I finished my Rome book and have now begun one about Pompeii. I’m 65 pages in and I already love it: yes, it covers the volcano, but most of the book is about “this is what the town and daily life of it would have been like, actually.” Fascinating stuff. Things I’ve learned so far:
- The streets in Pompeii have sidewalks sometimes a meter higher than the road, with stepping stones to hop across as “crosswalks.” I’d seen some photos before. The book points out that, duh, Pompeii had no underground drainage, was built on a fairly steep incline, and the roads were more or less drainage systems and water channels in the rain.
- Unlike today, where “dining out” is expensive and considered wasteful on a budget, most people in Pompeii straight up didn’t have kitchens. You had to eat out if you were poor; only the wealthy could afford to eat at home.
- Most importantly, and I can’t believe in all the pop culture of Pompeii this had never clicked for me: Pompeii had a population between 6-35,000 people. Perhaps 2,000 died in the volcano. Contemporary sources talk about the bay being full of fleeing ships. Most people got the hell out when the eruption started. The number who died are still a lot, and it’s still gruesome and morbid, but it’s not “an entire town and everyone in it.” This also makes it difficult for archeologists, apparently (and logically): those who remained weren’t acting “normally,” they were sheltering or fleeing a volcano. One famous example is a wealthy woman covered in jewelry found in the bedroom in the glaridator barracks. Scandal! She must have been having an affair and had it immortalized in ash! The book points out that 17 other people and several dogs were also crowded in that one small room: far more likely, they were all trying to shelter together. Another example: Houses are weirdly devoid of furniture, and archeologists find objects in odd places. (Gardening supplies in a formal dining room, for example.) But then you remember that there were several hours of people evacuating, packing their belongings, loading up carts and getting out… maybe the gardening supplies were brought to the dining room to be packed and abandoned, instead of some deeper esoteric meaning. The book argues that this all makes it much harder to get an accurate read on normal life in a Roman town, because while Pompeii is a brilliant snapshot, it’s actually a snapshot of a town undergoing major evacuation and disaster, not an average day.
- Oh, another great one. Outside of a random laundry place in Pompeii, someone painted a mural with two scenes. One of them referenced Virgil’s Aeneid. Underneath that scene, someone graffiti’d a reference to a famous line from that play, except tweaked it to be about laundry. This is really cool, the book points out, because it implies that a) literacy and education was high enough that one could paint a reference and have it recognized, and b) that someone else could recognize it and make a dumb play on words about it and c) the whole thing, again, means that there’s a certain amount of literacy and familiarity with “Roman pop culture” even among fairly normal people at the time.
every time i see those posts like ‘what food from a show did YOU always wanna try’ i go lol none? but i just remembered im a liar
i always wanted the fucking soup brock made in the pokemon anime
Hello OP, i don’t have anyway to prove this is the same recipe they make in the shows but i make this to calm my inner kid from wanting the fictional soup:
300gr bacon, beef or chicken. A meat of your choice. These go specially well. I prefer chicken tights. Diced
1 medium onion, diced.
Garlic minced (i used 2-4 pieces depending on size)
300gr carrot, cleaned, peeled and diced.
3 sticks of celery, washed and diced.
800gr potato. Washed, peeled diced in quarters.
1 head of broccoli.
8 cups of stock of your preference. I recommend using the bones of the beef or chicken, but veggies stock works too for a vegetarian or vegan version.
3 tablespoons all purpose flour.
1 cup whole milk. (Almond or rice milk work fine for a vegan option)
½ cup heavy cream. (Skip it for a vegan option)
Salt and black pepper to taste.
½ teaspoon paprika, use the spicy one to get the warmth up a notch in winter.
1 tablespoon fresh chopped coriander. Optional.
1 cup diced gouda or manchego cheese. Optional but really ties all together.
Make sure you have all your ingredients ready and at hand for this one to make sure it comes out nice and tasty!!!
In a pot put water and the bones to prepare your stock (chicken, beef, veggie) You can use premade or bouillon cubes, just make sure its 8 cups worth of broth. In a different pot boil the potatoes until soft.
In a big pot put some butter or olive oil to fry the onion, when it turns a little transparent add the garlic, move constantly.
Add the celery and diced carrots, moving constantly.
The carrot will get a little brighter in color, add the diced meat. Salt and pepper to your taste.
Meanwhile, blend the potatoes with enough stock so your blender wont have trouble blending. If you have a food processor, it’ll be easier.
Ad the remaining stock to you big pot with the veggies and meat, add the broccoli chopped in bite size pieces. Add the paprika and taste for salt and pepper. Let over a medium fire for 10 min.
Separate 3 tbsp of the stock to mix with the flour, set aside. This will be a thickening agent.
Pour the potato mix on the big pot, move to integrate and taste for salt and pepper.
Add the milk and heavy cream. Move with a laddle. Have a final taste and let over low fire for 5 min.
Serve hot and decorate with a pinch of coriander and some cubes of cheese.
ENJOY!
Notes:
I personally prefer to use chicken, love how it goes with potatoes and veggies. Also the tight is very tender and flavorful. With beef you have to be careful not to overcook it or it’ll get gummy and hard to bite, so make adjustments.
VEGAN: could also skip the meat, cheese and heavy cream for a vegan option.
I make it for my younger sister and she loves it. Instead of meat i add some diced, toasted nuts when served. Cashew, pecan and pistachios work nicely.
You’ll have to use 5 tbsp of flour to thicken up the broth a tid bit more without the heavy cream but you can still use a vegan milk.
You can totally skip the coriander, but it adds another dept of flavor.
Do try it with the cheese tho, i promise it’s GODLY. Gouda and manchego are my fave, the melt nicely and have a strong after taste, but i guess any cheese that melts could work.
Finally, if you are like me and like spicy food you can add chopped chili. Serrano and arbol chiles are my go to’s, freshly chopped sprinkled just after serving my bowl.
Hope y'all give it a try and if you have any doubts do ask!
Provecho!
this is literally the best addition i’ve ever gotten to any of my posts thank you so much
Hey I tried this recipe out and I can confirm that it tastes heavenly!!
