Spices 'n Flavours

I am a sucker for spices. I can spend hours in a spice market...and wouldn't bat an eye at plunking down a good bit of cash for them (or any kind of flavor -- like oils, salts, sauces, etc -- for that matter). On the first day C and I moved into our new home, we opened our kitchen cupboard where I had stashed all my "stuff", with a view to check what we needed to get from the grocery. Seems like actual food was cirtical here, because although the shelves were almost full, there was nothing but but rows spices, spice mixes, curry pastes, dried herbs, canned and bottled sauces, infused oil, and various kinds of sugar and salt. My dowry.

So you can imagine my absolute delight at finding a store that filled itself with just these things! I learned about Spices 'n Flavours through a good friend who asked me: "If there was a store that just sold spices and related items, would you go?" Um. Yes? Hello! Lead the way!

The minute I walked in the store I was smitten. Barrels filled star anise and peppercorns. Floor to ceiling shelves (and those adorable "library-style" ladders) filled with bottles of ground and whole spices, as well as dried herbs and spice mixes. Big glass jars of loose tea. Bottles of sauces (including Nando's Peri-Peri Sauce...am going back for that!). A small selection of Japanese condiments. Organic dried herbs and flavor extracts. Different types of flour/startch (like tapioca flour). Aaah...a wonderful gem of a store in my eternal spice hunt!

Above is part of the selection I got: dried kaffir lime leaves, dried galangal, dried holy basil, and Szechuan pepper. I'm so excited! Just their names are sending me into a tizzy of anticipation of how I am going to use them...even if, at the moment, I still haven't the foggiest! If any of you have suggestions, please do send them over :)

Here's another bunch of flavor I brought home (above)...long pepper. It is closely related to black pepper, but is supposed to be hotter. As of now, I can definitely say it smells different. This is the first time I have come across it and I have no idea how to use it just yet (although there will be a lot of experimentation I can assure you!). So, again, if any of you out there have suggestions, please feel free to pass them on!

Aside from the spices and what-such, they also have these coffee/tea stirrer things with crystalized sugar at the end. I have seen the ones with the regular stirrer before, but not these ones that use a cinnamon stick as the stirrer! Aren't they adorable? So, of course, I had to have some of those too...

I am oh so happy with my loot and am presently in that nice state of dreaming of ways to use them...

Spices 'n Flavours
RR-7 Street Market!
Fort Bonifacio Global City, Taguig
(it’s in Market! Market!, outside, at street level, facing Serendra, near Hap Chan)

Avocado Harvest

As someone who has lived all her life in a city, in a townhouse first and then now in an apartment, I have no concept of growing your own food, at any level, be it a fruit tree or a vegetable plot. I did have a small pot of rosemary when I was living in Zurich, but it promptly died after a dinner of lamb chops had razed it to the ground.

This explains my naive excitement every time people talk about their own produce in their very own backyards, the herbs they pick from their own plants and toss in their dishes, the fruits that grow in their own trees...Suffice to say, anytime that one of these lucky people decides to share their crop with me I am overjoyed and quite beside myself with very Martha Stewart-like feelings.

Now, a while back, my grand aunt, who still lives in the city but has a garden, decided to share her small harvest of avocado with us. Hooray! I lovingly placed them on a big white dish in the middle of the dining room table, admiring them and willing them to ripen. Well, one cheeky piece insisted on ripening before the rest of them (picture above). I couldn't wait for its siblings, so I happily made the executive decision to consume the cheeky one before C got home.


And how to polish off one avocado in the way most satisfying to my inner child? Exactly how my grandmother used to prepare them for us: Mashed with sugar and milk (evaporated milk...yup), and nicely chilled. For me nothing beats this simple combination of the sweet, rich creaminess of the avocado and milk...

...it can be matched however by a good batch of guacamole! Which is what happened to the rest of my small crop.

Find more delicious ways to use avocado here. This post was inspired by two other avocado posts you can find here and here.