Just a quick note to say that this coming weekend, Jill be hosting a repeat of last year's popular Haiku challenge. Sharpen your pencils! The rules will be the same: pick a perfume, write a haiku about it using the simplified English form (three lines, the first line with five syllables, the second line with seven syllables and the third line with five syllables). You can put the perfume name in the title or in the poem itself.
And if you have a great idea for a poll topic, do leave a comment!
A new spice shop opened here recently and I went down to see if there was anything delicious and fragrant I could bring to you people. I found several things I’d been looking for — sichuan peppers, nigella seeds, aleppo pepper — all of which we’ll discuss at a later date, and one I didn’t even know existed that I am very excited to tell you about right now.
Long pepper is only one of its names. It also goes by Balinese pepper, Bengal pepper, Jaborandi pepper, Indian long pepper, and various combinations thereof, none of which appear in the indices of any of my many cookbooks and ingredient guides. The internets seem to agree that it is widely employed in Asia for stir fries and pickling, and is featured in North African spice blends such as Ras el Hanout and Berbere.1 The same sources repeat the story that it was the pepper preferred by the Romans, and some add that it was the spice the world thought of as “pepper,” until cultivation methods made the black pepper we are accustomed to today far more widely available. I have a feeling limited availability might explain long pepper’s absence from my cookbooks. (If you are familiar with it, or come from a part of the world where it is commonly employed, do comment.)
At any rate, there it was, on the wall of glass jars devoted to peppercorns…
I am taking the day off to get some critical chores finished. Come back tomorrow, when Joe will be hosting an open poll.
Note: image is Tall and short by bensonkua at flickr; some rights reserved.
To a greater extent that I’d like to admit, this blog started out as something of an excuse to go on wasting huge amounts of time on the internet gabbing about perfume, and I think that pretty much explains the occasional chocolate posts as well. This chocolate bar I’m eating? Oh, it’s just research. Here are brief reviews of six bars. If you’re not interested in chocolate, come back tomorrow, when Kevin will have a real fragrance review.
Do you love cardamom? The L’Artigiano di Gardini Cardamomo bar (62% cocoa, shown above left) is fabulous. It does for cardamom what the Chuao Chocolatier Chinita Nibs bar does for nutmeg. If they would just add something crunchy and/or chewy to it, it would be heaven on earth. According to the little price tag on the back, I paid $11.50 for this bar. That can’t be, can it? I’m quite sure I would never spend that on a chocolate bar. Ack. Next.
Moving on, the Eclipse Chocolat Gingerbread Crumb bar…
We'll be back on Sunday or Monday.
Note: image is my mother's xmas cookies by timitalia at flickr; some rights reserved.