Well it finally happened. I ate all my photogenic perishable food for the week before I got around to painting any of it. So instead of fruit or veggies, this week I’ve painted some of my spices. From left to right you’re looking at jars of cumin, sumac, and turmeric.
The selection isn’t so much a reflection of what I use most often when cooking as it is which spices would be the most attractive to paint/were in the nicest jars. I’ve only just started experimenting with sumac, the turmeric only gets pulled out for curries, but I put cumin in everything. One of the more interesting aspects of learning to cook has been figuring out more precisely flavors I do and don’t like. For example, while I didn’t know I loved cumin, I also didn’t realize that I dislike tarragon because I’d never been exactly certain what the ingredients went into my food.
The history of spices, where they come from, and how their trade has influenced world history (cough colonialism cough) is very interesting and lots of people have written quite a bit on this topic–more than I’d ever be able cover–so here are some resources to get you started if you feel so inclined to look into this topic.
