A brilliant, original history of the spice trade--and the appetites
that fueled it.
It was in search of the fabled Spice Islands and their cloves that
Magellan charted the first circumnavigation of the globe. Vasco da
Gama sailed the dangerous waters around Africa to India on a quest
for Christians--and spices. Columbus sought gold and pepper but
found the New World. By the time these fifteenth- and
sixteenth-century explorers set sail, the aromas of these savory,
seductive seeds and powders had tempted the palates and
imaginations of Europe for centuries.
"Spice: The History of a Temptation "is a history of the spice
trade told not in the conventional narrative of politics and
economics, nor of conquest and colonization, but through the
intimate human impulses that inspired and drove it. Here is an
exploration of the centuries-old desire for spice in food, in
medicine, in magic, in religion, and in sex--and of the allure of
forbidden fruit lingering in the scents of cinnamon, pepper,
ginger, nutmeg, mace, and clove.
We follow spices back through time, through history, myth,
archaeology, and literature. We see spices in all their diversity,
lauded as love potions and aphrodisiacs, as panaceas and defenses
against the plague. We journey from religious rituals in which
spices were employed to dispel demons and summon gods to prodigies
of gluttony both fantastical and real. We see spices as a luxury
for a medieval king's ostentation, as a mummy's deodorant, as the
last word in haute cuisine.
Through examining the temptations of spice we follow in the trails
of the spice seekers leading from the deserts of ancient Syria to
thrill-seekers on the Internet. We discover how spice became one of
the first and most enduring links between Asia and Europe. We see
in the pepper we use so casually the relic of a tradition linking
us to the appetites of Rome, Elizabethan England, and the pharaohs.
And we capture the pleasure of spice not only at the table but in
every part of life.
"Spice "is a delight to be savored.
"From the Hardcover edition."
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