Eat This Now: Peppercorns

The original “black gold” makes a gourmet comeback

Pepper is the new salt. No longer relegated to the table shaker, this suddenly exotic ingredient is instead starring on menus — Jake’s pink-peppercorn-crusted venison, filet mignon with green peppercorn/ gorgonzola cream at Avanti Tuscan Grille in Quakertown — and

Pepper is the new salt. No longer relegated to the table shaker, this suddenly exotic ingredient is instead starring on menus — Jake’s pink-peppercorn-crusted venison, filet mignon with green peppercorn/gorgonzola cream at Avanti Tuscan Grille in Quakertown — and given a pedigree and tasting notes. Tired of common, mass-produced Malabar black pepper? Consider instead the bold, hand-harvested Sarawak black. Penzeys Spices, the just-opened 1,300-square-foot Chestnut Hill spice cabinet, is the place to find more than a dozen peppers of every shade and price, from winey, hot white peppercorns washed in clear spring water to sharp green peppercorns from India and sweet pink faux peppercorns from islands in the Indian Ocean. Penzeys, which also stocks hundreds of other herbs and spices, even has the proper adjustable pepper grinders for the now-gourmet spice.

Penzeys Spices, 8528 Germantown Avenue, Chestnut Hill, 215-247-0770; penzeys.com