The Carthaginian meal is not divided into starter, main course, and dessert. It is organized around a cereal base — barley flatbread or spelt porridge — to which is added 'what is eaten with bread' (salted fish, cheese, olives, dried fruits). Fruits, honey, and wine mixed with water punctuate the meal rather than conclude it. The festive banquet takes the form of the *marzeah*, a communal meal of notables and sailors where meat, wine, and offerings to the gods are shared.

The Romans named this fruit *malum punicum*, 'the apple of Carthage', so closely was it linked to the city of Hanno. Tart and ruby-red, the pomegranate marks Punic cuisine: its seeds are scattered over festive meats, its sweet-and-sour juice is pressed, and the fruits are hung for storage aboard ship.