Of All The Fast Food Joints In All The World...

[endlessrarities]

One thing that struck me about me about Pompeii - and Herculaneum - was the astounding number of fast food joints that littered the place.  It was evidently the done thing for the Roman citizens of 1st century Pompeii to eat out for lunch.  This wasn't just a matter of sitting down in a swanky restaurant:  instead, parties of friends and associates would hire a room, then have their food served to them by the staff in a place of luxury and comparative privacy.

The popularity of this pastime was evidenced by the presence of a fast food joint, almost literally round every corner.  They're distinctive things:  they comprise a row of huge pots set in concrete, with just the rims visible at the level of the counter:-

When you're facing such stiff competition, it's obvious that you have to work hard to make your establishment stand out from the crowd.  And the Roman equivalent of the easy-clean formica worktop is used to present some stunning eye-catching mosaics.  Some are patterned, while others are just random arrangements of thin polished marbles and porphyries.  The results are stunning:-
 

And a close-up of the 'easy-clean worktop':

Now I couldn't help wondering what they served in these fast food joints.  The pots are huge, and unglazed, which means they must be porous.  My knowledge of Roman food is not good:  I know Roman cuisine involved stuffed dormice and lots of fish oil, but I'd guess that whatever they're serving from these particular jars must be fairly dry.  Otherwise, how do you clean the things?  

Residue analysis of the jars would be rather intriguing.  That is if volcanic ash allows the preservation of organic residues in unglazed ceramic.

An intriguing thought.... 

Comments

[faunhaert.livejournal.com]

top one looks liek a fruits and saldad bar
with soul on the end
the second
maybe a small fire below
or just hot rocks
with another pot on top of metal
filled with food? a warming pot
maybe tapas- finger food and sauces

looks like it would be a great thing to
recreate for the tourists
come for your roman lunch! a chicken in every pot!

;oved you pictures all the way
but this faun typing at you
was way bigger than the one in the palace
grin

[aulus-poliutos.livejournal.com]

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.

[technophobe1975.livejournal.com]

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

[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?

[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!

[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)

[clairehawthorn.livejournal.com]

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

[gghost.livejournal.com]

That "worktop" is beautiful.

[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!

[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.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

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.