Posted on 11/11/2007 10:40:52 PM PST by SunkenCiv
The "window" of the Apollonia Fortress' dungeon affords a view of the kind of Mediterranean scene that is fast disappearing... Crusader nobles awakened to this vista every morning, peering out at the European ships that anchored across from the port and the boats that made their way back and forth to fill the city's storerooms with precious goods... Sugar cane, lemons, oranges, eggplant, bananas, rice and other agricultural products originally cultivated in the Far East were adopted by Western civilization via the Middle East... But the historic truth, as usual, is a bit more complex, since most of the knights who settled in the Crusader kingdom never returned to Europe. Today it is widely believed that the reconquest of Spain and Sicily from the Muslim Empire, rather than the Crusades, introduced the foods and flavors of classic Arabic cuisine into the lands of the Mediterranean and then to Western Europe... the Crusaders were quite surprised to find that in the Holy Land, everyone ate white bread and pita made of wheat... Another surprise was the abundance of available spices and the broad use of herbs... Extensive use was made of spices such as ginger, saffron, cinnamon and cloves, which the Arab traders brought from the spice lands of the East, and of seasonings produced from indigenous herbs.
(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...
Historian reveals medieval sausage recipe
Reuters via AuBC News ^ | 11/4/2007
Posted on 11/04/2007 7:19:58 PM EST by james500
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1920938/posts
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Gods |
[Moslem father] "and after lunch, get your brother, and the three of us will kill your sister for uncovering her face when she passed a boy on her way to the well. And then the two of you will draw straws to see which one marries your ugly first cousin." |
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