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Friday, April 17, 2009

Ancient Greek Food in a Nutshell

The longest and funniest word in the Greek language is:

lepadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimypotrimmatosilphiotyromelitodatakechymen-
okichlepikossyphophattoperisteralektryonoptokephaliokinklopeleiolagoiosiraiobaphetragalop-
terygon

It is an entirely fictional, supper dish that mixes limpets, slices of salt fish, thornbacks, whistle-fishes, cornel-berries, leftover brains, silphium, cheese, thrushes, honey, blackbirds, ringdoves, squabs, chickens, mullets, wagtails, rock-pigeons, hare, and wings ground in reduced new wine.

They also joked about barbarians eating beans until they got sickly and were conquered by the Macedonians. The actual food they ate was something like the following.
• Breakfast was bread made from barley and millet.
• Hercules had mashed beans, of course and Hippocrates recommended lentils.
• Soldiers had to eat cheese, onions and garlic.
• For lunch they added olives, figs, cheese or fish.
• For spice, they had parsley, coriander, cumin, dill, oregano, mint, and poppy seeds.
• You can get idea of their actual supper from what they could not eat while fasting.
Fasting on the sacred days of the Rarian Demeter:
The initiated are ordered to abstain from domestic birds, from fishes and beans, pomegranates and apple.


They also had arugula, cooked quinces, honey and several types of nuts until the over cultivation of olive trees destroyed their agriculture. I am sure the ate other things too, but these are the ones I remember reading about.

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