SKIRMISHER

Fernando Magallanes, popularly known in the English-speaking world as Ferdinand Magellan, is the avowed discoverer of the Philippine Islands. The Spanish monarchy, in its zeal for God, Gold, and Glory, funded the Magallanes expedition, eventually leading to the discovery of the Philippine Islands. Navigational equipments such as maps, telescopes, compasses, and astrolabes helped discover the Philippine Islands. But it was the onions and garlics and chilis and cinnamons that proved to be the catalyst to the discovery of the Philippine Islands.

Remember the Spice Trade of the Moluccas? A long time ago, great amounts of spices were worth huge amounts in gold in Europe. The aforementioned spices were a rarity those days in Europe. And such scarcity was one of the factors that led to some of the greatest naval adventures of all time.

So next time you’re going to make guisado, give those seemingly harmless spices the sauté… or should I say, the salute that they long deserved from us. if not for the Asian spices that the Europeans had been craving, who would have discovered and founded us? Kublai Khan? Marco Polo? Limahong? The Portuguese?

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