The Great Plotnik

Saturday, January 10, 2009

The New, Improved Spice Center



Take a close look at the Spice Center in The Great Plotnik World Headquarters Meatball Kitchen, because you'll never see it this orderly again. Last night, Plotnik decided it was time to be able to open the door again without a bag of jocotes from Peru or jar of sumac from Istanbul falling onto the counter or into his coffee.

So here's how it works. Bottom shelf: most used. On the top of the bottom shelf are seeds, on the bottom in the back ground spices, and in the front small containers of commonly used items like the mountain of Persian saffron Nefnik and Fefnik gave Plottie for Christmas.

On the second shelf are larger, less-commonly used spices, except for the turmeric which Plottie uses all the time, and the sesame seeds, which just happened to fit in that smaller container in the front. In the rear corner on the left are two unopened cans, one of blisteringly hot paprika and one of masala, that the Plots purchased in the great market in Budapest. After all these years those spices will still be pungent as long as they are never opened and never used. See?

On the third shelf are liquids, like lime and lemon essence, and vanilla, also a few bags of mild paprika from Budapest that don't fit anywhere else, and toothpicks.

On the fourth shelf are store-bought spice blends, like Tony Chachere's and Trader Joe's sea salt and salt-free Spike (tastier than regular Spike), and some small bags of useless stuff Plot bought from the genius spice salesman at Oxbow Market in Napa, stuff like Nawaj and Citrus Halwal (Plot KNEW he'd never use them but he couldn't quite NOT buy them). Also on the fourth shelf, but behind the others so you can't see them, are quite a few plastic bags of chiles from around the world, like the smoked chiles from Oaxaca that are the basis of Plotnik's Perfect Oaxaca Green Enchilada Sauce, and the Peruvian jocotes that aren't the basis for anything but Plot can't throw away because they were so much fun to buy, and the tiny, tiny Guatemalan red chiles that Plot keeps around because someday he may just get really mad at someone.

On the top shelf are larger packages of spice mixes Plotnik will never, you know, use, but, like, you never know, plus overflow bags of surplus spices that Plottie buys because, like, they're cheaper in bulk, you know, and, so you gotta put 'em somewhere, and all that Aleppo Pepper, from The Great PD, which Plot loves and is the absolute best in the world.

Hmmmm. Maybe pepper tea? Has anyone ever tried pepper tea?

2 Comments:

At 7:22 PM, Blogger mary ann said...

Good job on the spice re-mo!

 
At 11:21 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I just cleaned my spice drawer too. I couldn't stand all the parsley that escaped where it should have been. More interesting than Betty W's but less interesting than yours!

 

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