Vanilla (paperback)

Closed, opens at 11amIndependent shop in FremontDirections

Available from Book Larder when we last checked, in the last two days. Sold from the shop’s own store; the price there is the one that counts.

The fascinating and wide-ranging history of vanilla, from the sixteenth century to today. Vanilla is one of the most expensive of flavorings—so valuable that it was smuggled or stolen by pirates in the early days—and yet it is everywhere. It is a key ingredient in dishes ranging from crème brûlée to Japanese purin. It is the quintessential ice cream flavor in the United States. Eric T. Jennings explains how the world’s only edible orchid, originally endemic to Central America, became embedded in