The archaic Ionian meal is not conceived as starter-main-dessert but as two poles: sitos, the staple food from grain (barley cake maza, wheat bread), and opson, what is eaten "on top" to enhance the grain (fish, olives, cheese, pulses). One eats seated in the morning (ariston), reclining in the evening (deipnon). When the meal ends, the table is cleared and the symposion begins: wine mixed with water is drunk, sesame and honey sweets are nibbled, and discussion takes place—it is here, around the krater, that a man like Anaximander spoke of the apeiron and unrolled his map of the world.

A port city of Ionia, Miletus lives off the sea and the olive tree. Olive oil perfumes and binds almost everything, and fish—fresh in summer, salted or dried to last—is the king opson that distinguishes the Ionian table from inland cuisines. Toasted sesame, coming from the eastern routes passing through Sardis, marks the sweets.