Among the Greeks of Alexandria, the day ends with the *deipnon*, the real evening meal: wheat bread, fish, vegetables, and olives, all drizzled with oil. Then comes the *symposion*, the time of cups, where wine is mixed with water and *tragemata* are passed around — figs, nuts, honey cakes — while verses are recited. The humbler meals of the day (*akratisma* in the morning, *ariston* at noon) remain frugal: a barley cake suffices.

A sauce made from fish fermented with salt under the sun, golden and powerful: it is the umami of the Greek and Egyptian world. A few drops enhance a fish, a cake, or a bowl of barley. Naucratis and the Nile coasts traded it extensively.