Did you know? Street food already existed in ancient Rome
Street food already existed in ancient Rome, along the streets of the city it was easy to find the Lixae, or street vendors who offered food to passers-by. Find out what it was.
These dishes were very similar to today’s pancakes or sandwiches, served with meat and sausage.
Even then Rome was a gigantic metropolis, full of activities and jobs: the lunch break was often very short. A sandwich and go, in that case the products of the lixae (the street vendors of that time) and go, something to eat and then continue with one’s task.
The Romans learned from the Greeks: a large part of the population ate their meals standing up, quickly, stopping in semi-open rooms located on the street.
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They were real stalls that sold food, just like the ones you happen to find in the streets of our cities during festivals or village festivals.
Important vestiges of these structures remain, for example in Pompeii, Ostia, Herculaneum. Here the taverns and refreshment points were the destination of passing travelers and a place where the poor had their food warmed up. In Pompeii, even more than 200 have been identified.
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Recently in Pompeii, a real open-air museum, in the new excavations, resumed within the maintenance and restoration project of Regio V, a perfectly preserved Thermopoly was found with the image of a sea nymph on horseback and animals colorful. The Termopolio (Thermopolium) was the typical resale of hot foods and drinks overlooking the street. It is the progenitor of our contemporary fast food snack bars: proof of what was already known, namely that the Romans anticipated the large American chains by two thousand years.
Traces of foods that were sold on the street were found in the Thermopoly containers. It was in fact the habit of the Pompeians but also of the Romans to consume food and hot drinks outdoors. The specialists of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii are already studying the material to verify how much this discovery can broaden the knowledge on Roman food habits. New information that can enrich the contours of an increasingly fascinating civilization, the classical one.
