Sunday, March 18, 2012

Aztec commoners ate only two meals

"Aztec commoners ate only two meals--one in the mid-morning after working for a few hours, and one in the mid-afternoon, when the sun was hottest. The common Aztec ate only two or three tortillas and a serving of beans at each meal. One might also partake of a nighttime snack of amaranth gruel...Aztgec commoner did not live by maice and beans alone. Tomatoes, avocadoes, and several varities of squash presented more choices at a mela. Chili peppers were used to flavor meals...Ants, grasshoppersm maguey worms, and jumil bugs, all available in large quantities, provided protein. Commoners gathered tequitlatl (blue-green spirulina algae) in large fine nets to provide large harvests of protein...Cacao was a popular drink among the royal classes and it was a valuable commmodity."
---Handbook To Life in the Aztec World, Manuel Aguilar-Moreno [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2007 (p. 371, 373)

No comments:

Post a Comment