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Title: All about conspicuous consumption......
Review: I highly recommend this book for any foodies who are into the Big Picture. Why *should* spices have been such a big deal that people were willing to spend huge sums of money and/or years of their lives to attain them? This book attempts to answer this question along social, spiritual, and culinary dimensions. Some of what you learn may be surprising - Cloves came, originally, from one place on Earth and had somehow managed to be imported from a tiny Pacific island to Mesopotamia over 3,000 years ago! Some of the arguments seem kind of hand-wavy however - while the argument is made repeatedly that spices were the scent of heaven, the "why" never really comes across clearly. Nevertheless, the book is an excellent read and *spicy* food for thought.
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