1. Concept
The meal (Middle English mel) was originally the time at which eating was done (from Old English, mæl: “fixed time; occasion”; cf. German Mal: “occasion,” Mahl “meal”; Dutch maal: “time; meal”). In the study of food in the various disciplines addressing culture and history, the meal is one of the basic central elements in which “eating and drinking are performed and valuations and communications institutionalized” [9. 173].