Galangal and watercress

[sister_raphael]

I had a heck of a time trying to buy galangal today but an even worse one trying to get watercress today. Only to discover that I could buy it fresh from either of our everyday supermarkets in the produce section. I've never even seen it there before, so it came as a rather large surprise.

Quite a few other spices I was able to buy in bulk from an Indian Spice Market, only a short bus detour on the way home from work.

I'm going to attempt to recreate a hair powder recipe from  (attributed to) Trotula's 12th century manuscript on cosmetics. If I'm successful, I will have this at the bath display for people to smell and micro-test for themselves. I've seen a number of other people make it, so I'm reasonably confident I should be able to produce a good result and an interesting post on the steps as I go.