In Al-Attarin Street, Old City Jerusalem, Dr. Spice is famous for being both a doctor and a chef. ‘Tell him your pain, and he’ll give you the remedy. Tell him the dish, and he’ll give you the spice to cook it with.’
‘He is my friend, my accomplice, my doctor, and my chef,’ Iman tells us, smiling, as we arrive at the shop of Dr. Spice. ‘Tell him your pain, and he’ll give you the remedy. Tell him the dish, and he’ll give you the spice to cook it with,’ Iman says. The souk is bustling with life at 4 Al Attain Street. The song of the caged birds brightens the chant of the afternoon prayer. ‘We are lucky today,’ Iman tells me. ‘Sometimes, the queue lasts over half an hour.’
When it’s my turn, Dr. Spice looks me straight in the eye and asks, ‘What’s ailing you?’ Muscle and liver issues, I answer. He starts filling a jar with oils and combining different spices from numerous sacks filled with colourful and aromatic powders and grinds. ‘Hazel knows how to make special mixtures that cure many diseases. A talent coming straight from Allah,’ Iman whispers. ‘The first few days you take this preparation, try not to stray too far from the bathroom,’ the ‘Doctor’ tells me. There is already another queue of over ten people behind me when I pay him.
‘Dr. Spice knows how to make special mixtures that cure many diseases. A talent coming straight from Allah’
