What did the concession stand serve at Roman gladiator fights? Dates stuffed with walnuts and drizzled in honey, apparently.
The online cooking show Tasting History with Max Miller tries to reconstruct recipes mentioned in historical texts, from hieroglyphs and clay tablets to Nostradamus' cookbook (yes, he really wrote one) and cruise ship menus from the Titanic era. Some of Miller's insights are surprising. Ancient Roman food tasted almost Southeast Asian, with fish sauce and pippali peppers. Early ice cream was made with parmesan, and the first recorded recipe for guacamole had molasses in it.
Miller's jaunt through culinary history inadvertently demonstrates the ways that globalization has made life better. Anything with tomatoes and onions together—or cocoa and sugar—was possible only with long-distance trade across continents. Not that the premodern palate was bland; the ancients enjoyed some interesting flavor combinations that are now out of fashion, such as pumpkin spice lasagne or almond milk with wine. It's fun to learn how Julius Caesar or Catherine de' Medici ate, and to realize that in the past even monarchs couldn't enjoy the range of flavors the average person does today.
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