Silk Road Food Views

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In areas where camel herding is the dominant economic activity of the nomads, camel milk may be a principal source of food. The Silk Road video series has footage of camels being milked. When in Mongolia in 1979, Prof. Waugh was offered camel-milk yogurt (in a pot on the stove in this family's yurt), and the camel-milk cheese laid out here on a table to cure. The cheese had about the consistency and taste of Greek feta cheese (made from goats' milk). Presumably if this cheese were dried in the sun, it would become qurut. A drink called shubat is prepared from camels' milk.

Tom Standage, author of An Edible History of Humanity, will be one of the featured speakers at the Museum’s January 14 panel Curry Economics: Food as a Driving Force of Economic Development. He recently answered some questions about the upcoming talk, discussing food.’s effect on industrialization, the e“green revolution ” and the Silk Road.

The classical example is spices. The term generally refers to non-perishable foodstuffs, found only in some parts of the world, that have a high value-to-weight ratio: pepper, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and so on. The fact that they are non-perishable and very valuable means they can be traded over long distances. Their value stems from their scarcity and from their mysterious origins — spices were thought to have magical properties. The network of spice-trading routes, including the Silk Road, was the largest trade network in the ancient world. Europeans, motivated by a desire to find the sources of the spices and cut out the Arab middlemen, revealed the true geography of the world, opening up sea routes to the Americas and around the tip of Africa to the Indian Ocean.

Food is one of the innovations that traveled along the Silk Road and was adapted by different countries. Noodles are known in almost every country along the Silk Road. Where did pasta originate? Food historians say probably in Persia. Flat bread known as pita in Armenia became puri in India. Chinese dumplings and stir-fry rice are similar to Italian ravioli and risotto. Cooks from several countries, including Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, India, Italy and Uzbekistan, now living in the United States, will demonstrate their countries' foodways for visitors. Concessions at the Festival will include foods from Japan, China, Central Asia and Italy.