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| Opium poppy flower |
The Homeric epics are full of details of preclassic Greece – yet nutrition is quite neglected. Several kinds of cereals and breads are mentioned, but most amazingly, fish never appears on the table. One gets the impression that Bronze Age warriors were most fond of meats: dainymenoi krea t' aspeta kai methy hedy [δαινύμενοι κρέα τ' ἄσπετα καὶ μέθυ ἡδύ] “feasting on abundant flesh and sweet wine” and krea amph' obeloisin peirein optan te periphradeos [κρέα ἀμφ' ὀβελοῖσιν πείρειν ὀπτᾶν τε περιφραδέως] “put meat on spits and roast it carefully” are phrases the poet repeatedly chooses to describe the numerous feasts. The phrase methy hedy “sweet wine” is linguistically interesting, because both words derive from roots meaning “sweet”, but yet they are not akin to each other; see bear's garlic and licorice for further explanations.
Besides poppy, Homer mentions several other food plants: The most frequent
references go to olives (olive oil,
elaion [ἐλαίον]
and olive tree,
elaia [ἐλαία]), and even
onion has an emergence as foodstuff
(krommyon [κρόμμυον],
see also bear's garlic). Furthermore, a plant
named selinon [σέλινον]
appears which translators identify either as celery
or parsley. The hues of Dawn (the goddess
Eos [Ἠῶς])
are compared both to rose flowers
(rhododaktylos [ῥοδοδάκτυλος]
“rosy-fingered”) and to saffron
(krokopeplos [κροκόπεπλος]
“saffron-robed”).
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| Some poppy plants develop reddish flowers instead of the usual bluish purple |
Lastly, in the Odysseia there is mention of an enigmatic plant moly [μῶλυ], which is used as a protection against evil magic powers. The word is sometimes speculated to mean garlic or a close relative; but the most common name of garlic in Old Greek is skorodon [σκόροδον]. Others think it might have been snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis), whose genus name means “milk flower”, quite in accord with Homer's description: galakti de eikelon anthos [γάλακτι δὲ εἴκελον ἄνθος] “yet the flower (was) like milk”.
Homer's influence for the further cultural development of Europe is unquestioned. When, approximately in Homer's lifetime, Greek culture rose to new glory with its sport festivals (see bay leaves about the Olympic Games), its poets and philosophers, the Greeks considered the events described in the Ilias and the Odysseia as belonging to their own great past. During the largest part of antiquity, Homer was called the “divine poet”. Interest in ancient poetry declined after the fall of the Roman Empire, but more than a millennium later, during the European Renaissance, the educated again began to read Homer. The interest in classic antiquity culminated in the excavation of the stage of Homer's Ilias, ancient Troia, by H. Schliemann.
Although Homer is no longer taught in school, quotations from his work have
survived even in today's vernacular: So we speak of “Homeric laughter” (used
to stimulate the lust for battle), of “winged words”
(epea pteroenta [ἔπεα πτερόεντα]:
words designed to “fly” to the interlocutor) and who has
not ever heard of
Skylla [Σκύλλα]
and Charybdis [Χάρυβδις],
two evils only one of which can be avoided?
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| Austrian poppy field |
The ancients valued poppy for the oil obtained from its seeds. The seeds were also used for honey-laden sweetmeats and cakes, often together with almonds or sesame to yield products similar to the Greek baklava [μπακλαβά] of our time. These sweets were often slightly peppered, which is a characteristic feature of ancient Mediterranean cooking (see also silphion on ancient Roman cuisine). The narcotic and analgesic power of opium was well known to Ancient Greek medicine. However, opium as an illegal and addictive drug is a comparatively young development in Europe.
Today, poppy oil is an unusual specialty and is produced only in small quantities; most common is a cold-pressed quality suited for salads (see sesame about vegetable oils in general). Poppy farmers in Western Europe are faced by numerous legal restrictions designed to prevent the production of opium. Yet, in Western European climate, poppy plants do not develop much alkaloid content and any opium produced there would be of comparably minor quality.
In Europe, poppy seeds are mostly used for confectionery, similar to the use of sesame and nigella in the Near East. Stuffings based on poppy are sometimes found in croissants and the Austrian desserts known as strudel. Most of these recipes originated in Bohemia (today's Czech Republic), whence they came to Austria in the times of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Another great example for this sweet and high-calorie cooking tradition are Germknödel, steamed yeast dumplings stuffed with a very concentrated kind of plum jam (Powidl) and served with powdered sugar, ground poppy seeds and molten butter.
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| Poppy (plant with close to ripe capsules) |
In Asia, poppy is also much cultivated, yet mostly not for culinary purposes, but for the production of opium. Actually, the infamous “Golden Triangle” located at the border between Thailand, Burma and Laos is not one of the most important production areas, since better alkaloid yields are archived at higher altitude. Hill tribes in these three countries and also in Vietnam and China use opium traditionally as the single luxury their hard life permits; the introduction of opium to ethnic Chinese or Vietnamese is, however, a result of the colonial era and particularly due to French and British politics. Other than in communities with a long tradition of opium smoking, the poison had fatal consequences in both Vietnam and China.
In China, the British won the Opium War (1840–42) and were granted the right to import opium to the Middle Kingdom; thus, they had both immediate profit and built up a large number of officials materially and mentally dependent of England and its dealers. The obvious consequence, large-scale corruption, accelerated the downfall of the Chinese Empire. In Vietnam, the French drew enormous profits from their monopolies on opium, salt and alcohol (starting around 1890) and kept the nobility loyal to France by generous supplies of opium.
Yet in Asia poppy is not unknown for cooking, either. Ground poppy seeds are a
common thickening agent in the Moghul cooking style of Northern India (see onion and black cumin); a
special crème-white variety was bred for light sauces. The cuisine of
Bengal in North-East India often uses poppy, which harmonzes perfectly well
with that lightly-flavoured cookind style (see also nigella). Poppy's nutty taste is
loved by the Japanese and used for the subtly flavoured dishes typical for
Japan. The Japanese spice mixture shichimi togarashi (see sichuan pepper) contains poppy seeds.
