Know what's good?

Yogurt with honey and cinnamon. The combination was inspired by the vaguely Middle Eastern/ancient origin of all three. It's a little like eating the icing from a cinnamon bun but not, like that icing, sweet enough to make you sick or otherwise remorseful.

I'm thinking of eating exclusively "ancient" foods for a while, meaning ones that are mentioned in old texts, old meaning from a time when nomadism was common and houses were huts and the rest I just can't fathom. It's remarkable how much I'd be allowed: even if I stick to the East, as I always picture "ancient" as meaning all sand and oases as in the Bible and Rumi, I can have dates, figs, pomegranates, grapes, apricots, apples, and surely some other fruits. Lamb, pork, and fish (in theory, but let's be honest, I won't cook any of those). Bread, wine, olives, and olive oil (just those four are enough to hold me for a powerful long time). Yogurt, milk, butter, soft cheeses. I'm coming up short on vegetables, as usual. I could probably have tomatoes. Coconut? Maybe island palms are different from desert palms. Oh, I bet I could have peaches, nectarines, and plums.

I wonder why I'm so into categorizing foods like this, as if there's something better about these than, say, berries of American origin or cheddar cheese as opposed to goat. I think it's just fun and makes me feel smart, even though much of it is guesses ("That seems Middle Eastern, let's throw it in"). I also like the idea of having a diet of roughly this scope: enough choices you wouldn't get bored, but few enough you don't get overwhelmed. They always had a choice (in my idealized, romanticized version), but they never had more than 2 or 3 choices. Sounds nice, because my list of restaurants to go to is starting to look like the shelves of unread books--intimidating and insurmountable. Not to mention the different offerings at each restaurant, or the recipes I haven't tried. Luckily, I do have to eat, so the outlook is a little rosier than for the unread books. A little.