The Pepper Trail: History & Recipes from Around the World

Having traveled quite a bit in my life I've noticed how cultures all around the world prize their locally grown chile peppers. From India to Africa and from China to Cuba, they all have chile peppers that they believe are the best in the world. I am not sure that most people (even those in the afore mentioned countries with the expection of Cuba) realize that chiles are a new world agricultural find. Columbus brought them back to Spain then the Spanish and the Portuguese spread them across the globe. I have read several books about the history of capsicum (the botanical word for the family) but none that went into as much detail as this one did. At times I felt that the author spent too much time with the minute details of where particular species of capsicum came from and where and when they arrived in other parts of the world. However, for the chile enthusiast who wants to know it all this is a very well researched book. As always, I am dissappointed when a book like this one does not use photographs. The Pepper Trail does have some drawings and graphics but I would like it better if there were some photos of the peppers and of the dishes that were included in the recipe section. All in all I enjoyed this book and give it 4 stars.