Foodie Friday: Allspice Culinarium

Photo by Holly McQueen - Des Moines Register

If you're ever in the Des Moines area, I urge you to make Allspice Culinarium one of your stops.  But don't expect to just spend a few minutes in this spice emporium.  I'd slot at least an hour.  Because you'll get lost in the massive array of spices, rubs, and kits.  And then you'll discover the olive oil and balsamic vinegar tasting bar, and lose another hour.


Allspice Culinarium offers over 350 spices that you can smell, sample and buy in multiple sizes.  They also do a very brisk business over the internet (thank goodness!) in case you can't get to their shop. But believe me, it is absolutely worth the trip.  In fact, Des Moines is worth a trip for the food alone.  It is a little known culinary gem of the Midwest.  I'm sure you'll see more blog posts about DSM restaurants, bars, and shops in the future. 

But let's return to the warm cayenne-colored interior of Allspice.  It is a cook's dream come true. Stacks and bags and boxes of spices arranged in aisles alphabetically in each aisle.  Cinnamon? Korintje, or Saigon?  Peppercorns? Pink, Black, Multi, Green, Smoked, Tellicherry?  Salt? Black Truffle, Fleur de Sel, or Lime Fresco (I highly recommend this one)? The list goes on and on, until it is a nearly overwhelming wall of tastes and smells. 

And then you round the corner, and see great silver urns, lined in ranks upon high white counters.  Filled with nothing but oils and vinegars.  You fall to your knees as if you were Columbus and had found the spice route to Asia after all.  You are overcome as you dip crusty sourdough bread into small cups filled with brilliant green Frantoio olive oil, or black and pungent 18-year balsamic vinegar.  Then you try the basil olive oil, or the red apple balsamic vinegar, or the Persian Lime olive oil and the Blackberry Ginger balsamic. On and on, until your head whirls in a Mediterranean muddle of the foodie high.  And then you proceed to fill a basket with harissa and Moroccan rub and oils and vinegars and Schezuan pepper and are prepared to take out a second mortgage to pay for your excesses whilst drunk on olive oil. But you don't have to.

Because that's the best thing about Allspice Culinarium.  It is affordable, it is accessible, it allows anyone who enjoys spices and flavors and delicious living, to do so without breaking the bank. And if you don't know what to do with all the spices you've just indulged in, there are delicious recipes on their website. And if you don't live near Des Moines, order from their online store. There is no excuse not to try some new spices or oils.   It's one of the best food discoveries I have had in Iowa...so far.

I'm having a love affair with Allspice. Don't tell.