bowls of Chinese dates and Star Anise.

In reality she has cahones and guards the stoop of the shop ferociously. Scout is respectfully terrified of her and would rather cross the street than risk walking past on her footpath.

But all this window-gazing is reminding me of the aromatic spices I used for dinner last night; a quick braise of eggplant and sweet potato delicately spiced with ground cumin, freshly grated ginger, honey and lemon and served on a bed of saffron-infused cous cous.

Proper saffron brought back from Spain by a friend. Oh, the aroma from just one or two strands of this! Simple and delicious.

How bland would our lives would be in the West without the discovery of all these ingredients we now take for granted. It's not hard to imagine how colonialism and empires were won and lost over the spice trade and how valuable a commodity they were.

Now all I need to complete the spicy picture is a skein or two of this.

But it's so scarce and desirable a commodity that I think it's up there with saffron and gold on an ounce-by-ounce scale and could usher in a new age of the Spice Wars.

Wishing you a spicy week.