The Romans ate mainly with their fingers and so the food was cut into bite size pieces. Day-to-Day Food A slave's daily diet was guaranteed, according to Kyle Harper, author of "Slavery in the Late Roman World, AD 275–425," but it wasn't very exciting. Cena was the main meal. Bananas are native to Southeast Asia. The poorest Romans ate quite simple meals, but the rich were used to eating a wide range of dishes using produce from all over the Roman Empire. These parties often lasted up to eight hours. Dietary habits were affected by the political changes from kingdom to republic to empire, and the empire's enormous expansion, which exposed Romans to many new provincial culinary habits and cooking methods.. The ancient Mediterranean diet revolved around four staples, which, even today, continue to dominate restaurant menus and kitchen tables: cereals, vegetables, olive oil and wine. Bananas were probably taken to Madagascar by the Arabs and spread from there to mainland Africa. The Romans did not sit on chairs around the table like we do today. The fruit first got to Europe in the 1st century b.C., taken by the Romans. In terms of food, Roman slaves were responsible for preparing and serving food to the richer Roman people, but they were relegated to eating far less extravagant fare themselves. On the contrary, in ancient times vomiting seems to have been a standard part of the fine-dining experience. For lunch, the ancient Romans used to go to the so-called “thermopolia” – some kind of fast food restaurants – because most houses did not have a kitchen at that time. That’s not to say the Romans were unfamiliar with throwing up, or that they never did so on purpose. A long time before that, the expansion of Islam brought the banana to Africa, and the Portuguese brought it to Brazil. By 200 AD bananas were also grown in China. Despite a 2000 year difference, their food, drink, and meal habits almost seem modern . As you’ve probably inferred by now, the same peril does not await humans unless they eat a bunch of bananas, drink a keg of beer and fall into a swimming pool. Romans typically ate three meals a day – breakfast (ientaculum), lunch (prandium) and dinner (cena). These places were so common in the 1 st century that only in the town of Pompeii , inhabited at that time by 15000 people, there were about 90 of them. Instead the adults lay on sloping couches situated around a square table. The Romans were also adept at processing and conserving their food using techniques from pickling to storage in … . . Only small children or slaves were permitted to eat sitting. Bananas. The Roman naturalist, Pliny the Elder, was also a fan, describing the pepo as a refrigerant maxime—an extremely cooling food—in his first century encyclopedia, Historia Naturalis. ... Here’s how the Romans … … Seafood, cheese, eggs, meat and many types of fruit were also available to those who could afford it. 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