Herb and Spice Garden

 

On the grounds of the Malay Heritage Centre was a small herb and spice garden in the Arab Quarter of Singapore.

Tamarind Moment

Photo courtesy Tau’olunga — Wikimedia Commons

Tamarind is often used in South Indian cooking, but my association is with Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

How could anyone diet in Dar?

Near a roundabout was a hole-in-the-wall duka just out of the downtown core of Dar es Salaam. With one glance, my impression was that the store offered nothing worth while, but don’t let appearances fool you.

Khan al-Khalili Souk

If there’s one place you shouldn’t miss in Cairo, it’s Khan al-Khalili Souk. We loved it so much, we went back a second time during our short stay.

On our first sojourn, we wound our way along streets of market stalls selling everything from cushions to spices.

Discovering the delights of real cooking

My mother cooked like most women of her era — boiled cabbage until it was limp and colourless, cooked meat until the final trace of blood was drained and then cooked it some more. Her spices were limited to mixed herbs and Keens curry powder, neither of which altered her dull, lifeless cooking.