The ancient Greek meal revolves around two poles. The sitos — the staple cereal food (barley cake, bread) — provides the bulk of calories; it is eaten by hand. Alongside comes the opson, the "what-goes-with-it": fish, vegetables, cheese, olives, which provides flavor and marks status (the more marine and noble the opson, the more distinguished the guest). After eating comes the symposion, the time of shared drinking and libations poured to the gods. Offerings, however, are not really eaten: they rise to Olympus in smoke or are poured onto the ground.

A sauce of fermented fish with salt, the mother of all marine flavors in the ancient Mediterranean. An amber drop of salty umami that connects every dish to Poseidon's domain: it is the sea itself, concentrated and offered to the tongue.