Cool. I think I'll forego the fermented fish bits, though :)
Posted on 05/26/2005 5:28:24 PM PDT by wagglebee
ROME - Sauces made from fermented fish entrails. A quiche-like pastry shell filled with bay leaves and ricotta cheese. For dessert, peaches with aromatic cumin and honey.
Those tastes may not be for everyone's palate, but the specialties of ancient Pompeii are being revived for a month at the site of the ruins by a research project intended to give new insights into how the Romans lived.
Pompeii's busiest restaurant was buried with the rest of the prosperous city when Mount Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79. The eruption killed thousands of people, but a 20-foot-deep cocoon of volcanic ash kept the city almost intact, providing precious information on domestic life in the ancient world.
Starting Thursday, visitors will do more than stroll around the restaurant's tables and gaze at the kitchen tools that have stayed where residents left them when they were surprised by the eruption.
Researchers have tried to revive the city's food by replanting - in the restaurant's garden and in other open spaces - the fruits and vegetables that were part of the Roman diet: figs and olives, plums and grapes, as well as poppy, broom (a flowery bush), bramble (a prickly shrub), and mallow (an herb).
Kits with the ingredients will be sold to visitors in the area around the restaurant with instructions on how to cook Roman specialties. Although there will be no cooking on the site, visitors will be directed to a local restaurant where some of the ancient specials will be offered.
"We wanted to learn what the inhabitants of Pompeii ate," said Anna Maria Ciarallo, a biologist who heads the project for Pompeii's archaeological office. "But we wanted a side of the project to appeal directly to the public as well."
Some may keep away from "garum," a pungent sauce used for flavoring and obtained by fermenting fish entrails, but Ciarallo said many Roman dishes closely resembled modern cuisine.
The recipe to make prosciutto ham has remained unchanged, while "savillum," the favorite dessert of many Romans, was a baked cream similar to today's custard, she said.
Pompeii's wealthy were known to feast on such exotic dishes as swallow's tongue and parrot meat, but the project is presenting more everyday fare, Ciarallo said.
The restaurant was located between the gymnasium, the amphitheater and one of the city's gates and mostly catered to middle-class merchants and travelers, she said.
Its six benches were probably always filled with hungry customers passing through the busy neighborhood, she said. The guests would recline on one side on the benches, as eating customs demanded at the time, to chat, play dice - one of the Romans' favorite pastimes - and partake of the dishes served out of large pots. The quiche-like "libum" is made with bread, bay leaves and cheese resembling today's ricotta.
"It was a sweet and sour cuisine, which blended the sharp tastes of vinegar and spices with the sugars of honey and figs," Ciarallo said. Cereals and beans were the staples of the Roman diet, together with fish, cheese and limited quantities of eggs and meat.
"The main differences were between the social classes," she said.
Slaves were kept on a high-energy diet of bread, dried-fruits and low quality cheese and wine. The upper classes enjoyed the same foods available to the middle class, but the quantities were larger, the ingredients finer, and the banquets were lavish presentations.
The project will shut down on June 26 because of lack of funds - a perennial problem that keeps parts of the huge Pompeii site often closed to the public.
GGG Ping!
I was there in 1970. I was impressed. Lotta history over there.
My wife's cousins are a few hours away, near Bari.
Garum. I remember back when I was in HS, our Latin teacher brought some "garum" she had made at home. It stunk up the classroom so bad, half the class was up-chucking within minutes and had to go to the nurse's office.
I can only imagine what her own house must have smelled like.
.
Actually, garum sounds like the (fermented) fish sauce used in SE Asia (known as "nuoc mam" in Vietnam. It also has a pungent fragrance (as does Sauerkraut, for that matter).
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
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Yes but Sauerkraut is not fermented fish entrails.
Vesuvius is way over due for a big blast. Hope these people enjoy it while it lasts.
Cool. I think I'll forego the fermented fish bits, though :)
Yummy!
'Pad Thai' sauce is made with fermented fish entrails, and it's delicious.
Tomato-less pizza, similar to foccaccia, and hamburger helper style hamburgers were popular back then. Not much has changed, the stonebrick pizza ovens discovered in Pompeii pretty much have the same construction as new one's built in central Italy today.
the thai fish sauce STINKS STINKS STINKS, but man does it make the food taste good, especially pad thai and thom ka gha (coconut milk soup).
I have been trying to add to my culinary herb garden herbs that the Thai and Vietnamese use in their cooking.
So, just what does that say about the taste of the food to begin with? Just curious... Not eating fish sauce anytime soon...
Don't know....considering that my Latin teacher in high school said that their protein diet included rats, its a possibility that fermented fish guts was an improvement. If you have a chance to try Thai food though, I highly recommend it.
LOL!
Yum....
NOT!
I love American food...
But, I would try Thai...
>Ciarallo said many Roman dishes closely resembled modern cuisine.<
backwards.
Thai food is amazing... just don't try a spicy dish your first time, and you'll be fine. A mild coconut chicken curry is good.
> backwards.
Because the Romans puked 'em back up. ;')
Not that I wouldn't like food poisoning or anything like that.
Nope.
Speaking of catching up, who's to blame for that Evil Volcano?
Howard Dean? Anyone?
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