Many chefs and cookbook authors spend their careers touting the unique aspects of the cuisines they cook and write about. I’m different from most. I look around and see nothing but commonalities and connections between the major Asian cuisines. In The Silk Road Gourmet Cookbook, I write a lot about how ingredients and dishes swirl in patterns across Asia and tell us a lot about relationships between countries whether through trade, diplomatic relations, cultural or religious connections.
One of these patterns in ingredients is found in the makeup of the major spice powders. Whether used as a pickling spice, an advieh, a masala, a curry powder, a spice paste or a five-spice powder, the same spices, with some variations in amount, preparation, use, or local addition of ingredients swirl across the continent from Armenia to Indonesia.
Take for example a relatively familiar Northern Indian garam masala: 2 teaspoons black peppercorns, 2 teaspoons cloves, 2 teaspoons cumin seeds, 2 2-inch cinnamon sticks, ½ nutmeg corm, grated, 2 tablespoons cardamom seeds. Moving west of India, the first three ingredients are also found in most Pakistani garam masalas, which tend to omit cinnamon and nutmeg, and substitute black cardamom for the green cardamom found in the Indian masala. The same ingredients as those in the Indian masala can be found in an Afghani char masala – minus the nutmeg and also replacing the cardamom with black cardamom as in Pakistan; and in Iranian advieh – this time with the addition of coriander seeds and Persian lime powder. A commonly used modern Armenian pickling spice share four ingredients with the Iranian advieh but adds bay leave and the New World allspice to the mix.
| India | 2 teaspoons black peppercorns 2 teaspoons cloves 2 teaspoons cumin seeds 2 2-inch cinnamon sticks ½ average nutmeg corm, grated 2 tablespoons cardamom seeds |
| Pakistan | 1 tablespoon black peppercorns 1 teaspoon ground cloves 4 tablespoons cumin seeds Seeds from 6 black cardamom pods |
| Afghanistan | 1 tablespoon black peppercorns 2 teaspoons whole cloves 1 tablespoon cumin seed 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon 1 tablespoon seeds from black cardamom pods |
| Iran | ½ teaspoon ground black pepper ½ teaspoon ground cumin 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg ¼ teaspoon ground coriander ½ teaspoon ground cardamom ¼ teaspoon dried Persian lime powder |
| Armenia | 2 tablespoons black peppercorns 1 tablespoon whole cloves 1 cinnamon stick 2 tablespoons coriander seeds 4 bay leaves 2 tablespoons whole allspice |
East of India, many Nepalese masalas have the same ingredients as the Indian masala mentioned here – only they tend to add black cardamom to the mix. One important difference between Indian and Nepali masalas is that Nepali masalas are often roasted, whereas this is an option in Indian cuisine. Sri Lankan curry powder has the same ingredients as the Indian garam masala except that it adds coriander and fennel seeds and omits nutmeg. Several additional spices and herbs (pandanus) are also added that are not related to the five or six spice base in most of the other mixes. Like Northern Indian spice preps, the spices in the Sri Lankan curry powders are sometimes roasted and sometimes not.
| India | 2 teaspoons black peppercorns 2 teaspoons cloves 2 teaspoons cumin seeds 2 2-inch cinnamon sticks ½ average nutmeg corm, grated 2 tablespoons cardamom seeds |
| Nepal | 2 teaspoons black peppercorns ½ teaspoon whole cloves 1 ½ tablespoons cumin seeds 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg 2 ½ tablespoons coriander seeds 1 teaspoon black cardamom seeds |
| Sri Lanka | 1 teaspoon black peppercorns ¼ teaspoon whole cloves ⅛ cup cumin seeds ½ teaspoon cinnamon ¼ cup coriander seeds ¼ teaspoon cardamom seeds 1 teaspoon fennel seeds |
| Tibet | 2 tablespoons black peppercorns 2 tablespoons cloves 2 tablespoons cumin seeds 2 Tablespoons cinnamon stick ¼ cup coriander seeds 2 tablespoons cardamom seeds 2 Tablespoons bay leaves |
| Kirgizstan | 1 teaspoon ground cloves 2 tablespoons ground cumin 1 tablespoon cinnamon 2 teaspoons ground nutmeg 2 teaspoons ground cardamom |
Tibet’s masala adds coriander seed and bay leaves to the Northern Indian base and Kirgizstan’s five-spice mix omits black peppercorns from the Indian recipe all together. Sichuan peppercorns replace black peppercorns along with the addition of star anise and fennel in varying degrees in Mongolia, China and Vietnam. Like Sri Lanka, Indonesia’s curry paste uses many ingredients not related to other spice mixes around Asia (candlenuts, Laos etc.), but still it shares the core of spices (black peppercorns, cloves, nutmeg and coriander seeds) with several of the other powders mentioned.
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Mongolia |
2 tablespoons Szechuan peppercorns 2 tablespoons whole cloves 2 tablespoons broken cinnamon sticks 2 tablespoons fennel seed 6 whole star anise corms |
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Southern China |
2 tablespoons whole Sichuan peppercorns 36 whole cloves 5, 2-inch sticks of cinnamon, crushed 2 tablespoons fennel seed 12 star anise corms |
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Vietnam |
2 teaspoons Sichuan peppercorns ½ teaspoon ground cloves 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon 1 tablespoon ground fennel seeds 8 star anise corms |
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Indonesia |
1½ tablespoons black peppercorns 8 whole cloves 1 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated 2½ tablespoons coriander seeds |
A teaspoon here, a tablespoon there and the proportions of the spice mixtures change – but the ingredients remain the same – to some degree across the entire continent. Likewise, we may be different ethnicities or different religions, but to some extent, the foods we eat are part of the cultures we share – all of which have been shaped by the Silk Road (Words and pattern analysis by Laura Kelley).