Tainted by Turmeric

Everything is yellow, yellow, yellow. My fingers, my toothbrush, the side of the ceramic mug. The strainer used to filter grated orange slivers for tea. All stained yellow from turmeric. Who knows, maybe my insides have gone all saffron bright from the taint of this super spice as it works away the ravages of this winter cold.




Orange nubbin, looking like a sad old baby carrot, skin hanging in shingled scales like a piece of ginger. I had never seen it outside of a spice jar. It came from Hawaii, this one, from Bi-Rite at $14.99/lb, but weighing much less. I picked up two fingers. They made a peace sign in my bag.

It had been on my mind, turmeric. First The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating highlighted on the NY Times website as one of its 2009 most-viewed articles. Turmeric was #9: “The 'superstar of spices,' it may have anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties.” Then the piece in the S.F. Chronicle on the miracle of ghee; it only mentioned turmeric once, but got me thinking about healthful South Asian foods. And it came up again in conversation with Eric of Awesome Pickle, who uses turmeric paste with yogurt or kefir to avoid heartburn. His girlfriend Kruti gave it a solid thumbs up despite being made to drink a turmeric-and-water mixture as a child in the name of general health.

Rhizomatic: indeed of the ginger family, not a root but a rhizome, horizontal stem that sends out feelers from multiple points underground, “forming through continuous negotiation with its context, constantly adapting by experimentation, thus performing a non-symmetrical active resistance against rigid organization and restriction,” as told here . (Did Deleuze and Guattari munch on turmeric to bring their thinking to the next plateau?)


Boiled for several hours, dried in hot ovens, then ground into powder to curry your flavor and cucurmin your ailments. It dyes for you.