A Brief History of Greek Food

By James A Bruce
Greek cuisine has always been remarkably healthy, dominated by ingredients by a small group of ingredients such as olive oil, honey, goats milk and cheese, nuts, local fruit, vegetables, lamb and fish. Yoghurt, olives, imported fruits and foreign cheese compliment the line-up in today's international times.

A lot of Greek cooking was influenced by the surrounding cultures. Decades of non-destructive cultural exploration brought an eclectic mix of Eastern European and oriental cooking styles into their kitchens.
More than anything, Greek cuisine is known for it's seasonal variety, centering around important religious holidays of Easter, Christmas, New Years and May Day. Much like today, Greek meals have always been seen as an occasion to meet and socialize with others. The rich Greeks would hold intellectual dinner parties full of philosophical discussion, accompanied by lots of food and wine, and limited to men only.
These traditionally began with a mead of wine and honey and some bread. An appetizer was followed by fresh fruit, then a fish and meat course. That was only the first stage. After this was over, a sweet course of pies and fruits, nuts, cheese and sweet wine would follow. Sadly, the recipes used for these exquisite dinner parties has been lost during the ages.
Though the Greeks were certainly not the first to use spices and herbs for cooking, they were the first to take culinary skills and design seriously. Food imports after 7th century B.C provided a whole new dynamic to the Greek kitchen. Items such as potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and bananas only arrived after the discovery of the Americas in the 15th century.
For the poorer peoples of ancient greece, one pot dishes, still popular today, were the mainstay - boiled mullet stews, beans soups, served with cheese and bread, for instance.
One favourite dish of ancient greece that remain today is fruits soaked in wine and honey, as is fish that are salted and cured.
Of particular interest is perhaps the "aphrodisiac" cuisine that has been passed down through each successive generation. These were foods that ancient greek men believed to increase sexual prowess, and historians tell us that ancient greeks were quite adept at finding them (or perhaps just spent a lot of time in that particular pursuit).
You can try some of these greek food recipes for yourself and see how healthy and delicious they really are, where the knowledge of generations has been handed down and collected in the greek recipes [http://www.greekrecipe.org/] archive.
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