I grew up in the West End of Newcastle during the 1970's and 1980's. My parents migrated to Britain in the 1960's and were amongst the first to settle and establish a Pakistani-British-Muslim community there. Growing up, spices were an important feature in our household. Initially, their fragrance and taste provided my parents a connection with 'home', much needed as they weren't in a position to afford the cost of a flight to Pakistan until 16-years after moving to England. Spices then became a key ingredient in the food made and sold for my parent's wholesale food business.
My mum also used spices such as ground turmeric to make into a paste that was applied to our skin as a beauty product. Spices were also administered to us by mum to cure colds. And when we were regularly under attack from BNP and National Front supporters, mum also kept glass milk bottles filled with water and chilli powder to hand, so that were someone to break into our home in the middle of the night, this spicy cocktail could be thrown in their face to disarm them whilst we made our escape!