oricle

This book chronicles the history of food for the good majority of human civilization. It pretty much blew my mind. For example, what did caveman eat? Answer: lots of raw meat, and lots of other things, which they discovered more or less by trial and errors over the centuries. One vivid part I recall from the cavemen section was that the human need for protein was so strong, that occasionally an errant neanderthal would kill an animal and crack open, say, an arm bone, and start chowin' down on the liquidly disgusting but surprisingly nutritious bone-marrow. I read this book almost two years ago and that image has stuck with me. The discovery and cultivation of wheat (fascinating, if one actually stops to think who decided that wheat should be threshed and would taste delicious baked in an oven with yeast and water). The roman empire's favorite spice? Pepper. and Fish sauce, a condiment similar to the Asian variety, very salty. A lot of people don't realize that herbs and spices were put into use not only because they're aromatic and tasty on their own, but because there was no such thing as refridgeration until the 20th century, meat went real bad, real quick. It would be a shame to throw away a whole side of beef it was only slightly rotten, so humans learned to slather it with hot pepper and thyme and forget about it. I also learned that northern europeans became imperialistic (and this is my theory) because of the HORRENDOUS native foods to such places as england and ireland et al. Seriously. Whey, cabbage, onions, and barley. Not terribly tasty. That, along with the cold weather, naturally drove people to seek out new and alien places. Take, for instance, the America's. Corn, tomatoes, peppers, beans, tropical fruit. No wonder the people were chill and friendly. Life was good. So yes, this book is awesome. And I probably forgot half of what I read, it goes up to the 1900's in its depth and scholarship. Fascinating reading.

2023-06-14 21:29