Bell pepper powder is made from dried, finely ground bell peppers. Bell peppers come from South and Central America like all other chili peppers. They were first called bell peppers by Lionel Wafer in 1699. Lionel Wafer was a ship’s surgeon and privateer who wrote about his voyages in the New World. Bell peppers were […]
Sencha: Japan’s Favorite Green Tea
In Japanese sen means pouring and cha means tea. Put those words together and you get sencha, the most popular form of green tea in Japan: about 70 percent of Japan’s tea is sencha. Sencha is one of many Japanese teas that include the popular matcha and other types less famous in the West like […]
Smoked Sea Salt: Two Ancient Flavors In One Spice
Smoke has been used for preserving food since the paleolithic era. Most likely, people during this period discovered that the food they hung in a smoky part of a dwelling stayed edible for longer. They would also notice that the flavor that smoked meats took on was enjoyable. Similarly, both mined and sea salts have […]
Myrrh Gum: A Fragrant Medicine
Myrrh gum is sometimes referred to as myrrh resin. It is the dried sap from a particular type of tree. There are two types of myrrh, both of which come from trees in the Commiphora genus. The two varieties are heerabol — also called true myrrh — and bisabol. The trees from which most myrrh […]
Matcha Powder: The Healthiest Form Of Green Tea
Matcha powder is ground matcha tea. Matcha tea’s origins go back to the Tang Dynasty (7 AD to 10 AD). The original way of processing matcha tea for transport during the Tang era involved forming it into bricks. To prepare matcha tea, people roasted the bricks and ground them to a powder. They combined that […]
Too Much Wasabi? What To Do To Save Your Dish
Wasabi is a pungent member of the Brassicaceae family. It is related to both mustard and horseradish. Like horseradish, it is hot and can deliver an uncomfortable level of spiciness if you use too much of it. Symptoms of excessive wasabi consumption include a watery nose and a stinging sensation in the sinuses. Wasabi’s spiciness […]
Thai Cardamom: Thailand’s Distinctive Cardamom Variety
Thai cardamom originated in southeast Asia and belongs to the same family as green cardamom, which is also known as Indian cardamom. Both Thai and Indian cardamom belong to the Zingiberaceae family to which ginger and turmeric also belong. Thai cardamom’s botanical name is Amomum krervanh, and its common names include Siam cardamom. The Thai […]
Pasilla Powder: The Chilaca Chili’s Alter Ego
Pasilla powder consists entirely of ground pasilla chili pepper. Pasilla is the name given to the dried chilaca pepper. There is not much recorded about the chilaca’s history, nor about the pasilla pepper. What is known is that the chilaca is a very mild hot pepper that most likely came from the state of Puebla. […]
Kampot Pepper: The World’s Best Black Pepper
Cambodians have been growing pepper since the time of the Khmer Empire, which means that it has been produced there for more than 1,000 years. While many westerners may never have heard about Kampot, the quality of the region’s black pepper has made it famous among professional cooks and food-lovers the world over. An emissary […]
Cinnamon Basil Vs. Thai Basil: SPICEography Showdown
Cinnamon and Thai basil both belong to the same family that includes regular basil (AKA sweet basil or Mediterranean basil) and mint. One factor that can make a comparison between these two tricky is that some people refer to cinnamon basil as Thai basil. Both cinnamon basil and Thai basil are common ingredients in Thai […]