Flavours of Byzantium

Download or read book Flavours of Byzantium written by Andrew Dalby and published by Prospect Books. This book was released on 2003 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a study of the food that was eaten at the court of the Eastern Roman Empire at Constantinople in the Middle Ages. For centuries it has tempted and fascinated the West, yet very little has been written in English about the foods they ate or the recipes they cooked from. Dalby gives an entertaining account of the dining customs of the Emperors as witnessed by the Greeks and by foreign visitors. He tells of the medical theories that underlay their diet; of their opinions of the raw materials available; and stretches in a calendar of the seasons and how they affected the food on the table. This is underpinned by new translations from the Greek of important medieval treatises on diet, flavors, raw materials and cookery. Andrew Dalby is a classical scholar, food historian and student of languages.