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If you're trying to give Chelaxian food an ancient Roman feel then your first stop is Garum, a condiment made from fermenting fish guts in brine then adding spices. Apparently the Greeks and Romans used the stuff on everything.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garum
It's better known today in it's modern incarnation, Worcestershire Sauce.
Also, see if you can find a good translation of the Apicius, a surviving example of an ancient Roman cookbook.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apicius
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If you're trying to give Chelaxian food an ancient Roman feel then your first stop is Garum, a condiment made from fermenting fish guts in brine then adding spices. Apparently the Greeks and Romans used the stuff on everything.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garum
It's better known today in it's modern incarnation, Worcestershire Sauce.
Also, see if you can find a good translation of the Apicius, a surviving example of an ancient Roman cookbook.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apicius
Funny, I'm actully serving a soup made of "Fermented fish served with a sauce made of octopus ink"
I also might go for roasted mice, stuffed with fried larva.
Huitlacoche is about as gross as blue cheese. In other words it's tasty. That picture made it look foul though.
Probably the most famous description of a meal in Latin literature is the Cena Trimalchionis. It is a banquet and particularly theatrical, so if you are looking for interesting and dramatic courses to serve, rather than everyday fare, it is easily the best source to look at. It would be an excellent source for exotic dishes if your character wanted to prepare a lavish feast. There are tons of bizarre courses - an example:
Seeing us look rather blank at the idea of attacking such common fare, Trimalchio cried, "I pray you gentlemen, begin; the best of your dinner is before you." No sooner had he spoken than four fellows ran prancing in, keeping time to the music, and whipped off the top of the tray. This done, we beheld underneath, on a second tray in fact, stuffed capons, a sow's paps, and as a centerpiece a hare fitted with wings to represent Pegasus. We noticed besides four figures of Marsyas, one at each corner of the tray, spouting out peppered fish-sauce over the fishes swimming in the Channel of the dish.
Here's a link to the chapter in which the meal begins:
http://www.igibud.com/petron/satyr/satyr05.html
There's a link to further chapters at the bottom of each page; the meal goes through ch. 10 in this translation's divisions.
If you are looking for less exciting, more everyday fare, Google ought to be able to provide some information on everyday Roman cuisine.
That's very nearly all of them.
Anyway, the Romans ate a lot of street food since most people in the city didn't have ovens (similar to today's cities). IIRC, they were the first to make hamburgers though they had pinenuts in them and I can't remember if they put them in buns.
It is my personal goal to taste every edible animal on the planet before I die.
A good friend of mine, while walking through a zoo, once looked at the tapir and said "That animal looks delicious. I want a steak now."
You're reminding me of this encounter.
It is my personal goal to taste every edible animal on the planet before I die.
Come to China.
More insights into Roman "Queasine" can be gained from the inspirational dining habits of Emperor Vitellius, as chronicled by Suetonius in his "Lives of the Twelve Caesars". Here are some relevant bits:
"[13.1] Vitellius was principally addicted to luxury and cruelty; always separating his meals into three sittings, sometimes four; breakfast, lunch, and dinner - and drunken revels. He being easily capable of of all of them by his custom of vomiting. He invited himself for each meal to another person on a given day, and individually they paid not less for the ingredients than four hundred thousand sesterces cash. [2] The most famous, above all the rest, was an arrival dinner given to him by his brother, in which it is said that two thousand of the choicest fishes, and seven thousand birds were served up. This he himself also exceeded, with the establishment of a dish which, on account of its immense size, he was accustomed to call "The Shield of Minerva City-Protector". In this were tossed together the livers of pike, the brains of pheasants and peacocks, the tongues of flamingos, and the entrails of lampreys; all of which had been conveyed from as far as Parthia and the Spanish straights by the warships and triremes of the entire empire.
He was not only a man of an insatiable appetite, but would gratify it likewise at unseasonable times, and with any garbage that came his way. So that at a sacrifice he would snatch from the very fire meat and cakes, and eat them on the spot. When he travelled, he did the same at the inns upon the road, whether the meat was fresh dressed and hot, or what had been left the day before and half-eaten."
~ Inspiring, no?
And as you can see, Vitellius maintained an impressive physique quite in keeping with his dining habits:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pseudo-Vitellius_Louvre_MR684.jpg
In game, my hunter/trapper took the albino alligator we killed, tanned the hide and then was about to cook up the meat when he realized that the troglodytes it had been living with had rubbed off on it. Fortunately, the wizard covered that up with prestidigitation.
It is my personal goal to taste every edible animal on the planet before I die.Are you going to ask the GM "How does it taste?".
Remember Purify Food and Drink will greatly increase the number of things you can eat.
I mean in real life.
I would destroy on Fear Factor.
So the black troll isn't just a name but also a statement? ;)
More or less. I have eaten all the basic things you seen around you. Cat, dog, rat, squirrel. I got most of the local insects out of the way early, as I pretty much tried to eat every animal I could get my hands on as a child.
Awesome.
Tell me about the Rat. That sounds like a good way to make my players squirm.
Well seasoned, I hope, and preferably dead before eating.
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watch Life of Brian and all your roman Queasine questions should be answered.
The bizarre foods Sicily episode probably had some good ones you are looking for: tuna heart & sperm, gourmet cow mouth, chocolate rabbit, and cow spleen sandwiches are just a few
The word is "Cuisine"(means Kitchen in French) not "Queasine".
Is that so?
Yeah ,sorry.....should have clicked the link.
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More or less. I have eaten all the basic things you seen around you. Cat, dog, rat, squirrel. I got most of the local insects out of the way early, as I pretty much tried to eat every animal I could get my hands on as a child.Awesome.
Tell me about the Rat. That sounds like a good way to make my players squirm.
It tastes a bit like soft turkey jerky.
Best animal I have eaten so far is rabbit, and I used to eat a lot of it when I was younger, as we raised rabbits.
It is my personal goal to taste every edible animal on the planet before I die.
Stop by my house on Labor Day, I'll have some lion steaks for a few friends of mine to try
I forget which book but it had this quote.
Take 1000 larks remove tongues, discard larks and sauté tongues in garlic and butter.
Seriously Worcestershire sauce is nothing like garum - the closest I can think of is Thai fish sauce and even that is not close enough.
I recommend watching Hestons Roman Feast and The Supersizers Eat Roman (you can find them on YouTube).
I read recently that in Zimbabwe, due to hyperinflation and concurrent food shortages, they let no part of any beast go to waste. At street side markets you can buy bags of chicken feet and beaks. These are cooked up into a broth, affectionately termed "walkie talkie" by the locals.
That doesn't sound that unusual except to western tastes. Chicken feet (and beaks IIRC) are eaten elsewhere, and for most of history, no one would waste any part of an animal unless they really couldn't find any use for it (and then they probably fed it to the dogs).
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I can't speak for Roman cuisine, but I can speak for Chelaxian tastes. In The Sixfold Trial, the second part of the Council of Thieves adventure path, it describes a feast that the PCs are invited to that is particularly decadent. I'll reproduce the six-course meal in full detail here:
Course 1, The Feast of the Gluttonous Wolf
This course consists of beef marrow fritters, boiled side of axebeak, loach flavored with spices and sage, eels in jelly, and smoked fillet of giant gar set in jellied aspic.
Course 2, The Worshipful Hog
This course consists of roast peacock, thick broth with salty strips of worg flank, fresh chuul soup served with Chelish black bread, and a roast dire boar of such size that it takes 12 bearers to bring it in to the Garden.
Course 3, The Fat of the Land
This course consists of honey-roasted hogfish, venison, sturgeon, and lampreys in hot sauce. In addition, a vast caravan of fruits and breads, olives, jars of curious pickles, huge stuffed peppers, figs, dates and honeycombs is offered as well.
Course 4, The Dance of the Engorged Vulture
This course consists of whole roast baby squid served with honey sauce, minted lamb with fresh vegetables, sauced hatchling alligator, tureens of cod spawn in garlic, and leveret stewed in wine and parsley.
Course 5, The Ambrosial Serpents
A particularly unsettling course that involves the guests eating live serpents that have been gorged on drugged mice and other mind-altering substances. The snakes are harmless, but people not expecting them might be shocked upon discovering living reptiles upon lifting a platter's lid.
Course 6, The Insatiable Hungers
This last "course" consists of exotic tobaccos and potent liquors that deliver the coup de grace, rendering many guests insensible and resulting in what can only be called an orgy.
I'd say this is a nicely decadent menu, no? It may also be worth noting that while Cheliax certainly does have seemingly Roman qualities, in terms of culture they're a lot more like the Italian city-states of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. So looking at medieval feasts and what they had may help you.