It’s a fact that – as a curry cook – you may want to surf across the cuisines of the Middle East and Asia to find the place where your palate says ‘wow’!

If you do, then are some great cookbooks to keep you company.

Feast Bazaar, Where Flavour was Born, and Spice Market all sit on my shelf at home – and each has helped me along my curry journey.

Where Flavour was Born took me on a spice safari from Zanibar to Malaysia and beyond, persuaded me to wear gloves when chopping fresh chilli (a must), and painted an unforgettable picture of the author foraging for fresh tamarind pods among a herd of wild elephants. Feast Bazaar toured me happily through the great dishes of Morocco, Syria and India. Spice Market planned the food journey a different way – with chapters on every seed/ berry/ root and spice known to man – all linked back to great recipes defined by that ingredient.

Each of these books is beautifully illustrated, and packed both with great recipes and insightful curry knowledge. The authors know their curry onions. If you’re hovering between the spicy delights of a Berber tagine, Balinese suckling pig and Cape Malay curry – then you are in perfect company.

But… but… if you’re a ‘masalaholic’ – and your curry journey is all about India – I don’t think these are the books to inspire you.

As a ‘masalaholic’, you want a cookbook that you find yourself devouring cover-to-cover like a novel… an author you want to invite to dinner… and recipes so delicious you want to tattoo them on your chest.

Feast Bazaar, Where Flavour was Born, and Spice Market might inspire you to do one or two of the above.

I guarantee that future cookbooks in Good Korma will inspire you to do all three.