Biblical eating in the USA |
The New York Times recently reported a growing trend known as “biblical eating.” As I read it, I thought that Jesus, Moses and King Solomon would surely all be scratching their heads.
As we head into Shavuot, another Jewish holiday associated with food, I want to pick apart the idea that these people are eating food from the bible, stating with the infographic photo. Sprouts? Pickled onion? Beet hummus? I promise you, no one living in my area 2000 years ago was eating anything like these foods.
Olive oil? Check. Wheat? That’s the main one we celebrate each year around this time. Sourdough bread was mentioned in the article, but biblical bread was likely pita, baked on an open taboon, just as it still is in some places today. The seven species we celebrate are wheat, barley, olives, grapes, figs, pomegranates and dates. None of which appear on that plate. Goats, sheep and cows – they would have had a few animals, maybe saving them for sacrifices to improve their status, maybe giving them a bit of milk and a holiday meal or two. No chicken sausage. Rather than domestic chickens, they would have eaten the pigeons (doves to you Christians), quail and other birds native to the region. Vegetables? They would have supplemented their diets with herbs, wild or cultivated legumes, and plants picked from around the area. A kind of beet, according to Wikipedia, might have been around, but used for its leaves, as would other spinachy plants that are still picked by foraging connoisseurs today. And forget the cultured mushrooms. The foraged kind in the area are a different dish, entirely. Wild garlic might have flavored their food, along with za’atar.
Pray before eating? Yup. One interviewee suggests praying is a way to avoid the chocolate chip cookie. Jews, as we know, pray before and after eating,........