>> Dr. Lanham:
Well, good morning.  

It's a pleasure to welcome you back to our series on Ancient Greece.  

We've had just a few days off for you to think about some of the things we studied a week or so ago, and we are ready to progress quite rapidly over the next five or six days in terms of number of presentations, so we hope that you'll join us today of this hour we have two speakers.  

One in the next hour and then tomorrow and Friday are a full round of sessions so we hope that you will join us there.  

It's quite a pleasure to have a speaker that is named for one of the Islands inthe Greek chain, and she is here.  

She has flown in from across the quad, and will entertain and educate us, but first I will let Dr. Wahby introduce her. 

>> Dr. Wahby:
Thank you very much, Dean Lanham.
 
Well, welcome to this round of the Ancient Greece Symposium and a Futuristic look.  What we are going to do is to look back to Greeks and see how it they eat, and laugh and so forth and for those of you who are expecting the technology people will come next in the few minutes.  

And I like to play with the words when Kathy presents, and I want to say what did eats Greek?  [Laughter] just have something to laugh at, just some ancient laughter.

>> Kathy: Rhodes:
Thank you.  

I am Kathy Rhodes and I teach in Family and Consumer Sciences and I just think it is such a pleasure to be here and to be able to speak about what Greeks ate back in ancient Greece.  

It wasn't really exciting what they ate, I mean, it's about the same as what they eat today.  

It evolved over many, many, many hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years, you know, what came into play today, as to what was back in ancient Greece.  

I am just going to give you a quick overview. 

We are going to talk about the foods they ate and what is specific to Greece, what types of vessels they cooked in and how it was cooked.  

Healthy versus non-healthy, and did you know there's a couple little things that maybe you didn't know that was specific to Greece, of different things, so lets begin and foods they ate. 

I am going to ask Todd to do this, I have to do this, I am not one to stand in one position too long.  

I have to get out and talk to everyone.  

So, over the years there's not many changes been made in the Greek foods, for the most part they eat now what they ate then.  

Very similar to what was grown and what they were able to grow and what they killed.  

What animals they killed they ate as well.  

They ate pretty much same thing. 

I covered that.  

The meats, poultry, fish, seafood, those found locally are beef, lamb, goat, pork, and poultry, game.  

The fish included cod, red mullet, mackerel, sea bass, and others as you can say, different varieties, soft shell varieties of crab and lobster and many others. 

So, olive oil is specific to Greece.  

I know a lot of you think maybe the Italians invented the olive oil.  

No, not really.  

If you look at this, it is made around the world; however, the Greek olive oil is a little different.  

It's a true treasure and taste can't be duplicated.  

Any place in the whole world, the Greek olive oil cannot be duplicated, it has a special taste all its own.  

And the sugar that is used in Greece is specific to Greece. 

It's made out of beet sugar, or yeah, the beet sugar and it makes a different, yeah, does it make a difference?  

It's a divided decision.  

Sometimes it makes a difference, sometimes it doesn't.  

In cooking, you know whether to use cane sugar, beet sugar, in the United States I think we have twelve states that grow beets and in the United States we also have four states that are specific to cane sugar. 

So, we do import some of our beet sugars in, which is quite expensive, you know, and there's a tariff tax on it.  

I mean it just goes, you know you can get really in to politics with the sugar thing there.  

Salt, Greeks tend to use sea salt. 

Most of the recipes, traditional Greek recipes are using the sea salt.  

There is a difference between sea salt and the table salt, for sure in using you know, if a recipe calls for salt, and if it is traditional Greek recipe, it is going to mean sea salt, not table salt.  

So, personally I love sea salt.  

I love the kosher sea salt.  

There's just something about the taste of that, it's a true virgin taste.  

It's not something that has been processed and gone through and other chemicals added to it, or taken out of it. 

It's really, really, I love it to cook with. 

The cucumber, I don’t' know if you saw, if you've seen them in the stores, they have different cucumbers that are small, that are wrapped in plastic. 

You might have four or five to a little package.  

Those are some of the best cucumbers you'll ever eat.  

I don't care for cucumbers. 

I hate them.  

Absolutely just hate them. 

My husband would grow them and I don't know why, because I never ate them.  

But these little ones are very mild tasting; they don't have that cucumber taste to them.  

And they are very, very good.  

I use them in all of our salads now. 

I stopped using the other cucumbers, they were bigger, and they had more seeds in them, and more pithier.  

So, these cucumbers are fantastic. 

The cooking vessels that they used were made of clay.  

They cooked over open flames and in clay ovens.  

They methods were grilling, stewing, steaming, roasting, baking.  

They didn't do a lot of frying because they didn't have deep fryers, actually to tell you the truth, and they didn't have the oil to deep fry with.  

So there wasn't a lot of oil and deep-frying that went on back then.  

One of their main things that they do use, and I think I am probably getting in ahead of myself here, is olive oil.  

Olive oils were amazing.  

The Greek olive oil is something that is just, the taste of it is just too different and I don't know it just tastes different than what it does in Italy you know, and you have different oils out of Italy that come from different regions and parts of Italy.  

So, healthy, is the Greek diet healthy?  

Or not healthy?  

You have kind of got to judge that for yourself.  

And I am talking about the same Greek diet that they had many years ago, back in ancient Greece as they do today, whether it is healthy or not.  

They ate more fruits, more vegetables; it was more in the raw form of foods. 

 It wasn't today like everything is processed, even in Greece today, things are processed differently.  

Things are more convenient for people and families you know than what it used to be back in ancient Greece.  

And they use Olive oil where we use oils, we use lard, we still use lard, believe it or not, some places still use lard.  

We use different types of oils that. 

And so as it says, Americans are just the opposite of what Greek people are.  

We do everything supposedly wrong than what Greek people do, you know, than what the Greeks do.  

Ok, these are did you knows. 

These are kind of cute.  

First cookbook was written by Greek Food Gourmet. 

Yes, that's him.  

Anybody Greek in here?  

What is it?  

>> Attendee:
Marcus Travos

>> Kathy:
Marcus Travos, ok.  

In 330 BC, which suggests that cooking, has always been of an importance and significance in Greek society.  

Modern chefs stole the tradition of their white chef's hat to the Greeks in the Middle Ages.  

Yes, brothers who prepared food in the Greek orthodox monasteries wore tall white hats to distinguish them in their work from the regular monks who wore large black hats.  

To a large degree, vegetable cuisine can be traced to foods and recipes, which originated in Greece.  

Many ingredients used in Modern Greek cooking were unknown to the country until the Middle Ages.  

These include the potato, tomato, spinach, bananas, and others, which came to Greece after the discovery of the Americas.  

Their origin.  

Greek food is simple and elegant with flavors subtle to robust textures, smooth to crunchy, fresh and timeless, nutritious and healthy.  

Preparing and enjoying Greek food anywhere in the world is an adventurous journey to the cradle of civilization and land of the gods of Olympus.  

Discovering, tasting, and experience Greek foods is truly one of the joys we can all share.  

And this is true wherever we go, and whatever we do in life, if you look around the world, food is a common denominator.  

Food brings people together; food has been known to separate people as well.  

And the old food fight is always in play, you know, people like to have the food fights.  

And I was real excited to research some of these things here that was there. 

I think that one's the end of, yes, there are my references. 

So, as far as the Greek food goes, last week in Pantera we had Greek food, and I can't even remember some of the things that we had, but we had Baklava, which was unbelievable.  

We had Moussaka which was really, really good. 

I was amazed at how well we could make that. 

Of course, if you had a true Greek person there, it probably wouldn't have been very good. 

They probably would have said, “Oh my gosh this is not good. Where did this woman get this recipe at”, you know? 

But, it was very good, and it was a lot of fun and it teaches students that when they cook internationally like that, they learn about that country. 

They learn why they are eating these things.  

Why did they only have certain ingredients, you know.  

And a lot of was due to the farming and the import and export of foods throughout the world.  

I enjoy cooking and I enjoy researching different foods, so that wraps up the food part of it. 

Ok, now I've got the fun stuff right here in my hand.  

Now if no one here, I do have to put this disclaimer in here, if no one here wants to learn about aphrodisiacs from Greece, please leave.  

I don't know what else to tell you.  

Ok, the Greeks have quite a few of them too.  

Some of the things that you think that you invented or someone else invented, is not quite true.  

I had to literally print these off, because there was so many of them, I couldn't get them on a PowerPoint.  

You know, we could have been here till the cows come home, you know.  

One of the things that I wanted to read you though that stuck in my head, and somebody in this room just pointed out to me and I didn't realize because I didn't read that part of it, was food and sex in the Bible.  

Now I don't mean to bring religion into this; however, this goes back a long, long way.  

Unbelievable as this might sound, the Bible was one of the first books that used food with a sexual connotation to describe lovers.  

Throughout the Song of Solomon, the male and female narrators compare one another the fruits and other foods.  

Isn't that funny?  

The man is compared to a bed of spices. 

Oh really.  

And the woman, yeah, they are spicy all right, right?  

The woman, a woman's breasts are described as clusters of grapes.  

Now tell me that you'll never look at breasts the same again. 

 You know, right? 

What do I have here? 

One, two clusters, three clusters, four, right here.  

So they used figs, grapes, vines, and pomegranates to describe their love for each other.  

Other foods mentioned in the exchange include honey, milk, saffron, and cinnamon.  

And then just to quote a couple George Bernard Shaw's says 'There is no love more sincere than the love of food'. 

And Sheila Graham, 'Food is the most primitive form of comfort'.  

And this is so true. 

Don't you all find that true?  

So lets get back to the aphrodisiacs now, I just wanted to read you that little part. 

Chocolate, wine, oysters, sure, but there is no more on this sexy list of aphrodisiacs than you probably realize, or there is more.  

One of the sex foods was so potent in the days of the Egyptian Pharaohs, priests were forbidden from eating it.  

Now isn't that interesting.  

So they have one is Anise seed, I think most people might have that in their cabinet, you know. 

It's a very popular aphrodisiac with many culinary uses.  

It's been used as an aphrodisiac since the Greeks and the Romans were believed anise seed had special powers. 

Sucking on the seeds is said to increase your desire. 

I never thought of that you know, when I bake bread. 

What will I do with this anise seed?  

Never thought everybody was sucking on the seeds, you know. 

And asparagus, given its phallic shape, asparagus is frequently enjoyed as an aphrodisiac food.  

Feed your lover boiled or steamed spears for a sensuous experience.  

Ok, the vegetarian society suggests eating asparagus for three days for the most powerful effect.  

So what do you think is going to happen in that three days if you see your man friend or husband, or whatever, you know, significant other, eating asparagus for three days?  

You know what's coming, right?  

We don't have to go there.  

Ok.  Oh my goodness.  

And then almond a symbol of fertility throughout the ages of Romans is thought to induce passion in the female.  

So I supposed that is why they are telling you to eat at fifteen or twenty almonds a day, right? 

So all us women can be passionate, for the people eating the asparagus.  

Ok.  

Basil is said to stimulate the sex drive and boost fertility. 

It is also said to produce a genuine sense of well being for body and mind.  

Chili, isn't this funny?  

Chili a large amount of vitamin C, red, green, and cayenne pepper chilies stimulate circulation, which is why it is considered to be a potent aphrodisiac, so I guess if you eat anise seed, asparagus, and chili, watch out, right?  

Spicy foods have long been considered to be sexual stimulants.  

There is some scientific truth to this claim, in that foods that are heavily spiced often contain capsaicin, the active ingredient in cayenne pepper.  

Eating capsaicin can cause a psychological response; increase heart rate, and metabolism, sometimes even sweating.  

This is quite similar to physical reactions experienced during sex. 

As this is not a sex ed class, I was just telling you this, so you know, Ok? 

Ok, we have and some of these lists include chocolate, carrots, and celery, and coffee, cucumbers, ok, we won't go to cucumbers. 

Feral and figs and eggs and garlic.  

This pungent member of the lily family, talking about garlic, has been used to treat a wide variety of illnesses from the common cold to heart disease. 

Garlic has been used as an aphrodisiac by the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Chinese, and Japanese.  

Garlic mixed with lard used externally used to bring on, oh I didn't even know that word was in there.  

I don't think we'd better go there. Never mind.  

Disregard that whole thing, oh my goodness! 

Anybody wants to look at these later, come right up, please enjoy yourself.  

Ok, pepper and pine nuts, rosemary, saffron and tomatoes, ok, we have one more here.  

Truffles, vanilla, walnuts and wine.  

A glass or two of wine can greatly enhance romantic interlude.  

Wine relaxes and helps to stimulate our senses.  

Drinking wine can be an erotic experience. 

Just let your eyes feast on the color of the liquid, caress the glass, savor the taste on your lips.  

I don't know if you are making love to the wine, or is this you are supposed to be thinking about your woman, or your man friend, or something, I don't know.  

Do remember that excessive alcohol will make you too drowsy for the after dinner romance. 

How many times have we been in that position, right?  

Ok. Now I remember that now, I am not that dumb. 

Ok. A moderate of wine has been said to arouse but much more than that amount will have the reverse effect. 

Those are those some of the things for aphrodisiacs. 

The Greeks were quite, you've heard the old saying Greek lover, they had it going on.  

They have nothing on us.  

They know exactly what's going on and what's happening.  

So that concludes my presentation.  

Thank you.

Anyone who would like to read this, 

>> Dr. Wahby:
I have a question for Ancient Egyptians.  

It has been said in the history, I wasn't there to see that, but they say that Asia was the food basket of area so everybody would come and get food from there.  

So, did you find in any of your research, that Egypt has anything to do with Greek civilization, food wise, or.

>> Kathy:
You know, I read some things in there about the Egyptians and the Greeks, but I am thinking what, I am thinking what you are thinking is like it is a community market where they come and get different things.  

They, you know, if they don't have it they could come and get it there.  

You know, if they have an overabundance of it, just almost like our community food banks and things here. 

You know, that's kind of similar to what they did back then. 

I wasn't there either, come to think of it Wafeek, I am telling you; don't be thinking I was there, when you weren't there. 

>> Dr. Wahby:
Any other questions?

>> Kathy:
Oh my goodness.  

>> Attendee:
So what is your favorite Greek recipe to make?

>> Kathy:
My favorite one? 

The baklava.  

I love the baklava.

>> Dr. Wahby:
Baklava wins? 

>> Kathy:
Yes, it's got, it's not good for you, though.  

It has a lot of sugar and honey, and has a lot of nuts, and the phyllo dough, and I love it though.  

It's nice when it comes together. 

You are thinking this is not going to come together, because that phyllo dough is so difficult to work with, but once it does, and you build up the layers, and then we cut into it, it is just amazing.  

>> Dr. Wahby:
Every week you take a piece like two inches or something.  

Would it hurt you? 

>> Kathy:
Moderation.  

>> Dr. Wahby:
Just a piece like this every. . . 

>> Kathy:
And this is what, moderation, not moderation, ok?  

Wafeek, is that what you are telling me? 

>> Dr. Wahby:
I don't know. 

Now another question about the tradition of fight between the Greeks, Egyptians, [unclear dialogue] about the origin of rolled or stuffed grape leaves and [unclear dialogue] or gyros, who is the origin? 

Did you read anything about that, because everybody is fighting to say we did it first? 

And you copied it from us.  

Have you read anything?

>> Kathy:
Wafeek, I think you did more of your homework than I did of mine.  

Because I don't, honestly I don't remember reading that, I mean I know about the grape leaves, and everything, but I didn't, no,

>> Dr. Wahby:
Maybe next year, you can 

>> Kathy:
Yeah, I'll get back to you on that.  

I hook you right up with that answer.  

>> Dr. Wahby:
Ok, any other questions for Kathy. 

>> Kathy:
Don't talk about the aphrodisiacs.

>> Attendee:
I'll just talk real loud.  

Yeah, now I've never really been impressed with people with very strong garlic breath. 

So how does that one work really?  

>> Kathy:
Well, I can tell you this.  

best If you all anyone in here, has teenagers, garlic, the form of birth control there is.  

Nobody wants to get near someone who has got garlic breath.  

Not only that, but if you eat garlic, some of us do, you know, as we get older, we eat more garlic, because we have a tendency to believe it does do a lot of different things for diseases health wise.  

But, it not only does it come out through your breath, it comes out through the pores in your skin.  

I mean you can shower till the cows come home, you are still going to smell like a bulb of garlic.  

So, there are different pills you can take that don't have the garlic after effect now, that they say is better, just for the smell.  

It's not necessarily better as far as health wise goes.  

I think the only way to get the full effects of anything that you are eating for health is to eat the regular food. 

You know, like vitamin D you want to drink the milk. 

And get out in the sun, but for the garlic, you want to eat the garlic itself, not a pill.  

I think American society, I know this is off the subject, but I think we are too much of a pill taking society.  

Every time you know, Oh take a pill.  

Oh, I got an ache, take a pill.  

We don't need that.  

Go back to regular everything.  

Dean, must you?

>> Dean Lanham:
Don't you think to combat the garlic you can also be chewing on anise seeds.  

[laughter] 

Make the best of both situations. 

>> Kathy:
Here we go again!  

Right? 

How red if my face now?  

We could, and you could eat asparagus, as well. 

And I'll drink the wine, and yes we could.  

Yes, so, if you start chewing on anise seeds, we are going to be in trouble right?  

Instead of the garlic, I think you'd better stick to the garlic honey.  

So if there are no more questions, thank you very much for listening to me, I certainly appreciate it.  

It was so much fun here today.  

>> Dr. Wahby:
Thank you very much. 

>> Kathy:
Thank you.