The Taste of Conquest: The Rise and Fall of the Three Great Cities of Spice

\“The Taste of Conquest \"offers up a riveting, globe-trotting\ntale of unquenchable desire, fanatical religion, raw greed, fickle\nfashion, and mouthwatering cuisine-in short, the very stuff of\nwhich our world is made. In this engaging, enlightening, and\nanecdote-filled history, Michael Krondl, a noted chef turned writer\nand food historian, tells the story of three legendary\ncities-Venice, Lisbon, and Amsterdam-and how their single-minded\npursuit of spice helped to make (and remake) the Western diet and\nset in motion the first great wave of globalization. Sharing meals\nand stories with Indian pepper planters, Portuguese sailors, and\nVenetian foodies, Krondl takes every opportunity to explore the\nworld of long ago and sample its many flavors. Along the way, he\nreveals that the taste for spice of a few wealthy Europeans led to\ngreat crusades, astonishing feats of bravery, and even wholesale\nslaughter. As stimulating as it is pleasurable, and filled with\nsurprising insights, \"The Taste of Conquest\” offers a compelling\nperspective on how, in search of a tastier dish, the world has been\ntransformed.

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