Madagascar

The country is still a blur of scents and colors that fills my head. The scents remain vivid in my memory—the steamy perfume of ylang ylang blossoms through the taxi window as we rattle down a dark bumpy road, the sweet fragrance of cured vanilla beans that's so thick and heady that I crouch down as though to tie my shoe, too dizzy to stand.

Not peppercorns

They aren't peppercorns, but they have a peppery flavor. They aren't pink, exactly, but rather red. Still, we call them "pink peppercorns" and the French call them baie rose which means "pink berry." In the U.S. we have a frozen yogurt company called Pink Berry, but as far as I know this spice is not available as a topping. But! If they only knew...

...that the berries of Schinus molle, or Schinus terebinthifolius, both species of the cashew tree family, have an incredible floral flavor - sweetly rosy and peppery - but without the hot bite of true peppercorns. I would go to Pink Berry immediately if I knew they had spices like this as a topping. But they aren't just good on ice-cream —