Trading Empires and trade routes
From the Archives: City of Fortune
I am deep in reviewing the index for The Dragon from Chicago, which has turned out to be a much harder and more fiddly task than I anticipated.* Nonetheless, I full intended to give you a new blog post today. I really tried, but after an hour I was forced to admit that the idea…
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In which I take a side trip in time and space to consider the Mayans, the Aztecs and Chocolate
During our visit to Antica Dolceria Bonajuta, the artisanal chocolate producer in Modica, our guide emphasized the fact that most modern chocolatiers, who use heat based methods such as conching and tempering to create smooth chocolate with a shiny appearance. By contrast, the Bonajuta chocolate makers still used a traditional “cold-processing” method similar to that…
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The Unexpected Legacy of the Carob Seed
As those of you who also read my newsletter already know, My Own True Love and I recently got back from a ten-day tour in Sicily. The tour focused on food, not on history, but you can’t keep history nerds from noticing history, especially in a cultural melting pot like Sicily, which at various times…
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