>OK, if you're bound and determined to know, here you go. And I urge anyone who just ate or is just about to to skip ahead to the next message.
>
>It goes back to the Roman empire. Among the pastimes at the orgies for which they are so well remembered was gorging oneself on food and wine. They wanted to keep going as long as possible, which required periodic purging of the food and drink from their bodies. That's where gorum came in. It was made days in advance and consisted of fish left out in the sun. When the fish liquefied the bones were removed and the remainder stirred into a pudding-like substance. Of course it smelled delicious as well. The revelers would pause to drink some of it, vomit, and go back to the party.
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>Sorry you asked?

The Romans actually used a fish sauce, sounding a lot like you described, heavily in their cooking.

http://www.travelpod.com/cgi-bin/guest.pl?tweb_UID=technotrekker&tweb_tripID=overland05&tweb_entryID=1151506860&tweb_PID=tpod

...Roman salting tanks that sit next to it. In ancient times the Algarve was a large fish supplier and it seems that a by-product of the fish preservation business was 'gorum' - a delectable fish sauce that became their real specialty, evidently supplying most of the Roman empire with the cherished condiment by the second century AD.

I was told quite recently, from a reliable source (QI TV prog in the UK), that the concept of Romans' vomiting between courses, just so one could cram more in, is a bit of an urban myth. I guess they just stopped when they were full, just like the rest of us. It is, after all, quite an unpleasant experience no matter what era you come from.

The term "Vomitorium" referred to voluminous exits in the collisea (as in "can spew lots of people out quickly")

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/021101.html

UPDATE

Just looked the word up and it says "from the old English word 'Gor'". Doesn't say what that was though - I expect like I said before: blood & guts

>
>
>>I guess I got something to google tonite.
>>
>>>I think for once I will show some decorum. It's pretty, well gory.
>>>
>>>
>>>>No I don't. But please fill me in.
>>>>
>>>>>Trivia question: do you know where the word "gore" comes from? (And no, I don't mean Al).

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