Dragon Pass cuisine

[MMan]

Warning: You might get hungry while reading this. I know I got

I just bought into the new RQG and I was completely blown away how the art really changed my perception of Glorantha. Previously I had imagined Orlanthi tribes as mix celtic, viking and scottish culture and Lunars as ancient Rome, but the middle eastern visuals really took Glorantha to completely new level. As I love to explore daily life and bring out small details in my rpg campaigns, I immediately started to visualize the whole Gloranthan life from scratch in my head.

One question that I am struggling with is what kind of cuisine does people (I'll limit this to humans now) eat generally and how does the everyday food smell and taste? Is it somewhat analogous to real world middle eastern or indian cuisine, or more to the mediterranean or european cuisine?

Are various spices common or is salt and pepper and herbs all they have?

What are the staple foods on the table? Bread I guess, but do they serve potato, corn, couscous, lentils or something more exotic as their daily carbs? How about drinks? Clearly there is at least wine. Is beer stored in amphorae or in barrels? How about mead? Any other drinks? Tee? Coffee?

Is meat served every day or is it more rare? How about chickens and eggs? There are also plethora of mythical animals and beasts in Glorantha, so is their meat part of the cuisine also? How about their milk or eggs or whatever the creature in question might produce...

How are the tables set during celebrations? Is there dozens and dozens of condiments and sauces etc. with a plethora of exotic aromas and tastes, or is it more like medieval europe festivities with whole roasted pig or lamb or something as the centerpiece? Or something completely different?

I read somewhere that Pelorians eat rice, so does this indicate their food culture is close to real world asian food cultures, like Indian, chinese or indonesian?

Are there any rituals or certain manners that are expected when having a meal? Thanking Ernalda maybe, or blessing the food somehow, or putting part of the food aside to please the spirits? Does runes have any effect to the meals or the cuisine (can't see how but would be a nice touch)?

Or is the food culture the same that is described in every other fantasy rpg out there?

If there exist official information about this, I would like hear about it and have some pointers where to read more. I would also like to hear your ideas and thoughts about how do you see, smell and taste the cuisines of Dragon Pass?

[Stew Stansfield]

Great post! I've always loved the development of food in fantasy worlds.

31 minutes ago, MMan said:

One question that I am struggling with is what kind of cuisine does people (I'll limit this to humans now) eat generally and how does the everyday food smell and taste?

For shame! I can't claim to know much about what the big beardies eat, but shall type this out anyhow while in the mood. I sense people might lose their appetite reading the following, however...

(All In My Glorantha, obviously.)

34 minutes ago, MMan said:

Are various spices common or is salt and pepper and herbs all they have?

For ducks, the principal spice I use is elf-finger (digitus dendrinis). (The name is not figurative: it is actually an elf’s finger. No, elves aren’t impressed with this, either.)

Elf-finger is a component in Fanny Grimbeak's Spicy Slug Sauce (patent pending). Fanny led a life of adventure as a Rune Lord of Humakt until she lost an arm to a gorp in Snakepipe Hollow. After that turn of events she decided that it was a good time to settle down. She sold off her loot and used the proceeds to buy a slug and snail farm just outside Duck Ferry. Here Fanny raises all manner of juicy molluscs: shelled and shell-less, big and small, fat and... well, fatter – and all very, very tasty. She sells the snails at local markets, but keeps the slugs to make her famed sauce.

This peculiar condiment is made from pickled slug squeezings. It is a fiery affair that can be enjoyed with much durulz cuisine, and little clay jars of Spicy Slug Sauce can be found at most establishments along The Stream, and in shops as far away as Boldhome and even Nochet. Its ingredients, in addition to the aforementioned slug squeezings pickled in clearwine vinegar, include garlic, carrots, Stream-sausage root, grated elf-finger, various herbs (including meadowsweet) and a ‘special secret ingredient’ that Fanny refuses to divulge.

Spicy Slug Sauce is made on Fanny’s farm. Come squeezing time, she hires Heortling stickpickers to squeeze slugs for a clack a day. Great cauldrons of slug squeezings are then pickled and mixed with the other ingredients. There have been numerous complaints made to the Duck Tribal Ring on account of the working conditions Fanny imposes on her seasonal workers – but these have all been dismissed, as Fanny is still a runemaster of the cult of Humakt and thus outside normal law.

 

46 minutes ago, MMan said:

What are the staple foods on the table?

Ducks fish—notably the trout and salmon of The Stream, but also freshwater crayfish and anything else around—but especially hanker after worms, grubs and molluscs (freshwater or land). These they can forage for, or even farm. Slugs and snails can grow quite big in the Durulz Valley; and even bigger varieties can be traded for from the trolls in the Darklands. Though these can be quite dangerous and the tables can quite literally be turned if the main course gets lose! Ducks sometimes hire adventurers to go on Grub Hunts for them, to stock up for bigger feasts.

Worms, grubs, slugs and snails—I shall just call them 'wrigglies' from now on, for ease—can be eaten in many ways. Fresh is always good, especially in the form of slug tartare or 'bubble and squeal', which involves quickly placing a line of salt on a slug and placing it in your beak... and keeping it closed for the duration! Wrigglies are also placed in all manner of soups and stews, wrapped in pond lillies and baked in casseroles – or even roasted on a spit if they're a big packbeetle grub. They can be sugared in honey, as candies; or even cured for use on extended waddlings as trail rations. Worm jerky is quite popular – worms soused in vinegar and dried to a consistency you like. One enterprising little fellow in Duck Point runs a stall selling Pot Wriggles: clay jars of dried worms with a sachet of spice, into which you can pour boiling water.

Next to fish and wriggles there are roots. Ducks like to grow vegetables on dry patches of land—notably blue carrots, beetroot and cabbages—but also harvest the starchy roots and rhizomes of a variety of wetland reeds. Some of these are quite good for providing sugars (alongside the usual sources like honey). And then there are the leaves and shoots of a variety of plants, particularly aquatic plants like pondweed.

Other popular foods include frogspawn (which is typically eaten as a sweetened pudding) and tadpoles – the centrepiece of polliwiggle pie, which is eaten on Sartar's holy day.

 

1 hour ago, MMan said:

How about drinks? Clearly there is at least wine.

Ducks love beer. Especially Greydog ale. They can't get enough of it! Admittedly they often float worms and tadpoles in it and drink it like a broth, but... They do drink clearwine, but prefer to let it sour to vinegar. Clearwine vinegar is their favourite method of sousing wrigglies and pickling vegetables (notably pondweed). I suspect ducks drink some sort of weird marsh-tea meets swamproot-beer meets, well... muddy water. But I've not quite formulated my ideas on this yet. I've also pondered pear and carrot cider...

 

1 hour ago, MMan said:

How about... eggs?

HOW VERY DARE YOU.

(And with that I'll break to continue a bit later!)

[The God Learner]

Tusk Riders eat meat. Meat!

 

[Joerg]

Stew's amusing duck cuisine tales aside, Heortling cuisine is of course based on availability of stuff, and that makes it quite seasonal or dependent on preservation methods. As combined agriculture and dairy producers, their produce will dictate the main courses.

 

Seasonings will rely very much on herbs and roots - varieties of onions or leeks, many of them fresh or a bit past their season from ground heap storages. Some will serve as condiments after some form of fermentation. A few flavors might be extracted from otherwise unedible sources by extracing them with oils, vinegars or possibly spirits. Another extraction or perhaps better leeching method might use lime (burnt chalk).

Most of the "exotic" spices imported to Europe are really plant defence mechanisms (poisons) meant to ward off foragers. There will be a few such plants native to Dragon Pass and Esrolia, but I don't really see much of a native spice production here. Teshnos on the other hand may be home to quite a number of unusual plants, and parts of Caladraland might provide somewhat more active ingredients from tree bark or seeds, too.

Salt isn't so much a condiment but a preservative, with the preserved food acting as bearer of that flavor.

 

Let's start with the Earth Season harvest of grain, fruit, and late legumes. All kinds of herbs and roots are available from the previous post-winter seasons, so this is the time of fresh food in over-abundance. The herds may be be brought back from the high pastures into the low ones which by that time may have recovered enough from fire-season hay making to provide fodder until the stabling period begins. Out in the forest, the nut season starts, and pigs are out there to be fattened on beechnuts, acorns etc., promising feasting in the cold times.

With access to fresh milk, all manner of cream or fresh cheese preparations are available to go with whatever grain produce is made. Bread is one option, but requires quite a few steps in preparation, and grain soups or boiled, slightly mashed whole grain may be the base for such dishes.

Grain is a keeper, if stored dry and away from vermin. The milling of the grain into flour can be postponed, whether done in big communal mills or in household querns.

Grain that couldn't be taken in dry is a prime candidate for malting and making beer (one of the staple sources of carbohydrates) or malt which may be used for sweetening bread or groats.

Wine-making starts, whether from grapes, apples, or other fruit. The main other method to store fruit is by drying it, possibly making a secondary use of the heat from kilns or baking stoves. Fruit-bread made of drying fruit mixed with nuts or oil seeds will be a welcome alternative food in the seasons to come which have little or no fresh fruit.

 

Dark Season sees a sharp decline in available fresh fruits and herbs, but will see the first batches of the preservation processes. Some very late fruit will only be collected after they experienced frost, including grapes, blackthorn prunes, and possibly juniper. Some root plants like black salsify are quite late harvests, too, as are certain types of kale. As long as the kale and similar plants keep coming in, there is no hurry to slaughter stabled lifestock. When the heavy snows fall, this reprieve stops, and hay rationing determines the amount of livestock that can be brought through the winter.

Storm Season has more of the same, but will see the unstabling or un-corraling of the first livestock. It will also have early lambing, leading to increased access to dairy.

Sacred Season is the time of both magical questing and of feasting on sacrificial meat. And also the time by which many of the fermented drinks may be brought forward.

The cold time will see quite some consumption of animal fat - butter, but also tallow - to make up for exposure to low temperatures.

 

Sea Season brings back plant growth with a vengeance. Sprouts and fresh leafy plants will replace or add to heaped kale in the vegetable diet. Animal protein will be from fishing or hunting rather than from livestock, although dairy production will be on still quite available, as retaking the higher pastures may take some time. Root vegetables like asparagus offer the first harvests.

Fire Season is the time when last year's grain harvest may run out. Fresh vegetables may make up for this.

 

Non-domestic beasts will contribute meat, especially when migrations can be exploited. Given their rivalry with the sky gods, I suppose that bird catching is fairly widespread in both the autumnal and the spring migrations. Fish migration - most prominently the renewed salmon migration into the Stream - has its own rhythms even in the inland, much more so on and off the coasts of the Rozgali and Solkathi seas. Estuaries and bays may see swarms of fish migrating in to deposit their spawn. Even river folk may join the coastal Pelaskites for harvesting these migrations.

There used to be boar migrations between the Stinking Forest and Tarsh, providing another seasonal hunt event. The aurochs hunts are a part of an almost forgotten past, as no aurochs have been seen in the Pass region for centuries (probably not since the urbanisation that led to Orlanthland).

Mountain antelopes, capricorns (and whatever other terms you can use to avoid saying "goats") will avoid the worst snow, too, making them a hunting opportunity in Dark Season.

[Stew Stansfield]

And to continue...

2 hours ago, MMan said:

There are also plethora of mythical animals and beasts in Glorantha, so is their meat part of the cuisine also? How about their milk or eggs or whatever the creature in question might produce...

The greatest monsters near the Durulz are the quakebeasts. Ducks tend to be very wary of attacking things bigger than them—particularly if you can't ambush them; and no-one's quite worked out how to ambush a quakebeast yet...—so that might not be on the menu. Ducks do use a lot of quakebeast manure for their buildings, however, and collecting it can be a somewhat deadly exercise.

There are plenty of giant eels and watersnakes in the Creek-Stream River however, and these can be scrummy; notably the dangerous thunder eels that the most notorious Duck Point boater gang names themselves after. Eating anything that's an embodied spirit is generally considered bad form, however - and not a little dangerous. Always good to check first! The Upland Marsh is home to all manner of 'marshtucker' ("You can eat these!" swears any duck ranger). Generally it's best not to eat anything bigger than what Delecti would bother turn into a zombie, however. Just in case. I imagine dragonsnails sometimes sneak into the durulz snailfarms, too!

The ducks have generally had pretty fair relations with the Beast Folk to the south—minus the odd Dragon Pass race war event...—and tend to steer clear of foods strong in the Beast rune. Fermented minotaur milk is very popular, however! It is sold—warm, always—in Duck Point to cater to Half-Beasts and ducks alike. Sometimes it is mixed with blood to make Bloodmilk (minotaurs aren't known for linuisitic trickery...), a nice alcoholic milkshake.
 

2 hours ago, MMan said:

How are the tables set during celebrations? Is there dozens and dozens of condiments and sauces etc. with a plethora of exotic aromas and tastes, or is it more like medieval europe festivities with whole roasted pig or lamb or something as the centerpiece? Or something completely different?

I'm actually writing an adventure centred around a duck banquet (and masquerade ball) at the moment. I imagine that for day-today life, the bewildering everything-at-once approach is quite common in duck nests, with a variety of main and side dishes piled around willy-nilly. But, for the purposes of the greatest banquets, I think service à la russe is the way to go. For the simple reason that most participants in duck banquets will be non-duck adventurers, and forcing them to sit through increasingly bizarre and queasy dishes, one after the other, is the way to go. (I am currently preparing a seventeen-course menu, but it's not quite finished yet, sadly.)

 

3 hours ago, MMan said:

Are there any rituals or certain manners that are expected when having a meal?

No dabbling in the soup tureen! But beside that, I suspect ducks are light on what humans would consider 'table manners'.

Many ducks have a strong relationship with the Air rune and are somewhat shameless individuals, so I suspect farting to show your appreciation of a dish—especially if you're lounging in the water and it makes bubbles—is considered good behaviour of any guest.

 

2 hours ago, MMan said:

Does runes have any effect to the meals or the cuisine (can't see how but would be a nice touch)?

Duck menus tend to be annotated in a weird manner. Some dishes and foodstuffs will be marked with the Air rune; others, the Earth rune. These foods are sacred to Orlanth and Ernalda and reference one of the central points of duck cuisine: ballast. Ducks spend a lot of their time swimming, so split food into earthy dishes that promote weight and stability, and the windy dishes that promote ‘gassy humours’ (and gassy humour). Especially windy or earthy dishes might be marked by double—or even triple—runes.

The (in)famous boatduck’s lunch of pickled pondweed (3 x Air), spiced slug sausage (2 x Air) and beetroot chutney (Air) is a very windy dish indeed! The postprandial boatduck requires little effort to keep and their digestion can even provide a little extra propulsion. Alternatively, Duck stews and gumbos (2 x Earth–3 x Earth) can incorporate mud and silt, to help keep you regular, as well as providing weighty ballast. This is rather useful to ducks that enjoy diving or those that simply like to sink to the bottom of a comfy chair and enjoy a good snooze.

Bon appétit!

 

[Joerg]

5 minutes ago, Quackatoa said:

. Fermented minotaur milk is very popular, however!

Now that's interesting, mainly because the minotaurs appear to be one of those male only species, like satyrs or unicorns. Which makes milking them rather naughty.

 

How prominent is duckweed in durulz cuisine? It is a fairly easy to harvest, protein-rich vegetable that is a main staple of their non-anthropomorphic kin's diet.

[Stew Stansfield]

17 minutes ago, Joerg said:

Now that's interesting, mainly because the minotaurs appear to be one of those male only species, like satyrs or unicorns. Which makes milking them rather naughty.

Anaxial's Roster mentions minotaurs being 'of both sexes'. But I don't mind people reading it how they'd like (and I rather hoped they would).

 

17 minutes ago, Joerg said:

How prominent is duckweed in durulz cuisine? It is a fairly easy to harvest, protein-rich vegetable that is a main staple of their non-anthropomorphic kin's diet.

I mentioned 'pondweed' as a catch-all for a variety of soggy plants; duckweed will certainly be in there!

[jajagappa]

And a bit of my writeup on Foods of Nochet, greatest city in all Glorantha where, of course, you can find something from almost any culture (particularly if it's in a pie).

One day, when the daughters were out playing, Esrola got tired and lay down for a while. Kena [“headrest” or “pillow”] is the hill in Nochet where she laid her head. “Grainland” [Esrolia] is where she napped. When she woke she said, “I dreamed that this was the land of grains.” Where she had lain was ever blessed with an abundance of grain.

Agriculture is easy in the well-watered, fertile lands of Esrolia.  With the aid of the earth goddesses and their virile husbands, Esrolia produces vast quantities of grain: some used locally but much brought to the great cities for storage, tribute, and trade.  Esrola herself raised the fields of First Grasses.  Her daughter Esra is here with her sheaves of barley and her husbands: Porridge, Baker, and Minlister the Brewer.  So too is Usara with her oats, Fresala with the wheat, and Suchara who makes the rye.  Later, Esrola shed tears as the Darkness grew and these became the hard corn and blood millet which could grow even without the Sun and allowed many to survive the Long Night.

The God of Change setup the Great Wheel House near Nochet and showed everyone how to turn grain into flour.  Later Harst gathered the Spare Grain and taught everyone how to make the first exchanges.  Then Veskarthan carefully dried the grains with his breath and Asrelia sealed the grains in her jars.  When the Darkness was strong, the Queens taught all to bring the grains and jars to the cities and share the grain to survive.

"Porridge by morning, a pie for midday, bread and beer in the evening to wash all away” – so goes the common rhyme in Nochet that describes the daily food of the commoner. 

Yet Nochet is not just a city of grain.  For pie-mad Nochet that notion fails to reflect the variety of fish pies, shellfish pies, meat pies, fruited pies, and other varieties of and variations on pies that can be found.  Many pies now include an array of spices and herbs from afar ever since the Opening such as the Teshnos-inspired "hotpot" pie that reflects the blazing hot spices included that are all the rage among young noblemen.

Most houses have their courtyard or neighborhood gardens yielding fruit, vegetables, roots, and herbs that supplement their diet.   From orchard lands outside the city come cherries, guava, peaches, plums, currants, grapes, sea-grapes, and other fruits, as well as products from those such as various fruit wines.  Many houses raise small flocks of geese and ducks or a small herd of swine.  And from the great river and the bay come fish and shellfish which are variously eaten fresh or dried, pickled or in some cases pressed for oil.  House Loma is particularly (or infamously) known for their tangy fish oil sauce called lomalalan or more colloquially “Loma sweat.”

From the hilly lands come great flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, slaughtered, butchered, and sold or dried in the stockyards of Tendayvora.  From further afield and across the seas come all manner of luxury foods to grace the meals of the Enfranchised Houses and wealthy merchants.  And from the marshes south of the city and the Rightarm Islands comes the ever derided marsh cabbage, source of many negative slang expressions and said to be fit only for a Duck yet regularly found in everyone’s soups and stews in Seaseason. 

Edited June 1, 2019 by jajagappa

[Joerg]

 

2 minutes ago, Quackatoa said:

I mentioned 'pondweed' as a catch-all for a variety of soggy plants; duckweed will certainly be in there!

Sorry, linguistic preconceptions getting into my way here. Duckweed in German translates as "water lentils", which emphasizes its difference from frondy, frilly or leafy weeds.

[jajagappa]

In the Lunar province of Imther, it's all about cheese, meat, and cider. Imtherian cheeses are a famed export throughout the Lunar Empire, providing a great table addition to the Lunar wines.

Speaking of wine and cider, there was discussion of those in this earlier thread: https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/9118-alcoholic-beverages-of-glorantha/

I outlined some of the Imtherian cheeses, and there was additional discussion on food and grain in this thread: https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/4318-gloranthan-food/

Edited June 1, 2019 by jajagappa

[Bill the barbarian]

14 hours ago, Quackatoa said:

Ducks do use a lot of quakebeast manure for their buildings, however, and collecting it can be a somewhat deadly exercise.

Yeah, but that's just cause there's a lot of quake beast manure.

[Bill the barbarian]

13 hours ago, jajagappa said:

In the Lunar province of Imther, it's all about cheese, meat, and cider. Imtherian cheeses are a famed export throughout the Lunar Empire, providing a great table addition to the Lunar wines.

 

Why do I recall hearing that Pelorians and Dara Happen (ers?) are lactose intolerant?

[Sir_Godspeed]

1 hour ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Why do I recall hearing that Pelorians and Dara Happen (ers?) are lactose intolerant?

It's an idea that's been floating about. Not sure about the canonicity, but it does make some sense for me, to better set them opposed to the pastoral Orlanthi Barbarian belt.

Then again, Six Ages has the myth of Yelm herding his cattle, so who knows.*

(*Granted, herding cattle does not necessarily mean lactose tolerance is prevalent, as evidenced by South- and East-Asia, who, while majority intolerant, still use cattle widely, and produce naturally lactose-reduced products like butter, cheese (to some extent) and ghee).

[Bill the barbarian]

9 minutes ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

It's an idea that's been floating about. Not sure about the canonicity, but it does make some sense for me, to better set them opposed to the pastoral Orlanthi Barbarian belt.

I see, thanx. Thought I recognized that.

[Oracle]

I know, that Claudia Loroff was working a Gloranthan cookbook (see question 6 in the referenced interview), but I have no information about the current state, and if it will ever happen for real (the blog entry is roughly one year old ...).

Edited June 2, 2019 by Oracle

[MMan]

On 6/1/2019 at 3:58 PM, Quackatoa said:

I'm actually writing an adventure centred around a duck banquet

That sounds awesome  I hope you could share your notes about the adventure once you finish working with it. I definitely would like to run something similar at some time.

[Jeff]

On 6/1/2019 at 3:34 PM, jajagappa said:

And a bit of my writeup on Foods of Nochet, greatest city in all Glorantha where, of course, you can find something from almost any culture (particularly if it's in a pie).

One day, when the daughters were out playing, Esrola got tired and lay down for a while. Kena [“headrest” or “pillow”] is the hill in Nochet where she laid her head. “Grainland” [Esrolia] is where she napped. When she woke she said, “I dreamed that this was the land of grains.” Where she had lain was ever blessed with an abundance of grain.

Agriculture is easy in the well-watered, fertile lands of Esrolia.  With the aid of the earth goddesses and their virile husbands, Esrolia produces vast quantities of grain: some used locally but much brought to the great cities for storage, tribute, and trade.  Esrola herself raised the fields of First Grasses.  Her daughter Esra is here with her sheaves of barley and her husbands: Porridge, Baker, and Minlister the Brewer.  So too is Usara with her oats, Fresala with the wheat, and Suchara who makes the rye.  Later, Esrola shed tears as the Darkness grew and these became the hard corn and blood millet which could grow even without the Sun and allowed many to survive the Long Night.

The God of Change setup the Great Wheel House near Nochet and showed everyone how to turn grain into flour.  Later Harst gathered the Spare Grain and taught everyone how to make the first exchanges.  Then Veskarthan carefully dried the grains with his breath and Asrelia sealed the grains in her jars.  When the Darkness was strong, the Queens taught all to bring the grains and jars to the cities and share the grain to survive.

"Porridge by morning, a pie for midday, bread and beer in the evening to wash all away” – so goes the common rhyme in Nochet that describes the daily food of the commoner. 

Yet Nochet is not just a city of grain.  For pie-mad Nochet that notion fails to reflect the variety of fish pies, shellfish pies, meat pies, fruited pies, and other varieties of and variations on pies that can be found.  Many pies now include an array of spices and herbs from afar ever since the Opening such as the Teshnos-inspired "hotpot" pie that reflects the blazing hot spices included that are all the rage among young noblemen.

Most houses have their courtyard or neighborhood gardens yielding fruit, vegetables, roots, and herbs that supplement their diet.   From orchard lands outside the city come cherries, guava, peaches, plums, currants, grapes, sea-grapes, and other fruits, as well as products from those such as various fruit wines.  Many houses raise small flocks of geese and ducks or a small herd of swine.  And from the great river and the bay come fish and shellfish which are variously eaten fresh or dried, pickled or in some cases pressed for oil.  House Loma is particularly (or infamously) known for their tangy fish oil sauce called lomalalan or more colloquially “Loma sweat.”

From the hilly lands come great flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, slaughtered, butchered, and sold or dried in the stockyards of Tendayvora.  From further afield and across the seas come all manner of luxury foods to grace the meals of the Enfranchised Houses and wealthy merchants.  And from the marshes south of the city and the Rightarm Islands comes the ever derided marsh cabbage, source of many negative slang expressions and said to be fit only for a Duck yet regularly found in everyone’s soups and stews in Seaseason. 

Remember the shrimp, crawfish, fish, spices, chilis, emmer grain (not barley), grapes (raisins), and the rest. Flat breads fried in lard, smoked lizard spiced hot enough to make you sweat and put on a stick, coucous made out of emmer grains, you name it. Nochet is the New Orleans of Glorantha. 

[Martin]

Nochet Cuisine

The type of fish and the numbers eaten by the residents is only surpassed by the ingenuity of locals when it comes to recipe variations. These culinary creations have more than doubled in recent times (since 1600) with the rise of the so-called Sesh-Tesh cookery, combing unusual ingredients from all along the coast of Genertela in mouth-watering and often spicy dishes.

Savory rice pudding is a popular breakfast dish with the cooking water—Congee—allowed to cool before drinking later in the day. Oat porridge is also eaten in vast quantities, sweetened with white clover honey traded from the Bee people of Esrolia.

“God-King’s Hair” is especially favored, eaten rolled up in oat pancakes and served with spicy Teshnan dips. Shellfish and meat broth have long been eaten as a main meal of the day, nowadays spiced up to produce a Gumbo. Residents eat lots of sea plants, with sea kale, kelp, and seaweed being regular side dishes, as is a salad of Mirrorweed shoots, which are also eaten boiled and dipped in skullbush oil. Among the more unusual dishes are: Sturgeon eggs on thin oat crackers, dishes of live sand eels, also eaten sugared, and plates of garishly colored, pickled sea cucumbers.

Kalomin tea is often drunk cold in the late afternoon, but the most popular beverages are Karkadai, made from the hibiscus plant, and the multitude of Esrolian white and red wines, and the ever popular, if murky, oat beer. On special occasions, the Esvulari families consume Tusoweo—a sea urchin spirit.

[Jeff]

40 minutes ago, Martin said:

Nochet Cuisine

The type of fish and the numbers eaten by the residents is only surpassed by the ingenuity of locals when it comes to recipe variations. These culinary creations have more than doubled in recent times (since 1600) with the rise of the so-called Sesh-Tesh cookery, combing unusual ingredients from all along the coast of Genertela in mouth-watering and often spicy dishes.

 

Savory rice pudding is a popular breakfast dish with the cooking water—Congee—allowed to cool before drinking later in the day. Oat porridge is also eaten in vast quantities, sweetened with white clover honey traded from the Bee people of Esrolia.

 

“God-King’s Hair” is especially favored, eaten rolled up in oat pancakes and served with spicy Teshnan dips. Shellfish and meat broth have long been eaten as a main meal of the day, nowadays spiced up to produce a Gumbo. Residents eat lots of sea plants, with sea kale, kelp, and seaweed being regular side dishes, as is a salad of Mirrorweed shoots, which are also eaten boiled and dipped in skullbush oil. Among the more unusual dishes are: Sturgeon eggs on thin oat crackers, dishes of live sand eels, also eaten sugared, and plates of garishly colored, pickled sea cucumbers.

 

Kalomin tea is often drunk cold in the late afternoon, but the most popular beverages are Karkadai, made from the hibiscus plant, and the multitude of Esrolian white and red wines, and the ever popular, if murky, oat beer. On special occasions, the Esvulari families consume Tusoweo—a sea urchin spirit.

 

I love it!!! You only forgot the mud-bugs (aka crayfish)!

[Joerg]

Dark Season meals will see a number of weird Greater Darkness survival recipes brought forth for certain festivals, aka human-survivable troll cuisine. It is accepted alternative practice to fast rather than to partake in these dishes, but they will be produced anyway. Quite a few of these have seen recent use in the Fimbulwinter.

Pavisite cuisine has similar dishes, mostly in the Real City and other Rubble survival centers. Some Old Pavisites continue their "cattle raids" on subterranean troll insect herds, while others content themselves to trade for those foods, or may even be treaty-bound to do so.

[soltakss]

We know that Praxians eat herd beasts, although perhaps not every day. I see their food as being similar to steppe nomads and their descendants, so lots of thin soups with some vegetables, roast or barbecued meat, with dairy products, cheese, butter and curds. Drinks might include koumiss variants, but made from fermented herd beast milk rather than mares' milk. They get a lot of their spices and flavouring from the plants of Prax and the Wastes, especially from those growing in Ronance Trackways or around Oases.

Oasis Folk, in my Glorantha, live almost entirely off the produce of their Oasis. Each Oasis has its own special, sacred, crop that grows especially well at the Oasis. Peoplegather the crop, dry it and eat it all year round, perhaps mixing it with other things grown at the Oasis. Some Oasis Folk also raise livestock at the Oasis, but this is surplus to what is needed and not essential. They also trade with Praxians for meat. Spices and grasses used for flavouring also grow at the Oases and some can be quite specific, only growing at one Oasis, so flavourings vary from Oasis to Oasis. Drinks are usually made from the Oasis crop, fermented and stored to age.

Citizens of Old Pavis eat pretty much anything, due to their Pavic Survivor heritage, While this means that they can eat Rubble Runner, Insects and so on, few do, for it reminds them of the Bad Old Days. However, most Old Pavic families have a ritual meal every year where they eat the stuff that they survived on in remembrance of their history. Many Old Pavisites still grow mushrooms underground and grow things like bean sprouts. They catch fish from the Zola Fel and some know how to farm mussels and other seafood on the banks of the Zola Fel, or in specially-designed farms built into the banks of the Zola Fel. Some trade with the elves of the Garden for herbs for flavouring.

Sartarites farm sheep and cattle, Esrolians farm pigs, with some sheep and cattle. They also grow the crops of their Land Goddess, so Esrolians grow barley. I think that people from Dragon pass generally also grow other crops, such as oats and wheat. They certainly have orchards, Apple Lane being the most famous. I see them as eating meat in stews, thick soups, roast meat, oatcakes, biscuits, flatbread and so on. Dragon Pass is very fertile and has a lot of places for growing herbs for flavouring. They drink beer, ale, mead and import wine. Lunars used to bring in gin, but I think that has been depreciated.

Dara Happans grow wheat and rice, Lunars grow maize. They raise goats, pigs, sheep and cattle. I see their food as being similar to North African cuisine, for no other reason than it sounds right to me. 

Grazelanders have herds of horses and eat horseflesh and dairy products, drink koumiss and have a similar kind of diet to the Praxians. However, they also eat cattle, sheep and pihs raised by Vendref and eat the grains grown by Vendrefi, although in my Glorantha they are not themselves farmers or tax collectors, instead their braves travel to a Vendrefi farm as a hunting party and hunt cattle, pigs and sheep that the Vendrefi release. This gives them a far richer diet than Praxians.

Pentians are like Grazelanders, byut don;lt have Vendrefi support. Some Pentians only eat horseflesh, others raise herds of cattle. They drink koumiss and eat dairy products.

[Lord High Munchkin]

I had a long-running RQ3 campaign in which 'Roast Duck with Pelorian Sun Fruit' was a special favourite. A slow roast, to remove the duck's natural "greasiness", flavoured by the insertion of the spherical fruit up "where Yelm DOES shine".

[Sir_Godspeed]

Does Notchet's surroundings have Mediterranean-style citrus and olive groves, or is it too humid for that?

[Joerg]

6 hours ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

Does Notchet's surroundings have Mediterranean-style citrus and olive groves, or is it too humid for that?

More likely too cold, as even Esrolia will see regular winter weeks. Not to mention the recent fimbulwinter that may have taken its toll with such more delicate orchards.

Esrolia is grain land, but will also grow flax (for linen and oilseed), probably some form of rice, a range of vegetables, herbs and plant dyes, fruit and aromatic wood. Citrus fruits possibly are grown in orangeries that are closed in winter and open to the elements in the other seasons. Warm Earth magics might have allowed olive groves prior to the fimbulwinter, but right now those groves need a heck of a lot of magic to get productive again. They just might in time for the great flooding.

Nochet's immediate surroundings are mainly marshland and cemetary. (The t after the o in "Nochet" is pronounced, but not spelled.) The closest agriculturally used land outside the city lies on the northern bank of the Lyksos estuary, visible from Orlanth's Hill or the river dyke. IMO that land west of the Plateau has mostly grain and possibly flax fields.

It isn't quite clear whether the Antones estates have any votive gardening that might also carry fruit.

[g33k]

On 6/1/2019 at 6:36 AM, Joerg said:

Sorry, linguistic preconceptions getting into my way here. Duckweed in German translates as "water lentils", which emphasizes its difference from frondy, frilly or leafy weeds.

Duckweed is a specific group of plants (family Lemnaceae or Lemnoidiae).  This family does include the plant(s?) called "water lentils" -- which is NOT a "lentil" in the legume sense of the word (legumes are Fabaceae).

https://wholesalewaterlilies.com/products/duckweed-lemna-minor-good-turtle-koi-food

https://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Article/2015/04/13/Could-Lemna-water-lentil-be-the-next-big-plant-based-protein

 

Edited June 4, 2019 by g33k
typo.