Spices to bring back?

costaguana

Which spices, commonly available here in India, are difficult to find and/or outrageously expensive in North America?

I'm returning to Canada (Vancouver, specifically) after two and a half years here in India and I am wondering if there are any spices I should stock up on before leaving. I recognize (especially with Vancouver's large NRI population) that Indian cuisine and ingredients are readily available in most large North American cities, but I am wondering if there are any ingredients that are worthwhile to pack given the price difference? I didn't do a lot of Indian cooking before coming here to India, so I'm not as well acquainted with what is available back home.

Thanks.

svirgula

It might be worthwhile to bring saffron back, but this will depend on a few different factors, the most obvious one being the quality of the spice. As far as I know, Iranian saffron is typically regarded as the best one can get. But then again, I'm sure you'll find no shortage of people who will lie to you. And then even if you do well, if you never cook with saffron, there's little point in bringing it back, right?

Probably you should just shop for the spices and herbs you most commonly use and bring them back home in bulk. Herbs and spices are rarely cheap.

But maybe that's obvious.

chAos

Vanilla! Whole vanilla beans are a great deal.

I also stocked up on cinnamon pieces and black peppercorns; I don't recall if they're a whole lot cheaper, but mostly I got them because they're so much better than what I get in the US.
Oh, and cardamom too...

I did try the saffron, because it is much less expensive, but it didn't impress me much; maybe I got an inferior kind or batch.

You'll get everything you need in the Indian grocery stores in Vancouver, but bringing it yourself, you may get better choices of quality/freshness. Spices are a nice and easy gift to bring back too, if you need to think of that.

svirgula

Right. Half of the items sold in Indian grocery stores usually seem to be well over a decade old.


Good call on the vanilla, though. You really just need to be mindful that your spices don't expire before you're able to use them. Any spice whose central taste component (or whatever you want to call it) is composed of oil (e.g. ginger, cloves, nutmeg)will be susceptible to degrading pretty fast if you can't keep it cool.

You might also consider bringing back expensive nuts such as cashews. Just remember that nuts with high oil contents have a limited shelf life.

chAos

Yes, definitely consider how long it takes you to use things up.

In my experience, whole nutmeg seems to never get stale. I don't recall seeing that in India, though, or even in Indian cooking, really. Is it?

Nick-H

Nutmeg is grown in Kerala, and I have bought it there.

The difficulty is buying fresh spice other than in silly tourist-sample packs. As svirgula said, just becomes it comes from an Indian supermarket doesn't mean it is any better than a foreign supermarket.

I used to buy spices on a 'spice-farm visit' in Kerala. They were wonderful, and the pepper was just so full of flavour. I didn't think the prices were high, but I was a tourist in those days, and probably paid a silly price just for the day trip!

vireya

A boy offered me some Kashmiri saffron at a place in Himachal Pradesh. He walked up, obviously offering something but I couldn't work out what he was saying. So he opened a tin he was carrying and showed me more saffron than I've ever seen in my life. Here I buy Spanish saffron in tiny packs of a quarter of a gram of strands for about $6. I was so stunned by the quantity of saffron the kid had, that I didn't actually think to check out the quality, the price or anything. I just said an automatic "no" and kept walking. Later I kicked myself!

kalyani68

Its not so much the expense of things here in the USA that makes us lug back bags of fresh rasam and sambar powder and pickles from India. Its more that we like super-fresh and home-made which you can't reliably get in the markets. All hail the vacuum sealer!

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kmalik

Kalyani -

Is it legal to bring the spices back into the US? Does it not come under farm product and subject to the DOA rules? I typically play it safe, but would love to get fresher spices from India.

Another on my list is the cardamom - particularly the big/black ones. The stuff I buy in the US feels old.

edwardseco

Don't forget to freeze or vacuume pack to keep control of the bugs that come with it. Some states like California have pretty strict rules as well..

jyotirmoy

Have you thought of Kabab chini?

chAos

I've not had trouble, and I've not been modest in the amount I've brought.

I think things have to be alive to fall under agricultural restrictions. Not sure exactly, but, as an example, bringing Tulip Bulbs back from Amsterdam required a special certification in addition to going through the agricultural inspection line. That's something I've never had to do with the Indian spices I've brought back, whether whole or ground masala.

crvlvr

unless you are going to use the spices on a commercial scale, you will not save much in $ terms That's because during the course of a year, a family will probably use a about $30 worth, even at US prices.

kmalik

The motivation was the freshness of the spice, not the money saved. That said, I do not fudge the declarations to customs on return - so, customs inspector would have to explicitly approve my bringing them back into the US. And, I've simply avoid bringing them in case they want to throw it out.

vireya

It is quarantine departments who may be concerned about spices, not customs departments. The sort of things they look for are insect infestations or soil contamination. Some species are banned because they may carry particular plant diseases.

Check your own government's quarantine website for details. Here's the page for Australia:
http://www.daffa.gov.au/aqis/travel/...alia/cant-take