Among the dozens of flavoured spice rub blends arranged in tins at Colonel De Gourmet Herbs and Spices, I’ve singled out Ole’ Bourbon Trail. It seems the ideal souvenir from this stall in Cincinnati’s Findlay Market, which is set barely a mile from Ohio’s border with Kentucky, America’s ‘bourbon state’. It’s bold stuff: brown sugar and smoky paprika giving way to a burst of coriander, hickory and chilli.
Established in 1855 to sell produce from surrounding farms, Findlay Market has evolved to offer significantly more. Across the central aisle, a woman buys chicken sausages from Neil Luken Meats, fresh in from Gerber’s Amish Farm, in northeast Ohio. A group of construction workers swagger past, seemingly immune to the warm, bready wafts of baking pizza at Bouchard’s. They opt instead for crimp-edged, Ukrainian dumplings filled with potato and cheddar, and spinach and provolone, at Babushka Pierogies.
An aromatic dukkah blend reminiscent of a Middle Eastern souq draws me into Dean’s Mediterranean Imports, lined with glass jars of Levant spices and refrigerators packed with tubs of homemade falafel,
