David at the table

In early Iron Age Israel, the meal is not divided into starter-main-dessert: it revolves around bread (lehem), barley for the poor, wheat for the royal table. Bread is broken by hand and dipped into a shared dish — lentil porridge, olive oil, curdled milk. Side dishes (olives, goat cheese, onions, figs) are placed together. Meat is reserved for feast days and sacrifices; sweetness comes from orchard fruits — figs, dates, grapes, wild honey.

Two treasures of the Judean hills. Cold-pressed olive oil binds, enriches, and preserves; wild honey, gathered from the rocks, sweetens and perfumes. David would sing of them in his psalms: the ordinances of the Lord are 'sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.'