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The Taste of Conquest The Rise and Fall of the Three Great Cities of Spice Michael Krondl 9780345480835 Books

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The Taste of Conquest The Rise and Fall of the Three Great Cities of Spice Michael Krondl 9780345480835 Books

Well researched and well written. What scumbags our Euro ancestors were. Times and human values were sure different then. The things we value so highly have been paid for in innocent blood. An excellent book but disquieting.


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The Taste of Conquest The Rise and Fall of the Three Great Cities of Spice Michael Krondl 9780345480835 Books Reviews

This book about the origins and history of the spice trade is a feast for the senses. Michael Krondl tells his tale through the histories of three cities that figured large in the history of spice and its currency in the ancient and modern worlds Lisbon, Venice, and Amsterdam. And I do mean currency in the monetary sense.

Then, as today, a refined palate translated to an impression of worldliness and there was almost a mysticism attached to the familiarity and comprehension of food flavorings and additives from far away lands. Those who took the risks to bring bright new tastes to a wealthy, expansionist Europe could basically name any price. What people were willing to pay ranged from exorbitant to ridiculous. There's also an undertow in this book that relates how the spice trade changed the economies and politicial worlds on both ends of the trade routes and, central to any work about the origins and history of the spice trade is the emergence of the Dutch East India Company, a dominant presence in world trade for 200 years.

For historical foodies anywhere (did you like Kurlansky's "Salt"?), this is a treat and adds yet another layer of complexity to that moment in your kitchen when you stand in front of your spice rack and make those big decisions!
A very well written book on the history of the spice trade, and in particular the pepper business.

Pepper, is by far the most valuable spice on the planet. Ounce for ounce, many other spices, like nutmeg, cinnamon, and saffron, greatly exceed the value of pepper. Yet the world consumes so much pepper ('300,000 tons annually) that pepper dwarfs all other spices in total value traded. Between 20% and 40% of the value of all spices traded (the value of all spices rises and falls a great deal with annual production) are in pepper.

This entertaining book traces the history of spice imports into Europe over thousands of years. Three cities, Venice, Lisbon, and Amsterdam, each ruled the trade at different points in history, and this book traces each cities history with that business. It also talks about such issues as how much spice was really consumed in ancient times, a fascinating detour in the book.

From English restaurants that specialize in cuisine-rich with pepper-that can be traced to the middle ages, to Venice, where the author visited the docks where a king's fortune was moved annually, to Amsterdam where the corporation was literally invented to assist in the spice trade, Michael Krondl (a chef as well as writer) traces the history of pepper. He even obtained visits to secretive government and industrial labs in India and the USA where new spice mixtures and varieties of pepper are developed.

While not as detailed as Nathaniel's Nutmeg (which deals strictly with nutmeg's history), Krondl's book is easier and more enjoyable to read. I received it on a CD as a gift, enjoyed it in the car, and purchased a hard back copy for a more detailed read. Highly recommended.
What surprising things you'll learn! What a feast of delicious facts! Most enjoyable. Fabulous history as well. You won't be able to put it down. The epilogue was as much fun as the main story.
Sometimes, one can tell a book by its cover. Michael Krondl's "A Taste of Conquest" features a banquet, the snowny linen tablecloth covered with what might be a rijsttafel of platters, the diners opulent in brocades and satins, the attendants revealing the conquests of the wealthy country in which this feast is celebrated. Listen, and one can hear the lively discussion, probably about lastest opportunities in the spice trades. Inhale, and the mingled aromas of cloves, cinnamon, mace, ginger may transport you.

But wait! Two men, somewhat older,look coolly on the proceedings. Who are they? What's going on? Such is the scope and thoroughness of Krondl's research, he probably could tell their names, their significance in this painting, what dishes were on that table (using period cookbooks) and at what human cost to the peasants in far-away Banta or Tindoor.

"The Taste of Conquest" is one of several books on the spice trade between about 1400 and 1800 that have appeared recently. Each has its merits, but this is by far the best of the best for scholarship, for superb writing, for a sense of a very good mind thinking independently rather than gathering citations, for an exuberant joie de vivre enthusiasm for the way in which paintings, archival reports, tax information, stories, architecture inform us about the world of not so long ago. From the spice trade, three cities----Venice, Lisbon, and Amsterdam---grew to enormous wealth; and from avarice, from changing fashions, from the plant thieves in the night--and more---they subsided.

As a few examples

--Philip II's (Queen Mary of England's spouse and the spouse of several other profitably chosen princesses) obsession with world dominition and conversion led to the wars that sent merchants flying from Antwerp to Amsterdam; his oppressions eventually led the Dutch to rise against the Spanish----so Krondle tells us & vividly too. The newly independent Dutch formed one of the first joint venture capitalist crowd-sourcing companies, selling a few shares for a few guilders to the shoemakers and seamstresses. Their ships, unencumbered by purposes other than profit-making and captained by an accountant with a heart of flint, took off for the Spice Islands. What happened next is told in swift detail, page-turnng reading.

--Dousing spoiled meat with spices arguably was not the reason people used pepper and mace and cinnamon and cardamon and more in such quantities. Rather, as Krondl convincingly shows, the arguments were healthier eating the medical paradigm was balancing the four humors through dietary adjustments, and books on this from the new printing presses flew out of the booksellers' shops. The enthusiasm for sustaining Venus, for increasing longevity, for other dietary marvels was a high as it is now which can be saying a lot. Besides with plentiful sugar from the new world, it tasted good---very good indeed.

Laudably, "The Taste of Conquest" include appropriate & clear illustrations & maps. There is an excellent index as well as a fine bibliography/reference list. Magna cum laudably, there's a splendid epilog on the spice trade today in Venice, in Calicutta in the Indian Institute for Spice Research, and in that international hub of spices for prepared foods as well as our kitchens, in Baltimore. The story begun way back in time is brought in a fine concluding arc to the present. Summa cum laudably, Krindl is a cook, a writer, and the Random House editors did him proud. there isn't a dull sentence, an ungrammatical sentence, an awkward sentence in this book.

One caution the descriptions are so mouth-watering (oh, those Amsterdam Sinterklas cakes!) one with less than perfect self-control can gain weight well before the last page is reached. Another this is about spices and the world of which they were a commercially dominant part. Those seeking a cookbook featuring spices will find inspiration but not recipes here. However, with such a splendid read, what's a pound here and there?
This is a book for foodies. It is as much about the author's trips to, friends at, impressions of, and meals in Venice, Lisbon, and Amsterdam as about the history of the spice trade. There is nevertheless some interesting history here and the author seems to have good knowledge of historical issues and events beyond just spices. The book is well-written and I do think it worthy of four stars but unless you're equally a foodie and a history buff it will be of uneven interest.
Well researched and well written. What scumbags our Euro ancestors were. Times and human values were sure different then. The things we value so highly have been paid for in innocent blood. An excellent book but disquieting.