Dinner! Stop pillaging and come to the table

Pillagers, crusaders, explorers, and ninjas — those guys needed a good dinner to keep their energy high.

Templars
The Knights Templars famously outlived their fellow humans in the 13th century. Most people lived to about 31, but the Templars lived into their 60s. Their leader, Jacques de Molay, lived until age 70, and he would have lived longer had he not been burned at the stake.

The Templar lifestyle was modest. They ate silently. Meat was limited to three times a week, according to Gastro Obscura. The other days they ate vegetables with bread, milk, eggs, or cheese, except for Friday when there was no dairy, eggs, or meat. All that was washed down with a cup of diluted wine.

Ninjas
Unlike the Templars who rode into battle wielding swords, the ninja of the 1400s was a stealthy assassin. He needed to remain thin and agile, yet strong enough to scale walls. A ninja might even have to wait days for his target, so he carried hunger pills — balls of rice, pine bark, and ginseng. A ninja could also send a message with food. For treachery, send salted fish. For arson, dried fish. To call for reinforcements, sweet cakes.

Vikings
The Viking menu for rampaging and pillaging was full of salted fish (herring), berries, apples, honey, and to drink, mead or beer. On land, flatbreads and porridge of cereals complemented dinner. On the boat, they could carry dried fish or catch something along the way. All this in great quantities, according to natmus.dk.

Explorers
At the turn of the 20th century, there were no dried foods. Antarctic explorers such as Ernest Shackleton were hardy fellows, but they did not dine in variety. The standard fare was pemmican: dried beef and beef fat. That could be mixed with sledging biscuits, flat flour cakes that look like square cookies, but with no sugar. On one rare occasion, there was a surprise. Shackleton saved a ‘Christmas pudding’ with his socks and brought it out on Dec. 25, 1914, to great fanfare.