Spices are quite valuable. Historically speaking, they inspired great voyages from Europe to Asia to acquire these highly prized flavor treasures. Mainly sourced from China and India, Portuguese and Spanish adventurers set to sea, and land to secure the route for access to these spices. 

Today, it is a matter of getting to the right supermarket which stocks it at the best price. Sometimes the spices come to you via delivery. My have times have changed. 

Do we even care?

Looking at how we eat today, we are subjecting ourselves to prepared food, fast food, and even free food. That is free from gluten, fat, and even high-fructose corn syrup. This is not a rant on gluten-free, fat-free, or any other labeled slogan. 
Here is the point. Our times call for more time to do other things. Other things like work, fight traffic and read emails. Cooking is left to a someone taking your order through a drive-through.

Unequal ratio

Cooking is unfair though, I admit. It requires almost more than twice the time to eat it. Slow cooking even takes a day or two. Ask any bbq restaurant. 

So the next question you might think is how to fit time to cook? Well, that's a great question. Answering that question though makes cooking sort of a chore. Or a scheduled task. Something that you tell Siri to remind you.

That's not where I am coming from. 

Cooking is an expression of culture. It is an expression of love and pride. Flavor is premeditated. 

Which takes us back to spices. The deliberate addition of spices to a dish shows craft and care into cooking. 

Take the star anise for example. How did anyone think that it was an excellent ingredient to extract flavor from? It has a hard texture, so it is not so good eating. But, braise it with beef or pork, and it gives the most fantastic anise, licorice flavor. 

Imagine the lengths that the spice trade has gone through. The history of getting spices to the western world. All this trouble just to bring an anise flavor to your braised beef for the Sunday lunch. 

Wouldn't you do the same for the ones you love? Go to the ends of the world to bring them great food. We have these spices available today and can be acquired easily. It would be excellent to make the most out of the availability of such great flavors.