Elizabethan

Forget Popcorn at Movies, Try Oysters

Filed under: Dining

Even at the poshest of theaters, it's unheard of to be given shellfish.

Apparently, modern theaters are flouting tradition by expecting us to dine on a cheap triviality like popcorn. According to Reuters, Elizabethan theatergoers preferred oysters while they watched Shakespeare's canon take shape -- even the groudlings (those without proper seats who stood on the ground by the stage for a penny).

Oysters were reportedly most popular (and were probably the cheapest), and other "snacks" included crab and other shellfish like mussels, whelks, periwinkles, dried raisins and figs, hazelnuts, plums, cherries, peaches, baked blackberry and elderberry pies and sturgeon, "according to experts who excavated The Rose and The Globe theatres on the south bank of the River Thames."

"Oysters were in fact the staple diet of the poor, right up to the Victorian period, and certainly we find oyster shells by the thousand on nearly every archaeological site we do," senior Museum of London archaeologist Julian Bowsher who excavated the two theater sites told Reuters.

As someone who's paid just as much for popcorn at the movies as I've paid for a fine plate of oysters, I have to say, I think the Elizabethans had it better. You know, besides the way they smelled.

Tags: Elizabethan, Film, Globe Theatre, GlobeTheatre, Movies, Oysters, Popcorn, Shakespeare

Elizabethan

Forget Popcorn at Movies, Try Oysters

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