>>522620No, they are right.
Even back at the zenith of the Roman Empire the goto flavoring was fish sauce.
There is nothing in Europe. Arabs brought rice and spices, sugar came from the colonies in the Americas.
If you were the average person in Europe before the spread of colonial spices and crops you would be forced to eat oats, rye, wheat or barley as main dish for most of your life. Yes, of course there was meat, and there were fruits, cheese and honey, but the staple food were those food crops that even grew in the north. Olives were expensive I might add.
Then theres the question what one might drink, tea or coffee as average income? Forget it. Beer or wine, if you can afford. Water if you had access to spring water or deep wells.