Reflections on Past, Present and Future

What have the Romans done for us? Well, apart from sanitation, roads, the legal system, etc. they invented shopfronts AND the tapas bar!!!

Bloomin' Romans have the whole world sewn up...

Oh, yes! Technically speaking, your residence is the House of the Faun, too!!

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Roman MacDonald, how cool is that.

I totally want those tiles for my kitchen.

They should reconstruct one of those in the Archaeological Park in Xanten; I'm sure a town the size of Colonia Ulpia Traiana must have had fast food restaurants just like Pompeii. Maybe even local ones as well. "Forget about the stuffed dormice. Try Barbaricus' boar steak instead." (There is a restaurant serving Roman food, but the interior makes some concessions to modern living style, and you can't see into the kitchen.)

Actually, there was most likely not stuffed dormice but stews and porridges, and as Faun said, finger food like little spicy sausages. Maybe some fish fried in egg batter if the cook was ambitious. Bread, cheese, olives and such. Probably some sweet things like honey coated dumplings.

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I hoped you'd have something to say about this one!!

Mmm, I'm almost tempted by the honey coated dumplings...

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Getting a Roman cook book (preferably a decent German one because of the measurements, and everyday food rather than Apicius) is on my list. And growing some of the herbs that have come out of fashion nowadays if I can get some seeds.

I've eaten Roman(ish) food a few times and what makes it different is mostly the seasoning (even minus the garum). I once had a stew-like dish with meat, apricots and raisins, for example - maybe a slightly unusual combination of ingredients, but a far cry from stuffed dormice. And I really loved the goat cheese with pepper and honey; that's something I sometimes reproduce at home.

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Again, this sounds quite yummy!!

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There is evidence that dormice were fattened for the pot- large pottery vessels with things like hamster runs inside where they lived until ready for another sort of pot! Dormouse bones turn up in the middens too.

Fruit and meat/fish are not an unusual combo of foods if you look at North African tajines and other fruit based stews and casseroles of that sort still eaten in those areas.

Mediaeval English food often had these amazing sweet/sour combos too- I've experimented with some of the recipes.

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I've got a medieval recipe book and I really ought to try making something.

But I'd have to cook for Lent, since I'm veggie.

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Moi aussi, but there are plenty of possibilities even so! :o)

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khiemtran.livejournal.com

That would have been a good idea for Pompeii or Herculaneum actually. It was a bit hard to really see the food stalls in context without knowing what sorts of food was served and how it all fit together.

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Perhaps the current pizza cafe conveys the appropriate atmosphere, even if it doesn't deliver authentic grub!!

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asakiyume.livejournal.com

Mmmm, every single thing in your last paragraph sounds delicious!

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technophobe1975.livejournal.com

Have they found any evidence of the Roman version of Happy Meals giveaways?

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birdsedge.livejournal.com

The third photo down looks a bit like our local Chinese takeaway. Not much changes in 2k years except the technology to heat the food. (And the health and safety regulations.)

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Maybe that's what all these little flying phallus charms are about! Maybe you get a free charm and a free slave girl (or boy!) with every Happy Meal!!

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bunn.livejournal.com

Could the big pots be pot in pot refrigerators?

I believe the idea is you fill the big porous pot with water or wet sand, then the actual food goes in smaller glazed pots inside that. Evaporation from the porous pots then keeps the whole thing cool.

I don't know if the Romans used them, but it seems like the kind of technology they could have?

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They definitely had cooling technology and ways to store ice from the Alpine glaciers. After all, they transported oysters and such overland, and they knew something like sherbet.

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A great suggestion, and one that could be tested! The sand would have survived archaeologically, but the water most certainly would not. BUT... If the organic contents are not in direct contact with the outer pot itself, they won't soak into the pottery so an examination for residue might just prove useful, if only for a negative. There's no sign of charring or excessive heat on the stone or the concrete or the ceramic, so presumably everything got infilled with ash prior to the onset of the final searing pyroclastic flow...

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goddessofchaos.livejournal.com

Somehow, I've always thought of eating out and especially fast food as a recent invention, so it's fascinating to see that's certainly not the case! Now I'm curious too about what was actually served there. And whether people moaned about it being "junk food" like they do today!

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Not all Roman appartments had a kitchen, in particular not the cheaper ones in the insulae. It obviously cost less to eat out than keep a cooking slave, or buy the ingredients and do the job yourself.

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So they were even more useless and over-specialised than we were! At least we can still cook meals for ourselves without having to rely on a live-in chef...

Ah, another interesting point which we noted... We couldn't find any obvious latrines in the houses we visited. Now, I refuse to believe that the citizens of Pompeii survived on a combination of chamber pots and public toilets, so... What's the score???? I know the Roman soldiers have communal toilets in the forts but what's going on in the towns? (Ah, the joys of a sponge soaked in vinegar...)

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changeling72.livejournal.com

I remember those fast food joints. It's fascinating to discover how much of the 'modern' world isn't really that modern. I've got a photo of myself beside a huge pot! :o)

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They were great pots:-)

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clairehawthorn.livejournal.com

Fascinating post and photos, the history of food always intrigues me. I can't believe how modern those worktops look.

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gghost.livejournal.com

That "worktop" is beautiful.

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red-trillium.livejournal.com

Beautiful tops. And intriguing. I wouldn't have thought that there would have been that much need for fast food joints, but someone commented that many apartments didn't have kitchens. I'd love to know how they worked too.

Hm, I learn something new here constantly :) Thank you!

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And I learn something new when I visit these places!!

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asakiyume.livejournal.com

Absolutely fascinating. I saw the first paragraph, then got called into the kitchen, where I told my kids all about how I was just reading about Pompeian fast-food joints. Then I came back and finished the entry--and now the comments--wow! I love the refrigeration notion (makes me want to try doing similar, actually--though i'm hampered by not having a big unglazed pot.

The photos are are beautiful too. I love the ones of the polished counters with the urn mouths showing right at the level of the counter.

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Fab pics again :o)

There's an awful lot of rubbish talked about Roman fish sauce (guarum). It was a fermented fish based sauce and contained no oil at all. Why use fish oil when you are producing vast amounts of good olive oil?

While the Romans plainly enjoyed strong flavours, if it was as awful as some 'historians' seem to assume it wouldn't have been mass produced in such large amounts and various qualities and put into so many recipes.

Think Vietnamese fish sauce (nam pla) or Worcestershire sauce- strong flavours, but tasty and perfectly edible.

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Oh, you've shattered the illusion!!! Our Romanist lecturers always gave us the impression that the 'fish oil' would have been disgusting:-) Must've been a standing joke as far as the teaching staff were concerned - fool the poor little undergrads into thinking that 'These Romans are crazy!', as Obelix would say.

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