Don't be put off by the 500-page length of the winner of this week's six books. Mark Kurlansky's Salt: A World History is remarkably readable. For a lover of food and history, this book ties them neatly together.
We go back more than 3000 years to Egypt, visit ancient (and modern) China, the Mediterranean, explore the New World. Food and salt are unbreakably matched in our travels. And world domination, until the advent of modern refrigeration, hinges on salt, the only rock we eat, as the author points out.
Kurlansky seasons the book with dozens of recipes for unlikely delicacies, including a fermented fish sauce called garum. The History Channel and Food TV combined in book form: what more can a gal ask for?
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