The poor of the cities were often discouraged from cooking in their own homes, often shabby flats, for fear of fire. For this purpose, Roman fast food joints known as thermopolia, sprang up. Here common people could obtain a hot meal for a cheap price. The tavernas also catered to the common people. Here you could buy alcohol as well as a hot meal. For a bronze follis or two you could obtain salted fish, beans and coarse black bread, washed down with cheap acidic wine. If you had a few extra folles you might also be able to obtain the attentions of the dancing girls, as prostitution was often one of the services offered by the tavernas, in spite of the supposed prudery of the times. An effort was made to limit the time tavernas could be open to prevent mischief especially on Sundays and during Lent. Even so, tavernas continued to offer diversions such as dice, singing, cock fights and of course sexual entertainment.
If you had enough coin, you could afford a specialty drink such as phouska. Those who catered to foreign tastes, might offer the drinks of their choice. The Norse Varangians from Russia and Scandinavia as well as Anglo Saxons, disenfranchised after the Norman Conquest in England, favored the strong fermented honey drink, mead and so as men from the northern lands flooded Constantinople in search of a position in the famed Varangian Guard, honey mead came to be a popular offering in the tavernas. A Varangian might have lingered for a while in such a taverna, as Sven does here:
Sven found himself again in a taverna as the late afternoon light lengthened the shadows. He hurt all over. He turned again to wine for solace, as well as a favorite past time of his: listening to the conversations of others. The taverna keeper lit the oil lamps swaying from the rafters on their chains. Sven basked in the glow they cast over the well-worn wooden tables and benches. He liked tavernas. They stank of wine and reeked of the odor of unwashed humanity. But they were pleasant places overall for people watching. Two infantrymen played at dice in a corner for bronze coins. Men creaked over the wooden floor boards, rattling the tables and making the wine slosh in his cup. Behind him, three men sat down at a bench opposite the door. Without looking at them, he could tell they were better educated and better paid than most of the men within the confines of the establishment. He could tell that one man was quite a bit younger than the others, but higher in status. They all spoke a higher dialect of Greek, not the peasant variety spoken by most others there. They ordered better wine than he himself drank. It was phouska, a drink flavored with cumin, anise, fennel and thyme. It had never been to his taste. He closed his eyes and sipped his own harsh wine.
The ambassador, Liutprand of Cremona mentioned in a previous post who objected to garum, also did not care for Byzantine wine which he described as “mixed with pitch, resin, and plaster was to us undrinkable”. Perhaps the ambassador was merely difficult to please. He must have been alone in his assessment, as Byzantine wines were much favored by Western Europeans. He may have been referring to Retsina, a type of wine that got its unique flavor from sealing the wine jars with pine resin.
Next we will look at dessert, everyone’s favorite! Let me know your thoughts below.
Sources:
The Complete Works of Liudprand of Cremona (Medieval Texts in Translation) Liudprand (Bishop of Cremona)
Tastes of Byzantium : The Cuisine of a Legendary Empire by Andrew Dal
Daily Life in the Byzantine Empire by Marcus Rautman
Vegetables were eaten by citizens of the Eastern Roman Empire and in a wide variety. Most of them were well know to the modern diet, such as cabbage, carrots and greens. Artichokes were well known and Antioch was famous for its cucumbers. Melons were cheap and readily available. Lentils were a staple in the diet of the poor. Those that could afford them seasoned their food with spices, some brought in from Asia. These included cinnamon, caraway, cardamom, cumin, ginger, nutmeg, saffron, pepper, clove, coriander, among many others that can still be find in our spice cabinets today, though now far more easily and cheaply obtained. Those with less money would use onions, leeks and garlic for seasoning their food. Eggs were favored by all classes and came from hens, geese and pheasants. The Byzantine omelet known as the sphoungata was stuffed with olives and goat cheese and perhaps chickpeas salted and cooked in olive oil. It would even have been on the table of the Emperor himself as mentioned in The Serpentine Key:
Since I mention food so often in my books, and I have spent so much time researching Byzantine cuisine, I thought the food of the time period would make an interesting article. Eating is a subject is of prime interest to everyone. Not only is it important for sustenance, but it occupies a space in human life that comprises a social aspect. It was no less important to the people of the middle Byzantine period. Food in Byzantium was abundant and of a particular quality few in Western Europe enjoyed at the time. Even the poor often ate better than some better off individuals might have eaten at the same time in say, England. Nevertheless, meat occupied a place of more prominence on the table of the upper middle class than it did the poor, and even then, meat such as beef was not often served. Cattle were more often used for dairy and draft animals. As Constantinople and indeed much of the Empire was in some way close to the sea, one should not be surprised to find that much of the diet was comprised of seafood. All manner of shellfish, mackerel, tuna and mullet were among the general bounty of the Mediterranean. The Eastern Roman Empire, while not as vast as the Roman Empire had been before the split, covered a good piece of real estate and the diets of the inhabitants would be varied according to the culture at that particular time and place. Even in Constantinople, much of the customs regarding food were influenced by Arab cuisine. Constantinople was a cosmopolitan place akin to cities like New York or London today. There were many cultures and languages flowing in and out of her gates daily. From the south and the east came traders bring goods such as spices and dates from India, from Arabia and Africa. Honey was brought in from the Baltic countries, and pickled herring from the North Sea. Figs and pomegranates were brought from the Aegean coast and Anatolia supplied grapes, pears and apples that were much sought after. From the coast of the Euxine Sea (Black Sea) came hyssop, aloes and asafetida as well as fish roe. The rest of the western world was befuddled by the Byzantine predilection for salads. Interestingly, there is no mention of coffee in Byzantine sources, though it seems they would have been familiar with it from close association with the Arabs. Perhaps they did not care for it.
Delving into mythology always brings one to discover interesting archetypes. In The Serpentine Key, Odin plays a minor, yet pivotal role in helping my main character discover something about himself. Odin is a study in contradictions, a multifaceted being who seems to shift and change, perhaps as he is interpreted. But putting such a mythical being in fiction is hardly new.