# Fantasy Cuisines



## Ban (Dec 17, 2015)

I value food very much. There i said it. I think about food and what to cook a large part of the day and love to be creative with it. I am lucky to have some sense of mental discipline to control my cravings otherwise i would be large enough to not fit through my own front door.

Now that i have that out of the way. Do any of you have specific cuisines or dietary habits for your fantasy species or cultures? To me diets are a defining point of what makes a species and all of my sentient races have different foods they eat as opposed to humans. One of them is fully carnivorous. One race lives primarily on fruits and the occasional fish. One eats primarilt seaweeds and shellfish. These differences are representative of both their physiolgy and living environment. Currently i am thinking about the different cultural cuisines.



Also yes, i am a master of procrastination.


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## Heliotrope (Dec 17, 2015)

Oh my gosh Banten, I swear you and I were separated at birth lol.

I'm a giant foodie. Thankfully not actually giant, like you said. Training for adventure races makes sure of that. But boy do I love food. Like you I think about it most of the day and love to cook. When I travel I am more interested in the food then in the history or art (terrible, coming from someone who lives and breathes history). I will research restaurants in advance, but I also love when I stumbled across a hidden gem. 

As far as my writing, yeah, I have to try to limit the food porn. I could go all tolkien and describe every dish. MineOwnKing wrote a post a while back about adding depth to your world building by having each town/village have their own sort of food/beverage etc. He was talking about how craft breweries have sprung up like crazy, and every one is so proud of their local brew. I do that. People have traditional meals, but then also local craft brewers and farmers and regions where they prize their corn or their honey or whatever so the food and beer or spirits will reflect what is harvested in that community and everyone thinks their 'whatever' is the best and some places are known for things more than others.

Edit: I just noticed that was a huge run-on sentence, but I'm going to leave it for effect. That is how I get when I discuss food.


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## Ban (Dec 17, 2015)

Heliotrope said:


> When I travel I am more interested in the food then in the history or art (terrible, coming from someone who lives and breathes history).



There might be something to your separated at birth theory haha.

I like that idea of every little group being proud of their own local food and drinks. For now i have only a broad idea of the foods and drinks in the human cultures. For example, one of my northern forest dwelling humans are heavily inspired by germanic cuisines. They drink high quality light beers and eat substantial amounts of pig and cow meats. Another northern human culture are plains dwellers who drink a black, watery drink that is very alcoholic. I think that such a drink represents their hard way of living very well.

 I should really start thinking more about this. What would a secluded tropical fishing city drink for example? I suppose a fruit based, creamy beverage that is light in alcohol.


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## Tom (Dec 17, 2015)

Ooo, a food thread! One of my favorite things to do when I'm travelling (or at home too) is to try as many new foods as possible. Because I have a short attention span, I'm not the greatest cook, but I love trying out different recipes. My latest foray into the culinary world was pumpkin bisque a while ago. It turned out pretty good, through some improvisation with maple syrup, curry powder, cinnamon, and fresh ginger. (Trust me, they may not sound good together, but when you put them in pumpkin bisque the result is mindblowing.)

To be honest, though, I don't really include a lot about food in my writing. Mostly I treat it as a necessity, to be mentioned but not expounded on. Lately, however, I've been thinking about the ways different cultures prepare food, and I want to introduce that insane variety into my stories and tie it into my cultures' differing values. 

It's also interesting to consider how a culture's unique circumstances influence how they prepare and view food. I'm really fascinated, for example, by the way a lot of Asian cuisine has this sort of "layering" of tastes, and you have to eat all of the tastes combined to get the full effect. To me, that approach to food compliments a people I have whose culture has a very big focus on balance. Then there's the Northern European approach, which is focused less on taste and more on survival. A culture's treatment of food says a lot about what their priorities are. 

It's a cool idea to bat around. Plus, it'll help me through those times when I'm bored of setting up the plot and introducing important pieces of characterization. 


P.S. If you hadn't noticed yet, everything redirects by default to anthropology for me...


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## Heliotrope (Dec 17, 2015)

Banten said:


> I should really start thinking more about this. What would a secluded tropical fishing city drink for example? I suppose a fruit based, creamy beverage that is light in alcohol.



I would think a fermented fruit drink, like Amarula. Amarula is an african liquor and is created when the Amarula fruit falls off the trees and is left to ferment in the heat. The elephants eat the fermented fruit and get drunk off if it. Pretty high alcohol content. I would think you would have some happy tropical people


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## Ban (Dec 17, 2015)

Oh i noticed that and i approve!

If it wasn't for the study that i do now, i would have been studying cultural anthropology now. 
Good idea on the layering. I am northern european myself and have never left the continent, so while i certainly eat a lot of non-european foods i never put much thought into how they are made and prepared traditionally. My mind usually resorts to the typical dutch way of cooking, which means put everything in a single pot and mash it together. Thinking about foods that are supposed to be separately served yet eaten together in one bite without being mixed in advance is slightly alien to me  but it's cool.


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## Ban (Dec 17, 2015)

Oooh that sounds nice! Kind of like a creamy rum i would guess. South africa can always be depended on to make nice foods and drinks i should really go there if i ever have enough money. They also speak Afrikaans which has its roots in Dutch, so i'd be able to speak my language for once 

Btw at first i thought you wrote "happy tropical friends" and i thought to myself. How does she know i'd love that sort of drink?


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## Tom (Dec 17, 2015)

My family is mostly Northern European in ethnicity, and we've kept a lot of the traditional dishes that are, indeed, put in a pot and mashed. I can see why our cultures cook that way--it's easy, and it keeps everyone fed.  

My favorite cooking method derives from that one, but I also like throwing in some non-traditional ingredients. I put cayenne pepper in mashed potatoes, for example, and fruit such as cranberries and blueberries in beef stew. Just enough of an unexpected element in a familiar dish can make it taste totally new. Of course, some of my more "experimental" dishes are barred from family get-togethers, due to the chance they might throw off some of our more traditional relatives, but whatcha gonna do.


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## Ban (Dec 17, 2015)

Oh yes i love experimenting too. It doesn't always work out great... I tried making an union, bacon, shrimp, carrot, union, snap bean, creamy soup the other day. Don't make that mistake haha.

Hot potatoes might be an interesting idea for a unique culture. Or at least for my upcoming cook book, which will come out somewhere in the next millenium... if i may use it ofcourse.


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## TheKillerBs (Dec 17, 2015)

Banten said:


> Do any of you have specific cuisines or dietary habits for your fantasy species or cultures?\



You mean to tell me that there are people out there who _don't_ think about what kinds of foods their fantasy characters would consume?


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## Tom (Dec 17, 2015)

Hey, along the lines of food, I've been thinking about a meal my MC is served when staying overnight in a lakeside town. Just wanted to see if everyone thought it sounded good. 

So the meal is baked lake trout seasoned with some garlic and onion, and topped with blueberry sauce and mint leaves. On the side there's flatbread spread with herbed goat cheese, and the whole meal is served with cherry mead. 

So? What do you guys think?


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## Penpilot (Dec 17, 2015)

I think like any aspect of world building food can add--pun intended--flavor to your world. :S wah-wah-wah *sad trombone noise*

It's also probably one of my most underutilized world building tools in the old toolbox. I'm a sidekick to a top ranked foodblogger. In the last seven years or so, I've been to--according to his blog--over 700 different restaurants. And what have I learned? To be fat.


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## Ban (Dec 18, 2015)

Tom Nimenai said:


> Hey, along the lines of food, I've been thinking about a meal my MC is served when staying overnight in a lakeside town. Just wanted to see if everyone thought it sounded good.
> 
> So the meal is baked lake trout seasoned with some garlic and onion, and topped with blueberry sauce and mint leaves. On the side there's flatbread spread with herbed goat cheese, and the whole meal is served with cherry mead.
> 
> So? What do you guys think?



It sounds good to me. This seems like a meal that someone with money to spare would buy on a holiday. The flatbread with cheese sounds wonderful. I do not know how mint would taste in combination with blueberries or trout, but the rest is solid. If this is a wealthy fishertown with vaguely Western or northern Europeanish culture than it fits well at least in my mind.




Penpilot said:


> I think like any aspect of world building food can add--pun intended--flavor to your world. :S wah-wah-wah *sad trombone noise*.



I laughed too hard at that.


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## Miskatonic (Dec 19, 2015)

One thing George RR Martin does that annoys me is describing the food in unnecessary detail whenever somebody is eating. Unless what the characters are eating is unusual, I could care less how the food was prepared and what side dishes accompanied it.


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## Heliotrope (Dec 19, 2015)

Miskatonic said:


> One thing George RR Martin does that annoys me is describing the food in unnecessary detail whenever somebody is eating. Unless what the characters are eating is unusual, I could care less how the food was prepared and what side dishes accompanied it.



See, I love that  I would love to have a game of thrones party and eat stuff from the book. I'm not kidding that I actually skim through the book to read the food parts.


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## Ban (Dec 19, 2015)

Miskatonic said:


> One thing George RR Martin does that annoys me is describing the food in unnecessary detail whenever somebody is eating. Unless what the characters are eating is unusual, I could care less how the food was prepared and what side dishes accompanied it.



This is blasphemy, this is Madness!

No, THIS IS CUISINE!


As Heliotrope said as well, this is one of the things that adds so much flavour (pun intended) to the world. Fantasy is not merely a setting for a story in my opinion. To me fantasy is a way to explore new and exciting places, peoples, ideas, moralities etcetera, from the comforts of my home. So the mundane things like what the people eat is what i like the most. 

Every story has been written or thought already, but not every dish made


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## valiant12 (Dec 19, 2015)

I like describing food especially when I can use the food description to give some information about the characters and their culture. 
For example, one minor character cook very unique dishes  inspired by the traditional cuisine of her very cold homeland but enhanced with mediterranean ingredients which are common  in the kingdom where she lives. On the other hand my main character sucks at cooking and only cook when is absolutely crucial to his survival. 

Cuisine in my word is vary a lot depending on the geography and climate.
In the island where the majority of the plot unfold there are a lot of forest which provide a lot of wild berries, wild game, mushrooms and honey. The main character is from a place with very few forest, and warm pleasant climate suitable for producing wine and fruits. Both places are good for raising cereals and fishing. Another interesting place in the world is a seemingly endless grassland where the local humans hunt and herd different large herbivores. Their diets are based on meat and milk with some regional differences.


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## Tom (Dec 19, 2015)

Banten said:


> It sounds good to me. This seems like a meal that someone with money to spare would buy on a holiday. The flatbread with cheese sounds wonderful. I do not know how mint would taste in combination with blueberries or trout, but the rest is solid. If this is a wealthy fishertown with vaguely Western or northern Europeanish culture than it fits well at least in my mind.



Got it in one--now you get to pick a prize.  

The meal is served in the home of a relatively wealthy town elder, and was prepared specifically to impress important company. The town itself is pretty well-to-do, being located on a lake with rich fishing, and also sitting at a major crossroads that gets a lot of throughfare. The culture has heavy Greek influences, but because of their northern location I couldn't include Mediterranean ingredients in their cuisine. I'm improvising with ingredients grown and made in my region. 

On a side note, mint is awesome! I chose it to compliment the blueberries, countering their sweetness with a bit of spice and coolness. Personally, this is one meal I've invented that I would _love_ to try. Especially the goat cheese. I've never had it more than once or twice, but it is _so good_.


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## skip.knox (Dec 20, 2015)

One angle you might consider along these lines is that regional preferences can be strong--so strong, people can get sick eating another's food.

The historical example I have in mind are pilgrims to Jerusalem. North Europeans would come through Venice (sometimes Otranto), then go by ship to the Holy Land. Those north Europeans would actually pack food (dried meats, for example) so they would not have to dine solely on that horrible (from their point of view) Italian food. That butter / olive oil divide runs very deep.


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## Addison (Dec 21, 2015)

My W.I.P is an urban fantasy where the magic elements are not secret. So that really opened up the list of ingredients and menu items. On my recent revision I went through and had to delete a scene where the characters are in a burger joint, one character orders a Blue Manticore burger, another orders Lightning Strips. (Chicken strips seasoned/cooked by Lightning Bird energy). 

I had a lot of fun with the menu and stuff. So really take a good look at your world. Does the dragon NEED to sit and rot after it's been killed or can the flesh be eaten? Some farmers have cows, could one have hippogriffs? And don't forget other ingredients. There's fresh river water and there's water from a nymph's river. There's flame-grilled peppers and there's salamander charred peppers.


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## ascanius (Dec 21, 2015)

I have a few things that are worth thinking about.  First save for the very wealthy food was a product of necessity and as such the means to acquire food was just as valuable.  What I mean is take the pig for example, the entire pig was used, even the skin.  In Italy they have a dish called cotechino which is basically a type of salami made from the cutaneous tissue of the pig along with the snout, feet, gristle, spices and salt.  It is cooked, usually by boiling then eaten.  Now depending on the region of Italy a porridge like condiment is used called pearÃ  made from old stale bread that is ground or diced, water and a good helping of pepper.  They are both delicious.  Another one is a type of congealed blood sausage, that is salted, spiced and cooked, this is one that isn't done anymore.  Or they would take the bones of the pig boil them to loosen up the meat, place the bones on a plate in the center and pick the bones clean, also very good.  My point with this is that throughout history people ate what foods were available to them and could not afford to let anything go to waste.  With the pig, everything was used, even the bones to make broth.  Now during hardship and war this really increases. My grandmother makes a salad from dandelion leaves, horrible and very bitter when raw, but very good when cooked right.  The dandelions and many other grasses that were edible were picked clean from the countryside during the second wold war, so to were cats.  Rabbit is a very common food in Italy and many other countries, birds the size of robins where captured and eaten, horse meat is very good.  Also one last thing, and anyone who has spent time in Italy will know, bread in Italy is a mandatory thing to have at the table it's more important that wine and water.  In a lot of places food is very dependent of the season too, in the summer certain foods are eaten that are not eaten in the winter, hell oranges are a late fall fruit not summer.

I would really like to read about these types of dishes, the dishes based on necessity.  The extravagant dishes that the rich eat are fun but show so little about the world.  I think it's why Italian food is so well known, because they could take simple sometimes the discards, and make something mouthwatering.


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## arboriad (Dec 21, 2015)

Sheesh, this thread has me salivating.  I've always loved food in writing, particularly in the Redwall series. It goes a long way to make a scene more immediate, and use more senses in description.

In the last couple of years, I went from cooking pancakes to roasts and Asian cuisine, and do all the cooking for my family.  An interesting journey with a lot of overdone chicken, but loads of experience and a renewed desire to give food a bigger role to play in providing action to a scene.


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## Ban (Dec 22, 2015)

I have a minor question for you guys. 

I was thinking of one of the cultures in my main story. They are a fairly advanced (16th-17th cent european tech) society living in a warm jungle land close to the sea. They are traditionally hunters and gatherers, who have only advanced to their current status in the last few centuries. My intention is for them to sugar their meats and fish to preserve them instead of salting them. Does this sound eatable to you? And do any of you know of any real life examples of this being done.


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## TheKillerBs (Dec 22, 2015)

It sounds doable, and sugared meats aren't unheard of (glazed ham comes to mind). The real question is, though, why would a culture that lives so close to the sea not brine their meats and fish to preserve them instead of using sugar?


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## CupofJoe (Dec 22, 2015)

Very edible but not very preservative. 
Salt was used to keep food edible and not really for the taste 
[unless you can get Salted Cod soaked in milk - which is delicious! Almost sinfully so :devil: imho]
If you can find some Elizabethan recipes, then you might see that they were very much in to sweet foods. And lots of fat as well.


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## ascanius (Dec 22, 2015)

diabetes here we come.  Anyway, I don't know how much you know about preserved fruits such as jams and jellies, but sugar can be used as a preservative.  However, I don't know how well it will work for meats.

Ok there are two main things needed to preserve food, which means to retard, delay or more ideally stop the growth of harmful bacteria or fungus.  Bacteria need a few things to survive and thrive.  
The right temp, too hot and they are killed (but some produce spores that can survive very high temps), too cold and their rate of growth and reproduction slows or even stops.  why refrigeration, freezing, and boiling both work to preserve food.
Moisture is also very important, they need moisture that is not too acidic or basic (remember were talking about bacteria not the clade archae).  With moisture the solute concentration is also very important.  The cell membrane of a bacteria(include cell wall) is a semipermeable membrane which means certain ions, water, sugar, salts, proteins, etc. can pass through.  Now osmosis is the principle that the solvent(the substance in-which another substance usually water is dissolved)  will pass from an area of low solute (the substance being dissolved)  concentration to an area of high solute concentration until an equilibrium is achieved.  What this means for our bacteria is if there is a high solute concentration outside the cell, the water will move from the inside of the cell to the outside of the cell until the concentration of both internal and external solute concentration are equal (equilibrium).  That is not a problem for normal water or salt water(depending on the bacteria) the bacteria can survive.  However if the concentration of external solute is very high the solvent(water) will again move through the semipermeable membrane of the cell wall to the external high concentration of the external solvent at a much greater rate.
                       Ok as an example.  Bacteria a has A solute concentration of 15% solute to water  internally.  externally 20 percent solute to water.  So the water inside the bacteria will move to the outside until the internal concentration is 17.5 percent solute and externally is also 17.5 percent solute.                Now bacteria B has an internal solute concentration of 15% solute and 80% solute per liter externally, guess what happens.  In this case the water inside the bacteria moves to the outside until the solute concentration inside the bacteria is 100% solute and no water.  while external solute concentration is lowered by 15% to 65% solute.  the bacteria becomes dehydrated and all metabolism stops.
                                       This is a very simplified example and explanation, and you may be wondering why doesn't the water go back to lower the 100% concentration of solute in the bacteria.  remember bacteria are very very small and the usually container is usually measured in liters, its the difference between having 100trillion salt ions outside the cell and only 1000 inside the cell.  I hade to keep this simple without getting into calculations no one would understand.   Enough sugar, salt, or almost any ion in solution in very high concentrations work in this manner.

bacteria also need oxygen(not all but for the vast majority that are a problem to humans they do), if all oxygen is removed the metabolic pathway cannot complete and will stop at a mid point, thus vinegar, it's usually and acid but not always.  

Fungi have similar needs though due to cell structure and a more complex cell structure, they are eukaryotes after all, they fare much better in dry, or even acidic conditions, conditions with a high solute concentration.

I really suggest looking at food preservation, even wiki has a good overview that is probably easier to understand.  the basic idea is this though.

bring the temp to extremes(very hot or very cold), isolate(no oxygen), Increase solute concentrations(salting, sugar, minerals, ions), and for those who like cheese, and alcohol, introduce a lot of benign bacteria or fungi so the harmful are two few and quickly get wiped out.


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## Heliotrope (Dec 24, 2015)

My husband sent this to me the other day. Thought it appropriate to share  

Big, Bold, Wild: We Re-Create Christmas Dinners Of Centuries Past : The Salt : NPR


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## NerdyCavegirl (Jan 2, 2016)

I LOVE food. I love cooking it and eating it, especially when my parents or I cooked it. It's a wonder that I'm underweight. I have a strong interest in botany, gardening, herbology, nutrition, cooking, biology, and sensory gratification, so preparing a meal that is both healthy and tasty from the very beginning to end is an art form for me. I even enjoy making the cookware from scratch. Can't say I'm an expert, but I made some damn good soups over the past few weeks. I have a fondness for one-pot meals and enjoy challenging myself with limited ingredients. Food is a very personal way I connect with my characters, as both a sensory fantasy and a window into their environments and lives. One of my races has a very high caloric requirement due to pyrokinesis and other reasons, and it's fun to help them find a way to survive. Some struggle to get by, some have large trade routes and all kinds of goodies, but it's all just a great way to add depth and realism.


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## Ban (Jan 21, 2016)

I shall use the power of necromancy to revive this thread!

I have decided to assign national drinks to the nations and countries in my main world. The result of this is that I now seem to have 2 beer/wine fault lines throughout the world, without actually planning it in advance. The lines seem to separate both the southern and northern regions in the world (the beerdrinkers) from the central wine drinking lands. Two nations now also have a white wine/ red wine rivalry going on, which fits in well with their historical grievances. The more alien lands in the world have their own unique, sometimes dangerous, concoctions. 

Do you guys have any suggestions?


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## TheKillerBs (Jan 21, 2016)

My first thought was that root-based and stem-based alcohols (such as traditional potato-based whisky and sugarcane-based rum, respectively) were missing. But then I began searching around, and came across this. Really, really interesting.

Also all alcohol carries with it a certain degree of danger.


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## Ban (Jan 22, 2016)

Good point. I have two large chains of tropical islands, surely I can grant one of those the gift of Rum. Perhaps I can implement whiskeys and the like in one of the westernish countries that already have a national drink. Who's to say they can't have two national drinks, right?

Oh and I didn't properly explain why these drinks are dangerous, I suppose. Most are dangerous not for the alcohol level, but because of other ingredients. One culture makes a pseudo "wine" out of fermented fish and grasses. More help on some of these crazy beverages would be very appreciated as well.


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## valiant12 (Jan 22, 2016)

Do you have indian people in your world?  You can research some indian drinks for example;
Desi daru - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And your nomads can drink  Kumis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## Ban (Jan 22, 2016)

I actually do have both a nomadic mongolish people and a few vaguely indian cultures. I had already included Kumis in the world but I have never heard of Desi Daru before. It seems interesting though. From what I quickly glance it seems to be a tropical moonshine type of alcohol. Thanks.


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## Bruce McKnight (Jan 24, 2016)

I put way too much time into determining the food for my kingdoms. Each has different specialties based on what's in their region. The north coast eat a lot of eels and mushrooms, which the other kingdoms find disgusting. Another kingdom eats mostly seafood, but they never season it. In the south, where they grow lime and oranges, everything gets cooked with citrus. In the mountains, they eat a lot of garlic and the miners revel in how much they repulse everyone else. You can tell where someone is from by what they eat.

Of course, hardly any of this ever makes it into any stories, but I'm a compulsive world-builder, so it's all there.

And I know I've mentioned it on here before, but the book "What Kings Ate and Wizards Drank" by Krista D Ball is awesome - my all time favorite world-building book.


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## Ban (Jan 27, 2016)

Devouring Wolf said:


> That's something I should probably work on, but I legitimately have no idea how normal people think about food.



Constantly, but I don't know if I am the average or the outlier in this particular subject.


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