[cornelie]

Hi! I am a photographer, working on a commission to make some 'artsy' but real life photos of food to decorate the walls of a restaurant. One photo that is definitely missing from the series I have made so far is of bags full of coloured spices (curry, ras el hanout, etc.) that you can find on markets in Istanbul and Morocco. Can anyone help me find a beautiful display of spices in Paris, Belgium and/or the Netherlands? Otherwise I will have to book myself a ticket to more exotic places than Northern Europe... Although that will surely eat my budget

Thanks a lot for helping me out! Cornelie

[David]

Check out the market in St. Denis, just outside Paris. Not sure of the times but the area has a large concentration of North African descent and this is reflected in the market's offerings. Just a thought. It's been a number of years since I was there but it struck me as quite the exotic market! Provence and Languedoc larger markets (I'm distinctly remembering the street market in Apt) have spice tables for sure. Marseilles is a certainty.
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Vivant Linguae Mortuae!!

[KYHeirloomer]

Cornelie, here is a partial post from a thread at Cheftalk.com that might prove of interest:

Lucky me! I live at a 5 minute drive from a small town with 45000 inhabitants. Like in many european cities there's an ever growing population of "allochtones", mainly from Marocco and other African countries. So, in one street we have 2 exotic supermarkets with all kinds of products you won't find in regular supermarkets over here; all kinds of herbs and spices, bundles of fresh Thai basil, dille, tarragon, koriander (aka cilantro, aka Maroccan parcely), bomba rice to make paella, also very good for risotto, all kinds of feta and the like cheeses that you have to fish out of brine yourself, presented in big metal containers, all kinds of veggies not available in regular shops over here like sweet potatoe, chard, butternut pumpkin, quince!, figues, jerusalem artichokes, baby aubergines, all kinds of hot peppers...., spice mixes such as garam massala, ras al hanut, chinese 5 spices,...etc. etc.

Ready for the shocker: The poster lives in Belgium!

If you want, send me your email privately (brook@cheftalk.com) and I'll pass it on to him.

Brook

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