Pompeii’s fast food joint unearthed in 2019 opens to public | Hacker News Reader

Pompeii’s fast food joint unearthed in 2019 opens to public

theguardian.com

132 pointsdiodorus41 comments

The headline makes it sound like they restored the fast food joint and it is going to be serving food to the public.

Agree. Would be awesome for someone to open a replica nearby with close enough food served within.

Not sure about Pompeii specifically but from what I've heard of food in the Roman empire, tastes have changed dramatically since then. I'm afraid a historic restaurant would often be either disgusting or very far from historical. There might exist more common ground, but people in the empire ate things like field mouse.

I also heard the more esoteric food was something the rich ate, but the food for common people is something that is still served and delicious.

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20210719-what-did-the-anc...

If you enjoy modern foods from all around the world, it's very unlikely that you wouldn't enjoy Roman food. Things have changed since 2kya, but not that much. Although ingredients and tastes have changed somewhat, many of the same food products are used in extremely similar forms in exactly the same region. Not everyone was chasing the complexity of the elite Roman table. And to those who claim that complex flavors like garum are now out of vogue or disgusting, I present the modern equivalent: colatura di alici (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colatura_di_alici), an ingredient in classic, typical dishes from south Italy.

Field mouse sounds tasty. Can't be far from cui.

Worcestershire sauce is another garum analogue.

I've had cui (mostly to share pictures). I thought it was good, but idk how field mouse would be. Cui (guinea pig for the uninitiated) has a decent amount of meat on it. Field mice are so tiny, a chicken wing has has to have more meat on it. I'm presuming that when they ate field mice 2000 years ago, they're eating the entire thing with all organs except for maybe the intestines.

The mice were fattened in a special vessel (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glirarium) which tricked them into preparing for hibernation, which fattened them up significantly. Still probably not a lot in them.

The list of foods in the article sounds fine for modern tastes (apart from the snails maybe). I'm sure it would have been prepared very differently, but that never stopped us calling things "Chinese food" etc in the west.

Not sure what you mean by "modern tastes" but snails are still widely eaten in regional recipes throughout Italy.

> but that never stopped us calling things "Chinese food" etc in the west.

I once collected a quote from a writeup on dailywtf, an aside that went:

"I should mention that I mean real Chinese food, not that non-deep-fried stuff they serve over in China."

The intended joke, obviously, is on people who think the American label "Chinese food" must reflect something similar to the food they have in China.

After spending years in Shanghai, eating local food, seeing the ads in bakery windows for "FRIED COOKIES", I still find the quote funny, but mostly for the idea that they might serve non-fried food in China. There is some, but it is most certainly not the norm.

Here in Spain at least snails are still very common.

Yes, also France and parts of Germany.

Lots of nicer places serve snails where I am in the Southern US. You can buy cans of them at the grocery and all you need is the shells to serve them in. A little garlic and parsley butter is all you need.

Snails are common.

Almost always prepared "French style" with garlic-butter sauce which kind of masks the true flavor of the snail. By themselves the snails have a mild vegetative flavor with a bit of umami.

The only other preparation I've heard of was pickling. And also in frittata (omelet). It would be interesting to know how the Romans prepared snails.

Dormice not fieldmice- and I think they still eat those in parts of Central Europe, particularly Slovenia and Croatia.

It might be. However, I am from these parts of the world, and never heard of it.

They have those Roman fast food joint ruins on Via Appia too. Highly recommending the aqueduct bike tour.

Someone really should build a replica.

What a shame, I was really hoping to get drunk on spicy wine and eat a bunch of snails and baked cheese.

Don't you dare tempt me with a good time

…that sounds absolutely delicious?

I kept reading through, waiting for the "and now they will serve food here" part, until about one paragraph before the end.

I'd like some fossilized pizza please.

> fossilized pizza

It's here:

https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/07/07/ancient-bread/

https://museum-of-artifacts.blogspot.com/2018/05/a-carbonise...

You joke, but the ovens in Pompeii (pictured at link above) look a lot like the wood-fired pizza domes down the road in Naples.

The Romans could have made flatbread with cheese, herbs and fish or meat bits on it. But no tomatoes until they came back from the Americas in the 1500s. https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/noodles/2018/07/03/history-of...

Typical archeology journalism.

That was exactly what I expected.

It wouldn't be the same without Terry Jones narrating it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiCv-JfyOMk&t=430s

To learn how people in Roman Pompeii used to live and eat please check this excellent video [1].

[1]https://youtu.be/k0zBG5R7TXU

Reading other posts here about local tastes and modern tastes, I feel compelled to relate something from my community on Long Island, NY.

First, I’m from Northern California and various ethnic cuisine taste very different there. Thai flavors different from Vietnamese, different from American Chinese, etc. from cheap eats to sit down.

Here in my community it all tastes the same! Haha. Thick gravies. Bland flavors.

But what flipped my lid yesterday was a new Indian restaurant (yay. I love vegetarian dishes and Marsala flavors). And what is their fare? American Hamburgers and gravy heavy American Indian. They made a meaty diner.

Town already has 2 diners, 5 American Chinese, 3 franchise hamburger, 2 private hamburger/shake, 5 pizza, 6 bodega/hot holding, 2 American hot holding w/burgers.

What were they thinking? Modern tastes are wak, with stupid money financing them.

I'm From NYC, lived in West Babylon, worked in Farmingdale, and I have a hard time believing you. There is good ethnic food on LI, just look for it.

I love Turkish and there's a little shop on Rt 109 and Strait Path in N. Lindenhurst, Pasha Kebob and Grill. Want fast and cheap Polish lunch? Go down Great Neck rd to Oak st in Copiague and there are a few delis selling delicious hot food for $3-8 per plate. Main st in Farmingdale has Rolling Spring Roll, Awesome Vietnamese place, love their Pho (also one in Syosset). Down the street is Grecian Grill, a good Greek Joint. And these are just the few I care to mention. Granted LI is big and I named places closer to Farmingdale. But you get the idea.

Love it. Unintended consequence of complaining about lack of tasty food, someone shares their favorites. Now I have some new places to go!

I feel like we're having a debate about the health of some natural ecosystem.

You're describing an area 25mi x 14mi--We got signs of healthy ecosystem here. 1 wolf over here. 2 black bear over there. 1 brown beaver.

My rant is about just what you can find in a 1mi radius (time to spill the beans--of Glen Cove). And all I'm seeing in my ecosystem are squirrels.

If I'm going to drive, then I'd go to Hicksville, Floral Park or Flushing for Indian Cuisine.

Don't get me wrong. I invite you to visit Glen Cove for Central American cusine, and Italian cuisine of Campania and Tuscany.

And you can get a hamburger in 8 places. haha

Full disclosure, I work in consulting for the restaurant industry (not in Glen Cove). I love tasty food, and I also like to understand business decisions. So when I find bland tasteless food, it makes me sad. When I find a new businesses which decided to compete for a share of the same customers selling similar fare, I'm baffled.

I've traveled for work to Ronkonkoma many times. The variety of cuisine is embarrassing. There is some good seafood but you have to travel relatively far. I grew up in the suburbs of another large city and you could get just about anything with only a short drive. The quality might not be best but at least there is always something new down the road. Next time I go there, I'm tempted to just stay in a hotel with a mini-kitchen and just shop at the grocery store to avoid eating at chain restaurants every night.

This makes me remember that people with the same dreams and urge for fast food as myself, has been living on this planet for thousands of year. And of course - memento mori (remember that you have to die).

I love how similar the building is to a lot of bars you see in Latin America. I could easily picture a bunch of stools on one side of the S-shaped table/stove, with people chugging wine and snacking, while on the other side you had two workers preparing food.

I wonder what they'll make of Plymouth in 1500 years time

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth,_Montserrat

Pompeii's public area is riddled with thermopoli ("fast food joints"), some of which are in quite good condition. The difference is that this one is in fantastic condition, which is wonderful: but it's far from unique.

Apparently you can have a hot dog and Caesar's salad with rooster

Are they serving the original Roman menu or pizza and burgers?

Try the Wolf Nipple Chips, they're lovely

I think you are mistranslating lupa.

Get 'em while hot?

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