In india, home away from home, a catholic stronghold surrounded by muslim india. Like the chinese and the arabs before them, they came for indias fantastic spices pepper, cardamom, turmeric, ginger, and cinnamon. Indias keynote dish, the biryani, makes use of many of the spices which brought the portuguese to india. But many more spices are from the far ends of the spice trails. Can you guess which are native to india . Padma is on the case. Master chef Mehboob Alam Khan is inviting me to his home to cook his specialty the biryani. Ginger and garlic paste. Garlic and ginger. Now this is a common ingredient for all most of the indian cooking. Also give me some turmeric. Where did you learn to make this biryani . Oh, at my house, from my mother. Give me the red chilies. Some cinnamon stick. The lychee cardamom. And you leave the shell on . Now give me some onions. These have been fried, correct . This is fried crisp, fried onions, you see . And now you see i crush them with my hand. Now give me the lemon juice that is there. Mint, coriander, green chilies, all chopped together. Ok. Now this is our basic marinade, you see. Now we will be adding a little of refined peanut oil. Mehboob leaves the sumptuous mixture to marinade for 45 minutes, then he adds the rice. And whats this . Now this is saffron, boil it along with milk. Whole milk. In a pot sealed with pastry, its left to cook for 40 minutes. Did you guess which of all those spices came from india . Well, it was cinnamon, cardamom, and turmeric, which are native to india. The others are from europe, south america, china, and south asia. Have a taste. Very tasty, thats really delicious. Mmm. Excellent. Nothing to compare with the biryani. Nothing to compare. Indian spices were all very well, but the portuguese thirst for spices seemed unquenchable. From the indian ports, the portuguese moved to malaysia, where they captured the port of malacca, a bottleneck through which all ships had to pass en route from china to india. Malacca was a huge prize, the richest port in asia. By the time the portuguese arrived in 1511, malacca was already a wealthy center of trade for the chinese, the indians, the thais, and the indonesians. It was also a jumpingoff point to the Spice Islands to the east. As one medieval chronicler put it, whoever is the lord of malacca has his hand on the throat of venice. In malacca today, you can still see the influence of the portuguese in a number of their traditional dishes. Steamed and dryfried sambal crab; green kangkong tossed in belacan a spicy prawn paste and portuguesestyle prawns; spicy fish baked in banana leaves; and the classic curry debal, or devils curry. All these dishes blend elements of portugal and its former colonies in africa, goa, and here in malacca. Rice, of course. My goodness, look at that crab. The portuguese had sewn up all the most valuable asian ports. But they had a rival the spanish. And while the portuguese had gone east, the spanish headed west. Christopher columbus tried to pass off the seeds of this tree, the allspice, as pepper, because he was under huge pressure from his sponsor, the king of spain. And although it does have hints of pepper, it also smells a little bit like cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, which, although delicious, is not quite the same thing. Christopher columbus sailed from europe in search of spices in 1492. But when he landed in central america, he discovered a whole new world of tastes. Tyler florence is in mexico to try them. When the spanish first set foot on mexico in the 16th century, one of the worlds greatest culinary adventures began. Mexico became the major gateway between europe and the americas, with each culture swapping indigenous foods and cooking ideas. The spanish were amazed to find a whole host of new fruits and vegetables theyd never even seen before, never mind tasted, and in fact, a lot of our Favorite Foods actually originated in mexico. Europe had no idea what a tomato was until the 16th century. And when spain started colonizing the new world, they discovered that mexico was a major player in the culinary scene. And things theyve given to the new world, its a list you probably take for granted on a day to day basis. I mean, things like vanilla, chocolate, pineapple, chilies, avocados, beans, green beans, it just goes on and on. Imagine cooking without this little guy . Viva mexico. But probably the greatest gift to the worlds spice palate was the chili pepper. Tyler meets up with patricia quintana, one of mexicos top chefs. You know, mexican cooking wouldnt have the same fiery soul without the chili. There are 300 varieties of fresh chilies that grow here, and many more dried. And today we are here with one of the matriarchs of mexican cooking, patricia quintana, and shes going to walk us through this whole chili thing. What do you have today . Chiles poblanos. Those are beautiful. Well, the poblano is a staple to mexican cuisine. And it grows, you know, all year around. And they are sort of very accessible, and its also hey, guys, check this out, this is really beautiful. The poblano has a large cavity inside, so theyre really great for stuffing inside. You can pretty much stuff anything, beans and cheese. Some seafood, and. And goat cheese. But you have to get these little guys out, these little spicy devils. Thats where the heat lives right there. The poblano is one of the milder chilies youll find in mexico. The general rule is, the smaller the chili, the hotter the flavor. What patricia has just been explaining to me is that chilies are measured for heat on a scale called scoville units. Basically its a Number System that describes how hot a chili really is compared to other chilies, and if you think about it, its sort of a Richter Scale of seismic activity, but on your tongue. Let me give you an example here. Lets just say a lonely jalapeno rates about 2,300 on a Richter Scale, which is pretty hot, right . Very hot, but the daddy, the king daddy of all chilies, the habanero, 300,000. Aah. Tyler heads to the state of veracruz, where vanilla is grown. Mexico is the birthplace of vanilla. It was the totonacs, a local indigenous tribe, who discovered the orchid that produces the vanilla pod. And to this day, at harvest time, they celebrate these prize pods in a very unique way. Those mad flyers above me are known as voladores, and they are the native totonac people of veracruz, and they are kicking off a sevenday festival celebrating the vanilla bean. Look at them. Three times a day for the weeklong festival, the voladores take their life into their own hands, suspended from a twisting, falling rope for up to 15 minutes, the totonacs developed the painstaking process of curing the vanilla pods, a secret they guarded for centuries. Those little black flecks you find inside your Vanilla Ice Cream are called vanilla beans, and they come from this guy, which is a whole vanilla pod. Now vanilla is the second most expensive spice in the world behind saffron. As a matter of fact, this guy would probably go for about 10 in the states, but they are about 1. 50 here, so im definitely going to snag a few. But the sticky smell of this thing. Its like the best scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream youve ever had in your life times 10. Meanwhile, back in malacca, the dutch were closing in on the portuguese. This is the entrance to the malacca river, and its hard to imagine that this tiny river mouth was the gateway to possibly one of the most important Trading Centers in history. It was actually here in these warehouses, over 200 years ago, the Dutch East India Company wouldve been loading tons of spices onto ships to go back to europe, and the air would have been heady with the smell of cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. The dutch stole the precious port of malacca from the portuguese. And from here they could access the two islands in the moluccas to the southeast, which were home to the most valuable spices of all. Like cloves, the fabulous fruit of the nutmeg was originally only found on the moluccas, and, possibly, it was as valuable because it had two spices. The inside was nutmeg, and the outside was mace. Now the outside here is the fruit, and tastes delicious. The beautiful red outer skin, when dried, becomes mace, and the inside, the black bit, thats our nutmeg. The islands of the moluccas were hardwon by the dutch. The largest of them was only ten miles wide, and finding them in the indonesian archipelago of 16,000 islands, without a map, was like finding a needle in a haystack. The journeys were epic. The island coastlines were hazardous, and there was a huge risk of storms and shipwreck; savage people were rumored to live there. The dutch protected their spice possessions aggressively, and gained a monopoly on nutmeg and cloves by slaughtering the islands 6,000 natives. They kept prices artificially high by burning huge bonfires of nutmeg. Anyone caught trying to steal a nutmeg was immediately put to death. By the middle of the 17th century, amsterdam was the new power in the world trade in spices. But, in what could be the boldest act of industrial espionage, a single man was about to fatally undermine the dutch monopoly. Mauritius, an island paradise in the middle of the indian ocean. It was here that one of the more bizarre chapters in the spice story was to be played out, when a wellnamed frenchman took on the dutch. When the french first came here to colonize the island in 1721, they thought it would be a good idea to make mauritius into a spice island and take away the monopoly that the dutch had at that time. And a peter poivre came here, peter pepper in english, came here, and he thought it would be a good moneymaking proposition to bring various spices, nutmeg, mace, and cloves, to the island, grow them here, and make a lot of money. Peter pepper managed to grab a nutmeg seed from amboyna, in the moluccas, from right under the noses of the dutch, and he took it to mauritius. He lost his arm in his efforts, but he achieved his aim. When he became governor in 1766, he went to the large house in pamplemousses called mon plaisir, and he actually had 100 acres of garden devoted to spices. Peter peppers move symbolically spelt the end of the dutch era, but the french didnt get much of a lookin where spices were concerned. There were other lone adventurers out there on the high seas, and a galleon was a floating fortune. This is the golden hind, an exact replica of the boat sir Francis Drake sailed round the world in 1577. After plundering spanish galleons on the coast of america, drake arrived in the Spice Islands of the moluccas, he made a deal with the local sultan, and left with six tons of cloves. When drake arrived in england, his hold full of gold and spices, he was able to pay back his investors 47 times over. To the british he was a hero, to the rest of the world, a pirate. Drakes hugely successful trip led to the setting up of the british east India Company, whose aim was to exploit asias markets. The british gained the tiny spice island of run in 1603, later swapping it for the then altogether less spicy island of new york. Eventually, they took hold of the malaccan straits and ended the dutch stranglehold. Just up the straits from dutch malacca, the british established their own base in penang, and you can still see the british influence in these grand buildings in georgetown, penangs capital. In 1786, a royal east India Company captain, francis light, made a deal with the local sultan, and invited people from all across the British Empire to settle here. Two main communities were established here and still thrive today chinatown and little india. The local spice shops go back generations, and im going to meet journalist Himanshu Bhatt to find out more. This is mera sahib. My family has been shopping here for the last 30, 40 years. Obviously, some of these spices i recognize, i mean, like these are star anise and pepper and cloves. Would they all have been shipped in from india . Originally, from other places like the moluccan islands, sri lanka, uh. Kerala, in india. Its a fantastic shop, i tell you, it smells just. I literally close my eyes and i could be in india, you know . Its fantastic. Today, spices are very much a part of the food of multicultural malaysia, where, amongst others, the chinese, the portuguese, the dutch, and the british have all stopped off. And now malaysia is home to asias biggest spice farm, nasuha, covering 300,000 acres with 100,000 plants. It exports its organic spices all over the world. Im going to langkawi to meet shukri, the owner of the celebrated lighthouse restaurant, to have a lesson in malay cooking. One of malaysias modern day dishes is reflective of its varied past as a spice traders mecca. And now were going to make something very special. Right. What are we going to make . Its a beef rendang. Delicious. The key dish includes pounded chili, onions, and lemon grass. Then the galangal. Ginger. Then, garlic. You need all the other spices. Oh, star anise . Star anise, yeah. Cinnamon, cloves. Cinnamon, cloves, flower. Cardamom. Theyre like the aromatics, arent they . Thats right, you need all this for the aroma. These are the real stars of this dish. Whoa oh, yeah, put that in. Yes, fantastic. Yeah. [laughs] great. Now is the time for us to put in the beef. But there is one last magic ingredient. Another great aromatic. Turmeric leaves. Oh, turmeric leaves obviously ive seen turmeric, does it smell of turmeric . Yeah, it smells turmeric. The reason we use the leaf its because the leaves have more aroma. All you have to do is just shred it, shred it into pieces, yeah . We add kaffir lime leaves and coconut milk. The secret ingredient is a pounded, toasted coconut flesh called kerisik. This is really going to thicken it up even more, so its supposed to be quite dry, isnt it . Yeah, its supposed to be dry. Im going to try. Can i have a sneak preview . Please, yeah. Ill do the same. Mmm. Let me try too. Mmm the meat is meltingly tender, its incredible, all the spices have blended into a really indepth flavor. And the meat is just melting. Ahh. Fantastic. By the end of the 19th century, the british had reached into all corners of the known world. For over a hundred years, british traders have been bringing back plants to this place, kew gardens, in london, home to the largest plant collections in the world. Here, specimens could be checked and crosschecked, all 80,000 of them, research which still continues today. The british planted spices everywhere. Black pepper in singapore, nutmeg in granada, cinnamon in the seychelles, and ginger in jamaica. Spices really had gone global. Once the monopolies were broken, spices became available to everyone, and now you can get almost any spice from any supermarket. But now we no longer have to steal spices from the nests of dragons, has the spice gone out of spice . Right in my own neighborhood, notting hill, london, i meet birgit erath, modern spice entrepreneur, to find out the state of spices today. Whats happened whats happened to the spices . Massproduced, they have cash crops. You know, the demand now is so high on spices, they produce three crops a year on the same field. I mean, can you tell me what nutrients are left in that root of the cumin or the coriander or the cardamoms . Like in certain places, especially the massproduced ones, they are allowed to take 33 of the volatile oils out of spices, to use as flavorings in the food industry. And then they have to come in with chemicals to make that up again. But do you think that. You know, it has happened in other types of farming, is that people are now craving the real thing again, you know, people are starting to write about it, people like you are opening shops, so, you know, hopefully theres still a market for the small people that are doing things right. The spices are really coming again, but real spices, not what you get in the supermarket. You know, when people buy saffron, and i tell them it takes like 80,000 flowers to make one ounce of saffron, you know, or vanilla pods take two years to grow and are still handpollinated, its sexy, its still there, and you use that, and you appreciate what you use. Its easier than pouring some readymade sauce over some pasta. You know, youre making it from scratch. Its love, its inspiring, and its, just, you know, the smell and the touch of it, its just, you know. Today, spice trails cover the world. Now, cumin from the middle east is often associated with mexico, while chilies from mexico are now used more in places like india, fennel seeds originally from Southern Europe are used more often in china, ginger from india is used copiously in caribbean food, and turmeric from india is used a lot in the food of north africa, while cinnamon from sri lanka is massive in indonesia. Fortunes have been made, empires been built, even a new world discovered, through spice. Thousands of years of obsession with exotic aromas has caused men to pillage, plunder, and explore the world. So next time you look at your spice rack, seeing those spices go stale, just think of the epic journey they took to get there. Stay tuned for a special globe trekker extra. Funding for this program is provided by subaru. At subaru, we build vehicles like the rugged outback. With symmetrical allwheel drive standard, and plenty of cargo space, for those who pack even more adventure into life. Love. Subaru, a proud sponsor of globe trekker. You can find more about the series on our web site. Programs from the globe trekker series are available on dvd, or visit globetrekkerchannel. Tv to find out where you can watch us online. Music from the series is available on cd. You can also order globe trekker books, featuring information on festivals, events, and outdoor activities. To order globe trekker products call 8885650361, or visit globetrekkertv. Com. After helping interpret the rest of my life, anu said she wanted to show me the local spice bazaar. This place got a real buzz to it. It actually dates back to the 17th century. So these guys got cheese all over the place. Yes, this is the famous cheese street, and hold on, this guys giving me something. There are about over forty types of cheeses in each of these stores. Forty . Yep. And theyre only local cheeses im talking about. They dont have many, uh, imported cheese because its very expensive, so people dont buy it. You guys have string cheese . Yes, this is one of the string cheeses that we have in turkey. And this is always sold like this, in strings. Just like that. Yeah, and theres you dont have to string it yourself. This is the unsalty kind. Thats not salty. Thats like mozzarella. Exactly. Another staple in turkey are pulses, such as haricot beans, broad beans, lentils, and chickpeas. Sometimes known as poor mans meats, originally they became popular here because of their ease of cultivation in