Hey waiter, why is my food spice-less?
Why was I served a bland dish in Portugal?
My wife and I visited Portugal recently.
Let me share with you all a few of our experiences while in Lisbon, Portugal.
We visited Vasco De Gama’s tomb, while standing near the grave we thought we heard a voice from the grave which seems to say “If I knew my efforts would be wasted, I would not have risked my life going all the way to India to get spices” I did not think about this since after leaving the tomb, we got wrapped up in sightseeing in Lisbon and forgot all about it.
One night, we went out for a dinner in a very authentic quaint Portuguese restaurant. Being fully aware that in Europe, the word “vegetarian” does not carry the same meaning that it does in USA, I told the waiter that I am a vegetarian and I do not eat fish, chicken or red meat at all so I was served a bowl of pumpkin soup and fresh salad. I found it to be pretty bland with no spices or seasoning at all. Suddenly I remembered the voice of Vasco Da Gama that we had heard at the tomb and it made sense now! When questioned, we were told by the waiter that that's how a traditional Portuguese soup is served. I knew that European cuisines traditionally do not use the typical Indian spices that every Indian household uses so routinely. I wanted to have some fun with the waiter so I said to him with a smile – Do you know who Vasco Da Gama was? he said, yes, of course, I said- Good. He went all the way around the globe, risking his life 1498 AD looking for India and brought back ship loads of spices from India back to Portugal. and now that I have come all the way to Lisbon to his country, why am I being served the food totally devoid of spices? Where are my spices? Poor waiter of course, had no answer so he just shrugged his shoulder and smiled back at me. We of course enjoyed our stay in Portugal which is a wonderful city.
While strolling down a main shopping road in Lisbon, we came across a store-front which was filled with Indian curios. So we stepped inside and sure enough the owners were a delightful Gujarati couple. While conversing with them, we found out that their grandparents had originally migrated from Rajkot to Mozambique in Africa which was under Portuguese domain at the time. In 1960 when most of the Indians in Africa began to leave, their parents decided to settle in Portugal being Portuguese citizens, they felt comfortable in Lisbon. They started this business importing items from India! They told me that there is a Hindu temple in Lisbon with a conference/wedding hall which can easily host 1000 people. Their children have grown up there and Gujarati community is very active in religious activities and it was heartening to know that they have maintained their Gujarati heritage and language.
Famous port wine is made from red grapes grown in Northern Portugal. Port wine is made in many places in the world but only the wine made in Portugal can be called Port wine. ( Basmati rice is now grown in many countries including USA but only the one grown in India can be called basmati rice. Same way only scotch whisky made in Scott land can be called a scotch, Only Burgundy or a Champaign produced in France can be called that, or a Bourbon can be called a Bourbon only if distilled in USA etc etc)
On our return to USA, lack of spices in Portugal kept bugging me so I decided to do some research and read spice trade history to try to find out why Europeans never got hooked on the spices and why spices were missing in my soup in Lisbon.
Spices were not new to Europe. Romans had been importing spices from India in the 1ST century. Then around the 4th century a long period of chaotic dark ages and control by the religious bigots and zealots spread which lasted in Europe for almost 1000 years.
In 14th century Europe, farmers owned very small parcels of land and was not practical to divide it further into even smaller parcels so an inheritance law was passed which decreed that only the eldest son would inherit the land, leaving other siblings without a land and without a source of income and a lot of time on hands. According to British author James Burke, it seems one of the reasons was the inheritance law that triggered the Medieval European craze for spices. During the dark ages in Europe, after the fall of the mighty Roman Empire, from 400 AD for almost 1000 years, religious zealots and Christian fundamentalists waged Crusades (Christian version of Muslim Jihad) against the Arabs and Islam religion. They needed manpower to fight for them. So they enticed and hired these young men to fight to recapture the holy land which was under the control of powerful Turkish Muslim dynasty. ( One must remember that Mohammad of Gazanvi who invaded and conquered North India around 1100AD was a Turk and a tyrant. Famous writer, astronomer, linguist Al Baruni who accompanied him has written his experiences in his well-know memoirs called “Tariq Hind” which is worth reading)
But the road to Jerusalem was strewn with hardships like sailing on leaky ships, fighting with pirates in the Balkans, Many hundreds perished during the long journey by seas, were killed by the pirates before ever reaching areas near today’s Croatia. Those lucky enough to survive took time off in the greatest red-light city of the medieval world, the Byzantine capital city of Constantinople. (Original name was Byzentium and was the capitol of the Byzantine empire and was to honor Roman Emperor Constantinople, it was changed to Constantinople. By the time they reached Constantinople (today’s Istanbul) in Turkey, these half-starved, wounded, tired young men wanted to rest and recuperate before going on further. They had never seen such glamour, glitz and exotic food enriched with wonderful aroma and taste of spices. European cuisines can be best be described as almost inedible. They frolicked and eat to their heart's delight. When these young men returned back home, they demanded and started the craze and craving for spices. Spices became a big business.
In the meantime the Turks were expanding their Ottoman (Muslim) Empire and they defeated the Byzantine (Christian) Empire around 1554AD. Ottoman Empire’s Ataturk changed it to Istanbul. The land routes to the East including to India were all now controlled by the Turks who demanded high price for the importing and delivering spices so the Europeans had to find a sea route. This started the sea exploration in Europe. This was also a renaissance time in Europe. New leak-proof ships, new triangular sails, better navigations etc. was now available. This is why Spain sent Columbus sailing, trying to reach India but instead reaching the Caribbean Islands and mistakenly called the natives "Indians" and discovering the New World.
The Portuguese did not want to be left out of this hunt so sent Vasco Da Gama who was a much better sailor than Columbus and went around south Africa, eastern coast of Africa, reaching the west coast of India arriving in Calicut in 1498 and returned with a ship full of spices worth 60 times more than the cost of the voyage!
The Spaniards were bringing in shiploads of silver and gold from South America while the rest of Europe was busy hauling in equally valuable spices from India. The Dutch, the French, the Portuguese and the English all joined-in trying to out-smart each other in this very profitable business. Spice trade became a big business. Dutch, English, Portuguese, French all started East India Trading companies. Of course in the end, as always has happened in most parts of the world, it was the English who prevailed and went on to establish a monopoly in India. (They got Manhattan (New York City) from the Dutch, Mumbai from the Portuguese, snatched the trading rights monopoly with China from the French, dominance on the sea by defeating the Spanish armada.. And the British Empire eventually ruled most of the world).
In the meantime new farming techniques like rotating crops and summer crops were making food available year round and the food was now grown locally year round in Europe. The use of spices to enhance the taste of food and as food preservative had not quite caught on in Europe yet.
By this time sugar from Brazil and tea from China became available and craving and craze for tea and sugar and use of sweet tea, cakes exploded and now Europeans very quickly developed a sweet tooth, this new trade became more profitable than the spices and eventually replaced spices completely. And eventually demand for Spices was replaced by demand for tea and sugar and spice trade became less and less important and Europeans never developed taste for the spices again.
And this is why spices were missing in my dinner in Lisbon that night!
e.mail : joshi117@yahoo.com