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Pompeii snack bar opens - Printable Version

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Pompeii snack bar opens - Epictetus - 03-29-2010

Quote:Pompeii, March 18 - A 2,000-year-old snack-bar in the Ancient Roman city of Pompeii will 'open for business' once more this Sunday, with a special one-off event marking its restoration. A limited number of visitors to the Campanian archaeological site will be taken on a 45-minute guided tour of the Thermopolium (snack-bar) of Vetutius Placidus, which was previously closed to members of the public. Once inside the thermopolium, participants will also be treated to a typical Roman snack of the type once served to customers. The shop takes its name from electoral graffiti engraved on the outside of the shop, calling on passersby to vote for the candidate Vetutius Placidus, and on three amphorae found inside the premises.
Link

An interesting idea. I guess this one-day event has already passed, but they plan on opening it permanently some time in the future.

But here is an unanswered question: what are typical Roman snacks?


Re: Pompeii snack bar opens - Memmia - 06-04-2010

I would have thought it would be basic, typical Roman food. Not anything of the larks tongue variety.

Cheese, some sort of sausage, beefburgers (apparently Romans ate them), bread and stews/ soups. Maybe some sold snails and oysters ? Food on the go. Probably not too different from our usual fast food.
Easy, cheap and satisfying, (I'm sure there's a Pompeian brothel pun here, but I'll resist :wink: ).

I wonder what the hygiene was like and if they were ever inspected ?


Re: Pompeii snack bar opens - Gaius Julius Caesar - 06-04-2010

Quote:I would have thought it would be basic, typical Roman food. Not anything of the larks tongue variety.

Cheese, some sort of sausage, beefburgers (apparently Romans ate them), bread and stews/ soups. Maybe some sold snails and oysters ? Food on the go. Probably not too different from our usual fast food.
Easy, cheap and satisfying, (I'm sure there's a Pompeian brothel pun here, but I'll resist :wink: ).

I wonder what the hygiene was like and if they were ever inspected ?

A bit of cheap wine to kill the bugs, and ehy, who needs hygiene Confusedhock:


Re: Pompeii snack bar opens - Memmia - 06-04-2010

hehe! Are you refering to the thermopolium or the brothels ? :wink:


Re: Pompeii snack bar opens - The_Mariner - 06-04-2010

Quote: Easy, cheap and satisfying, (I'm sure there's a Pompeian brothel pun here, but I'll resist :wink: ).

I wonder what the hygiene was like and if they were ever inspected ?


too late I think you just made the pun in all our heads.. :roll:

Big Grin


Re: Pompeii snack bar opens - Epictetus - 06-05-2010

The Independent says they served baked cheese smothered in honey. Sounds good, actually.

In Roman times I wonder if they would serve mainly finger foods, so no dishes were required. But I could swear I've seen pictures of large stacks of bowls excavated, though. I can't find it now.


Re: Pompeii snack bar opens - Memmia - 06-06-2010

Yum! Sounds similar to one of my favourite snacks- deep fried camembert with craneberries 8)


Re: Pompeii snack bar opens - Alanus - 04-29-2011

Quote:In Roman times I wonder if they would serve mainly finger foods, so no dishes were required. But I could swear I've seen pictures of large stacks of bowls excavated, though. I can't find it now.

There's probably a good reason for all those bowls. The typical layout was designed to serve quick hot food to a standing clientel, aka a "thermospodium.";-) When the lava hit, Pompei had 18 of them operating. Here's a pic of one of them:
[attachment=693]thermospodium002.JPG[/attachment]
The round "wells" held pots, heated from charcoal burning below them.

Most pots contained soups or stews, cheap and fast food already heated. Fish were an economical mainstay of the populace. Here is a mosaic from the site, now housed in the National Museum at Naples:
[attachment=694]thermospodium004.JPG[/attachment]

And here is a redition of how a fish-stew serving thermospodium might have looked just before Pliny the Volcano Gawker lost his bowls and bowels:
[attachment=695]thermospodium007.JPG[/attachment]
Hmmm. Looks fishy to me!:lol: