At the Macedonian table in Alexandria, the evening meal (deipnon) served solid foods — breads, fish, meats — on low tables, followed by the symposion, the time for cups of wine mixed with water, fruits, honey cakes, and conversation. The Ptolemies, Greeks ruling over Egypt, blended the wheat of the Nile with Hellenic uses of barley, olive oil, and honey. For a deified queen like Berenice, the register of offerings was added: flat cakes and libations placed on the altar of her cult.

A seasoning plant with a taste between garlic, fennel, and asafoetida, silphion grew in Cyrenaica, a Lagid province. So sought-after that it appeared on coins and was consumed until its extinction under Rome. As a substitute, today one uses a pinch of asafoetida (hing) or confit garlic.