Jewish
Cuisine - Dining in the Holy Land 2000 Years Ago
Regardless of whether
the cultural and religious lives of people are governed by the Hebrew,
Islamic, Greek, Russian or Armenian Orthodox, Buddhist or Vietnamese
calendars, many public events the world over are determined by the
Gregorian Calendar. As is well known, in accordance with that calendar,
the new year starts on January 1st, and is celebrated primarily on the
night of December 31st. The celebrations for this year were special, for
in addition to marking the end of a century, we celebrated the beginning
of a new millennium. What is not so well known about the celebrations
that mark the end of a year (or a millennium), is that this phenomenon
has long been a sore point among the members of the clergy of nearly all
the faiths, who all agree that the roots of New Year's Eve celebrations
are distinctly pagan in nature.
As long ago as 500 BCE, Romans believed that loudness, lewdness and at
least a modicum of drunkenness were necessary to celebrate the onset of
the new year. It was thought that such behavior would confuse Pan and
the other malicious gods, thus preventing them from interfering in the
everyday lives of mortals for the year to come. Half a millennium later,
the Goths adopted a similar belief, thinking that such behavior on the
eve of the new year was a sure way to frighten away any evil demons that
might be left over from the year that had passed.
January 1st has not always marked the onset of the year. Because the
ancient Romans began their year in March (more for the convenience of
the tax collectors than out of respect to the motion of the planets),
such words as September, October, November and December, meaning the
7th, 8th, 9th and 10th months, had a rational meaning. In fact, only
since the reform of the calendar in the 16th century, has January 1st
been accepted as New Year's Day.
Nor has the onset of the new year always implied celebrations, promises
and hopes for the future. Since the time of the ancient Greeks, the
first day of the year has been considered by many to be the most
appropriate day of the year for bribing local officials. Even today in
some parts of the world, it is considered appropriate for wealthy
citizens (or their servants), owners of small businesses and other local
entrepreneurs to call on local officials to pay their respects and to
share a cup of coffee or tea as a token of goodwill. In France, perhaps
as an offshoot of this tradition, adults enjoy exchanging gifts on
January 1st.
There are other names given to the last night of the year, the origins
of which are unclear. Even though Europeans (and some Israelis and North
Americans in recent years) have come to know the night of December 31st
as 'Sylvester', this appelation is relatively new, having its roots in
18th century France. Whether the Sylvester in question is an otherwise
obscure French saint, the Roman-Catholic pope who is said to have
brought a dead bull back to life or the maiden name of the mother of Dom
Perignon, the man who discovered the process of making sparkling
Champagne, is not known.
Whatever, the third millennium has arrived and from the culinary point
of view, it is interesting to look back and examine the dining habits of
people in the Holy Land 2,000 years ago. Before we begin our voyage,
keep in mind that the people who lived in Jerusalem, Jericho and other
places in the Holy Land two millennia ago dined quite well. In addition
to having excellent markets filled with fresh vegetables, fruit,
poultry, lamb and fish, the narrow streets of the ancient cities were
lined with numerous stalls where vendors sold fried fish, pickled
cucumbers and freshly grilled meats. Moreover, the roads from Jerusalem
to Jericho and from Hebron to Jaffa were lined with stands where grilled
lamb, pickled watermelon rind and cakes made from chickpeas were readily
available. Whether for at-home dining or while travelling on the road,
hungry men and women had no problem finding good things to eat. What may
surprise us is that many of the dishes prepared then are marvelously
appropriate even today, especially for celebrating the end of one
millennium and the beginning of another.
The Best Known of All Meals
In addition to having been recorded in the New Testament by Saints Mark
and Matthew, "The Last Supper," the last meal shared by Jesus and the
twelve disciples, has also been immortalized by dozens of well known
artists. The best known representation of that meal is probably the
fresco painted by Leonardo da Vinci between 1495 - 1498 on the wall of
the Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan.
Da Vinci was not the only artist who tried to capture the mood and
meaning of this meal. In addition to frescoes, paintings and etchings by
Raphael, Titian, Correggio, Tintoretto, Rembrandt and Salvadore Dali,
the last public meal of Jesus has also been portrayed in hundreds of 5th
and 6th century Byzantine mosaics, in a 13th century bas relief on the
eastern transept of the Cathedral in Strasbourg, and in a 15th century
bronze relief by Donatello, found in the church of San Giovanni in
Siena.
Even though Jesus' last supper is one of the most frequently portrayed
religious events in history, no one is absolutely sure what was eaten at
that meal. Although it is impossible to know precisely what dishes were
served, both the New Testament and historical records give us many
clues. According to the New Testament (Matthew 26 and Mark 14), the meal
was intended to celebrate Passover, and both accounts agree that two of
Jesus' disciples had come to Jerusalem in order to find a home in which
Jesus could enjoy the Seder. The year was probably 33 CE, and even then
the holiday was a commemoration of the Hebrews' freedom from slavery in
ancient Egypt nearly two thousand years before Jesus was born.
There is no reason to believe that the meal upon which Jesus dined would
have been different than that enjoyed by other Jews at the onset of this
first millennium. Thus, matzot (unleavened bread), a pitcher of wine,
salted water and a small bowl of marror (bitter herbs) would have been
on the table. Because in Jesus' time the holiday also marked the time of
the early spring harvest, the table may have been decorated with fresh
fruit, green almonds and walnuts as well as sprigs of freshly picked
herbs such as thyme, rosemary and coriander.
As was the case in nearly all Jewish homes of that time, when Jesus and
his disciples sat down, they would have found the table already set with
all the foods of the meal. In addition to the serving plates that held
the food and the goblets for the wine, little else would have been on
the table. Napkins were not yet in use and the fork had not yet been
invented. Each guest would have brought his own knife for cutting meat,
but most of the eating would have been done by hand. Because this made
for sticky fingers, servants were available to offer bowls of water in
which the guests could occasionally clean their fingers.
Between the 1st and 3rd centuries, it was traditional in all homes to
start with a simple vegetable soup. The contents of the second course,
however, were determined largely by the economic status of the host.
Because Jesus was an honored guest, the owner of the home in which this
particular meal was served would have been sure to have prepared roast
lamb, the most highly-valued of dishes. It was not traditional to serve
a dessert course, but celebratory meals such as this came to an end
after the guests ate the fresh fruit and nuts that had been put on the
table for decorations.
* Recipe for Roast Lamb
Apples and Excesses
The Romans who occupied the Holy Land at the onset of the first
millennium were not quite as moderate or decorous in their personal
behavior or dining habits as was the native population. It is well
known, for example, that in 40 BCE, when Herod fled from Jerusalem to
escape from Antigonus II (Mattathias) who had been made king by the
Parthians, he went to the high hill of Masada. What is not so broadly
known is that Herod made his safe home into one of the most luxurious
palaces ever constructed in the Middle East.
After making the move from Jerusalem and installing his family in rough
quarters on Masada, Herod visited Rome. Upon his return, according to
the Jewish historian Josephus, "he built there a fortress as a refuge,
suspecting a twofold danger: peril on the one hand from the Jews lest
they should depose him and restore their former dynasty to power; and
the even more serious threat posed by Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt."
Between 37 and 31 BCE, Herod transformed the rock of Masada into a
mighty fortress. What Josephus fails to mention is that Herod also
transformed it into a palace where pleasures of every sort might be
freely pursued.
It must be understood that the pleasures of wealthy Romans involved
three things: food, wine and sexual promiscuity. Thus, following
precedents established by Lucullus and Alexander the Great, both of whom
were well known gastronomes, Masada became renowned for its ten-hour
banquets - orgiastic feasts - where a party might begin with hors
d'oeuvres of chickens, ducks, geese, hares, pigeons, turtledoves,
partridges and young goats. This was followed traditionally with
entertainment provided by naked girl dancers, and then by a second
course of pigs stuffed with thrushes, ducks, warblers, pea puree,
oysters and scallops, all consumed to the accompaniment of troupes of
acrobats tumbling among swords, breathing fire from their mouths and
acting out obscene parodies. Later courses included roast boars and oxen
and then, when the eating tapered off, the drinking began in earnest and
the dancing girls did far more than dance. "Apples and fornication,"
wrote one of Herod's guests, "were the most popular of last courses."
Based on traditions adopted from the Greeks, such feasts were
traditionally divided into two parts: the first, in which one primarily
ate; and the second, the symposium, in which one primarily drank, talked
or otherwise amused oneself. Modern-day professors and students will be
pleased to know that the original symposium (from the Greek for
"drinking party") began in earnest at the end of the eating. When this
habit was first adopted, Xenophon wrote that "drink, discussion, games
and fornication were equal parts of the well-conducted symposium."
Atheneus speculated that the best symposia would be identified as those
where most of the guests "fell into a sexually-induced drunken sleep
before the evening had ended."
The main meal at Masada took place, as it did in Rome, during the mid-
or late-afternoon, the guests reclining on couches placed about the
table. These couches had an incline at one end so that the heads of the
diners rose above the level of the board or table. Diners rested on
their left arms and reached for food with the right. Couches were
generally grouped about three sides of the table, leaving the fourth
side open for service and entertainers, and the place of honor was the
right-hand couch opposite the empty side of the table.
One may have noted that to this point there has been no mention of the
presence of women at the dining table. This is because Roman men had
determined that feasting was an activity too important to be shared with
women. When they finally decided to allow women to join them, it was not
so much out of a sense of fairness but because they thought that female
companionship would be good for the digestion.
As Roman decadence soared, tastes became more jaded and the symposia
deteriorated into little more than orgies. Despite this, some of the
dishes enjoyed by the Romans were actually quite delicate and have
maintained their popularity to this day. The following recipe is a
sample of a popular Roman dish known to have been served at Masada.
* Recipe for Chickens Braised in Cider
More Cultured Roman Influences
At the onset of the first millennium, the poor folk of the cities and
the peasants in the countryside dined pretty similarly to all
Mediterranean peoples of that time - their diet heavily made up of
bread, rice, barley, lentils, chickpeas, eggplant, artichokes, onions,
garlic, olive oil, yoghurt and, when they could afford it, the meat of
lambs and goats. The middle-classes and the rich, however, often tried
to emulate the dining habits of the Romans, and one of the heroes of the
land was the Roman epicurean named Apicius.
Actually there were three great Roman epicureans with that name and,
despite popular folklore, all were more famous for their gluttony than
their good taste or culinary achievements. The first Apicius lived
during the reign of Sulla, the second under Augustus and Tiberius and
the third under Trajan. The Apicius that attained the greatest fame was
the second, Gavius Apicius, who spent enormous sums on dining and
entertaining and who invented many new dishes. It is possible that it
was also this Apicius who founded the "school for good fare" referred to
by the dramatist-philosopher Seneca.
In addition to being a well-known public figure, Apicius was also
inordinately fond of high living. Possibly because his penchant for
entertaining lavishly dominated his life, he built up a mountain of
debts. When he found himself left with an annual income of only 250,000
sesterces (about $200,000 today), he felt he could no longer live in the
style to which he had become accustomed and committed suicide by
poisoning himself.
It was also this Apicius who wrote De re Culinaria, the oldest cookbook
still in existence. Most culinary experts today agree that Roman
cooking, whether in Rome or in the Holy Land, was sumptous and
magnificent, but fundamentally barbarious. Because they relied heavily
on vinegar (to hide the smell of spoiled meat), and heavy, greasy
sauces, very few of the dishes so beloved by Apicius' compatriots would
be considered tasty today. Despite this failing, many modern chefs have
named inventions after Apicius, not so much to honor his gastronomic
knowledge as his extravagant lifestyle.
* Recipe for Potage Apicius
* Recipe for Kidneys Apicius
And Now - Israel Going into the Third Millennium
Although the culinary influences of ancient Rome and Greece no longer
play a major role in the daily dining habits of most of the residents of
Israel, it is not at all difficult to plan a meal that will be ideal for
celebrating the onset of the new millennium. Following are three recipes
for such a meal, one each from a Jewish, Muslim and Christian source,
all completely modern, all delicious and all highly valued wherever one
finds oneself in Israel. The recipes are designed to serve 4 - 6.
* Recipe for Asparagus with Egg and Lemon Sauce
* Lamb Stew with Dill
* Halvah Parfait
Daniel Rogov is the restaurant and wine critic for the daily newspaper
Ha'aretz. He is also the senior writer for Wine and Gourmet Magazine and
contributes culinary and wine articles to newspapers in Europe and the
United States.
Source: Israeli Foreign Ministry and Rogov's Ramblings.
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