I try to read everything I can find about food history and food politics. I was excited to discover this book, which gives plenty of information about pre-Columbia Native American cuisine.
I was especially interested in the sections about the Incas, who lived in the Peruvian highlands and had a deeply equitable system of food distribution. They monitored their food supplies using a sophisticated system of knots tied in string, a method which was supposedly able to account for every grain of corn.
They considered it a punishable offense to peel a potato and leave the skin uneaten. They believed that this kind of waste caused pain to the potato.
I like that.
No comments:
Post a Comment