Elfers

There you go: kvkarteseir I'll probably wind up using this as my display name. E.

I thought I would post this article, I hope it is of interest to the forum (and on topic)? ------ It's all Greek to me Bee Wilson Published 23 April 2001 * Print version * Listen * RSS Food - Bee Wilson in search of real Hellenic cuisine Grey mullet roe; tender vine leaves; astringent tzatziki; veal shin so yielding you could cut it with a spoon; saffron-coloured fish soup with boiled potatoes; succulent young kid; cuttlefish stifado, cooked for ages in its own black liquor; figs and honey. The Real Greek restaurant in Hoxton market is a fine advertisement for the soft excellence of good Greek cooking, which makes you instantly forget the hardness of kebab-shop pitta and the rubberiness of taverna cheese. When he first opened his carpet-curtained doors two years ago, the chef, Theodore Kyriakou, caused a minor stir on the letters pages of the Daily Telegraph concerning the true nature of Greek food. Some Greek correspondents wrote in to say that Kyriakou's food was too fancy to be authentic. Kyriakou, however, says that he makes the food he was brought up on. In his cookbook, he suggests that "Real Greek" food stretches all the way back to the gastronome Archestratus, in the fourth century BC. But what did the ancient Greeks really eat? One can't help feeling that, whatever it was, it was unlikely to be as nice as what you get from Kyriakou's kitchen. In Sir Alfred Zimmern's immortal judgement, the Attic dinner of classical Greece consisted of two courses, "the first a kind of porridge and the second a kind of porridge". Like all great aphorisms, it is too neat to be entirely true, and too witty to be entirely false. It is true that the Greeks prized frugality in eating and contrasted their own simplicity with the spiced food of the supposedly decadent Persians. Greeks were, moreover, very dependent on barley-meal, and often they made it into a kind of soft dough mixed with milk; many paupers may indeed have eaten barley mush followed by barley mush for dinner - and that's if they were lucky. Another kind of porridge, called kykeon, is mentioned by Homer. Kykeon, which was rather a liquid food (or a solid drink, depending on how you look at it), contained white cheese and possibly honey, although we can't be sure how it was made. It was taken from a cup and seems to have been richer than barley porridge. None the less, the citizen-diners of Athens would have been deeply insulted by the claim that all they ate was porridge. In fact, "porridge-eaters" was the name the Greeks reserved for their barbarian neighbours, the Romans. Greek men proudly called themselves "bread-eaters". Wealthy dinners, began, as they do at the Real Greek, with a basket filled with different shapes of bread. Greek bakers were famous for their inventive loaves, such as the mushroom-shaped boletus or the plaited streptice. With a kind of Aristotelian reasoning, meals were divided into that which was bread and that which was not bread. That which was not bread - opson - could include almost anything: cheese, olives, vegetables, meat and all kinds of fish. (Archestratus was very keen on fresh tuna, which he cooked with a little oregano in vine leaves.) In Athens, the opson, or not-bread, increasingly came to include lots of little bits and pieces, relishes (paropsides), to be picked at by each guest - in other words, something very like modern meze. Non-Athenian Greeks sometimes responded to this mixture of small plates with dismay. One observer, Lynceus, said of the Athenian dinner: "While I am eating this, another is eating that; and while he is eating that, I have made away with this. What I want, good sir, is both the one and the other, but my wish is impossible . . . Such a layout as that may seem to offer variety but is nothing at all to satisfy the belly." You don't have to look far to find those who feel exactly the same frustration with plates of mezedes - just so much fidgety finger food when what you want is a good square meal. The fundamentals of Greek eating were then, as now, simple: bread, olives (and oil), grapes (and wine), figs, honey and cheese. This is the kind of food that needs no cooking, and which symbolised the restrained civic values of Solon's republic, without being as self-flagellatingly nasty as the patriotic black broth of Sparta. Then, as now, Greeks worried that this simplicity might become corrupted. In the fourth century BC, Antiphanes wrote about the new cuisine: "Do you see what things have come to? Bread, garlic, cheese, maza [meze] - those are healthy foods, but not these salted fish, these lamb chops sprinkled with spices, these sweet confections and these corrupting pot roasts." Doubtless there are those who feel the same about the Real Greek. But real or not, it is infinitely preferable to those authentically British tavernas, where a Greek dinner all too often consists of two courses: the first, a kind of oily dip; and the second, a kind of slimy kebab - instead of porridge followed by porridge, we get grease followed by grease.

All this decadent Roman cooking, give me some Greek meze any day, along with some bread, olives and feta. E.

For anyone who checked on the website yesterday, there was some scheduled maintenance, which is now over-- so feel free to stop by! Apologies for the repetition. *grin* So far I've got one person, which I really appreciate. E.

That's a wonderful story, very heartwarming. I also came to my love of the Classics through my dear mother. The school system does NOT teach the Classics in any meaningful way, except in rare cases, so keeping this knowledge alive - like a hidden flame - is that much more important. My two bits. E.

Incidentally, we take women, too, just to avoid confusion. But your senator character, if you make one, will need to be a man (historical accuracy and all that). Thank you again and I hope to see you. Elfers

Patres Conscripti, It is 480 years after the founding, and the small Republic of Rome looks out at a hostile Mediterranean world, full of foreign powers and barbarians, its fate most uncertain. Only the prophesies of the Augurs of Janus indicate that the city will rise to great prominence: but who can believe such mystical ramblings when the world is so full of danger? Perhaps Janus looks upon Rome with such favor because of the high quality of its men: men who are noble, just and strong, who are capable of leading the city through the rough future that awaits all grand enterprises. This is a game in which you take control of a Roman gens, either patrician or plebeian, and attempt to rise to political prominence against your rivals within the city, while at the same time cooperating with them to fend off barbarian invasions and greedy foreign powers who would like to subjugate Italia and its environs. The system is in part based on 'Fall of Rome' by SPI, and some of the die-roll principles will seem familiar. But largely it is an original system designed by me, a GM with seven years of experience, who takes his greatest pleasure in creating exciting online-playable, interactive strategic simulations. Here is the game's URL: http://www.moralism.org/warandpeace/forum/index.php To play is free; turns are roughly once every week, and Senate debates are always ongoing. The format includes a turnly newsletter that contains relevant information; players also must submit turn sheets that hold informaton about the gentes (e.g. how many iugeria of land they hold, harvest yields, etc). The rules are written and I can assure you that I will never break them; if it is written, then it's as good as if it were in the Twelve Tables themselves! My own play group is about 7-8 strong, and I really need a few more good senators to help me keep this game's momentum going. You will enjoy yourselves immensely, especially if you enjoy a dash of roleplaying to go along with your strategic plotting. Feel free to ask any questions you have here; I'll gladly answer. Thanks very much for your attention, and for the use of your message board -- I cleared this with one of your administrators before posting. Feel free to also contact me at fidesratioque@yahoo.com if you want to get in touch with me directly. You're welcome to do so! Valete, amici! Elfers