Thanks for posting the links. I glanced just briefly at both of them and they are far cheaper than the prices in my regular grocery stores. They were higher than what I actually paid for them here in Oregon at the Asian, Indian, Mexican, and Bulk grocery stores in my area. The Dollar Store here also sometimes has some pretty good deals on spices. Almost all of the spices, herbs, and seasonings I have purchased recently were under $1.00 per ounce, but I haven’t had to buy any more expensive ones lately.
I will need to get some saffron threads again in the next few months as we make a special arroz con pollo about once a month and that recipe absolutely has to have saffron in it or it doesn’t taste right. For that I will have to stop in at the Indian grocery store in my area, since they are the only place I have been able to find that really cheap when compared to other stores.
The saffron I buy there is actually grown in Spain. I don’t remember exactly what I paid for it the last time but I was able to buy a 1 oz.(28.35 gram)box filled with what must have easily been more than a cup worth of saffron threads. I know it was less than $20 for it since I didn’t realize that they didn’t take debit cards and I only had a $20 bill with me that day. Still I was able to buy the saffron, a couple of jars of mango pickle, and some other spices for less than $20, so it must have been a little less than $15 for the saffron I think.
That was probably a couple of years ago, as I had to make a lot of arroz con pollo to use up that much saffron, even after I gave half of it to my sister for her use. I was just thinking that I had better go get some soon, before inflation causes their prices to go up so much that I can’t afford to buy it even there. Next time I am out near there I will swing by and pick some up if the price is still reasonable and affordable.
The saffron at Yoders was $9.95 for .05 grams and I couldn’t readily find it listed on Weavers’ website.
Being from the south originally, We cook mostly southern favorites, we don't have any recipes for asian or indian, or european, but we do some simple mexican stuff since moving to Texas last year. My family and my wife's have been in America so long(since colonial days) that neither of us have any any ethnic recipes brought from the "old country" Some of the dishes posted here we have never heard or and some have ingrediants that we have never heard of. Like the 3 grain rice pilaf, we looked all through the grocery to find pearl barley and bulger wheat to try that recipe. After about 20 minutes of searching every possible isle, we gave it up. We had to search online just to find out what they were.
We are are always looking to try new things, but sometimes get tripped up on what to try or where to get things. Life is an adventure.