Flamingo tongues, roasted mice, and peacock on the spit. Jasper Habets, owner of Villa de Proosdij in Klimmen, has a passion for Roman cuisine. But these exotic delicacies were not part of it \u2014 at least, not for the \u201cordinary\u201d Roman. \u201cOnly emperors and other high-ranking figures ate such dishes. What I want is to reintroduce people to the real Roman kitchen. It\u2019s certainly adventurous from a culinary point of view, but there\u2019s nothing strange about it.\u201d<\/p>"},{"acf_fc_layout":"foto_tekst","foto":8395,"tekst":"
Two thousand years ago, the Romans occupied this region, South Limburg. They built roads, villas, and bathhouses, and brought along their own eating habits. For the local population, everything changed. With the animals and plants the Romans introduced, the land suddenly produced new flavors. Flavors that we now consider perfectly normal were brand new back then. Jasper would love to travel back in time: \u201cThe Roman era was very exciting from a culinary perspective. The advanced infrastructure of the Roman Empire made it possible for livestock, food, and seeds to be transported over long distances for the very first time. The Via Belgica cut through what later became South Limburg and brought new culinary influences here as well.\u201d<\/p>"},{"acf_fc_layout":"tekst_quote","tekst":"The Romans introduced much of the food that is still part of our daily lives: pigs, chickens, cherries, plums, grapes \u2014 and their by-products such as eggs and wine. \u201cPeople in this region ate very pure food, dishes that we now consider completely normal,\u201d says Jasper. \u201cFrom milk and herbs they made a fresh curd cheese that we would now call hangop. From spelt grains they cooked a porridge eaten with honey or fruit \u2014 a classic \u2018European\u2019 grain breakfast. Spelt was also widely used for baking bread. People ate lentils and different kinds of cabbage. Meat was a luxury. They ate rabbit and venison hunted in the forest, but you only slaughtered your cow or chicken when it no longer gave milk or eggs.\u201d\r\n
How it is that we still know relatively much about Roman cuisine is quite a remarkable story. \u201cThe life\u2019s work of a Roman cookbook author has been preserved in an admirable way. The wealthy Roman Apicius devoted his life to recording recipes from across the Roman Empire. His gastronomic encyclopedia consisted of ten volumes and was arranged much like your grandmother\u2019s cookbooks. There was one book full of poultry recipes, one on sauces, and so on. Quantities were not included \u2014 everything was done by feel. That makes interpreting Roman cuisine all the more exciting.\u201d<\/p>","foto":8401},{"acf_fc_layout":"tekst_button","tekst":"The Roman cookbook has been preserved thanks to the painstaking work of monks in European monasteries. By copying Roman manuscripts, they safeguarded valuable heritage. In this way, much knowledge from Antiquity was preserved, while the original texts themselves were lost. Jasper is now working on his own Roman cookbook. In it, he gathers his favorite Roman recipes and, especially for today\u2019s readers, he adds precise quantities. He also makes small adjustments so the dishes can be prepared in a modern 21st-century kitchen. For the Via Belgica guide, he shares one Roman recipe from his forthcoming book.","titel":"Asparagus in the Style of Apicius","subtitel":"Click here for the recipe","link":"https:\/\/www.viabelgica.nl\/en\/asperges-volgens-apicius\/"},{"acf_fc_layout":"tekst_quote","tekst":"