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Fantasy Food Culture

Fantasy usually has that bit where there's some feasting to be done. An old cliche, perhaps, but for the food lovers out there, always nice to read about it. Seeing as food is quite important to cultures as is, with their own cliches to go with them. And not just cultures, be it the cowboy roasting beans and beef over the campfire pan or spaghetti in the local Italian restaurant. So, do you put it in as a minor detail or as something that comes up fairly often? And what sort of fantastical additions comes to it?

Is dragon flambe on the menu? Magical puddings (that are, hopefully, not sentient and also hungry)? Triceratops roasts? Some far more unsettling things? And how does it tie into the culture around them? And possibly recipes?

And to volunteer a bit, I'll use the southwestern sea elf culture in Eld. As it's the most developed. Obviously heavy on fish and sea food. Though with a mix of French/Creole/Cajun in addition to it. Heavily spiced at times and with a more haute cuisine for the Merchant Lords and their like. They are as likely to have snail as gator and drakes along with lot's of fruits due to the orchards. They also have lot's of sweets and cakes around as they have a trade port and sugar cane around. Rum is the usual drink of choice beside mint juleps, sweet teas and lemonades. It does go off a bit in other neighborhoods where the likes of naga-kin and other monster races are at. Just as likely to get sausages as live rodents of unusual size.

I admit, not the most inventive and the culture itself revolves around celebrations and parties. And is a favorite haunt for those who just want to get away. Albeit to fantasy New Orleans.
 

Peat

Sage
I have a friend who comes up with bbq recipes for fantasy creatures. Maybe I should persuade him to make a book of it...

Anyway, yes. I am a glutton, and believe food speaks heavily of place. I'm definitely going overboard on the cuisine in my current book and what the MC eats will both provide a track to his own mental health (the more he cooks himself, the healthier he is) and will provide a plot point, in that certain characters are from different parts of the country, and him cooking a meal for another character that reminds them of home will be part of a reconciliation.
 

ApaCisare

Scribe
I haven't given food enough though in my world building and it is something I really need to address.
This is probably due in part to me putting off dealing with the ecological element of my world, working out how the different biomes and ecologies work across the world.

Your post has made me think about it now, however. I might finally get around to detailing with my world's food!
 
@ Banten,

I actually did take a look at that thread a while back. Just didn't want to necro a two year old one. I quite like food too, hence the thread. And some books descriptions of it are always nice, be it Redwall and the many feasts in it or Martin laying it on a little thick in aSoIaF. Fantasy offers some different avenues as does sci-fi. Even if sometimes the intended food tries to eat the characters back.

@ Peat, any chance he puts them up online? Somewhere out there, there's got to be pegasus hot wings to go with the ribs. I actually have one recipe (lost several others) of a gumbo from said sea elf culture. And cooked it. Minus the more fantastic things in it. Or the little addition that during times of famine, about not asking what's really in it.

@ Apa: That's cool. Glad to inspire a little. I admit, most the food came later as I tried to flesh out the races and the cultures with them. Even if a lot of it seems to be some form of meat, salted and spiced while cooked and with some vegetables on the side.
 

elemtilas

Inkling
I have explored foodways of several cultures of The World.

Here I'll make mention of Mentolatian Cuisine from an article on various foodways:

Mentolatian cuisine is best known for its wide variety of barbecue styles and also for its use of stuffed and filled breads. Wheat, corn, rye and rice are the most typical grains used in making bread, and breads are made in a dizzying array of shapes, forms and patterns. Of those, rice tends to be used for thin wrappings while corn is used for thicker wrappings and wheat for loaves or flatbreads. A typical stuffed roll is first formed into a small loaf and then injected with the desired paste. Mentolatian stuffed breads are well known in the Eastlands, and are made very simply. The most common kind consists of small loaves that are literally injected with filling; the other kind consists of larger constructions that involve layering ingredients on flat dough and then folding or rolling the dough.

Fillings for the injected loaves tend to be meat, bean and salty cheese pastes sometimes mixed with vegetables; for the folded kinds, whole or sliced meats, cheeses and sliced vegetables are used. Pureed fruits are also injected into loaves.

Bread bowls are very popular for thick stews and thinner broths alike. Typically, the patterns for the bread tins and often the general shape of the loaves is dependent on the region the bakery is in. Shallow lipped bread platters are used to serve thick stews, while thicker walled bowls are used to serve creamy or thin soups. Some bowls are rather tall and narrow, and these are sometimes used for common soups and plain broths.

Fruits are eaten as hors d'oeuvres, sometimes honied and sometimes baked into small flattish tarts or open faced pies.

Fruits and sweets are not considered to be proper dessert foods. Cheese is considered the desert base par excellence, especially light or slightly bland and creamy cheeses. Sweets, as typically conceived elsewhere, don't figure prominently in Mentolatian deserts, though the basic cheese used is often lightly sweetened. Honey is used frequently as a sweetener, but is always paired with a basic cheese. Certain fruits are sparingly used at dessert, they are always paired with cheese.

Vegetables in the form of various tubers and root vegetables are used as side dishes and garnishes, as well as common additions to soups and stews. Mentolatum has no native tradition of mixed green salads. This whole concept was borrowed from the Rumnians via Auntimoany, and they have made it their own. Mentolatian innovation involves adding all kinds of fruits, vegetables, cheeses, nuts and cream sauces to their salads. A common salad cream: sauce mayonaise ii, prepared mustard i, tomato ketchup i, pinch of salt.

Meats are the mainstay and star of Mentolatian cuisine. It has been said that if something can walk, crawl, swim or fly and is not a bug, it will end up on someone's dinner plate. Especially as barbecue. Barbecues and slow cooked dishes are the most popular. Meat is only very rarely fresh roasted, and is never served unseasoned. Eating a lump of unseasoned, freshly roasted meat is considered to be synonymous with being a barbarian. Meats are therefore almost universally marinaded or else dry rubbed. Marinading can take anywhere from three days to a week, while pickling in brine can last up to a fortnight. Meats can also be dried or smoked. Slow cooking at low temperatures in a specially made crock oven is perhaps the second most popular way to prepare meat dishes, second only to slow cooking over several days. Meat can also be prepared with marinade and then breaded and baked or fried.

Among the Mentolatians a favourite food is stuffed breads, particularly egg stuffed -- small bits of sweet or savory pastry-like bread that has been filled with different preparations of egg. Often hard or soft boiled, or scrambled. Sometimes the eggs themselves are stuffed with something else, like cheese or minced meat or sugar cream filling. Sometimes wrap the egg with bacon and then bread.

Noodles of various kinds are considered to be a kind of very long, very thin bread, and are thus also common in Mentolatian cookery. Noodles most often find their way into soups of various sorts. Try some Uncle Cho's Capsacin Delight tonight, for that down-home burn-your-eyes-right-out-of-their-sockets flavor! Or perhaps some Aunti Lang's Nine Yard Noodle Dish, with that knob of extra spicy butter they put in down at Uncle Ruftam's. In order to more easily eat their noodle soups, the Mentolatians use a kind of curious little clockwork device called a clockwork noodle entwirler: wind it up and, if the spring doesn't go sprong, it will twirl the noodles of your Uncle Mang's Three Noodle Delight with perfection. (As you may have guessed, this dish contains, indeed, three véry long noodles!)
 
I love food, so naturally this is going to be a major focus in many of my stories. In the current one not so much, but in others i'm planning...

One notable fantasy food waiting for its place in a book is dinner rolls served in upside down baskets because they are lighter than air and will float up to the ceiling if you let them go.

It would be great fun to come up with food cultures for my many races and cultures, but i haven't given much thought to it yet tbh.

My friend and I brainstormed ideas for fantasy/magical candy one time. Some of the things we came up with were candies that let you spit fire for a few minutes after eating them, candy that changes your hair/eye color for a few minutes after eating it, and strings of candy crystals that glow like Christmas lights and make your mouth glow. More novelty than food, though.
 
I have explored foodways of several cultures of The World.

Here I'll make mention of Mentolatian Cuisine from an article on various foodways:

Mentolatian cuisine is best known for its wide variety of barbecue styles and also for its use of stuffed and filled breads. Wheat, corn, rye and rice are the most typical grains used in making bread, and breads are made in a dizzying array of shapes, forms and patterns. Of those, rice tends to be used for thin wrappings while corn is used for thicker wrappings and wheat for loaves or flatbreads. A typical stuffed roll is first formed into a small loaf and then injected with the desired paste. Mentolatian stuffed breads are well known in the Eastlands, and are made very simply. The most common kind consists of small loaves that are literally injected with filling; the other kind consists of larger constructions that involve layering ingredients on flat dough and then folding or rolling the dough.

Fillings for the injected loaves tend to be meat, bean and salty cheese pastes sometimes mixed with vegetables; for the folded kinds, whole or sliced meats, cheeses and sliced vegetables are used. Pureed fruits are also injected into loaves.

Bread bowls are very popular for thick stews and thinner broths alike. Typically, the patterns for the bread tins and often the general shape of the loaves is dependent on the region the bakery is in. Shallow lipped bread platters are used to serve thick stews, while thicker walled bowls are used to serve creamy or thin soups. Some bowls are rather tall and narrow, and these are sometimes used for common soups and plain broths.

Fruits are eaten as hors d'oeuvres, sometimes honied and sometimes baked into small flattish tarts or open faced pies.

Fruits and sweets are not considered to be proper dessert foods. Cheese is considered the desert base par excellence, especially light or slightly bland and creamy cheeses. Sweets, as typically conceived elsewhere, don't figure prominently in Mentolatian deserts, though the basic cheese used is often lightly sweetened. Honey is used frequently as a sweetener, but is always paired with a basic cheese. Certain fruits are sparingly used at dessert, they are always paired with cheese.

Vegetables in the form of various tubers and root vegetables are used as side dishes and garnishes, as well as common additions to soups and stews. Mentolatum has no native tradition of mixed green salads. This whole concept was borrowed from the Rumnians via Auntimoany, and they have made it their own. Mentolatian innovation involves adding all kinds of fruits, vegetables, cheeses, nuts and cream sauces to their salads. A common salad cream: sauce mayonaise ii, prepared mustard i, tomato ketchup i, pinch of salt.

Meats are the mainstay and star of Mentolatian cuisine. It has been said that if something can walk, crawl, swim or fly and is not a bug, it will end up on someone's dinner plate. Especially as barbecue. Barbecues and slow cooked dishes are the most popular. Meat is only very rarely fresh roasted, and is never served unseasoned. Eating a lump of unseasoned, freshly roasted meat is considered to be synonymous with being a barbarian. Meats are therefore almost universally marinaded or else dry rubbed. Marinading can take anywhere from three days to a week, while pickling in brine can last up to a fortnight. Meats can also be dried or smoked. Slow cooking at low temperatures in a specially made crock oven is perhaps the second most popular way to prepare meat dishes, second only to slow cooking over several days. Meat can also be prepared with marinade and then breaded and baked or fried.

Among the Mentolatians a favourite food is stuffed breads, particularly egg stuffed -- small bits of sweet or savory pastry-like bread that has been filled with different preparations of egg. Often hard or soft boiled, or scrambled. Sometimes the eggs themselves are stuffed with something else, like cheese or minced meat or sugar cream filling. Sometimes wrap the egg with bacon and then bread.

Noodles of various kinds are considered to be a kind of very long, very thin bread, and are thus also common in Mentolatian cookery. Noodles most often find their way into soups of various sorts. Try some Uncle Cho's Capsacin Delight tonight, for that down-home burn-your-eyes-right-out-of-their-sockets flavor! Or perhaps some Aunti Lang's Nine Yard Noodle Dish, with that knob of extra spicy butter they put in down at Uncle Ruftam's. In order to more easily eat their noodle soups, the Mentolatians use a kind of curious little clockwork device called a clockwork noodle entwirler: wind it up and, if the spring doesn't go sprong, it will twirl the noodles of your Uncle Mang's Three Noodle Delight with perfection. (As you may have guessed, this dish contains, indeed, three véry long noodles!)


Fascinating!

I don't know why books on writing advice say don't overdescribe food. Overdescribe the food. Make me hungry. It will enhance my experience of the book.
 

Peat

Sage
Meats are therefore almost universally marinaded or else dry rubbed. Marinading can take anywhere from three days to a week, while pickling in brine can last up to a fortnight. Meats can also be dried or smoked. Slow cooking at low temperatures in a specially made crock oven is perhaps the second most popular way to prepare meat dishes, second only to slow cooking over several days.

That can't be easy in an army on the move! Not quite sure why bumped into my head.

That's one hell of an effort though.
 
My favorite thing to do when developing food culture, is to look at what my culture would have access to, and then devise from there.

For instance, if Alira is largely a sea state, they'd have access to a lot of fish. their main meals, then, would likely feature fish. But if they had robust and ongoing trade with Kathat, who had an agriculture based economy specializing in vegetables, then their cuisine would likely be heavy in veggies, too. Wild Game and herbs are always staples in every cultural diet I create, but they often play smaller roles in the cuisine compared to their main export- derived from a combination of location, access, and economy.
 
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