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     In India, spices are the soul of food. When we think of spices, we think of tasty and healthy food. Many of the spices in our food are added to balance nutrition and to keep us healthy. They add flavour and nutrients to dishes without fat or calories. Spices like cumin, mustard, pepper, cloves, fennel, cinnamon and turmeric are very important in Indian food.

     When it comes to Indian food, the first thing that comes to many people’s minds is probably ‘Spicy curry’. People say curry comes from the Tamil word 'kari'. In Tamil, kari means sauce. It is something that is cooked with a roasted or powdered mixture of spices, condiments and herbs. This mixture of spices can be different in different places. It can be mild or it can be spicy and pungent. Flowers, leaves, roots, bark, seeds and bulbs, are combined in many different ways to produce a great variety of flavours: sweet, sharp, hot, sour, spicy, aromatic, tart, mild, fragrant or pungent. When cooked with rice, meat, fish, or vegetables, the spices give the dish a special, savoury taste. It makes us want to eat more.

     But apart from delicious food, spices also bring to mind adventure. Many of the most exciting voyages of modern history were made to conquer the spice trade and the race to become its master. The colonization of the Americas and Asia had its roots in the spice trade. In 1492 Columbus went West to find India and pepper but ran into America and the chilli. Vasco da Gama, six years later, went around Africa to reach Kozhikode, the home of pepper. These voyages ended the very profitable trade that the Arabs and Romans had built up over the centuries. They set the stage for a new world.