Dinner Time!

[Brennus]

Hello again everyone, once again a big thank you to everyone who contributed to the "SPQR? Who?" thread. I would now like to suggest a discussion which is a bit easier to answer.

If you were living in anqtiquity what would you eat and drink during the day?

For the sake of argument I would like you to assume you have unlimted funds BUT you are limited by geography. For example if you are living in the heart of the Sweboz lands you might enjoy your fill of herrings, game birds or maybe even an auroch but your chances of flavouring your milk with saffron are going to be very slim.

Personally I know very little about what was on people's menus during this period so I look forward to learning something .

Tuck in!

[Cute Wolf]

If I lived in Sweboz land... maybe I'll have enough fun hunting wild boars, but all I need for a complete set of Sweboz dinner is:

- some fresh vegetables with boiled eggs
- a big chunk of Roasted boar with honey...
- a dish of whale steak
- a soup made of cheesy cream with goat intestines
- and don't forget, a big tube of beers....

[Apázlinemjó]

What I really miss from the antiquity's menu is the potato... How could they live without potato!?

[Macilrille]

Did they have a choice? What things will people in the future say that they cannot understand that you can live without?

Anyway, here is a Roman dinner.

Sorry guys for having gone silent on you. I channel much of my resources into EBII, so I can by necessity not say much here.

[Brennus]

Well all that protein at the Roman table would certainly give you the muscle needed to serve in the legions but i think all that fish would ultimatley result in you spending alot of time in the latrines. I don't think I could stomach garum sauce, I would certainly like to try it at least once, but i think it would make your stomach turn.

Personally I would miss chillie peppers the most, love habanero sauce and scotch bonnets on my food.

Nice idea of having your boar with honey, Cute Wolf.

[dominique]

I don't think I could stomach garum sauce, I would certainly like to try it at least once, but i think it would make your stomach turn.

Garum must have tasted a lot like the salty fish sauce they serve with the imperial rolls in vietnamese restaurants.
It's actually quite good.

Imagine now what the greeks or romans would have said if confronted with Ketchup or Mayonnaise!

[Megas Methuselah]

What I really miss from the antiquity's menu is the potato... How could they live without potato!?

Hahaha, that's funny.

[plutoboyz]

should it in Sweboz land?

[HunGeneral]

Well I don't know for sure what I would be eating in anqtiquity.

If we take it from geopgraphyical view then I would say: possibly the same as the inhabitants of the Carpathian-basin ate at the time.

If I would end up among some Nomads west of the ural then probeably it would be dairy products, horse milk, cheese, and mostly meat from wild game or horses - although I quess that would be the dinner of a noble. An avarege person would have alot less to eat and famine as such was never far away...

Oh yeah and about the beer: don't forget that beer we know today is not much like what the germanic tribes as such drank in thoose days. We would probeably find it less enjoyeable.

[AntonineWall]

What I really miss from the antiquity's menu is the potato... How could they live without potato!?

Or the tomato. Or the chilli or a nice cigar for after dinner.

Unless of course you are an ancient meso-american in which case you are larging it with nachos with guacamole and spicy wedges followed by a fine Monte Christo.

[Andronikos]

I would really miss rice in Europe. Otherwise I don't know, my knowledge about everyday life in antiquity is limited. Oh, I certainly wouldn't be fan of vomitoria, it is disgusting.

But I have two questions about food in antiquity:
1. if you have read Flaubert's Salambo, there is a description of Carthaginian feast in the beginning, how is it accurate?
2. one friend told me, that Hannibal suffered from some gastrointestinal disorder and he could eat only porridge, is it true?

[ziegenpeter]

If I lived in Sweboz land... maybe I'll have enough fun hunting wild boars, but all I need for a complete set of Sweboz dinner is:

- some fresh vegetables with boiled eggs
- a big chunk of Roasted boar with honey...
- a dish of whale steak
- a soup made of cheesy cream with goat intestines
- and don't forget, a big tube of beers....

Well I fear I wouldn't like "germanic" food that much. It was mostly mash of barley, rye etc. sometimes even roots. Meat was rather rare (not medium ^^) And for the beer: I guess it wasn't that foamy and sparkling as modern german beer but flat and rather low on alcohol. Fortunatly there wa still mead!

[Ibrahim]

Hello again everyone, once again a big thank you to everyone who contributed to the "SPQR? Who?" thread. I would now like to suggest a discussion which is a bit easier to answer.

If you were living in anqtiquity what would you eat and drink during the day?

For the sake of argument I would like you to assume you have unlimted funds BUT you are limited by geography. For example if you are living in the heart of the Sweboz lands you might enjoy your fill of herrings, game birds or maybe even an auroch but your chances of flavouring your milk with saffron are going to be very slim.

Personally I know very little about what was on people's menus during this period so I look forward to learning something .

Tuck in!

I'll stick to either the fertile cresent or Arabia: dates, barley, wheat, milk, and perhaps beef and mutton.

[stratigos vasilios]

I'm fair certian if I were in Sweboz lands, I'd be tanked 90% of the day...

[antisocialmunky]

In Sweboz lands?

People.

[Macilrille]

Let us not either villainize or romatisize the Sweboz.

1. Most Sweboz ate gruel and bread, but with a bit of meat/heavy diet as they had much cattle.

2. AFAIK, the only evidence we have of cannibalism in Iron Age N Europe is from a holy Cltic Site where ritual cannibalism was practised.