Cumin, camels, and caravans : a spice odyssey
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Cumin, camels, and caravans : a spice odyssey
(California studies in food and culture, 45)
University of California Press, c2014
- : cloth
Available at 6 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Series no. from publisher's listing
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Gary Paul Nabhan takes the reader on a vivid and far-ranging journey across time and space in this fascinating look at the relationship between the spice trade and culinary imperialism. Drawing on his own family's history as spice traders, as well as travel narratives, historical accounts, and his expertise as an ethnobotanist, Nabhan describes the critical roles that Semitic peoples and desert floras had in setting the stage for globalized spice trade. Traveling along four prominent trade routes - the Silk Road, the Frankincense Trail, the Spice Route, and the Camino Real (for chiles and chocolate) - Nabhan follows the caravans of itinerant spice merchants from the frankincense-gathering grounds and ancient harbors of the Arabian Peninsula to the port of Zayton on the China Sea to Santa Fe in the southwest United States. His stories, recipes, and linguistic analyses of cultural diffusion routes reveal the extent to which aromatics such as cumin, cinnamon, saffron, and peppers became adopted worldwide as signature ingredients of diverse cuisines.
Cumin, Camels, and Caravans demonstrates that two particular desert cultures often depicted in constant conflict - Arabs and Jews - have spent much of their history collaborating in the spice trade and suggests how a more virtuous multicultural globalized society may be achieved in the future.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations List of Recipes List of Spice Boxes Introduction: The Origin of "Species" 1. Aromas Emanating from the Driest of Places 2. Caravans Leaving Arabia Felix 3. Uncovering Hidden Outposts in the Desert 4. Omanis Rocking the Cradle of Civilization 5. Mecca and the Migrations of Muslim and Jewish Traders 6. Merging the Spice Routes with the Silk Roads 7. The Flourishing of Cross-Cultural Collaboration in Iberia 8. The Crumbling of Convivencia and the Rise of Transnational Guilds 9. Building Bridges between Continents and Cultures 10. Navigating the Maritime Silk Roads from China to Africa 11. Vasco da Gama Mastering the Game of Globalization 12. Crossing the Drawbridge over the Eastern Ocean Epilogue: Culinary Imperialism and Its Alternatives Acknowledgments Notes Index
by "Nielsen BookData"