Pineapple plant has its origins in south America and more specifically in area between south Brazil and Paraguay. Inhabitants from Brazil and Paraguay spread pineapple to the whole south America and eventually to the Caribbean, central America and Mexico. Mayas and Aztecs cultivated pineapple. In 1493 Christopher Columbus discovered pineapple in the beautiful island of...
All these years I’ve been blogging I met the most wonderful people. Through this hobby of mine, I got to know so many people around the globe, enter their kitchens and learn things about their lives and countries. Thanks to them I have cooked so many wonderful recipes and learned not only new dishes and...
Dill is very well known from ancient years. In ancient Greece dill plant was a sign of wealth and burnt dill oil to aromatize their homes. Soldiers placed burnt dill seeds on their wounds to heal. For ancient Egyptians dill was a medical plant that was used as an ingredient in the production of pain...
A fermented fish sauce called garum was a staple of Greco-Roman cuisine and of the Mediterranean economy of the Roman Empire, as the first-century encyclopedist Pliny the Elder writes in his Historia Naturalis and the fourth/fifth-century Roman culinary text Apicius includes garum in its recipes. The use of similar fermented anchovy sauces in Europe can...
The name basil is derived from Greek basileus “king”, because of the royal fragrance of this herb. Basileus “king” means essentially “people’s leader. Basil belongs to the family of Lamiaceae. Its leaves show an intense green color on the upper side and a green-gray color in the bottom side. Today, basil is cultivated in many...
Sun dried tomatoes are made from a variety of tomatoes that is very usual to several Aegean islands and looks very much alike the Italian pomodori. The tomatoes are dried under the sun until the water they contain evaporates. Usually, they lose between 88% to 93% of their weight depending on their shape, i.e. 88...
Garlic and onion have a common history, similar usage and common properties. Botanically speaking they are a short of brothers as they both belong to the allium category. Although garlic comes from central Asia, it was very well known in ancient Greece and Egypt as well. Herodotus mentions in his writings, that the slaves who...
While many kinds of merchandise traveled along the Silk Road, the name comes from the popularity of Chinese silk in the west and especially in Rome. The Silk Road routes stretched from China through India, Asia Minor, up throughout Mesopotamia, to Egypt, the African continent, Greece, Rome, and Britain. This Road was an ancient network...
Agrippina the Younger was the great-granddaughter of Augustus, the first Roman Emperor. Her parents were general, Germanicus, and Agrippina the Elder. Her brother was Emperor Caligula, and her sisters were Drusilla and Livilla. She was born at Ara Ubiorum (modern-day Cologne) on 6 November 15 C.E. In 28. A.D. at the age of 13, she...
The story of thyme goes back to Sumerians some 5,500 years ago. As far as we know, they were the first to use it as a condiment and medicine. In ancient Egypt it was among the ingredients they used to mummify the dead. In ancient Greece, since Homer years thyme apart from condiment it was...
