Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Vasco Da Gama : Exploration




Vasco da Gama was born in Sines, the south west coast of Portugal. He was alive from 1460-1524 living a very good life when we wasn’t exploring because of the tax money he received from his father being a famous explorer. His father, Estêvão da Gama tried to explore the same route that his son would become famous for, but died before he could finish.
Vasco Da Gama discovered the route from Europe to India. He was a naval commander and had a very hard personality; his crew had a lot of difficulties when he would stop in Africa because the Muslim traders did not want anything to do with the trade routes from Europe. When he got into India the natives were very hostile and ordered Da Gama to leave all his goods and set sail to go home. Da Gama did not comply, he took his goods and also took Indian hostages and left to go home. He returned as a hero in Portugal, when the king heard of Da Gama’s struggle with India. The king ordered Da Gama to return to India with 20 armed ships, once he got there he brutally killed the Indian Muslims to show his power and force. He returned home to the fact that King Manuel had died and the new King John III wanted Da Gama to be a representative of the king in India and be a new leader to control the trade routes from India to Europe.
Obviously Portugal benefitted from the new trade route and expansion because of Da Gama’s achievements. The Muslims that lived in India were very affected because now they were slaves to the Portuguese. He is viewed today as a great explorer in Portugal, because of the wealth he brought. Geography influenced his journey because no one wanted anything to do with Africa during this voyage and Africa just caused more hardships for his journey.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasco_da_Gama#Calicut.2C_India
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/explorers/page/d/dagama.shtml
http://www.angelfire.com/ak/militaryorders/vascogama.html

Sunday, November 23, 2008

History of a meal


Tonight’s special at the gourmet little mexico bar & grill
Owner : Henry Moody

Burritos were first invented during the mexican revolution (1910-1921) in the bella vista neiborhood in Ciudad Juárez. He wanted to keep his food warm so he wrapped it in a homemade flour tortrtia. The name burrito comes from the spanish word burro which means donkey, so burrito means little donkey. some think that it is called little donkey because the wrap looks like a donkeys ear. ------ $7.99

ADDITIONAL INGREDIENTS
Salsa is one of the most important things in a burrito! The history of Salsa sauce originated from the Inca people. The spanards first encountered the salsa sause in there conquest into the americans and mainly mexico. The salsa has taken a lot of variations as time has gone on, the origanal salsa that was discovered was as chili peppers tomato and spices. --- $2.00

Tortillas ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT PART, it hold all the containing ingredients in a soft shell with all of the goodness warm and cozy inside. During the spanish conquest into mexico, the spanards found the aztec civiaztion. The aztecs were very into corn the spanards discovered and they made there food around corn. One recipe involved crushing wet whole corn kernals upto make a dough which then then friend on a flat stone to make there corn tortilla. --- $1.00

Guacamole is a special addition to burritos and most all mexican dishes, consisting of mainly avocado. It is a sause and depending on what part of mexico the recipe is from its made with diffenernt spices and ingredients. Guacamole goes all the way back to the Aztecs. The spanirads were very fond of this fruit when they found it for two reasons. It had the highest amount of fat for a fruit in the region and was believed to be a aphrodisiac food. --- $5.67


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burrito

www.salsaweb.com/ny/historyofsalsa.htm

wikipedia.org/wiki/salsa

www.texmextogo.com/tortillas.htm

www.tortillas.com/history.htm

http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/guacamole.htm#Guacamole

Beached Sperm Whale VS. C4 explosive