uh, let's see. taking the train home last night, i devised a fantastic plan to swing by the local branch of the major corporate chain grocery store and pick up some ingredients for curry. ha! and who am i to think that they would actually have the ingredients i needed at the massive grocery store smack in the middle of one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in the city?! in a space the size of two or three football fields, you'd think they'd have room to squeeze in a few bottles of turmeric. and i could tell that they hadn't run out of the stuff--they just never stock it. is there really such a low demand for the spice that they don't need to include it in their spice section? i did a quick search for 'turmeric' in the food network recipe database and there were 170 recipes (that includes the 25 that misspell it as "tumeric") that called for it, and i figure this is just a very small collection of recipes and, therefore, there are probably thousands or maybe millions of recipes that require turmeric.

turmeric is an interesting spice. the plant it comes from is big and leafy and they harvest the fingers of the root for the spice. when whole (see fifth photo down), it looks much like ginger. it turns things into such a lovely shade of orange-yellow. it is a necessary ingredient in curry powder. and is also used in mustard blends and relishes. there are all sorts of other turmeric facts here. its fascinating. really.

and dominicks should stock the stuff!