Ban submitted a new blog post:
Foodbuilding as Worldbuilding — Creating Fantasy Cuisines
by Karstenberg
The foods we stuff down our gullets reflect the society we have established, the way we live our lives, and even our attitudes towards food itself. A society reliant on cheese must have established the necessary production and transport networks, while a person subsisting on caviar and champagne is unlikely to live the life of a wandering barbarian.
What you eat reflects who you are and your position in the world. As high-tech residents of the modern world, many of us can afford to not think about food in any depth. But would a hunter-gatherer struggling to survive be able to do likewise?
Where you are born also shapes your tastes and food norms. What is considered normal in one culture may be seen as exotic in another. Imagine then how different the eating habits of a fantasy race must be?
Like all things fantasy, fantasy food has the right to be fantastic. Centaurs and orcs should not need to eat the same as humans, and neither should elves, dwarves, pixies, or eldritch monsters.
To spread my foodbuilding obsession to the rest of the fiction world, I have written a short 4 part guide to helping you build a unique culinary world for your fantasy races. I hope they will help you build some wonderful (or horrid) foods for yourself and readers to immerse themselves in.
Continue reading the Original Blog Post.
Foodbuilding as Worldbuilding — Creating Fantasy Cuisines
by Karstenberg
The foods we stuff down our gullets reflect the society we have established, the way we live our lives, and even our attitudes towards food itself. A society reliant on cheese must have established the necessary production and transport networks, while a person subsisting on caviar and champagne is unlikely to live the life of a wandering barbarian.
What you eat reflects who you are and your position in the world. As high-tech residents of the modern world, many of us can afford to not think about food in any depth. But would a hunter-gatherer struggling to survive be able to do likewise?
Where you are born also shapes your tastes and food norms. What is considered normal in one culture may be seen as exotic in another. Imagine then how different the eating habits of a fantasy race must be?
Like all things fantasy, fantasy food has the right to be fantastic. Centaurs and orcs should not need to eat the same as humans, and neither should elves, dwarves, pixies, or eldritch monsters.
To spread my foodbuilding obsession to the rest of the fiction world, I have written a short 4 part guide to helping you build a unique culinary world for your fantasy races. I hope they will help you build some wonderful (or horrid) foods for yourself and readers to immerse themselves in.
Continue reading the Original Blog Post.
Maester
Minstrel
