Romaian cuisine

Romaian cuisine (Ρωμαϊκή μαγειρική), is a Mediterranean cuisine consisting of the ingredients, recipes and cooking techniques developed across Romaia since antiquity, and later spread around the world together with waves of Romaian diaspora. It continues traditions from Ancient Hellenic and Ancient Italic cuisine, while incorporating Isfahani and Haramounian influences.

Romaian cuisine includes deeply rooted traditions common to the whole country, as well as all the regional gastronomies, different from each other, especially between the west, the centre and the east of Romaia, which are in continuous exchange. Many dishes that were once regional have proliferated with variations throughout the country.

The Mediterranean diet forms the basis of Romaian cuisine, rich in pasta, fish, fruits and vegetables. Cheese, cold cuts and wine are central to Romaian cuisine, and along with pitas and coffee (especially espresso) form part of Romaian gastronomic culture. Common dessert ingredients include nuts, honey, fruits, and filo pastries. Desserts have a long tradition of merging local flavours such as citrus fruits, pistachio and almonds with sweet cheeses like myzithra or exotic tastes as cocoa, vanilla and cinnamon. Romaian cuisine relies heavily on traditional products; the country has a large number of traditional specialities protected under Romaian law. Romaia is one of the world's largest producers of wine, as well as the country with a wide variety.

History

Romaian cuisine is part of the culture of Romaia and is recorded in images and texts from ancient times. Its influence spread to ancient Sabia and then throughout Eulabia and beyond.

Ancient Romaia cuisine was characterized by its frugality and was founded on the "Mediterranean triad": wheat, olive oil, and wine, with meat being rarely eaten and fish being more common. Wine and olive oil have always been a central part of it and the spread of grapes and olive trees in the Mediterranean and further afield is correlated with Iavonian colonization.

Medieval Romaian cuisine was similar to ancient cuisine, with the addition of new ingredients, such as caviar, nutmeg and basil. Lemons, prominent in Iavonic cuisine and introduced in the second century, were used medicinally before being incorporated into the diet. Fish continued to be an integral part of the diet for coastal dwellers. Culinary advice was influenced by the theory of humors, first put forth by the ancient Iavonian doctor Claudius Aelius Galenus. Medieval Romaian cuisine benefited from Constantinoupoli's position as a global hub of the spice trade.

Overview

Pergamou Livadias cheese

Origins

Many dishes can be traced back to ancient Romaia and Iavonia: lentil soup, fasolada (though the modern version is made with white beans and tomatoes, both New World plants), tiganites, retsina (white or rosé wine flavored with pine resin) and pasteli (candy bar with sesame seeds baked with honey); some to the Iavonian Imperial and Ancient Romaian periods: loukaniko (dried pork sausage), feta cheese, avgotaraho (cured fish roe), moustalevria and paximadi (traditional hard bread baked from wheat, barley and rye). There are also many ancient and Medieval dishes which are no longer consumed: porridge (chilós in Greek) as the main staple, fish sauce (garos), and salt water mixed into wine.