TSoT: Kalahari Popcorn G – Cinnamon sugar

TSoT = The Story of Trees

What do you call someone who films spices? 'A cinnamon-tographer!' (Cinnamon Jokes - 45 Hilarious Cinnamon Jokes)

Cinnamon sugar in a homely setting.

As a South African (perhaps it is true for everyone in the world), the smell of cinnamon is synonymous with milk tart, pancakes and other rainy-day edibles or winter comforts. The aroma of cinnamon invites you in like a good friend. A few centuries ago, cinnamon was the cause of strife and trade wars between the European superpowers; it was something worth fighting for. You can open this link and read a little bit more about its history: A Deep Dive into Cinnamon’s Symbolism in Different Cultures.

When I was a student at Teachers’ College, we were invited to the ladies’ residence and a classmate of ours served us cinnamon tea and oat crunchies; it was the perfect combination for my taste buds. Apparently cinnamon tea is not a simple tea; it has properties that can make us live better lives too. If you are a tea person and interested in learning more, then you can open this link: 12 Impressive Health Benefits of Cinnamon Tea.

Now that we are on this palatable note, let us have a look at two South African cuisine favourites, namely: pancakes (pannekoek) and melkkos. The mothers of the nation may not agree with the foolproof recipe that I found but let those of us who are not pancake experts give it a try: Easy and Foolproof South African Pancakes (Pannekoek). Melkkos is indeed another favourite and there are strange versions of it. I remember at boarding school the chefs actually put macaroni in it too, which was strange to me, because it is a novel short cut. If you want to learn more about this cold day treat, you can open this hyperlink: South African Melkkos - The Big Tasty Bite. Let us close the edible section with a quirky saying 'I don't knead drama, just cinnamon rolls', which I found on the internet.

Cinnamon is not just something for the taste buds, it is something you can sing about too. I did a quick YouTube-search, and I found three singers who took cinnamon to the recording studio. Tommy Roe, Lana Del Rey and Damiano David are artists you will find. Tommy Roe sings about our spice in the 1960s idiom, and Lana Del Rey and Damiano David sing in the contemporary idiom. I think you will enjoy David’s lingering lyrics: Damiano David - Cinnamon (Lyrics) ft. Albert Hammond Jr - YouTube

Cinnamon sugar: pen and ink, watercolour and acrylic ink.

Let me not get lost in the music. I need to put my little artwork, Cinnamon sugar, on the easel and look at it. At first glance I want to say the composition is too busy, which is true, because the tree trunk with its branch entanglements is filling two thirds of the canvas. As I start to make notes, and look a little longer, the muted colours in the sky do calm down the ‘noise’ as they allow the tree to be the focal point and the busy branches with their random shapes reveal their function as they unite the design?

The dotty effect of the ‘popcorn’-style adds cohesion too. When one works with a limited palette, a smaller canvas (or paper) and predictable subject matter, it is easy to look at one’s efforts and dwell on what it lacks because of what one has eliminated, but the truth of the matter is: there is still beauty and visual warmth present. May we not become too fanciful and fail to see the wonder in the smaller works artists produce. It takes many granules of sugar and cinnamon particles to create a feast to remember.

Let us get down from ‘the ivory tower’ and back to reality. The ground cinnamon we buy at the supermarket passes through a series of mundane steps before we can sprinkle it lavishly. You can read more about this process when you open the link: Harvesting ‘true cinnamon’: The story of the Ceylon spice | Food | Al Jazeera.

I think, once you have read this blog post, you may want to open the cinnamon bottle or jar and dream of being in your grandmother’s kitchen. Always remember there is Art in your heArt and small things do matter (like a granule of sugar or cinnamon) and they can surely make us feel better, because the food will taste better.