# What's Latin for, "Would You Like Fries With That?" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 22, 2007, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-latin-for-would-you-like-fries-with-that/408933 "2007-06-22T00:39:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-latin-for-would-you-like-fries-with-that/408933/1 "2007-06-22T00:39:49Z")
[Roman’s like fast food.](http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/06/18/pompeiifood_arc.html?category=archaeology&guid=20070618153030&dcitc=w19-502-ak-0000) > [@](#): > > According to archaeologist Penelope Allison of the University of Leicester, the majority of the population consumed food “on the run.” > > Allison excavated an entire neighborhood block in Pompeii, a city frozen in time after the eruption of volcano Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. > [@](#): > > He said, “We’ve also found numerous fast food restaurants in Pompeii and other parts of ancient Rome.” > > Dyson likened these places to a cross between “Burger King and a British pub or a Spanish tapas bar.” Open to the street, each had a large counter with a receptacle in the middle from which food or drink would have been served. In the director’s commentary for _Gladiator_, Ridley Scott talks about how the Roman’s _must_ have had restaurants, even though experts seemed to doubt the idea. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-latin-for-would-you-like-fries-with-that/408933/2 "2007-06-22T00:55:04Z")
I’ve just had a quick look through my Pompeii books that I could find, and nothing in them confirms the existence of "fast food: restaurants. There certainly were shops selling bread (we have wall-paintings), wine, oil, and the fish sauce called Garum, but nothing explicitly confirming small restaurants. Nevertheless, I suspect they must have been there. Artisans and workmen ate somewhere, and I’ll bet they didn’t pack a meal, at least EVERY day. The street side of the large houses were studded with tiny, mostly one-room shops, and it’s never been made clear to me what they all sold. They can’t all have been selling jewelry and trinkets and bread. ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-latin-for-would-you-like-fries-with-that/408933/3 "2007-06-22T01:04:32Z")
From here, on [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen) “ **Ancient history**. . . In the Roman Empire, common folk in cities often had no kitchen of their own; they did their cooking in large public kitchens. Some had small mobile bronze stoves, on which a fire could be lit for cooking. Wealthy Romans had relatively well-equipped kitchens . . . .” I’ve read elsewhere (New Yorker magazine) that since lower class Romans worked so hard and such long days, they mostly didn’t want to be bothered cooking or cooking communally, so they bought “take-in.” I’m trying to find the essay where it’s described more fully, the vendor’s set-up, what they bought, etc. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-latin-for-would-you-like-fries-with-that/408933/4 "2007-06-22T01:38:12Z")
[QUOTE=5-4-Fighting] From here, on [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen) “ **Ancient history**. . . In the Roman Empire, common folk in cities often had no kitchen of their own; they did their cooking in large public kitchens. Some had small mobile bronze stoves, on which a fire could be lit for cooking. Wealthy Romans had relatively well-equipped kitchens . . . .” I’ve read elsewhere (New Yorker magazine) that since lower class Romans worked so hard and such long days, they mostly didn’t want to be bothered cooking or cooking communally, so they bought “take-in.” I’m trying to find the essay where it’s described more fully, the vendor’s set-up, what they bought, etc. [/QUOTE] Look up capouna online. that happens to be the word for the hot food ‘diner’ where you can take out or eat there if they were large enough to have a couple tables outside the shop. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-latin-for-would-you-like-fries-with-that/408933/5 "2007-06-22T01:41:08Z")
I’ve just done a quick search, and in the journal **Neurosurgery** (!!) 55(4):989-1006, October 2004 is the following article: The Legacy of Pompeii and Its Volcano. de Divitiis, E. Cappabianca, P. Esposito, F. Cavallo, L. M. One line in the article (which I can’t actually access here) mentions "This type of eating establishment, a sort of fast food restaurant, could provide a … " [http://www.neurosurgery-online.com/pt/re/neurosurg/abstract.00006123-200410000-00046.htm;jsessionid=G7ySNYXvFtsNtHpL62VnXvR52kf3rFK0JbWWC8JL38yLGjmXvtGQ!-1804036389!-949856145!8091!-1](http://www.neurosurgery-online.com/pt/re/neurosurg/abstract.00006123-200410000-00046.htm;jsessionid=G7ySNYXvFtsNtHpL62VnXvR52kf3rFK0JbWWC8JL38yLGjmXvtGQ!-1804036389!-949856145!8091!-1) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-latin-for-would-you-like-fries-with-that/408933/6 "2007-06-22T01:48:41Z")
Hah! Look here: [http://64.233.179.104/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=cache:hDqg4Ac6hs4J:www.earthwatch.org/expeditions/mayeske/mayeske\_03.pdf+Pompeii+restaurants](http://64.233.179.104/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=cache:hDqg4Ac6hs4J:www.earthwatch.org/expeditions/mayeske/mayeske_03.pdf+Pompeii+restaurants) > [@](#): > > Food is often associated with Pompeii’s public structures. Stefano De Caro writes: “The reorganization ofthe civic functions in Roman cities can also be seen in the rapid diffusion of another architectonic type ofGreek origin, the Macellum. This was a building with an internal courtyard surrounded by a porticum designed as a food market, replacing the unsatisfactory practice of selling foodstuffs in the forum or other public squares.” (p. 97) Even after this formal market structure was built in the forum, excavators continue to label open spaces in the forum and at large corner street intersections as places where food and drink vendors, who used carts and makeshift portable stalls, would sell their products. On page 7