Garlic is a Spice

In the Middle Ages, the term spices was applied to all costly goods (except gems) imported to Europe from the East, and extended to items no longer commonly called spices, such as dyes, drugs, perfumes, textile fibers, aphrodisiacs, and sugar, as well as what we today call spices, like pepper (meaning peppercorns), cardamom, ginger, turmeric, various herbs, the chilies (newly arrived from America), garlic (called the peasant’s theriaca by the thirteenth-century doctor Arnold of Vilanova), and saffron, a true luxury.

Garlic is a spice, yet even though its history in the Mediterranean is very old, the mad desire of Europeans for the exotic spices of the East led them to overlook garlic. Europeans traded gold and silver for the spices of the East, a fact that displeased kings and finance ministers, who thought it a poor trade. Ferdinand of Spain tried to stop the importing of cinnamon and pepper in exchange for silver by saying, “Buena especia es el ajo” (Garlic is a perfectly good spice). However, popular opinion held that garlic “sempre è cibo rusticano” (always is a peasant food), although with the right preparation it could become gentlemen’s food. Perhaps garlic is the “plant of civilization.” It enlivens food.

In the meantime, try this garlic soup. More garlic soups are in my latest book Best Soups in the World.

TENTH ANNIVERSARY Book Reviews:A Mediterranean Feast | Travel | Smithsonian Magazine

2009 is the TENTH anniversary of the James Beard/ KitchenAid Cookbook of the Year A MEDITERRANEAN FEAST. Read a review from that time. Book Reviews:A Mediterranean Feast | Travel | Smithsonian Magazine

North African Dry Rub

Americans are notoriously poor at geography, a fact that should scare any parent whose child is thinking of joining the military. Why? Wouldn't you like to know something about where you might die? So how about North Africa? The last time anybody in the U.S. military died in North Africa was in WW II; and they died for a very good cause: the defeat of the Nazis. It's the western part of the southern Mediterranean littoral and comprises the countries of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. In geography it's known as the Maghrib. It's a nice place to know. So what's a "North African Dry Rub?" This is an American term referring to the kinds of spices used in one of these countries to rub into meat before baking or grilling. In the Magrib there is no such thing as a "North African dry rub." In all the Mediterranean the heaviest use of spices is found in these three countries. The most common North African spices are cumin, caraway, coriander, turmeric, paprika, chile, cinnamon, black pepper, saffron, cubeb, aniseed, and fenugreek. Many others are used.

[Photo: Clifford A. Wright]

Tapas

Tapas can be grouped into three main categories, according to how easy they are to eat: cosas de picar, pinchos, and cazuelas. Cosas de picar (meaning “things to nibble”)

[Photo: Tapas bar in Seville]

basically refer to finger food, the most famous being the olive-the quintessential Spanish and, in fact, Mediterranean finger food. If a utensil (like banderillas, decorated toothpicks that get their name because they look like the darts used in a bullfight) is required to eat the food, the tapa is called pinchos. Cazuelas (little dishes) are tapas that usually come in sauce, for example, albóndigas (meatballs) or shrimp fried in garlic. All regions of Spain have tapas, although Catalonians have not traditionally eaten tapas and do so now only because of the unification of modern Spain. The Catalans were gastronomically closer to the French and Italians than to the Spanish. The Basques call their tapas pintxos from the Spanish word pinchar, to prick because they were once always served with toothpicks to pick them up. The Spanish proverb comiendo, comiendo el apetito se va abriendo--appetite increases with constant eating, might give you a better idea of what lies behind the culinary experience of Spain.