In general, the Supreme authorities in the Catholic Church have not been conspicuously hostile to sensual pleasure, or even ascetic in their culinary habits. Whereas, at the beginning of the 13th century, Pope Innocent III was still advocating spartan living, and insisting that only one main dish was served...
Cradled in a majestic circle of Alps, the Vallée des Merveilles in the Mercantour National Park, Provence is aptly named. It is a landscape of rock-strewn valleys, jagged peaks and eerie lakes. Just west of the Lac des Mèsches is the Minière de la Vallaure, an abandoned mine quarried...
By way of an introduction into some more history pieces I am going to write, I thought I would give you just a little history on the Croatian language…… there will be some more on this in a coming post!! The Croats speak and write Croatian, which...
(Portrait by Tintoretto, c,1575) Veronica Franco (1580-1625) was a poet famous in her own time who made her living as a courtesan. she received her training from her mother, who was also a courtesan until she married. The Franco family was of relatively high birth for Venice, coming...
A variety of taverns and inns in fourteenth century Venice catered to clienteles of differing social stations, offering clues about modes of socialisation. Prior to 1355 some taverns received state privileges to serve the most costly white wines that came from Romania and Candia as well as Ribolla from the Friuli....
Tycho Brahe (1546-1601), the famous Danish astronomer had a fascinating life and much has been written about him. There is however, one fascinating theory about him – that he was the father of Christian IV and the source for Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Tycho Brahe lived on the island of Hven from...
In Pellegrino Artusi’s Italianissimo – Italian Cooking at Its Best (La Scienza in Cucina e L’arte di Mangiar Bene) a wonderful volume, which is the classic Italian cookbook, translated into English from the 1910 14th edition, the last one prepared by Artusi himself, Artusi includes a letter written to...
Even in classical times, Sicily was well-known for its agricultural produce. The Phoenicians introduced grape vines from the Middle East to Sicily where previously only wild grape vines had grown, and the Greeks, who followed, brought with them the latest grape-crushing technology as well as new varieties, such as...
The image of Archimedes leaping from his bath with a cry of Eureka (Greek for “I have found it”) is, despite the efforts of generations of physics teachers, not based in fact. While testing a gold crown suspected of being a mere alloy, Archimedes realised that the mass of water...
The relationship between wine and medicine in the Renaissance is interesting and has its foundations in the ancient texts of Hippocrates, Discorides (his De universa medicina provided an analysis of some 500 plants with medicinal value) and Galen, as well as the writings of Hildegard von Bingen in her Physica which...
Welcome to my love affair with the food, wine, history and culture of the Mediterranean, past and present. Here you will find not only recipes, drinks and fabulous products, but the history of the food and culture of the Mediterranean.
My purpose is to get you to explore and experience new tastes and along the way to immerse yourself in the wonderful history of this diverse and wonderful region – from Venice to Istanbul, Rome to Dubrovnik, Athens to Crete and all places in between and in the surrounds. Be prepared to be surprised, delighted and enthralled as you take this trip with me.
