What are Spice Bowls?

What is a spice bowl, you may ask? A spice bowl is a large-mouthed bowl with a smooth bottom into which the raw material of a spice is placed. The plant or seed material is then ground with a hard object which, like the bowl itself, is known by various names throughout various cultures. This allows cooks and kitchen workers to fashion powders and pastes from masses of ingredients - typically spices. Then mixtures can be made, meats can be seasoned, curries can flourish, and so on and so forth. In English, the bowl is referred to as a mortar and the hand-held grinding tool the pestle. The Mexican equivalents to these are the molcajete and tejolote, respectively. And for the Japanese, these are the suribachi and surikogi.

Please note that though we commonly think of and refer to these paraphernalia as "spice bowls," they are not solely used for the preparation of spices or foods. We will also discuss the importance of such bowls in medicinal applications.