In the North African restaurant where Moroccan-born chef Khadija Benous serves up orange-tinted rice and saffron-flavored stews and soups, talk of the fabled spice sparks a conversation between customers. An Egyptian who has worked in the American food business said that saffron “clears your mind” and creates a “fully stand-up mentality.”

The ancient spice so highly praised at Pyramids, a recently opened eatery in Shaw, today colors and scents dishes from paella to bouillabaisse. In earlier epochs, however, it was used only sparingly as a cooking ingredient. It was variously considered a perfume, a drug, an elixir, and a dye.

Through the ages, saffron has aroused starkly different reactions from people, from joy to terror. The aromatic, the sixteenth century English herbalist Nicholas Culpepper observed, can invigorate as well as enervate the spirits. The Aherb of the sun . . . quickens the brain. . . . However, the use of it ought to be reasonable and moderate; for when the dose is too large, it produces a heaviness of the heart and sleepiness; some have fallen into an immoderate convulsive laughter, which ended in death.”

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To learn more about saffron, see The Carrot Purple and Other Curious Stories of the Food We Eat, coming in October from Rowman & Littlefield: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442248861/The-Carrot-Purple-and-Other-Curious-Stories-of-the-Food-We-Eat.