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Byzantine cuisine was marked by a merger of Greek and Roman gastronomy. The development of the Byzantine empire and trade brought in spices, sugar and new vegetables to Greece. Cooks experimented with new combinations of food, creating two styles in the process. These were the Eastern (Asia Minor and the Eastern Aegean), consisting of Byzantine cuisine supplemented by trade items, and a leaner style primarily based on local Greek tradition. Image File history File links Window_St_Nicholas. ... The most famous of the surviving Byzantine mosaics of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople - the image of Christ Pantocrator on the walls of the upper southern gallery. ... Painting of Emperor Basil II, exemplifying the Imperial Crown handed down by Angels. ... The Byzantine Army was the primary military body of the Byzantine armed forces, serving alongside the Byzantine Navy. ... Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire. ... Anastasius 40 nummi (M) and 5 nummi (E) Byzantine currency, money used in the Eastern Roman Empire after the fall of the West, consisted of mainly two types of coins: the gold solidus and a variety of clearly valued bronze coins. ... // History Greek Dance in Antiquity was originally held to have some kind of educational value, as evidenced in Platos dialogues on this point in The Laws. ... // Overview Byzantine Dress changed vastly over the centuries. ... Byzantium undoubtedly occupies an important place in the history of garden design. ... Justinian I depicted on a mosaic in the church of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy The Corpus Juris Civilis (Body of Civil Law) is a fundamental work in jurisprudence, issued from 529 to 534 by order of Justinian I, Byzantine Emperor. ... Byzantine literature refers to literature written in the Greek language during the Middle Ages, although certain works written in Latin, like the Corpus Juris Civilis may also be included. ... Byzantine music is the music of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire) and by extension the music of its culture(s) as they continued in the Orthodox Christian parts of the population after the fall of the empire to the rule of the Ottoman Empire. ... A gallery of birds from the Vienna Dioscurides Byzantine manuscript. ... The Byzantine Dromon, the heaviest ship in the Byzantine fleet, capable of carrying up to 300 men. ... Byzantine Empire at its greatest extent c. ... Anatolia (Greek: ανατολη anatole, rising of the sun or East; compare Orient and Levant, by popular etymology Turkish Anadolu to ana mother and dolu filled), also called by the Latin name of Asia Minor, is a region of Southwest Asia which corresponds today to... Cuisine (from French cuisine, cooking; culinary art; kitchen; ultimately from Latin coquere, to cook) is a specific set of cooking traditions and practices, often associated with a specific culture. ...

Diet

Byzantine food consumption was based around class. The Imperial Palace was a metropolis of spices and exotic recipes; guests were entertained with fruits, honey-cakes and syrupy sweetmeats. Ordinary people ate more conservatively. The core diet consisted of bread, vegetables, pulses, and cereals prepared in varied ways. Byzantine people produced various cheeses, including anthotiro or kefalintzin. They also relished shellfish and fish, both fresh and salt-water. They prepared eggs to make famous omelettes—called sphoungata—mentioned by Theodoros Prodromos. Every household also kept a supply of poultry. Byzantines obtained other kinds of meat by hunting, a favourite and distinguished occupation of men. They usually hunted with dogs and hawks, though sometimes employed trapping, netting, and bird-liming. Larger animals were a more expensive and rare food. Citizens slaughtered pigs at the beginning of winter and provided their families with sausages, salt pork, and lard for the year. Only upper middle and higher Byzantines could afford lamb. They seldom ate beef, as they used cattle to cultivate the fields. Middle and lower class citizens in cities such as Constantinople and Thessaloniki digested the offerings of the Taverna. The most common form of cooking was boiling, a tendency which sparked a derisive Byzantine maxim—The lazy cook prepares everything by boiling. A selection of confections The term confectionery refers to food items that are (at least perceived to be) rich in sugar. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... For the politican faction referred to as hawks see Bush administration. ... This article is about the pig genus. ... It has been suggested that Lambing be merged into this article or section. ... For other uses, see Beef (disambiguation). ... Map of Constantinople. ... Thessaloniki, (Greek: Θεσσαλονίκη), is Greeces second-largest city and the capital of the Greek region of Macedonia and the periphery of Central Macedonia. ... A Taverna is a small restaurant serving Greek cuisine, not to be confused with tavern. The Greek word is Ταβερνα and is originally derived from the Latin word taberna (shed or hut, from tabula board). As Greeks have migrated elsewhere, tavernas have spread throughout the world, especially countries such as the... Boiling, a type of phase transition, is the rapid vaporization of a liquid, which typically occurs when a liquid is heated to its boiling point, the temperature at which the vapor pressure of the liquid is equal to the pressure exerted on the liquid by the surrounding atmospheric pressure. ...

Thanks to the location of Constantinople between popular trade routes, Byzantine cuisine was augmented by cultural influences from several locales—such as Lombard Italy, the Persian Empire, and an emerging Arabic Empire. The resulting melting pot hugely impacted Ottoman cuisine and therefore both modern Greek cuisine and Turkish cuisine, as well as general food in the Middle East. Sauces still eaten today, such as Tzatziki, testify to this end. The Lombards (Latin Langobardi, whence comes the alternative name Longobards found in older English texts), were a Germanic people originally from Northern Europe that entered the late Roman Empire. ... The Persian Empire was a series of historical empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the old Persian homeland, and beyond in Western Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus. ... The Caliphate (Arabic خلافة) is the theoretical federal government that would govern the Islamic world under Islamic law, ruled by a Caliph as head of state. ... The Ottoman Cuisine, is the cuisine of the Capital - Istanbul, and the regional capital cities of the Ottoman Empire, where the melting pot of cultures created a common cuisine that all the populations enjoyed. ... Greek cuisine is the cuisine of Greece or perhaps of the Greeks. ... Turkish cuisine inherited its Ottoman heritage which could be described as a fusion and refinement of Turkic, Arabic, Greek and Persian cuisines. ... A small bowl of tzatziki, served with few drops of olive oil and a few pieces of dill. ...

Drink

Macedonia was renowned for its wines, served for upper class Byzantines. During the crusades and after, western Europeans valued costly Greek wines. The best known varieties were Cretan wines from muscat grapes, Romania or Rumney (exported from Methoni in the western Peloponnese), and Malvasia or Malmsey (likely exported from Monemvasia). Orthodox Christianity was closely associated with the consumption of wine. The dogma of metousiosis (or transubstantiation) is based on the belief that during the Divine Liturgy, the wine is transformed into the blood of Christ. A glass of red wine This article is about the alcoholic beverage. ... The Siege of Antioch, from a medieval miniature painting, during the First Crusade. ... Cretan wine has a long history. ... For other uses, see muscat. ... Methoni (Greek Μεθώνη) is a town on the southwestern coast of the prefecture of Messinia, Greece. ... Malvasia (also known as Malvazia) is a group of wine grape varieties grown historically in the Mediterranean and the island of Madeira, but now grown in many of the winemaking regions of the world. ... Monemvasia (Greek: Μονεμβασία), is a medieval fortress with an adjacent town, located on a small peninsula off the east coast of the Peloponnese in the Greek prefecture of Laconia. ... The Eastern Orthodox Church is a Christian body that views itself: as the historical continuation of the original Christian community established by Jesus Christ and the Twelve Apostles. ... Metousiosis is a Greek mystical term that literally means a great change of essence. ... Transubstantiation (in Latin, transsubstantiatio) is the change of the substance of bread and wine into that of the body and blood of Christ that, according to the belief of the Roman Catholic Church, occurs in the Eucharist and that is called in Greek (see Metousiosis). ... The Divine Liturgy is the common term for the Eucharistic service of the Byzantine tradition of Christian liturgy. ...

See also

• Medieval cuisine

Peasants threshing siligo, a type of wheat. ...

Sources

• Dalby, Andrew (2003), Flavours of Byzantium, Totnes, England: Prospect Books, ISBN 1903018145

External links

• Byzantine Food on the Web
• Byzantine Foods