Yum. There's nothing better than fresh ground spices. My kitchen is never without a big knob of ginger, garlic, lemon grass, chilli etc. ice been cooking a lot of middle eastern style food and my pestle and mortar (love yours!) is being well used for cummin, fennel, coriander. European food can lack that vibe. I find it frustrating I can't get the same fresh ingredients from euro/UK markets in the same way we do here, but we are closer to asis I guess and we cook a lot of fusion global food.