Zinobeb

Zinobeb, from the Essep sjinnobeb, is a virid plant valued for the bittersweet aromatic spice procured from drying and grinding its stems and seed pods.

Zinobeb is characteristic of central and west Ororran cuisine, where it is rubbed into meat as a marinade or before slow roasting, but also in the upland cuisine of Deltirot, where it is used in milky desserts. The spice is refined from the inner husk of the zinobeb seed pod, the seeds themselves being bitter and poisonous, hence the popular Ororran saying “as sweet as zinobeb”: meaning something highly prized but risky, since zinobeb shipments were occasionally contaminated with toxic seed.

The spice is a valuable trade commodity, and was highly valued by the imperial court of the Empire of Dor-en-Sann, when the Deltirot held a stranglehold over its supply. The historian Zinnober's family were prosperous spice merchants, and likely got their name from zinobeb.