Greece Hotels Travel :: Siren Feasts: A History of Food and Gastronomy in Greece

Greece Hotels Travel - Siren Feasts: A History of Food and Gastronomy in Greece

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Manufacturer: Routledge

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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 664
EAN: 9780415156578
ISBN: 0415156572
Label: Routledge
Manufacturer: Routledge
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: 1997-01-29
Publisher: Routledge
Studio: Routledge

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The Classical Cookbook Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens Italian Cuisine: A Cultural History (Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History) In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

Editorial Reviews:

Cheese, wine, honey and olive oil--four of Greece's best known contributions to culinary culture- -were already well known four thousand years ago. Remains of honeycombs and of cheeses have been found under the volcanic ash of the Santorini eruption of 1627 BC. Over the millennia, Greek food diversified and absorbed neighboring traditions, yet retained its own distinctive character.

In Siren Feasts, Andrew Dalby provides the first serious social history of Greek food. He begins with the tunny fishers of the neolithic age, and traces the story through the repertoire of classical Greece, the reputations of Lydia for luxury and of Sicily and South Italy for sybaritism, to the Imperial synthesis of varying traditions, with a look forward to the Byzantine cuisine and the development of the modern Greek menu. The apples of the Hesperides turn out to be lemons, and great favour attaches to Byzantine biscuits.

Fully documented and comprehensively illustrated, scholarly yet immensely readable, Siren Feasts demonstrates the social construction placed upon different types of food at different periods (was fish a luxury item in classical Athens, though disdained by Homeric heroes?). It places diet in an economic and agricultural context; and it provides a history of mentalities in relation to a subject which no human being can ignore.

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Summary: Not a casual read
Comment: All of Andrew's Dalby's Books tend to be scholarly, and it's a little like reading somebodies doctoral thesis.
He gives a comprehensive list of the foods available from Neolithic Greece to Byzantium times and quotes several plays that made referances to Greek food (from the Classical times). The problem is, he makes the usually fascinating subject of food history a dry read and it feels somewhat like a chore plowing through the material. I would have liked a description of the Dionysian Cult and how that tied into alcohol comsumption. I never did figure out if meat was only eaten after if was sacrificed or not. I've read far better descriptions of Symposiums and Banquets, and there wasn't much information on the Agora. I would have liked to have a whole section on Archestratus (the first great food writer) and what he wrote rather than have quotes scattered throughout the Classical Greece section. Lasty, after reading Reah Tannahills "Food in History" (still the best overall book on this topic IMO, I looked for any mention of the envirnomental degradation by the earliest populations which she writes about, and the effect that Solon's ruling on no exports except olive oil had on agriculture - but failed to see any referance to these topics.

If however you want a very complete and well researched book on what foods where available during these times, then this is the book for you.

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