Self-admiration and spice

I honestly feel that all of my guests should admire my collection of spices. They should express their awe of both variety and quality and ask interested questions. This applies especially for couchsurfers, when I show them where they can find everything they might need during their stay. I imagine an ideal discussion would go approximately like this:

'And if you should need any spices, you find them here', I say.

'How much spices you've got!' goes the couchsurfer, with an expression of astonishment.

'Oh, I'm afraid it's not so much', I say modestly, pointing out some vital shortcoming.

'But such good quality too!' continues the awed couchsurfer, ignoring my remark.

I imagine s/he would also like to go through all the tiny jars, bursting sometimes with excitement commenting 'organic galangal!', 'organic French rosemary!' or 'oh my god, you even have organic ramsons and Cambodian black pepper!', nodding vigorously to him/herself.

I also expect to hear something about the way sage behaves when you try to pour it from a jar or a box, a little like a flock of sheep would fall from a cliff to the sea; or, if not that, at least something about the coarseness of Korean chili on the skin of your fingers. This happens quite rarely, however. Mostly they just nod without any interest and probably with no plans of cooking. Apparently they do not realize they could just prepare a raw cocoa drink with ground cardamon, clove, dry ginger and some oat milk, or spice up their sandwiches with green pepper and basil. Poor people.

But as I am left alone to admire my spiceshelf, I don't think I have much else to do than to list them. Spices and herbs are also one of my favourite souvenirs, and I like to remember where they come from.

Things I have on my spice shelves

 - algae, from Portugal
 - basil, organic
 - bay leaves, whole
 - black pepper, organic, ground
 - black pepper, Cambodian, whole,
   got from a friend met accidentally in a hostel in Saigon
 - capsicum, organic, ground
 - cardamon, organic, ground
 - cardamon, green, whole
 - chili, Korean, roughly ground, bought in London
 - chives, from France
 - cloves, ground
 - cloves, whole
 - coriander, ground
 - cumin, ground
 - curry, Panang style, paste
 - fennel, whole
 - fenugreek, organic, whole
 - galangal, ground, from France
 - ginger, organic, ground
 - green pepper, from France
 - lemongrass, organic
 - mustard seeds, yellow
 - oregano, from France
 - parsley, organic
 - pili-pili, ground, from France
 - piri-piri, sauce, a souvenir from Madeira
 - ramsons, organic, from France
 - rosemary, organic, from France
 - sage, organic
 - salt, gray sea salt, from France
 - Sichuan pepper, whole
 - soybean paste, Korean
 - star anis, whole
 - thyme, grown by myself in Estonia
 - turmeric, ground
 - vanilla, from France
 - wasabi, paste
 - white pepper, from France

Spices I need to get

 - some good quality Indian or Thai kind of chili
 - fennel, ground (I'm not exactly sure what for but I feel I should have it)
 - fenugreek, ground (it's difficult to grind it smooth enough by yourself)
 - nutmeg, ground (for soups and baking)
 - vanilla, powdered
 - wasabi, powdered

Observations. First, spices I've been using most lately are, quite curiously, ground cardamon and rosemary. Second, listing your spices is just what one should do on April 2nd when it's [add bad words here] SNOWING.

From left: chives, pili-pili, cardamon, rosemary, sage, cloves, piri-piri, Sichuan pepper, oregano, ramsons, black pepper, green pepper, algae, mustard, white pepper, fenugreek, coriander