The smell of sweet cinnamon on your morning oatmeal, the gentle heat of
gingerbread, the sharp piquant bite from your everyday peppermill. The tales
these spices could tell: of lavish Renaissance banquets perfumed with cloves,
and flimsy sailing ships sent around the world to secure a scented prize; of
cinnamon-dusted custard tarts and nutmeg-induced genocide; of pungent elixirs
and the quest for the pepper groves of paradise.

The Taste of Conquest offers up a riveting, globe-trotting tale of
unquenchable desire, fanatical religion, raw greed, fickle fashion, and
mouthwatering cuisine.in short, the very stuff of which our world is made.
In this engaging, enlightening, and anecdote-filled history, Michael Krondl,
a noted chef turned writer and food historian, tells the story of three
legendary cities.Venice, Lisbon, and Amsterdam.and how their single-minded
pursuit of spice helped to make (and remake) the Western diet and set in
motion the first great wave of globalization.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the world.s peoples were
irrevocably brought together as a result of the spice trade. Before the great
voyages of discovery, Venice controlled the business in Eastern seasonings
and thereby became medieval Europe.s most cosmopolitan urban center.

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