DIET IN BYZANTIUM

Diet in Byzantium

Byzantine food consumption was based around class. The Imperial Palace was a metropolis of spices and exotic recipes; guests were entertained with fruits, honey-cakes and syrupy sweetmeats . Ordinary people ate more conservatively. The core diet consisted of bread, vegetables,pulses , and cereals prepared in varied ways. Salad was very popular; the Emperor John VIII Palaiologos  asked for it at most meals on his visit in 1439.

The Byzantines produced various cheeses, including anthotiro . They also relished shellfish and fish, both fresh and salt-water. They prepared eggs to make famous omelettes — called sphoungata, i.e. "spongy" — mentioned by Theodore Prodromos. Every household also kept a supply of poultry .

Byzantine elites obtained other kinds of meat by hunting, a favourite and distinguished occupation of men. They usually hunted with dogs and hawks. Larger animals were a more expensive and rare food. Citizens slaughtered pigs at the beginning of winter and provided their families with sausages, salt pork, and lard for the year.

Only upper middle and higher Byzantines could afford lamp. They seldom ate beef, as they used cattle to cultivate the fields. Middle and lower class citizens in cities such as Constantinople and Thessalonoki consumed the offerings of the taverna . The most common form of cooking was boiling, a tendency which sparked a derisive Byzantine maxim—The lazy cook prepares everything by boiling. Garos sauce in all its varieties was especially favored as a condiment.

Thanks to the location of Constantinople between popular trade routes, Byzantine cuisine was augmented by cultural influences from several locales, Greeks, Persians, Turks, Arabs. 

1. What did ordinary people eat in Byzantine Time?
a. conservative dishes
b.  exotic recipes
c.  rare food
d. expensive food

2. Only ............... could afford lamp.
a. poor people
b. upper class
c. higher class
d. b and c

3. Byzantine cuisine was influenced by

a. Turks
b. Persians
c. Arabs
d. all the above