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The Ancient Rome cuisine changed over its long period, as much of it was influenced by the Greek culture. From 301 BCE, the Greek customs started to influence the eating culture of higher class Romans. Nutritional value was not regarded as the wealthy preferred foods with low nutritional value and energy. The dinner was consumed in a special dining room which was later called triclinium. Here they would lay down on a specially designed couch called the lectus triclinaris where 3 couches would be placed around a round table with a maximum of 3 people reclining on each couch. It was also regarded rude to leave to deal with bodily functions. They also ate without forks because they enjoyed the fun of eating with hands. Any leftovers after each course were thrown the the ground and was later swept up by a slave.
Morning/BreakfastCommonly known as lentaculum.
This was usually consumed at dawn or early in the morning. It consisted of a buffet of flat, round loaves seasoned with salt . Wealthy Romans would also have eggs, milk, honey and fruit. |
Noon/LunchThis was also commonly know as prandium. This was consumed at noon and consisted of food leftover from the day before and occasionally included fresh fruit.
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Evening/DinnerDinner in ancient Rome was peculiar as cena began at 2pm and could of lasted through the night, especially if guests were invited. The cena essentially consisted of porridge or known as the puls. The simplest kind would be created out of emmer, water, salt and fat. The more sophisticated kind had it with olive oil and vegetables when available. The rich had egg, cheese and honey with their puls and occasionally included meat or fish. By the end of the republic, the cena consisted of 3 meals. One couse (guststio), main course (primae mensae) and dessert (secundae mensae)
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