Every Friday morning, Sweetie takes us all out to breakfast at our neighborhood coffee shop. I have an iced coffee, he has a hot one, Cleo watches us drink, and Henry has a giant zatar croissant, the size of his head, which we all (except the baby) help him finish.

            Zatar is a spice I had not tried before moving to the UAE. According to Wikipedia, it’s a mix of sweet marjoram, thyme, sesame seeds, and salt. It has kind of a musky, smoky taste to it, with a little peppery bite – the kind of thing you can sprinkle on your grilled fish, or mix with olive oil and drizzle over salad. It’s delicious. Also, according to one of Sweetie’s colleagues, zatar makes you smart: “I eat a zatar toast before every deadline!”

            For a while, our weekly dose of zatar was this croissant. Then one day we found it at the spice counter in the supermarket, where giant bags of every imaginable spice are lined up behind glass, waiting to be scooped out and sold – bay leaves, chilis, thyme, paprika, tumeric, mustard seeds, nine kinds of pepper, and zatar from Jordan, a steal at ten dirhams (about $2.70) per kilo.

            So we bought a kilo, which turned out to be a LOT, and the next thing I knew, I was adding zatar to everything – omelets, salads, tomato sauce, biscuit dough, grilled cheese sandwiches. “It makes everything taste better,” I would say after clearing the plates from another zatar-flavored dinner. “Also, I can feel myself getting smarter.”

            It’s true. I recently finished a crossword puzzle for the first time in years. I haven’t lost my keys in months. I used the word “sepulchral” correctly in casual conversation. I read a book by VS Naipul – it was a terrible book, but I understood every sentence. My Scrabble scores have doubled. I am so smart now I can hardly stand it.

            Now I don’t know what to do with my new brains. Part of me says, “Become a superhero!” and the other part says, “Take the GRE!” but mostly I am thinking about going to catering school and becoming the world’s first manufacturer of brain-enhancing frozen foods. The Hot Fudge Zatar Sundae, I am sure, is going to be a winner. 

.