#fantasy cuisines

[ailelie]

So I've been thinking a lot about cuisine in Astelan. So far it is a mish-mash, but here are the guidelines:

Astelan was formerly part of a sprawling Empire and so has always been familiar with a variety of cuisines, cooking styles, etc.

However, after becoming independent, they did not have a good fuel source because they refused to cut down trees. They were able, however, to figure out how to make ethanol. Ethanol does not burn hot, so they adapted. Comfort food, everyday food, etc in Astelan is stuff that is cooked for hours on low heat. This leads to basically curries, very soft meats, porridges, steamed buns, etc. They also eat a lot of rice.

But, once they found alternative fuels (likely oil) they started baking again. Most stoves are still ethanol-based, but they can fry and bake now. Fried foods are most common at food stalls.

They don't have a lot of wheat and wheat makes many people sick, so they use a lot of flour blends to recreate Imperial treats, like cookies, pies, etc. (Nora is surprised in one cafe at how soft and flaky a pie crust it.)

Cream of tartar (called wine crystals in this because that's basically what it is) is new, experimental, and definitely not Guild-approved.

They are in a warm climate so their primary meats are fish, duck, and goat.

They do have a lot of seasonal fruits.

They store food primarily through pickling and salting.

Cinnamon is a rare spice growing in popularity (largely because it is imported and most people in Astelan don't realize where it comes from).

I haven't figured out preferred flavor pairings yet (e.g., salt-sweet, etc). Ambrose, the crowned prince, likes bitter flavors and loves smoky flavors.

#nora's return #fantasy cuisines

[pencilbrony]

Long takoyaki

#not pony #concept #fantasy #design #takoyaki #food #japan #cuisine #long takoyaki #octopus

[thegoldenavenger]

Fanfic idea called Binghe's Cookbook to Domesticating Your Shishu and the Gimmick is at least one recipe in each chapter that Luo Binghe makes in order to convince Liu Qingge that sitting down and eating is Fun and Normal which is step one of his elaborate plan to get him to be his and Shen Qingqiu's live-in boyfriend.

Fun sequel/spin-offs include: Bing-ge's Cookbook to Seducing Your Transdimensional Martial Family, Bing-mei's Cookbook To Securing Emotionally Healthy Parental Figures, and LiuShen's Field Guide To Reciprocity.

#misc #kamaeteWRITES #svsss #bingliushen #im v tempted to actually write this one #im of the sudden conviction that sqh wrote lbh amazing cooking skills as a(nother) form of fantasy #and pidw had a LOT of gratuitous food descriptions #at first i didnt want to write it bc #that would be too much research into period appropriate chinese cuisine #but 1) i dont think sqh would put that into pidw #and 2) i would actually enjoy most of that research

[mistbornthief]

there's something soooo wrong with him but he's just so...*bites fist*

#its his EYES man jun shison has beautiful eyes and they distract me from the myriad of red flags #yes babe absolutely ill do insane cooking shit last minute for you to serve your weird protag/supporting character fantasy shtick #fermat's cuisine #fermat no ryouri #he calls gaku the protag and i wince but then he smiles and its like :) all is okay actually

[subiysu-chan]

Drow food

Drow fish butchering technique: -Traditionally, the fish is killed via quick decapitation and exsanguination (helped with water). The blood is sold immediately, and most Drow housewives who can afford it would have a small hermetic pot for this very purpuse. A fisher shop would usually have an ash and clay paste for their clients to seal the pot. A dish composed of thinly sliced mushrooms and fish blood, baked in a geothermal oven, is considered a delicacy. -The fish is skinned, in as much of a large piece as possible. While the main butcher skin the main body, the assistant would break open the fish head with a rock to remove the brain and eyes, considered both delicacies, and are sold immediately. Clients would stand in a tight line in hopes of being able to purchase those, extremely fresh. -Next, fins and gills are cut off and generally sold to tavern owners, possibly along with the spine. This is mostly used to make the soups. -Organs are removed. The stomach and blader is thrown out, but the liver, main blood vessle, swim bladder, kidneys, reproductive organs and heart are sold as delicacies onced cleaned. They have to be cooked and eaten right away as these parts rot quickly. The intestines are kept to be sold, but to craftspeople (either tanners or housewives) to be used to make threads as opposed to consummed as food. -The bones are removed, by the main butcher. The assistant would busy himself scraping off flesh from the skull, spine and ribs. The small pieces of meat between the ribs are scrapped as much as possible, and usually turned into a paste that is usually sold fresh and consumed geo-baked by particulars. Fish bones are usually used to make needles and pins. The bones that are too small to be useable would later be crushed into a paste with some maggots, and used in good times as pet food, in bad times as emergency food for drow. -The flesh of the fish is cut into manageable pieces, either sold immediately or dry-aged to be sold later. As they only have access to cave fresh water fish, so all fish would be cooked, either usually in a baked geothermal stew, steamed or grilled. Traditional Drow meals are eaten as follow: -Layer mushrooms are the staple food. -Every day, some packed mushrooms allowed to grow edible molds are the main source of food, as usually eaten as is, at breakfast, lunch and supper, with some fresh water as a drink. Meals are consummed with the entire family at very specific hours, as keeping routines across generation is an important part of honoring the dead. Having a messy eating squedule is considered about as unacceptable as to spit on someone's grave. -Once a week, the family a family would go to consume soup at a taberna. The typical dish is some soup, usually made with not the best water and some dried mushrooms and dried maggots, and eaten with rané. If a family can afford it, better, thicker fish broth with cleaner water and more mushrooms, with on special occasion steamed fish brain and liver. Stews are a luxury. In all cases, it's always eaten with rané. -On special occasions, waiting in line to use a public oven would be preferable, usually to cook a kind of half-boudin, half-gravy dish composed of raw fresh mushrooms and fish blood and organs, baked. For those less fortunate, a little bit of fish meat is baked with mushroom "bread". -Lactic acid fermented foods are reserved to royalty, and even them can only eat this once per year. -Drow, because of how salt-dependant the rané they depend for oxygen are, have cultural taboos about the consumption of salt, and refuse to eat it. -Spiders, small brown bats and cats are taboo to eat, as they are held in high regard as sacred animals or useful companions.

-They have no problems with eating magots. -They would occasionally engage in cannibalism and anthropophagy if the individual is a condemned criminal. Typically, those who are sentenced to execution are eaten after their death as part of the sentenced. -Because of how painful rané consumption is, they would out of politeness eat almost anything, even if it directly harms them (up to a certain extent), but they would never, unless absolutely starving, consume taboo things.

#drow worldbuilding #fantasy cuisine #drow

[heroes-feasting]

Delzoun "Tide-Me-Overs"

“While these are customary consumables at Hornmoot, the traditional human-dwarven trading festival that marks the dawn of Spring, there isn’t a holiday on the eventful dwarven calendar that doesn’t feature these scrumptious meats on the menu.” - Heroes’ Feast, p. 90

Personally, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more dwarven food than the good old-fashioned meatball. 

Heroes’ Feast’s Delzoun “Tide-Me-Overs” bring dwarven kitchens to life with these extremely tasty and juicy meatballs! Leagues better than anything you’d buy at the grocery store, I would absolutely suggest making these yourself.

This recipe is also ridiculously forgiving. Once, I doubled nearly all the ingredients by accident, aside from the meat, and they still came out amazing!

If you don’t eat pork, no worries! They’re just as tasty using only beef!

Check out below for tips and tricks when making this yourself! Get Heroes’ Feast here: https://dnd.wizards.com/heroes-feast

Prep: 15 mins            Cook: 1h 30 mins            Total: 1h 45 mins

Ingredients:

¼ cup (60 ml) heavy cream*

1 egg

2 slices dark bread (such as rye), crusts discharged, remainder torn into pieces**

3 tbsp. (43 g) unsalted butter

1 small onion, finely chopped

Kosher salt

¼ tsp. (2 g) ground allspice 

8 oz (225 g) ground pork

8 oz (225 g) lean ground beef

Freshly ground black pepper

2 tbsp. (8 g) all-purpose flour

1 ½ cups (350 ml) low-sodium chicken broth

1 tsp. (4 g) light brown sugar

1 ½ tsp. (7 ml) soy sauce

½ tsp. (2 ml) fresh lemon juice

3 tbsp. (12 g) finely chopped fresh dill or parsley

* I’ve used both heavy cream and half-and-half with no issues.

** I used Vienna-style Pumpernickel Bread, cut into standard ½ -inch sandwich slices at the thickest part of the loaf.

In a large bowl, whisk together the cream and egg (top-left).

Add the bread, mix well, and set aside, stirring occasionally, until the bread is softened, about 20 minutes (top-right).

Using a fork or sturdy spoon, mash the bread into a paste and set aside (bottom).

NOTE: Apparently, the bread is not what binds the meat/other ingredients together, but works with the milk to give the meatballs moisture and texture! The eggs are the only binding ingredient.

In hindsight, this makes sense, since in baking eggs are a binder…

Meanwhile, in a skillet over medium heat, melt 1 tbsp. (14 g) of the butter. Add the onion and ½ tsp. (3 g) salt and cook, stirring, until softened, about 4 minutes (left).

Add the allspice and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 40 seconds (right).

Remove from heat and let them cool to room temperature. Laying mine in a single layer in the skillet, it took about 10 minutes.

TIP: Don’t be afraid to eat some of the onions to see if they’ve softened enough.

TIP: Cooling my onions in a single layer in the skillet took about 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 475℉ (245℃) with a wire rack in the middle of the oven. Coat a large wire rack with nonstick cooking spray and set it in a large, rimmed baking sheet.

Add the cooled onion mixture, pork, ground beef, baking powder, 1 tsp. (5 g) salt and ½ tsp. (1 g) pepper to the bread paste and, using a large spoon or your hands, mix until well combined and uniform.

TIP: To save yourself time when doing the dishes, line the baking sheet with aluminum foil so you don’t need to scrape any burned bits off.

NOTE: Personally, I didn’t run into this problem while making mine, but it’s important to only mix the meat mixture until everything is just combined. Overmixing will result in stiffer, tougher meatballs.

With moistened hands, form the mixture into generous 1-tablespoon-sized balls (left).

Arrange the meatballs on the rack in the baking sheet and bake until lightly browned, about 20 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through (right).

NOTE: I had to make double the amount of pork/beef meatballs since 8 oz packages of each ground meat were not available. Expect about half the amount of meatballs that you see here if making this yourself.

NOTE: The meatballs will sag through the wire rack a little bit when placed, this is fine!

NOTE: The ones shown above are the size Heroes’ Feast recommends. I wanted them to be a little bit larger the second time I made them, so I went for golf-ball sized. The cooking time stayed the same, but I found the weight of them might have been a bit too much and they lost way more structure than the smaller ones. 

However, that was also the time I accidentally doubled all the ingredients aside from the meat, so I’m sure there was more at play there. Just something to keep in mind. They still came out great though! In fact, they’re the ones shown in the final picture.

Wipe out the skillet used for the onions to remove any stray onion bits, set it over medium heat, and melt the remaining 2 tbsp. (28 g) butter. Stirring constantly, cook until fragrant and a shade darker, 1 to 2 minutes.

Add flour and cook, stirring constantly, until golden, 2 to 3 minutes (top-left).

Switch to a whisk and, whisking constantly, gradually add the broth. Continuing to whisk often, cook for about 2 minutes (top-right).

Add the brown sugar, soy sauce, lemon juice, and ¼ tsp. (0.5 g) pepper and continue to whisk and cook until thickened, about 2 more minutes (bottom).

NOTE: The Heroes’ Feast “cook’s notes” mentions that the sauce will thicken quickly as it cools, and to add extra chicken broth to loosen the consistency.

They’re absolutely right! It’s more obvious in the next pictures but the sauce thickens a lot. It’s also a lot darker than what’s shown in the preview image in the book, so I’m not sure how much extra broth they had to add, but it seems like quite a bit.

Add meatballs to the sauce and simmer, stirring occasionally, until heated through, about 4 minutes (left).

Stir in most of the dill or parsley and taste and adjust the seasoning with additional salt and pepper, if necessary (right).

Transfer to a serving dish, sprinkle with remaining dill or parsley, and serve hot.

Overall, I would give this recipe a 5/5. It was a little daunting since the ingredients list was so long, but once I got started making the meatballs it was actually remarkably simple! They’re really juicy, have great texture, and the allspice-seasoned onions are so tasty!

The sauce is a little awkward to make, but it does add amazing flavour. But, again, the meatballs retained so much moisture you don’t really need a sauce to enjoy them!

Honestly, if you have the time and are sick of store-bought meatballs, definitely give these a try. 

Finally, as I mentioned earlier, you can totally make these with only beef (shown in the final picture above)! They’ll still retain quite a bit of moisture and be super delicious.

#these are also S-tier eaten cold #heroes' feast #heroes feast #dwarven cuisine #delzoun tide-me-overs #heroes feasting #dnd #dungeons and dragons #dnd cookbook #dnd cooking #heroes feast cookbook #fantasy #homecook #homecooking #cooking #dinner #lunch #food #recipes #foodblr

[blackfictional]

culture • cuisine & delicacies in my african fantasy world

#african fantasy #world building: locations #black stories #mood: an african adventure #fantasy #african fantasy ideas #culture & foods #african cuisine #african food #food inspiration #now i’m hungry 😩

[ophexis]

And you know what, for my own fun: I've been meaning to write about these cookbooks for a while even though I'm not sure that would be too interesting lmao but I think I'll make a post about whatever book wins, before i make the recipe. Like what I think about it and whatnot. Obviously I haven't made every recipe from every book but I just really love these books

#Phex cooking adventures #now I think cookbooks can be some of the most interesting books lore-wise to any given franchise BUT #there are definitely a lot of cheap gimmicky ones out there so theyre not all created equal and with love #and I'm personally not super interested in the ones that are based on like...normal life settings with just normal recipes #obviously i know these are all 'normal' recipes with a whacky name but sometimes they put some effort into like #the ingredients used and the presentation AND the lore tidbit so it makes it fun again #anyway i want more settings to spend time exploring their fantasy cuisine and daily life stuff #i guess it'll be like a review??? at least of the visuals and lore and i might link a guy on yt who makes fun reviews of these

[thesmellofkitchen]

Zalewajka mahakamska  -  Mahakam Potato Soup | THE WITCHER OFFICIAL COOKBOOK

#the witcher #witcher #recipe #cookbook #sapkowski #cd projekt red #tv show #book #cuisine #fantasy #hotel gran mahakam #geralt of rivia #food #foodborn

[avaloriainfodumping]

Dwarves and Cave Slime Farming

Dwarves farm cave slimes for food the way we (and other Avalorian peoples) farm normal animals. Cave slime is the major ingredient in a common dwarves dish called Rumikla– it's literally just cave slime mixed with salt and other fictional edible minerals. It has a nice, tangy flavor.

Farmers need to be careful where they raise their cave slimes, as they absorb the minerals from the ground. Many laws were put into place requiring that an area be checked for dangerous substances before cave slimes can be farmed there, after an entire town was nearly wiped out due to them ingesting cave slime that has absorbed arsenic. Thankfully, magic makes checking less of a lengthy endeavor than it would on Earth.

#fantasy world #worldbuilding #writers on tumblr #avaloria #fictional culture #tw food #tw death #tw death mention #tw arsenic #fictional food #fictional cuisine #farming #tw farming #I'm not taking any chances with trigger warnings and neither should you #I'd rather less people read it than someone getting unnecessarily triggered by something they find bad for their mental health #tw poison #tw tainted food

[whump-in-the-closet]

sometimes I’ll make a post catered for one specific mutual

and then feel the deepest sense of satisfaction known to mankind when they fall into my trap

#i feel a bit like a chef #catering very specific whump cuisine #like ‘ah how about some chains and torture chambers?’ #no? ah would you like our special ‘alone in the woods and so fucking lost?’ #perhaps some mafia whump? fantasy? high fantasy? vampires? #‘your wish is my command’

[pencilbrony]

Chinese style pasta

#not pony #concept #fantasy #design #pasta #chinese #cuisine

[ariellewm]

The Cuisine of Zarth

Explore the cuisine culture from around Zarth!

*This is all fictional work*

Dragon's

Naga's (Half Sapien, Half Serpent)

Merphibian's (Merfolk)

Leosapien's (Leonin's)

Tysapien's (Tabaxi's)

Arktosapien's (Bear Kind)

Sapien's (Humans)

Discover more of The World of Zarth! Link HERE!

#cuisine #fantasy world #fictional world #theworldofzarth #fantasy writer

[local-magpie]

it really did take a fae court romance series written by an Indian woman to have all the mentioned cuisine be Indian foods for me to realize ive never actually read a fantasy setting with the kinds of food i eat and never questioned it

like why is it that the furthest ive ever strayed from ye olde white fantasy foods is that one time i let a player in a d&d game invent pizza in the feywild. why is that. literally i dont even represent the foods i eat in the settings i create

#like its all food im familiar with obviously bc im white so i know About Ye Olde White Cuisine #but i dont. eat much of it. #i dont like potatoes much and i dont like beef or pork much #or sandwiches #and i cant eat bread #and i dont really care for mediterranean flavorings #and i avoid mushrooms and cant eat eggs #so i just #largely dont eat anything you find in your standard white fantasy setting #i eat a lot of east and south asian foods tbh #so i got absurdly excited to realize a feast scene was talking about curry #and to recognize samosas even if i didnt remember the name #idk why i never questioned it like #it was just another layer of fantasy to me i guess #also to put a clearer disclaimer on this post #I Am White #my tastes just line up really well with a lot of asian flavor profiles #being nonspecific bc it really isnt specific i take a lot of inspiration from japanese indian and thai foods but i dont exactly limit myself #yelling at the void

[victorianrob]

Arte varia!

#angolidiarteefantasia #art #arte #arts #angolidifantasia #fantasyecomics #fantasy #good taste #taste #cuisine #cucinaearte #cucina #popeye

[castielheartless]

Cooking with Ignis and Sora.

#dessin #drawing #digital art #fanart #kingdom hearts #final fantasy xv #sora #ignis scientia #ratatouille #cuisine #castiel heartless creation