[Sca-cooks] Herby things

[Susan Fox-Davis]

Let's face it, Bakersfield does not represent the whole of So-Cal in 
general where food culture is concerned.  Of course, it has its high 
points, like Harris Ranch Beef and those interesting Basque family 
restaurants!  However, you need to come with me on a "cooks tour" some 
time.  There are Middle Eastern and Asian stores in the San Fernando 
Valley which can fill most of these.  At least part of the year, you can 
get the ginger-related rhizomes [galingale, turmeric] fresh in the 
produce department of 99 Ranch Market, a Chinese-run grocery chain. We 
would also get galingale powdered,   Cubebs and lots of other things at 
Herb Products Co. in North Hollywood. <www.herbproducts.com>, where most 
local herb shops buy their stuff wholesale anyway.  Anything we could 
not find at these places, we look at India Sweets & Spices in 
Northridge, including every curry ingredient you can think of and 
several that you can't, available in serious bulk quantities.   I don't 
think they have long pepper though, so we might have to go "Over The 
Hill" to Olivier & Co. store at  The Grove at Farmer's Market for them 
and other interesting comestibles, mostly olive-related.

I will try to announce a weekend trip some time when there is not a 
major event going on [ha!] and I have some buck$ to spend.  Or maybe if 
you feel like playing hooky from Queen's Champion we could set something up.

Best, Selene Colfox

Chris Stanifer wrote:

>Here in Sunny So-Cal (Bakersfield), we don't really have the opportunity to come face-to-face with
>anything more exotic than 'toasted sesame seeds'.  However, if I were to have access to a spice
>merchant (other than via web), I would ask them to stock the following items:
>
>True Cinnamon (bulk, so I can buy only the number of sticks I need)
>Whole nutmeg (believe it or not, I simply can't find it here)
>Long Pepper (by the ounce)
>Cubeb (by the ounce)
>Galingal (either fresh or dried, by the knob)
>Grains of Paradise (by the ounce)
>Cardamom pods (another common item I have a hard time finding)
>Star anise
>
>William de Grandfort
>