SC - Byzantine cuisine--sources?

[L. Herr-Gelatt]

Greetings!

I am assisting in working on a project (a real-world historic christian
cultures lesson-plan project for adults and teenagers for a local Russian
Orthodox Monastary school called St Tikhon's, here in NE PA, USA in a
little town called South Caanan) about the culture of Byzantium, and have
been asked to provide some information about Byzantine food, culminating
with some sort of recipe or meal information. Any references will be
helpful. I have begun the reference project, but have a long ways to go
yet. Information seems to be rather rare about food in Byzantium thus far. 

So the question is this: Does ayone recall sources that mention food or
show pictures of eating, farming, feasting or cooking in Byzantium, even if
only briefly? I can get almost anything through ILL, provided I know what
to look for. I will shortly be searching at the Library of Congress
web-site. I have already begun with J. J. Norwich's 'A Short History of
Byzantium' (nothing except photos of  a Byzantine Emperor in a fresco
surrounded by flockes of sheep) and a neat book called  'Medieval
Queenship', which has a paper on a Byzantine Queen (called herself "Emperor
Irene")  but also no food information except that she distributed food and
coins to the public as a way of ensuring her popularity while trying to
influence church policy by actually attending church policy meetings
- --unheard of for a woman of the day!

Byzantium would have been heavily influenced by Spainish and Arabic food
culture. Being largely a Christian state located on the frontier of Muslim
territory (alcohol and pork allowed), this could result in some rather
unique foodstuffs, so I hesitate to make assumptions based on neighboring
cultures. I would love to correspond with anyone who has done some research
into this already or has a few ideas about what the food culture may have
been like.

Any assistance would be welcome.

Thanks!


Aoife

Dame Aoife Finn 
Endless Hills, Aethelmearc
(North-East Pennsylvania, USA)

   
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