In Rome, you likely lived in an “insula,” a crowded apartment building, and you most likely bought most of your food already prepared if you even ate at home at all.  Chances are you stopped off at a fast food vendor and ate it there on your way home.

I just read Dr. Penelope Allison’s analysis of everyday life as excavated in the ruins of Pompeii.  Very little evidence of cooking areas or even formal dining areas in the homes of this upscale resort town.  Instead little plates with what appears to be the remains of take out food were found scattered around the home, including in children’s bedrooms.

Tourists in the ruins of Pompeii are surprised to realize that they are looking at the ruins of fast-food restaurants on every street corner - the heating bowls for the pre-cooked food all lined up and sometimes the decorative visuals still intact on the walls (think Greek sandwich shop artwork).

The most common kitchen equipment - a small BBQ box - perfect for cooking up some meat on a stick or grilling fresh fish.

One way to make sure your BBQ is as tasty as possible: top it with garum, a tasty fermented fish sauce that was a precursor to today’s Worcestershire sauce.  This was expensive sauce and you wanted to make sure you bought the right brand, such as the the House of Scaurus, promoted in mosaic POS.

And don’t forget pompous ads proclaiming the SPECTACULA wrestling event to which the general public was thereby invited.