Last week I was messaging with my friend Deno, who lives in San Francisco and was a chef in a previous life. We were texting about how much we were cooking, and somehow we rolled the subject around to peppercorns and I mentioned the spice brand
Diaspora Co. He hadn’t heard of it. Go look up the black pepper they sell, I urged him.
“I see the comments for the pepper say things like ‘aromatic as ,’” he shot back.
That Diaspora Co. was new to him was a good reminder that my job can make me myopic. I’d assumed all food obsessives like Deno already knew about the company and that I was the one late to the party, having bought my first jar of peppercorns (already gone) a few months back from DTLA Cheese. I’m now a believer.
Turmeric-Spiced Dal (Kathy Gunst)
Turmeric with its brilliant golden-yellow color and floral, warming, slightly musky taste is one of the primary flavors in Indian and Southeast Asian cooking. It is what gives curry powder its bright yellow color and has been used as both a spice and a medicinal herb in India for thousands of years.
Recently turmeric has become one of the darlings of the food world. Turmeric tea, turmeric milk, turmeric lattes, smoothies and turmeric-spiced foods of all kinds are featured on menus and in packaged foods.
DJ Rekha, a New York City-based DJ and cultural producer of South Asian descent, recently spoke with me about the spice.
Forbes unveiled its 10
th annual â30 Under 30â list recently, with Indian Americans Sana Javeri Kadri and Priya Krishna named among the honorees in the Food & Drink category.
Kadri, 27, an Oakland, California, resident, is the founder of Diaspora Co. At 23 years old in 2017, Kadri used $3,000 from her tax refund to start sourcing and selling ethically farmed turmeric.
âI wanted a more delicious spice trade, that spoke of origins, of culture, and of flavor first, rather than the stale pantry aisle staples we d been forced to settle for,â says Kadri, who moved from India to California for college, the Forbes profile says.
Today Diaspora Co. works with nearly a dozen small family farms across India, paying an average of six times more than the commodity price, and sells seven spices including coriander and cardamom.
Farmers Võ Ngọc Dũng and Vuong Huu Thanh move closer together so both their faces fit into the Zoom camera frame. Behind them, in the central Vietnamese province of Dak Lak, lush vines snake up tall trees. The wobbly camera moves up to a vine, showing off a cluster of tiny berries: peppercorns. Their audience, a group of mostly American spice lovers, quiz them through the chat function.
How tall are the ladders they use to harvest the pepper? How do they like to cook with peppercorns? How much pepper does a single vine produce? The pair answers through a translator:
A Black Turmeric? IFS Officer Shares Benefits of This Rare, Costly Haldi Used in Cancers
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Turmeric is a common ingredient in every Indian household. It is not only used for cooking but is also utilised for its medicinal benefits. But, what is astonishing here is that the common yellow coloured turmeric is not the only form in which it is available.
Recently, an Indian Forest Service official, Swetha Boddu has shared a photo of Black Turmeric . This type of turmeric is blue in colour and is comparatively way more expensive than the usual one.
In her tweet, she has informed that the black turmeric is a powerful anti-oxidant and is also used for treatment in Cancers. She has also urged people to go for local items over the hybrid ones.