Saffron The Most Expensive Spice In The World

Saffron flower with three filaments that produce saffron.

One of the most expensive spices in the world far different from any other spices come from flower known as saffron Crocus sativus, commonly known as the "saffron crocus". It’s not the whole flower can be used as the spices but only small part of it, the three stigmas that make it harder to produce. Since the demand for it too high, the saffron price can jump as high as $2,000 to $10,000 a pound. By knowing more about this spices it might help us just not knowing the right saffron but also to identify the adulteration that commonly practiced in saffron spice trade.

The saffron crocus, unknown in the wild perhaps by the result of long cultivation by human and probably descend of from Crocus cartwrightianus, native to Greece and Crete (that’s where saffron was thought came from). Since saffron is incapable to reproduce sexually as any other flowering plants – all propagation is done by vegetative multiplication via manual "divide-and-set" of a starter clone or by interspecific hybridisation.

Close up of Saffron flower.

Dried filaments (saffron)

Besides its popularity, saffron had been used since millennial ago with the exact date unknown, among the evidence is the mural, the "Saffron Gatherer", illustrating the gathering of crocuses from the ancient Crete in Greece. The mural must have been painted long after the first usage of the saffron and perhaps we need to see where the saffron is mostly produce; Iran.

Iran is the most important producer of saffron by producing about 90 - 93% of the world supply. In 2014 250 t (250,000 kg) of saffron were produced worldwide. The other countries that produce saffron includes Spain, Greece, Morocco, India, Afghan, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, China, Egypt,  parts of England, France, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Sweden (Gotland), Turkey (mainly around the town of Safranbolu), the United States (California and Pennsylvania), and Central Africa.

Harvesting flowers in Iran.

The shop selling saffron in Iran

The reasons for its overpriced mainly caused by many of the delicate cares and works all along the producing works involved. The flower itself not easy to taken care of, while blooms for one week of the year, produces only three stamens which must be picked by the hand and dried. It takes 150 flowers to produce a single gram of saffron.

Saffron widely used for its aroma that will enhance many dishes throughout the world. It also give beautiful luminous yellow-orange to foods. Saffron is widely used in Persian, Indian, European, and Arab cuisines. Some of the dishes are jewelled rice and khoresh of Iran, Milanese risotto of Italy, the paella of Spain, the bouillabaisse of France, to the biryani and many other dishes. It also use as tea, incense and in perfume.

While the saffron price is too high, there are an extensive adulteration in saffron market. The adulteration had been practiced since long ago, and continues until modern days. Adulteration was first documented in Europe's Middle Ages, when those found selling adulterated saffron were executed under the Safranschou code. Among substances used for adulteration of saffron includes beetroot, pomegranate fibres, red-dyed silk fibres, or the saffron crocus's tasteless and odourless yellow stamens. There are many other substances used for adulteration of saffron to manipulate the price and get easy profit.

There are few ways to avoid from buying counterfeited saffron, especially when you are not the regular user of saffron. There are few things to remember before buying saffron especially from unknown supplier;

i) Avoid buying ground saffron as it is hard to detect the ingenuity of the saffron. The other reason is, it will loses its flavour.

ii) Saffron will turn hot water bright yellow few minutes of soaking, not orange.

iii) Saffron will always be expensive, so be careful with cheaper deals.

iv) The threads of saffron are fine and even in size, with a thin yellow tendril on one end and a trumpet-like flute on the other. The yellow part never mix with the red part.

Try avoid buying from online if possible and always be cautious when buying for saffron as it is expensive and people will cheat you in many ways.

There are many usage of saffron even though it is known more as culinary spices. The high demand of it making its cultivation become very important. Somehow somewhere there always be someone trying to produce it in larger quantity in order to get more profit (not necessarily in bad ways) since it has higher value in price. Sure it is important in order to curb manipulation, fraud, adulteration and many other negative effects from high demand.

Illegal Cheese, Casu Marzu

Casu Marzu another type of cheese.

We all love excessive cheese on our Pizza and more cheese on our burgers. As there are too many cheeses around, and some of them are too exotic it’s either you never heard of it, or it’s only available on the black market. As there are too many exotic foods available, so there’re types of cheese that included in this class - one of them is Casu Marzu.

Casu Marzu is a traditional Sardinian sheep milk cheese with live insect larvae (maggots) in it. These larvae are the important ingredient that changes the pecorino cheese to casu marzu. Mature pecorino cheeses are leaving outside with part of their rind removed to allow the cheese fly (Piophila casei) to lay their eggs. The cheese will be the place where all the flies larvae growing up by consuming the cheese. The process will take around few months by leaving the cheeses with flies’ eggs on it to the stage where the acid from the maggots’ digestive system breaks down the cheese’s fats. The final result will be soft texture cheese by the time when it’s ready for consumption – and where thousands of larvae are still alive inside it. Yes, it considered unsafe to eat, when the maggots inside it died!

The making process.

Close look of the living maggots inside it.

If you’re brave enough to try casu marzu there are two important things to put in mind. Frist casu marzu full of living maggots in it that can caused some health problems – as you need to make sure no living maggots get into your intestine as they can live inside it. Second it’s considered illegal so you can only get it from the black market! Well, there are too risky to try this exotic cheese.

Anyway casu marzu is not one of the kind! There are many other options of exotic cheeses out there if you looking for compatible type of cheeses. Below are some other options if you want to try all of the similar types;

• Cacie' Punt (formaggio punto) in Molise
• Casgiu merzu in Corsica
• Casu du quagghiu in Calabria
• Gorgonzola co-i grilli in Liguria
• Frmag punt in Apulia
• Furmai nis (formaggio Nisso) in Emilia Romagna
• Marcetto or cace fraceche in Abruzzo
• Salterello in Friuli Venezia Giulia
• bross ch'a marcia in Piemonte
• casu puntu in Salento

Cheese fly (Piophila casei).

If this type of cheeses not suitable for you, just remember it still someone else favourite, and that’s fine. We all love something that others think weird about it. Perhaps we think about taste as how we look on beauty as “beauty in the eyes of the beholder”.

Micro Post: The Sand Tiger Shark

Sand Tiger Shark, the most popular aquarium shark.

The sand tiger shark (Carcharias taurus), the most popular shark in the aquariums since it’s doing very well in captivity. Sand tiger shark also known as grey nurse shark, spotted ragged-tooth shark, or blue-nurse sand tiger they inhabits subtropical and temperate waters worldwide. The sand tiger shark rarely attacks human with no confirmed human fatalities.

The size of adult sand tiger shark range from 2 m (6.5 ft) to 3.2 m (10.5 ft) in length while weighing around 91 kg (200.6 lb) to 159 kg (350.5 lb). The shape of its head is pointy and opposed to round, while the snout is flattened with a conical shape. The sand shark has well built body and bulky with its easily seen extends beyond the eyes. They usually swim with its mouth open displaying three rows of sharp-pointed teeth. Besides its docile temperament, it’s become the most suitable shark to use as display in many aquariums.

Sand Tiger Shark with its meal.

Eating their smaller aquarium mate (aquarium in Seoul, Korea).

For their diet, most of their prey creatures are demersal (i.e. from the sea bottom), that consist of crustaceans, squid, skates and small bony fish. They prey also changes according to their stages of life, where when it getting larger they will start to take more benthic prey.

Other special characteristic of sand tiger shark includes the ability of breath air from the surface which allows it to float near the surface with ease. They have small eyes with no eyelids. While during pregnancy their young might eating each other while they still in their mother’s body.

Sharper teeth to easily catch its prey.

Arrays of 3 layer teeth can easily be seen.

As they doing very well in captivity, the sand tiger shark is listed vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List. It would be nice if we know more about this gentle creature as they might get closer to your beach. Kindly share if you have any additional information about sand tiger shark in the comment below.

Micro Post: River Lamprey

More like eel than fish, lamprey lack of fins.

European river lamprey (Lampetra fluviatilis), also known as river lamprey or lampern is one type of the lampreys family live in the fresh water in Russia, Scotland, Norway, Finland and other European coastal waters and rivers.

Lampreys are known for their sucker mouth with sharp teeth to attach itself to its prey. The size can range from 25 to 40 cm (10 to 16 in) for the sea-going forms while just to 28 cm (11 in) for the lake forms. Not like any other fish, lampreys lack of paired fins while having sucking disc instead of jaws.

Sucking disc instead of jaws.

There's also North American species.

Lampreys are also anadromous (sea going) same as salmon and only back to the river during the mating seasons. This migration to the spawning areas will take place during autumn and winter. The spawning activity will be active during the spring time, and the adult will die soon after this process.

Even though lampreys look kind of scary with its sucking mouth and eating on flesh of others fish, it should be considered as normal in the nature. Anyway, the introduction of this species into new location (rivers or lakes) might cause unhealthy effect to the balance of the local fish.

Otter enjoying its meal.

Water bird with its catch.

More food for crayfish too.

Which Potato?

Do you recognize all the types of these potatoes?

We all love fries and know that it come from potato. Same as any other commercial crop there are only few of them that we know. How potatoes will look like in the wild and there are many other things that we should know about this wonderful plant?

Potato (Solanum tuberosum) is one of the tuberous plants that become important food source for human all around the world. Even though nowadays we can buy potato from anywhere in the world, it’s actually originated from South America Andes; introduced to Europe in the second half of 16^th century by Spanish. Today it become the forth-largest food crop in the world, following maize, wheat, and rice.

They area not just varies, but also colorful.

There are about 5,000 potato varieties worldwide. Three thousand of them can be found in Andes, most of them in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, and Colombia. Same as many other commercial plants, potatoes had cross-breed to produce resistant to diseases and pests, while there are also genetically modified varieties in the United States.

We might classify potatoes in different ways; but here one of the popular classification methods is through their important characteristics such as;

Starchy: Few types like classic Idaho or Russet are high in starch and low in moisture. They are great for boiling, baking and frying. Anyway they don’t hold their shape well, so they nor suitable for dishes like casseroles, gratins and potato salads.

Waxy: Some examples like New Potatoes, they have low starch instead creamier, firm and moist and holds its shape well after cooking, this type of potatoes suitable for roasting, boiling, casseroles and potato salads.

All-Purpose: These potatoes have medium content of starch and categorized between starchy and waxy. There are easier to use and truly multi-purpose for any dishes. One of the examples is the Yukon Gold.

Adirondack Blue - Waxy.

Adirondack Red - Waxy.

Carola - Waxy.

Fingerling - Waxy.

Idaho Russet - Starchy.

Inca Gold - Waxy.

Katahdin - Starchy.

New Potatoes - Waxy.

Purple Peruvian - All purpose.

Purple Viking - Waxy.

Red Bliss - Waxy.

Rose Gold - Waxy.

Yukon Gold - All purpose.

Since there are many other types of potatoes, we can keep on looking for many other varieties and perhaps someday we can sample the taste too. Keep on searching and share it with us if you find anything interesting about potatoes.