Notes of red wine and nutmeg? This black pepper is an epiphany

Last week I was messaging with my friend Deno, who lives in San Francisco and was a chef in a previous life. We were texting about how much we were cooking, and somehow we rolled the subject around to peppercorns and I mentioned the spice brand Diaspora Co. He hadn’t heard of it. Go look up the black pepper they sell, I urged him.

“I see the comments for the pepper say things like ‘aromatic as ----,’” he shot back.

That Diaspora Co. was new to him was a good reminder that my job can make me myopic. I’d assumed all food obsessives like Deno already knew about the company and that I was the one late to the party, having bought my first jar of peppercorns (already gone) a few months back from DTLA Cheese. I’m now a believer.

Sana Javeri Kadri founded the company in 2017 with the goal of decolonizing the modern spice trade and empowering farmers across India. She drew swift praise for the heirloom turmeric, grown in Andhra Pradesh, that she introduced to the American market. It is amazing stuff, with a mustardy aroma that has far more flavor presence than any turmeric I’ve cooked with.

The black pepper, though. It is harvested by hand on a family farm in Thirunelly, an inland village in Kerala, the southwestern state that is one of the world’s lushest and most startlingly beautiful spice regions. I took the lid off the jar and it smelled like — Zinfandel and nutmeg? Wild.

(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)

The last pepper grinder I owned broke a couple of years ago; since then I’ve just bought those jars from the grocery store with the built-in grinder. So I pulverized these peppercorns using a small mortar and pestle (a recommended act for managing emotions in dark times) and wow, the taste was peppery but also extra-ripe-strawberry fruity, and with some actual heat on the tongue.

Morning soft-scrambles in our household are now aggressively speckled with pepper. So are the dinnertime rice dishes.

It’s a small but true joy to change my relationship with a common spice I’d so taken for granted. Reminds me to stop and consider other things (people, privileges) I’ve undervalued. Also, it feels good to support a proudly queer woman running a California-based business: Javeri Kadri moved from India to the Bay Area for college and made it her home. Many people on at least two continents are better for it. Give Diaspora Co.’s spices a try.

Our stories

— Of course the big news this week is that outdoor dining can resume in Los Angeles County, following Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement on Monday that the state was rescinding its COVID-19 stay-at-home order.

— Lila Seidman, Luke Money and Jenn Harris gathered reactions from chefs and owners; Stephanie Breijo reported on how wary, weary restaurant operators are preparing to reopen yet again.

— Luke Money and Rong-Gong Lin II address updated rules of dining for restaurants and questions that customers might have about returning to outdoor dining.

—For comfort, Jenn Harris bites into the crème brûlée cookies (“pure magic”) from Dough & Arrow in Costa Mesa.

— Back in our home kitchens, Lucas Kwan Peterson brings us the official frozen pizza power rankings. (Hello, I’m about to stock up on the Newman’s Own Supreme.)

— And finally, it’s about Super Bowl time: Ben Mims thinks through the perfection of nachos, with a recipe for an oven-baked version. Jenn Harris — being fantastically on-brand Jenn — tells us the best places to order chicken wings.

(Hanna Carter / For The Times)