Dried berries of a climbing vine - the original 'black gold' that pulled traders across the Indian Ocean to the Swahili coast centuries before cloves arrived.
Small green pods from a ginger-family plant, holding sticky dark seeds with an intense, cooling, eucalyptus-sweet aroma. One of the world's most expensive spices by weight.
The generic Swahili-scape term pili pili covers everything from mild frying peppers to fierce little bird's-eye chilies that power the island's sauces.
The dried inner bark of a laurel-family tree, grown in Zanzibar's spice plantations and sold as rolled quills or ground powder.
The king of Zanzibar spices - dried flower buds of a tropical evergreen tree that made the island the world's clove capital in the 19th century and still perfumes it every harvest season.
A knobby rhizome whose name gives us the Swahili word tangawizi - Zanzibar takes its ginger seriously enough to brand it.
Tall, tough blades of a citrus-scented grass, grown in gardens and plantations across the island and bundled fresh in markets.
A two-for-one spice: the round brown seed is nutmeg, and the lacy red-netting aril wrapped around it is mace - both from the same apricot-sized fruit of a tall tropical tree.
A bright-yellow rhizome in the ginger family, sold fresh in knobbly fingers or more often as vivid yellow-orange ground powder.
The cured seed pod of a climbing orchid - the only edible fruit of thousands of orchid species, and among the most labor-intensive spices on earth.
One-pot spiced rice where beef or chicken is browned with onions until deep caramel-brown, then simmered with cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, pepper and garlic until every grain is stained mahogany.
Zanzibar's signature street food: a tangy, yellow, thin curry soup ladled over a heap of crispy bhajia (fritters), boiled potato and cassava chunks, raw mango strips, and a dozen spoonfuls of chutneys and chili.
Despite the name, no relation to Italy: paper-thin dough folded around a filling of minced meat or chicken, egg, onion, peppers and cheese, then griddled in butter until crisp and served in squares.
