In 2018, the city on the Neva was once again recognized as the most beautiful in the world. Its palaces and fountains, as well as museums and famous drawbridges are widely known and loved by many tourists. In 2015, another museum was opened in St. Petersburg - spices. Agree that this city is least associated with spices, but the founder of the museum Arsen Alaverdyan believes otherwise. In his opinion, it is this topic that is able to compensate for the lack of sunny days in the Northern capital.
Journey to History
What is the first image that pops up before your mind’s eye when you say “spices” or “spices”? Most likely, these will be the narrow winding streets of an overseas city or the oriental bazaar, brightly colored. Last but not least, you will present the geometrically correct streets of cold and foggy St. Petersburg.
The Spice Museum, which opened in the city on the Neva, at first glance contrasts with the familiar theme of numerous excursions and has virtually no points of contact with the history of Russia.
However, we turn to "Journey over the Three Seas", in which the Tver merchant Afanasy Nikitin talks about his campaign in the "Hindustan Land" full of amazing wealth, including spices. And this happened 30 years before the official discovery of India by the Portuguese Vasco da Gama, whose descriptions became the basis of the spice catalog. The Museum in St. Petersburg is the only one in Russia, and there are two more such projects in the world. One is in Hamburg and the other is in Pattaya.
Amazing world
There are no museums in St. Petersburg. This is a museum of butterflies, and a museum of Soviet realism, and now a museum of spices, which added to the list of unusual museums in St. Petersburg. The creators of this project approached its implementation comprehensively. Crossing the threshold of the museum, you find yourself in the world of spices. Here everything is dedicated to them - history, features of breeding and collection, transportation and cost, as well as popularity in various countries and continents.
We absolutely don’t think about the fact that, for example, cloves or peas, which we know well, influenced the world map, and their cost was so high that for a long time it remained accessible only to the richest people. And it is possible that the beginning of the enormous fortunes of many famous dynasties was laid at the time when merchant and pirate ships went to distant lands for spices.
There are no "Do not touch" signs in this museum. On the contrary: here you can not only inhale the aroma of various spices, but also take part in the process of their preparation, and then also try.
Exposition Start
At the very beginning of the tour you will be told how spices penetrated the territory of Europe and Russia, what dangers this process was associated with, what the price of spices was and how many lives were put on this path. You will get acquainted with the maps of sea and land routes, along which the caravans of merchants went to distant lands.
You will be introduced to the biographies and routes of the great travelers, whose discoveries influenced the distribution of spices throughout the world. Well, if you manage to remember at least part of everything you hear and see. However, the main thing is not the amount of information, but the direction of your interest that it initiates.
Perhaps after visiting the Spice Museum in St. Petersburg you will want to learn more about the history of discoveries, and this will affect the choice of a profession …
Or there may be another option: you will have an irresistible desire to experiment with spices, and so your career as a chef will begin.
The main part of the tour
Having an idea of the historical context of the distribution of spices, you will go to the room with spices. And here you will find many surprises. First, you will be shown the “other side” of the usual seasonings that you “meet” in the kitchen regularly. You can sniff and catch a lot of shades of aroma of varieties of one spice. If desired, it will be possible to crush any of the presented specimens in a mortar, and then taste it. And you will also feel that the words "stinky stinky" actually mean, but this is optional.
All of the above is a general view. And if you go to the details, you can start with pepper. For example, did you know that since 1912 there has been a scale for the burning of products of Wilbur Scoville? This American scientist classified the varieties of pepper species and found out a lot of interesting things for yourself and for you and me. Today, all products can be sorted according to the units of the Scoville scale. This is such an interesting topic that we can dwell on it in more detail.
The most burning
Of all the peppers, the Bulgarian familiar to all of us is the most sparing according to Scoville's classification - from 0 to 100 ECU in total. It is followed by his Spanish counterpart - Pimento (100-500 ECU), but to his taste can not be attributed to scorching. Amahaheim cultivar is even higher - up to 1000 ES. However, it is quite tolerantly perceived by gourmets. Its only drawback is a hard peel.
This is followed by a number of species that can be considered really sharp: Pobleano (grows in Mexico), Hungarian wax (up to 10, 000 ESU); Serrano (reaches 23, 000 ECU) and Mexicans warn that this variety is very insidious, as it works after some time. Even more unbearably burning - these are Cayenne, Thai and Jamaican peppers (from 30, 000 to 200, 000 ECU).
Extremely burning varieties are discovered by the Scottish cap (up to 350, 000 ECU). It is not recommended to eat it without preparation, because dizziness, nausea and numbness of the arms and legs are possible, not to mention the condition of the stomach. But this is far from the limit. There are varieties that are collected and processed only in suits that exclude the penetration of pepper dust. These types are prepared only by cooks with an extreme bias. In general, they are used in the manufacture of tear gas and for painting ships to protect them from mollusks.
And this is only an insignificant part of what you can learn about at the Spice Museum. Visitors' reviews are the most favorable: many people were surprised that there is a whole world about which so little is known.
