By far the best part about this book is the fact that I can enjoy it without having to remember every single detail. For the sake of learning and furthering my knowledge of salt, it's probably in my best interests to pay attention, but it's not required for enjoyable reading. I'm reminded of The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan. It's basically a massive collection of short stories each connected with one another.
NOTE: I'd be underlining my book titles, but then I get some sort of HTML coding...lots of it.
The opening of chapter four is completely disgusting and has very little to do with salt. That's all I'll say about that.
It isn’t unpredictable that salt is an important ingredient in olives. I wonder if they were eaten the same way back then as they are now- soggy and soft. I strongly doubt they were eaten that way back then. I’d probably like them better as they occur naturally. Are black olives just aged green olives? That's pretty interesting; however, I don't think I've ever tasted a green one. Are they much different?
The fact that Roman soldiers were actually paid in salt says a little something about how often they used it. If workers and laborers today were paid in Oreos or some other modern American food, what good would that do? The fact that they worked for and were able to support their families with salt is quite amazing. (I don't think it was actually currency back then...still food?)
Man's desire to survive sure comes into the picture in this chapter. When someone somehow discovered salt's preservation abilities, people all over the world immediately started to spend a great deal of time and effort to implement it into their diets. This same process is happening right now with the energy situation faced by the world. Mankind is working to find the best way to do something, and when we do, you can bet it will go into widespread use as soon as possible.
