The First Spice

Ginger, with its rasping heat and woody notes, is perhaps Asia’s most important spice. It is certainly one of the oldest, its early journeys predating records so we don’t know where in the continent it originated, though southern China seems a fair bet. Linguistic clues point to it being taken on voyages by the Austronesians spreading across the Malay Archipelago six thousand years ago. An incorrigible colonist, the gangly rhizome is quick to grow and spread, even in tubs on sunny trading ship decks. For longer journeys later in history, it would be dried or preserved, sometimes packed in decorative blue-and-white ginger jars from China.