Carpe Diem

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is a food and drink industry maverick with fingers in many sauce pans – once a chef, always a chef. A scholar of the chemical senses and a curator of food in art, he is passionate about craft spirits, soul food and soulful living.

I admit to a certain degree of befuddlement over Poland’s annual Christmas ritual of the carp slaughter. I have developed ethical angst over the inhuman treatment of grocery store carp; watching the ‘dance of the plastic bags’ on the way from the fish section to the checkout, as schools of carp flop for freedom within grocery baskets while being carted away to Christmas tables. It all seems a bit un-Christian.

In an age where every purchase is entangled with ethical and ecological implications, the senselessly-slow suffocation of fish is an action that I can easily leave off my karmic credit card. I understand that fresh fish is a priority, but watching the same people purchase mushy, week-old salmon from the grocery

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dr Ryan Bromley:

is a food and drink industry maverick with fingers in many sauce pans – once a chef, always a chef. A scholar of the chemical senses and a curator of food in art, he is passionate about craft spirits, soul food and soulful living.

Publish date: 06.12.2019

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dr Ryan Bromley:

is a food and drink industry maverick with fingers in many sauce pans – once a chef, always a chef. A scholar of the chemical senses and a curator of food in art, he is passionate about craft spirits, soul food and soulful living.

Cardamom, the ‘queen of spices’, has been traded and given as gifts for around 4000 years; it’s not at all unlikely that the Magi presented cardamom as a gift to baby Jesus. Used by Cleopatra as an aphrodisiac and in Arab culture as a symbol of hospitality, cardamom eventually found its way to Northern Europe by way of the Moors. Since that time, the spice has played an important part in Europe’s culinary history, particularly in sweets made for the Christmas holiday.

When I lived in India, I would often feel melancholic during the Christmas holiday, longing for cold weather and the warmth of Christmas cheer. One way that I would satiate my longings was through the flavours of what, for me, had always been Christmas spices: ginger, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom. Sipping on a hot cup of masala chai (spiced tea) would transport me to a place where Christmas trees sparkled and fireplaces crackled. Now that I’ve returned to Poland, masala chai has remained a part of my Christmas tradition, instead transporting me to memories of exotic markets and South Asian adventures.

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Christmas Memories Laced with Spice

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