…Other than salt and pepper
For me it’s cumin. It’s one of the few spices I buy in bulk and actually use up my supply.
In the winter it may lean towards cardamom thanks to copious amounts of chia.
Chipotle pepper powder. It’s like smoked paprika and cayenne rolled into one.
Does salt count as a spice? I don’t think it does. If salt doesn’t count, probably tumeric, ginger or oregano.
Savory: Garlic Powder, Onion Powder on almost everything - sometimes even if I am using fresh versions. Sweet: Cinnamon. However I have about 20 spices that I have in high rotation and another 20 for occasional use. I also keep Chives, Flat Parsley, Oregano, Rosemary, Sage, Thyme & Mojito Mint plants.
Probably bay leaves. I make a lot of stock at home. I find you can’t really taste bay directly but you notice if it’s not there.
I also use a lot of cumin, coriander, and oregano. Various chili powders. Anchor powder is very nice and not too spicy.
Buying a nice mortar and pestle set was one of my best kitchen investments. Fresh ground spices are a game changer.
Black pepper.
Or if we’re going off stuff that isn’t a condiment red pepper flakes which I put on tons of stuff or by volume garlic powder
Smoked paprika and Italian seasoning (hopefully doesn’t make me too basic lol)
The always underestimated nutmeg.
Rosemary salt, as I grow my own rosemary. Also got thyme and sage that I will probably add to it.
The spice I use most often is Old Spice. whistles
Pu pu pu - pu - pu - pu - power
Fresh cilantro unless green onion counts.
(What about garlic and onion? Does that count?)
I don’t know exactly what counts as spice ? I use a bit of shoyu (japanese name of fermented soy sauce) for broths and the like. Beer yeast for salads. A selection of chilis from Mada or Sénégal for some pleasant hotness. Curcuma grows everywhere around here so it’s also a staple. Same for ginger, and the wild variant “tsingiziou masera” -although I have been buying east african ginger recently because it’s cheaper.
Green pepper seeds from northern Mada, they’re not hot at all, just pleasantly crunchy and savoury.
When I get nostalgic of Provence I cook with garlic, olive oil and parsley (for seafood) or I use the wild basel that grows here during kashikazi (rainy season) : small leaves, strong taste, a little different from the mediterranean species.Very cool to hear your connections to all of them and how you source them.
I wish I could identify and use most plants like some of the elders (they’re not always elders of course) at least for culinary purposes. While they have conserved that empirical knowledge through traditional channels, others have studied on the mainland and now strive to reconnect it with modern, academic classification. An example https://journals.openedition.org/oceanindien/1770 This concerns medicinal uses, but there’s considerable overlap between food and medecine where plants are concerned.
Sounds like some bomb food. I want to eat with you for a while. To help with what they are asking, the meaning of spice below. It sounds like you are using a lot of fresh good healthy food, but little of it is a really a spice. Maybe the turmeric or ginger half counts despite I assume that you are using it fresh. Or likely those green pepper seed.
The rest as veggies, sauces, greens, roots and leaves.
“A spice is a dried, aromatic, or pungent plant product— such as a seed, fruit, root, bark, or rhizome— used to flavor or season food and other products. Examples include pepper, nutmeg, ginger, and cinnamon.”
If you’re ever in the indian ocean, please drop me a line, we can share good meals. Thanks for providing a better definition. I didn’t realize a spice had to be dried, and plant material. Beer yeast doesn’t count as a spice then I guess, as it is strictly speaking… a fungus.
paprika and whatever nice spice blends my mom occasionally gets me from pensey. right now my favorites are Justice, Outrage of Love, and Transgender Remember Vanilla Sugar of Love
Smoked paprika, I have both spicy and sweet. Spicy goes so well with hash browns and baked potatoes
Probably onion powder or oregano. I use garlic and ginger powder just as often, but in much smaller amounts. You really can’t add too much onion.
Black pepper. Fresh ground black pepper on everything. That and garlic are the only one I use in bulk
Lately I’ve been experimenting with variety so after that I have way too many different choices. My spice cupboard long since overflowed onto my counter and it’s definitely to the point where I need to plan certain cuisines so I use up spices while they’re still relatively fresh
I also cover everything in pepper, recently bought a little battery powered grinder and it’s fantastic
