Greek Power Bowls

The golden age of Athens under Pericles — the half-century that produced the Parthenon, Sophocles, Thucydides, and Socrates — was also, food historians have argued, the golden age of the Mediterranean diet. The Athenian citizen's daily food was built on olive oil, legumes, vegetables, grain, cheese, and occasional fish or meat, eaten in quantities calibrated to the day's physical and intellectual demands. The philosopher Plato describes in the Republic the ideal diet for citizens of his just city: grain, legumes, olives, cheese, vegetables, and figs — nothing more. The athletic citizen who required more protein would add fish or poultry. The combination of these components in a single vessel — grain at the base, protein and vegetables above, dressed with olive oil and acid — is what the modern food world calls a power bowl and what the Athenians called an ordinary lunch. The Greek power bowl in this archive builds on that Athenian tradition with deliberate fidelity: quinoa where the Greeks used barley, grilled chicken where they used roasted lamb, tzatziki and feta where they used fresh cheese and olive oil. The architecture is twenty-five centuries old. The ingredients are interchangeable. The principle — that the best meal is a complete one — has not changed.