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Caption: July 9, 2015
Presented by
LionFish SupperClub and
The Curated Feast A Taste of Ancient Greece
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Caption: World history can and should be told as food history.
Prepare to g(r)eek out.
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Caption: The Ancient Greek "Symposium" was an occasion for gastronomic and social pleasures.
Today, we might just call it a diner party.
Caption: The Menu
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Caption: It will rain raisins and the dew will be a warm pancake. — Athenaeus
from The Learned Banqueters, 200 AD
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Caption: Appetizer:
Tiganites with
currants & walnuts
| Peach & Star Anise Chutney |
| Toasted Sesame Seeds |
This recipe for tiganites is 2500 years old. It is well documented by many Ancient Greek Chefs.
Caption: P E R S I A N
A P P L E S Our chutney features the peach. Persian merchants brought this fruit from China to the West, and for some time people believed the fruits were grown in Persia. Thus, the peach earned the name
"the Persian Apple."
Our spin on it includes Persian Apples in a chutney, to evoke the deeper Eastern origin of the fruit.
Caption: C H U T N E Y Chutneys originate in India, a close trade partner with the Ancient Greco-Roman world. Alexander the Great invaded what is now Punjab in 305 BC. The links between East and West were felt in politics, culture, and certainly food.
Through Alexander the Great's campaign, we see evidence of Indo-Greek cultural diffusion.
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Caption: Sesame seeds, (or Sesamum indicum), were domesticated 3000 years ago, but charred remains of sesame have been recovered at archeological excavations in Babylon which date back over 4000 years. Today we have simply toasted them.
Most wild sesame is native to Sub-Saharan Africa, but the Indicum variety originated in India, hence the name.
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Caption: Tiganites with
Swiss Chard | Feta
Balsamic
Swiss chard (σέσκουλα) isn't native to Switzerland, but because a Swiss botanist determined the scientific name of this plant in the 19th century, its name has honored his homeland.
Caption: C H A R D The true homeland of chard lies in the Mediterranean. In fact Aristotle described it in the fourth century B.C. This is not surprising given the fact that the ancient Greeks, and later the Romans, honored chard for its medicinal properties.
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Caption: On the Table:
Barley Bread
Olives & Figs
Olive Oil with Black Peppercons
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Caption: Asclepias pods, painted in gold, invoke the Greek God of Healing, Asclepius. His name means "to cut open". As we are cutting open a world far back in time, we have adorned this table with these pods.
Caption: B A R L E Y In mainland Greece and most of the Greek islands, wheat was imported and barley was a home grown staple. This was largely due to a lack of arable land: nearly 80% of Greece is mountainous.
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Caption: If the gods eat barley, this is where Hermes goes shopping for it. —Archestratus,
on the Isle of Lesbos
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Caption: Herbed Barley Berry Salad with Arugula | Feta | Parsley Thyme | Marjoram | Dill
Caption: C Y C L O P S And now in our feast, we have come to meet Cyclops, the cheesemaker. When Odysseus and his men encounter the cyclops Polyphemus they see him returning his flock from pasture. "Then down he squatted to milk his sheep and bleating goats."
They had already staked out his cheese cave, and we're prepared to take what they wanted . . .
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Caption: So we explored his den, gazing wide-eyed at it all,
the large flack racks loaded with drying cheeses.
—Homer, The Odyssey
800 B.C.
Caption: H E R B A L Spices were steeped in myth and danger. Although herbs were much more accessible, they were no more mundane in function.
Herbs were central to Ancient Indo-European Medicine, which was divided into three functions:
1. Prayers and Magic
2. Surgery
3. Herbs
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Caption: Octopus Carpaccio with
Fennel | Lemon | Olive Oil Ouzo broth
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Caption: “Octopus increases sexual vigour, but it is tough and indigestible. […] To a man in love…what could be more useful?”
—Athenaeus, quoting comic playwright Alexis
Caption: A N I S E Anise originated in Western Asia. It was a chief ingredient in the medicinal wine called annestaton, which is now supplanted by ouzo. Ancient Greeks used to put anise seeds in sacks and drop them into the wine as it was served.
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Caption: Roasted Game Hen with
Bitter Orange Gastrique
Cumin Salt | Capers
Lemon-Saffron Couscous | Cress
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Caption: Tonight we serve you roast game hen in lieu of lark, black bird, parakeet, or sparrow.
We have paired it with flavors which evoke the setting in so many ways . . .
Caption: C I T R U S Bitter or Seville Oranges were transplanted westward during the period of Arab expansion.
Sweet oranges were first heard of in Europe at the end of the
Medieval Period.
Caption: C A P E R S Collected as early as 7000 BC. They continue to be gathered the wild throughout Classical times. They were sold cheaply at street stalls and were known to grow around grave sites and to be difficult to cultivate.
Caption: S A F F R O N Saffron is a spice and dye consisting of the flower stamens of the saffron crocus. It is believed to be native to Southern Turkey or Iran. It is an ancient commodity crop.
It was mixed with sweet wine and was sprayed liberally into the air at theaters and circuses.
Caption: C U M I N Cumin salt, a preparation mentioned several times in Greek and Latin, was a salt flavored with cumin, a convenient way of seasoning savory dishes. The plant is probably native to Central Asia, and it was known in Mesopotamia and Greece by the second millennium BC. Beyond prescribing its use in foods, physicians recommended the chewing of cumin seeds to settle the stomach.
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Caption: Ostrich Moussaka with
Dates | Honey | Parsnips | Carrots | Mint
Caption: O S T R I C H The large flightless bird of north Africa was commonly eaten by Persians, the Roman Emperor Elagabalus, who was said to have eaten an ostrich a day.
Greeks did not imitate this example.
Caption: The Ostrich Moussaka recipe tonight is adapted from Roman gourmet Apicius, contemporary of Augustus and Tiberius.
It was said that "stories gathered around him", and his culinary adventures were among the best documented of the time.
Roman and Greek civilizations shared a great deal in their trade and conquest strategies, but they did not share a love of this dish.
What do you think?
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Caption: Loukoumades
| Cardamom Almond Cream | Figs | Hemp Hearts
Caption: S W E E T S It was the Persian's love of desserts that was the impetus to change simple wafers and nuts into modern sweets. As residents of Baghdad and Persia and Mesopotamia encountered the Ancient Greeks, simple or sour dishes turned to sweet, and the sweets began to congregate at the end of the meal.
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Caption: Wild fig trees and their fruit are a keystone of Ancient Greek myth and poetry.
The fig was so important in the Mediterranean, that the languages of the region have special words reserved for fig cultivation, fruit color, quality, and place of origin.
Caption: C A R D A M O M Cardamom originated in Southeastern India, and was known in Greece before 300 BC, but was relatively rare in the Classical world.
This spice caused much confusion for scholars until they realized that "kardamon", in fact, referred to cress, and "kardamomon" referred to cardamom.
Caption: C A N N A B I S Cannabis seeds were recognized in ancient times as an antaphrodisiac.
For this reason, cannabis seeds were noted in the "tragemata" chewed after dinner, favored by those who wished to observe ritual purity by abstaining from sex.
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Caption: presented by:
LionFish SupperClub
&
The Curated Feast
Special acknowledgement goes to historian Andrew Dalby for his indispensable volume: "Food in the Ancient World from A-Z".
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Caption: #lionfishsupperclub
#thecuratedfeast
#foodhistory
#tasteofancientgreece
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Caption: thank you ευχαριστώ