Sweet 🍯 Salt ⏳Spice 🌶️ and all things nice, The Alladin's cave for foodies.
Saladin World of Spices store, described as the spice Disneyland by a local google guide, is a main attraction for foodies everywhere. It may seem a little bit touristy and of course tourists flock to visit this spice Mecca everyday, which maybe why some of the prices are a little higher than in other stores. However being situated in the heart of the Arab quarter in Marseille there are many locals who frequent this place as well, making it feel like an authentic North African experience right in the south of France. You’ll be able to look around but you’ll have to wait to be served by a friendly member of staff and you must buy at the very least 100g of the spice you want.
I spent about 25 euros in this place, which may seem a lot for spices but it was well worth every penny and I would of spent a lot more, if i'd had a larger budget. There are spices here, I have not been able to find anywhere else in Europe and some of the freshest you can get imported straight from North Africa and the Middle East.
For instance I can only buy Sumac from the internet and it is 3 times the price online, so actually some stuff was incredibly cheap. Sumac is a wonderful middle eastern spice that comes from a red berry and is ground into a powder. It gives dishes that wonderfully deep red color and has a zesty flavor, it can be sprinkled on humus, used as a marinade and even made into a drink. It is an antioxidant, great for reducing signs of ageing, it has the ability to neutralize free radicals and it is a must have for an anti-inflammatory diet to ward of cancer and heart diseases.
There is also a large section dedicated to salt, I could never imagined there were so many different kinds. I'm quite passionate about this food additive because it brings alive the flavors of any savory dish. Since becoming a health food freak, I have discovered the amazing benefits of Himalaya salt, which is detoxifying, balances ph and blood sugar levels, helps with muscle cramps, aids hydration and provides you with minerals. Hawaiian red and black salt also has healing properties containing natural minerals, electrolytes, it's detoxifying and tastes deliciously earthy.
I honestly didn’t know what some of the salts stocked in this place were and I wasn’t sure if all of them were that healthy. An example is the vibrant pink French salt called sel rose chalutier, looks to me as if it's been dyed and processed. It turns out it is used as a preservative to keep plates and terrines looking fresh, it is not a natural salt, has no health benefits and contains E120.
I had to get a picture of these vats of honey, it's a product I don’t consume myself because it's not vegan friendly (veganism is against the exploitation of any animal) but I just to had to pay homage to the beautiful bees that work incredibly hard to create such a diverse range of golden delights, it was a surprise for me, as I’ve never seen honey sold this way either. Honey is not only cherished for it's natural sweetness but also it's antiseptic and anti-allergenic properties.
There was also a whole range of premixed spices from all over the world. I decided to try one of the meditation mixes, with chili pepper, garlic, tomato, black olive, salt and courgette. This lovely little spice mix saved me many times, I took it with me traveling and on those days when I was too lazy to make anything with fresh spices, I could just sprinkle it on stir-fries, wholegrain pasta or noodles and soups, to instantly give my food that depth of flavor. The chili was quite intense so I didn't have to use a lot and it would go along way.
The shop was never ending like Alladin’s cave filled with hidden treasures in every corner. They had it all, whole spices as well as ground ones, beans, pulses, rice and nuts, it was so overwhelming and there was a lot that I missed out on because it was impossible to take it all in. I'd definitely pass through Marseille again just to visit this shop and I highly recommend the Arab quarter of town in general for an ultimate foody experience.
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Wow this looks like heaven. Love herbs and spices so much! I'll remember this one when going down to the south of France ;)
I could be in Saladin World of Spices for hours!
Wow what an experience, this reminds me of the spice shops I visited in Istanbul!! :)
Epic diversity, I use to only use curry as a superfood spice, but the more raw (and vegan) foods I keep getting into making, the more I am loving all the spices! <3
Literally infinite flavors!!!! <3
I always though being vegan just meant not eating anything animal related, though by the definition I just learned here, that excludes even more than just animal products!!
As GMO's are hardcore animal exploitation... and if you count humans as animals you could get even more extreme about it!! x)
Essentially only leaving room for purely sustainably harvested produce, whether repurposing "waste" or growing and/or harvesting your own food in the wild, which in a would imply being vegan, while still potentially (not necessarily) eating animal products O:
For example; meat that wasn't purchased and is going to be sent to a landfill is like double animal exploitation (since they not only exploited the animals life but ended up wasting it...).
However, since that meat would go to waste and rot, polluting and damaging the planet even more... eating it would be more sustainable for the planet and simultaneously salvaging that animals life...! So... that could be considered vegan by definition then...? O:
Thanks for such a thought provoking reply. I have not always been 'vegan" so i totally understand what your saying. When I was moving from eating meat to vegan, I was eating honey without a thought (but then i read its not a sustainable practice here.
if you are living with nature like some people in the jungle and go an collect the honey yourself (this is different because these types of tribes need honey to sustain themselves and have no alternative, they take one hive to feed the village thats it until they need it again. Maybe also another ethical practice would be to have your own hives and only take very little amount of honey from the hive.
as for the vegan label it depends why u r vegan. theres the health people, the animal rights ppl, the sustainability people and also the spiritual people, and all the above (like myself)
I'd say what you are talking about with the meat no going to waste isn't vegan, simply because of what the term vegan stands for, but i totally get what your saying and i would imagine that to be in a world that is not like a built up western paradigm, a place with no supermarkets, living life in a rural and sustainable way.
But to be honest I could not kill an animal myself now, and I definitely don't want to eat dead flesh on a spiritual level, it is energy i dont want to take in my body. for example, if your dog died would you eat it? another way of looking at it would be would you want someone to eat you when you die? nothing is wasted if it is biodegradable, it will go back to the earth or another animal would eat it.
Thanks for the discussion, i hope u discover a world of more spices because they have many healing properties and would be great in your raw recipes.
Well that's what I mean, everything is a step forward as we are always doing what we feel is best, tuning in to our values, priorities, getting better at honoring and respecting with conscious awareness/living!
I went from "normal" to vegetarian, then vegan, thinking the labels were healthier and more ethical and energetically positive meanings, and to an extent it can be true.
Though someone buying GMO's, toilet paper, petroleum, plastic, and other unsustainable products, is essentially supporting and destroying the planet just as much as someone buying meat... and essentially anything purchased and consumed is energetically tied to its source...
That's when I dropped the labels as a form of personal identification and restriction, though they're still usable and helpful for communication.
So the next step to be would be positive energy alchemy! Which can be interpreted in infinite ways!
To me the highest vibrating energy is LOVE, FREEDOM, and HAPPINESS, which adds to the infinite forms of relative interpretation... which are all easily shifted by perspective learned through experiences!
(Hence presently being raw vegan, as organic and local as possible! Until upgrading and even better is possible! :)
I like your vibration :) I'm so tired of these labels but it is useful for some ppl, im kinda sad when i see mindless veganism ppl buying products from unethical companies and junk foods, but everyone is on their own journey of awakening and us humans can be quite slow from all this conditioning going on. I have to admit i use toilet paper (i didn't in india) and here in the summer its ok, but its too cold now. I try to keep all other stuff to a minimum but we cant drink the tap water here, so there is endless plastic from bottles, im always recycling properly and in general because i don't go to supermarket all my veg is not in plastic etc. I hope i can be as mindful as possible, im always compelled to try harder! I have a raw recipe by the way.... it's chocolates, be nice if you have the time to check it out here :)
unfortunately the cacao isn't local but i don't use it /buy it often, now not all really, this is when i had to cut down on my chocolate addiction, i really taught me the true value of cacao and that it is a very rare treat not an everyday addiction, otherwise i keep to being as local as possible, except maybe bananas but i will choose the canary bananas which are much closer than some other types :)
💖💖💖
Hahaha yeah I feel the same and agree!
That use to be my grandma, she was so proud to be vegan in an almost superior sense, but she was buying GMO's.. I haven't seen her for a while but I feel like she's evolved a lot since then!
Like you said, everyone is on their own journey! So it's not worth getting sad except as more motivation to be the change!!! 💖
Just like that everyone and everything will change as the whole world is already consciously evolving and upgrading hardcore everyday! :)
You can always buy water filters and big glass jars to filter tap water! And for toilet paper you can use water and a towel! There's always another way! It just has to feel good and worth it or it won't happen :p
No need to judge or feel ashamed about anything! I also use toilet paper sometimes though also try to keep it to a minimum, and avoid using the toilet in general whenever possible :P hahaha
I can tell you are definitely more mindful than a lot of the population, especially in the USA! :P
Progress is all that matters, no matter how fast or slow! ;) Actually better to go slower than "too fast" in some cases haha, like for my ankle now! x)
I'll open that recipe now before I go make my coconut yogurt so I can read when I come back! :)
And I feel you on the cacao, I LOVE CACAO so much hahaha but I've been cutting back for the same reasons, hehe, and good choice on the closer bananas! 💖
Keep up the positive conscious healthy life choices! 💖
wow your grandma sounds really ahead of her time! my gran still thinks meat is healthy, she is 92 and was brought up on a farm, it prob was alot healthier back then unlinke now days. ur right about the water, i used to filter it in england but im really not sure about the water from our tap, it stinks! unfortunatley i dont have the money for high quality filtration system atm, i dont think a standard filter is good enough for this kind of water.normally tap water is recycled toliet water (at least that what i heard in the uk) because ppl take the contraceptive pill, these hormones get recycles in the water. personally im not a big fan of that either. Wish i could live next to a fresh spring :)
On top of being vegan, she's SUPER spiritual in the sense that she LOVES to meditate SO MUCH!!!! She use to literally spend every day meditating and often times "forget" that reality even existed! O: 💖💖💖💖
Indeed, ALL FOOD has been over 50% nutritionally depleted in the last 100 years unfortunately u.u
92 years old is still quite impressive!!!! ;)
Everything in nature in the "wild"/"wilderness" is essentially SUPER HEALTHY (unless polluted by humans as humans LITERALLY INVENTED POLLUTION...)... but the ways humans have learned to reproduce these wild things has been more and more corrupted... luckily everyone is becoming conscious and aware of these malpractices and upgrading daily! (At least that's what I choose to believe/hope is going on since there's no way of REALLY knowing what's going on all over the world all the time! Haha!) 💖💖
Daaaaaang, recycled toilet water for tap water?! That sounds pretty insane!!!! Not only contraceptives but EVERY pharmaceutical drug will leave some sort of residue in there, thats A LOT of toxicity to filter...... no wonder it stinks!!!! O_O
In the USA tap water is literally poison, I can taste and smell it... :S
It's so delusional that people take the time to harvest clean water, filter and clean it, then re-contaminate it intentionally with poisonous toxins and heavy metals...
Regardless of the insanity, it is still truly an amazing luxury to be grateful for to have "clean" "enough" running water on command every day whenever we want! 💖💖💖
Wow your grandma is amazing! what an inspiration.
My gran is also spiritual but she has only ever learnt and understood the catholic religion but even tho she is just a simple lady, she is also very knowing and wise. She has alot of pain in her body from a life of hard physical labor, its only medication that keeps her going but she wants to leave this earth now especially now my granpa past away last year, he was climbing up trees at 87 and had a fall, had a broken hip and didn't recover which is incredible to think he was so active at that age. Both of them had a very tough physical life, him working with forestry and she spent half her life working the land, she said she had to carry 50kilos of corn for one hour to the nearest villages and its up and down the mountains. Everything back then had to be made yourself and would at least spend half the day in the kitchen using wood burning fire oven. Its no wonder that when modernization reached that part of the world, these older generations brought into the ease and convenience of all the store brought products. Even tho my grandparents gave up the farm, they still grew in the garden and had many organic delights, salad, potatoes, herbs, berries, tomatoes, apple, pears, apricots, plums. It was so wonderful to be there as a child!
We are so lucky that we should never take anything for granted, there are ppl who still live such a tough life, like u said no access to safe water and have to carry it for miles!
like u said as more ppl are waking up, the better the world is becoming! unfortunately as my gran says the world has been poisoned and its a tipping point its almost gone too far, ppl have to make some radical adjustments! I really want to see the end of exhaust fumes from cars! I'd like it to happen now.... i just can barely breath, even in the mountains where my gran lives, it is disgusting the cars that pass through and this is a big problem with large lorries transporting goods, another reason why we should buy as locally as possible.
Do you live in the USA btw...? You should join ur vegan chat room on discord https://discord.gg/RVAN4bK
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