Spicing Up our Food
CBS News correspondent Richard Schlesinger is based in New York.
Have you ever heard of Za'atar?
How many kinds of pepper can you name?
I love to cook and I've never heard of a lot of the spices we talk about in a piece tonight on the CBS Evening News about the increasing spiciness of food in America.
The McCormick spice company - the largest in the U.S - says in the 1950's there were an average of 10 spices in the average American spice drawer.
Now, there's an average of 40! So what's going on here? What's behind the need for heat in our food. There are several factors, including an increasingly diverse population. As different kinds of people settle here, they bring different foods, different flavors, and they get adopted into American recipes.
Unless you're an accomplished gourmet chef - I can pretty much guarantee you'll learn something about spices you didn't know.
