Um, is Mona from out East? There's no White Castles anywhere on the West Coast. (Where Paizo is located.)We should have just asked Mona from the start. He's surely hidden at least a few White Castle franchises in strategic Golarion locations.
Whether you consider WC sliders as cheesburgers or not is another discussion. ;)
The Mona finds A Way.
Publisher, Chief Creative Officer
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I grew up in Minnesota, so for about 20 years of my life I was White Castle-adjacent. Three years of college in Boston was, alas, largely slider free save precious return visits to the Homeland.
I returned to Minnesota for a few years and was back in White Castle heaven, but then I got hired by Wizards of the Coast and moved to Seattle in 1999.
Happily, my job involves a fair amount of travel. I have enjoyed White Castle sliders in the following locations.
Minneapolis/St. Paul
Indianapolis (an annual Gen Con tradition, see the above link)
Columbus (a semi-annual Origins tradition)
Manhattan (three visits a year, roughly)
Los Angeles (at an inflatable White Castle in Hollywood erected to promote "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle")
In my opinion, it is sacrilegious to adulterate a proper slider with any ingredient other than bun, "all-beef" patty, steamed onions, and the requisite pickle.
Even a slice of "cheese" is a bridge too far.
I am ultra-orthodox.
Even a slice of "cheese" is a bridge too far.
Thank you so much for the quotation marks there. It improves my confidence in Paizo a lot.
{notices careful lack of denial about WC franchises in Golarion} Looks like it's time to gather a goblin horde and invade the Refuge of Nex for sliders.
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But what types of food could we reasonably expect to find in what parts of Golarion? Smell is a powerful memory key, and describing the unique smells PCs detect (other than manure) when traveling the planes can help set the mood.
Some likely probabilities to get us started:
Most of the Crown of the World probably serves burnt meat on a skewer.
Sushi's probably popular in Tian-Xia.
Hummus in Casmaron.
Lembas bread in Kyonin.
Tea and crumpets in Taldor.
Snails in Galt.
BBQ in Bloodcove.
Ortolan bunting in Cheliax.
Thanks for the info on the cheeseburgers.
But what I was really looking for was examples of culturally-recognizable foods. For example, IRL if a Japanese person finds a store selling cheeseburgers in Japan, they think: "This is American food."
In Golarion, if your character found a food vendor serving sushi off a cart in the streets of Absalom, they'd think "This food's from Tian-Xia." Anything else? The next time I'm GMing a session in Numeria, what foods should the PCs smell when they walk into an inn? Foods that aren't just typical dietary staples found all over the continent, but cuisine that's specific to the region you're visiting.
I don't know that Numeria really has a culinary heritage to draw upon like most of the other nations of the Inner Sea. Brevoy, to the east, is likely Eastern European, so you'd find a lot of Polish/Russian/Ukrainian dishes on the menu, and I personally view the River Kingdoms as basically the Inner Sea's Balkans, but heavily influenced by Galt (France) being so close. Mendev was settled by the same heritage as northern Brevoy and Iobaria, but these days is so overrun by crusaders that you can probably find just about any kind of food you want... which likely applies to parts of Numeria close to the Sellen River, since that's the route the crusaders take to reach Mendev.
When in doubt, however, just pick a country that feels 'right' and make that the ethnic cuisine of the local area. If your players are American, they probably won't know what half the stuff is anyway.
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Well, I'd expect "authentic" Numerian cuisine to be whatever the Kellid people eat. Given their lifestyle, that leads me to suspect mead and roast meats. However, contemporary Numeria is a melting pot of culture, as Mackenzie suggests. There's also probably a burgeoning goo tube black market. Want a turkey dinner but don't have time to prepare? Just squeeze out some Soylent Turkey nutrient paste, and you'll never know the difference!
I generally look at the culture the country is modeled after, then go from there. So like Ustalav? Romanian food. Totally. Galt? French. Cheliax I kinda see as Italy... so yay Cheliaxian pasta (but not pizza... pizza is from Absalom, trying to imitate Cheliaxian food)!!
I generally look at the culture the country is modeled after, then go from there. So like Ustalav? Romanian food. Totally. Galt? French. Cheliax I kinda see as Italy... so yay Cheliaxian pasta (but not pizza... pizza is from Absalom, trying to imitate Cheliaxian food)!!
See, I view Taldor as Rome, and assign Italian food to there, with Cheliax being Spanish. But that's what's awesome about the setting, we can all have our own personal take on the world and nobody is inherently wrong!
See, I view Taldor as Rome, and assign Italian food to there, with Cheliax being Spanish. But that's what's awesome about the setting, we can all have our own personal take on the world and nobody is inherently wrong!
OH wait you are right... I don't know why I was thinking Italy... Spain is more in line with what I think about Cheliax anyway.
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You typoed the thread title. I believe you meant, "Where can gets cheezburger?".
It's too bad we can't post pictures on this forum... but this is for the OP...
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According to Internet memes, Cheeseburgers would come from the Catfolk homeland.
You got that backward.
That's who WANTS HAZ the cheeseburgers.
Somebody else -- we may never know what diabolical mind -- invented them to taunt the Catfolk.
I generally look at the culture the country is modeled after, then go from there. So like Ustalav? Romanian food. Totally. Galt? French. Cheliax I kinda see as Italy... so yay Cheliaxian pasta (but not pizza... pizza is from Absalom, trying to imitate Cheliaxian food)!!
Well, that's one of the issues I mentioned above. While the real world may be a starting point and inspiration, Golarion isn't Earth... and by extension, Galt isn't France, Cheliax isn't Spain _or_ Italy, and the Land of the Linnorm Kings isn't Norway. All of the source countries have been modified heavily for dramatic and thematic purposes, and in many cases don't exist. (Ustalav is not Romania, but the land of every Hollywood gothic horror film ever. It's Frankenstein's Germany -- which was really Switzerland, but who remembers that -- plus the German-speaking regions of Transylvania where Count Dracula was from, plus Larry Talbot's werewolfsburg, plus....)
That's one reason that Cheliax is a good spot for eating ortolan, despite the fact that ortolans are (very) French. They're more associated with the excesses and cruelty of the ancien regime and so don't really fit into post-revolutionary Galt....
I generally look at the culture the country is modeled after, then go from there. So like Ustalav? Romanian food. Totally. Galt? French. Cheliax I kinda see as Italy... so yay Cheliaxian pasta (but not pizza... pizza is from Absalom, trying to imitate Cheliaxian food)!!(Ustalav is not Romania, but the land of every Hollywood gothic horror film ever. It's Frankenstein's Germany -- which was really Switzerland, but who remembers that -- plus the German-speaking regions of Transylvania where Count Dracula was from, plus Larry Talbot's werewolfsburg, plus....)
True, but at least some of the NPCs have Romanian surnames, and plus... there is just the awesome of a werewolf family named Lupescu... So yeah, Ustalav = Romania/Transylvania in my games at least.
{. . .}
If we want to go down this path then the best bet is probably an automatically resetting magical device trap that casts gentle repose on a single square. This will keep the most meat preserved since it isn't space limited like a cupboard would be. {. . .}
(bolding mine above)
AND
Though this would be way more reliable than a commercial freezer. It doesn't break down, need power, or have fluctuation in the preservation of meat. Likely not good for the man on the street, but cheaper than people were estimating.
I can see a potential problem developing, though: A Rogue who breaks in to your pantry will mistake your food stasis cabinet for a trap intended to target thieves, and use Disable Device on it, thus causing enormously more financial damage than the mere theft of food from your pantry or even cash from your register . . . .
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I can see a potential problem developing, though: A Rogue who breaks in to your pantry will mistake your food stasis cabinet for a trap intended to target thieves, and use Disable Device on it, thus causing enormously more financial damage than the mere theft of food from your pantry or even cash from your register . . . .
And this is why we can't have nice things.
True, but at least some of the NPCs have Romanian surnames, and plus... there is just the awesome of a werewolf family named Lupescu... So yeah, Ustalav = Romania/Transylvania in my games at least.
I think you're missing my point. Why does Ustalav have to be a single real place? This is especially important when it's obvious that the designers drew inspiration for it not from a single real place, but from a fairly far-reaching and geographically ill-defined artistic genre.
Similarly, the people in Ustalav should eat creepy Gothic-horror food, which isn't necessarily Romanian food, and they should listen to creepy Gothic-horror music (probably with lots of organs or Young Frankenstein violins), not cheerful Romanian peasant dances.