There are two kinds of spices: those that love burning heat, and those that don't. Chiles and garlic you stir fry in smoking oil, paprika you add to a gently simmering pot. The spices of Zanzibar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, pepper, if they stale with time, to bring out the flavor just get a skillet and dry roast until seeds crackle through the kitchen.

I put a lot of Zanzibar into the world of Babilani. (I also put a lot of Florence into it, but that trip came after the M3 was stolen.) Babilani is in ruins, waiting to be discovered by explorers, the renaissance treasures of Florence buried under the sands of Stone Town. All slumbering in the shade beneath the hanging gardens of Babylon.