Fantasy Cuisines

[Ban]

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.

 

[Heliotrope]

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.

 

[Ban]

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.

 

[Tom]

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...

 

[Heliotrope]

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

 

[Ban]

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.

 

[Ban]

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?

 

[Tom]

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.

 

[Ban]

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.

 

[TheKillerBs]

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?

 

[Tom]

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?

 

[Penpilot]

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.

 

[Ban]

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.

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.

 

[Miskatonic]

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.

 

[Heliotrope]

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.

 

[Ban]

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

 

[valiant12]

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.

 

[Tom]

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.

 

[skip.knox]

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.

 

[Addison]

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.