99 meals of Golarion

[Gark the Goblin]

There are a few threads collating information about meals in Golarion. But any culture worth its salt has entire books devoted to cooking. Until we get the "Food of Golarion" player companion, this thread is a place to list fan-made things people might eat in the Inner Sea and beyond.

I'll start:

1. Peach slices on honey-soaked sunflower seed focaccia - a popular dessert in western Arcadia, where peach trees originating in Minkai are the current rage

[TimD]

2. Mediogalti Rum Cake - traditionally served with almonds. Be wary if the almond taste seems overly "bitter".

3. Kortosan Pot Feast (aka Absalom Fondue) - made popular by legends that Aroden in his merchant guise re-introduced this Azlanti dish in an effort to subtly unify many of the factions within Absalom. It's popularity has spread through the Inner Sea and now bubbling pots of oil, cheeses, or broth can be found bringing the various folk of the Inner Sea Region together in gastric familiarity.

[Ouachitonian]

I hear there's a lot of debate in Andoran as to whether Augustana-style huge, foldable slices or Almas-style deep dish pie is the better pizza. Absalomians point out that pizza was invented by Aroden.

[Ventnor]

5.) For reasons that most people can't comprehend, goblin-style bug-cakes are considered a delicacy in some parts of Varisia.

6.) Soylent Gold is one of the most famous food products from the island nation of Hermea. No one has, as of yet, figured out what its ingredients are.

[I'm Hiding In Your Closet]

7. Spring Surprise - a chocolate confection that packs a unique punch, very popular in Nidal...!

[Lemartes]

8.) Someone's heart - A quick snack for the orcs in the Hold of Belkzen. Usually prepared with an axe.

[I'm Hiding In Your Closet]

9. Fish-cream sandwiches: Made with heavy cream mixed with pureed fresh eel on dense sesame buns, as well as whatever additional ingredients are added as the local/seasonal variant, these curious sandwiches have recently become a massive craze in Taldor, Andoran, and southern Kyonin, where fish-cream sandwich parlors are popping up like mushrooms in every significant settlement and have become a go-to gathering place for many of the young and trendy. Heavens only know why.

[MageHunter]

10- Tarantulas are probably a delicacy in some areas. Maybe the darklands.

[TimD]

11. Vallenhall Ceviche - said to have been brought south by those who hail from the Linnorm Kings' lands and in turn to have been brought there from Arcadia this dish's recent increased popularity in Magnimar has brought it to the attention of many other areas. The Korvosans insist that theirs was the first recipe of this type and that it is best made with reefclaw, especially by the survivors of reefclaw attacks and thus best served cold.

[tonyz]

12. Varisian Mushroom Casserole, with at least 14 different varieties of mushroom, 11 secret herbs and spices, and cream from three or more domestic animals (one of which is an animal companion or witch's familar), carefully cooked with the right enchantments of taste and nourishment.

Plus dill. Lots of dill.

[Dale McCoy Jr]

13. Brevoy-Style Owlbear Steaks.

Originally created in Rostland, this dish is rarely enjoyed solely by the nobles but now anyone that can kill an owlbear and can afford the salt makes this. Owlbear meat is notoriously tough, but the most tender part is just under the spine. This meat is then sliced to inch-thick steaks and crusted in salt. After sitting for an hour it is grilled until the outside has a beautiful sear and then baked until the inside is cooked but still tender (rare, if it we're beef).

14. River Kingdom Bandit Owlbear.

Any part of the owlbear cooked on a spit over an open fire until the juices start to flow out of the meat.

[I'm Hiding In Your Closet]

15. Jalmerayan Wish Sandwich: A 'wish sandwich' is a kind of sandwich where you have two pieces of flatbread, and wish you had some meat...which is often enough to get you some, because you're in the Kingdom of the Impossible!

[Lemartes]

Not really surprised that the heart meal isn't the least appetizing on the list.

[TimD]

I'm apparently having way too much fun with this thread...

16. Sarusan Surprise - more a term than a meal: any meal that the host or cook forgot that they were actually the one who was supposed to prep the meal and threw something else together or had to run out to get food from elsewhere. Sarusan Surprise is never the meal that was planned by the host or expected by the guests, unlike a Cinderlands Bake or a Sivanah Special.

17. Cinderlands Bake - more a term than a meal: any meal that the host or cook forgot that they were cooking the meal and it ended up just barely edible. This term may also be used when referring to a meal that is normally prepared rare, but instead prepared well-done.

18. Sivanah Special - more a term than a meal: much like a Sarusan Surprise, only the host or cook actually acquires the expected meal from elsewhere and takes credit for its creation.

[Duiker]

Just a shameless self plug, but in the River Kingdoms edition of Wayfinder (#15) I wrote a piece on the cuisine of the River Kingdoms, if you're interested.

[CorvusMask]

19. Various insect based tengu culinary - Always offered to incredulous humans as "What, you disrespect our traditional meals?". While tengu do eat what birds in general do, they mostly do that to troll humans as everyone clearly prefers steak.

[TimD]

20. Galtan pan-fried fish - mixed asparagus and various styles of fish, popular in Taldor, but frowned upon in Galt where the Gray Gardeners and Revolutionary Council don't approve of the humorous "Step 1 - cut the heads off of EVERYTHING" that every written copy of this recipe begins with. Originally known as the Hosetter Hot-Fry before the originator of the recipe met their fate with Bloody Jaine.

[UnArcaneElection]

This seems to be the least old thread to necro about food on Golarion, so here's a start with a video about Medieval English peasant food that would presumably be found in parts of Golarion having similar ingredients available -- actually seems pretty good(*).

(*)At least, as long as you can get good water to go with it so that you don't have to drink ale or beer.

Edit #1: Here's some noble cuisine.

Edit #2: More on Medieval food, including the connection with Medieval physicians.

Edit #3: Medieval food of intermediate social status.

[Set]

CorvusMask wrote:

19. Various insect based tengu culinary - Always offered to incredulous humans as "What, you disrespect our traditional meals?". While tengu do eat what birds in general do, they mostly do that to troll humans as everyone clearly prefers steak.

[tangent] Ha! Reminds me of an old Star Trek novel, 'How Much for Just the Planet,' where one of the three people on a long-ranged survey mission was an avian alien, and every day, just to annoy / disquiet the others (who, after six months alone together, soundly hated each other), he would eat some version of eggs. [/tangent]

As long as it's here, might as well contribute;

21. Dwarves in the Five Kingdoms sometimes eat the traditional snack from long before the Quest for Sky, what is colloquially called 'chicken of the deep.' Fried giant centipede. The flavor is surprisingly piquant, because they sear the meat in it's own venom. (Cook too long, it's blah. Cook for too short a time, it's still toxic. Just saying...) For some reason, 'Five Kingdom's Style Chicken' has become a craze among the servitor class of Druma, although the white-clad Kalistocrats won't touch it.

[Potto]

22. Street Satchels - more of a vehicle for other ingredients than a meal in itself, these tasty dough pockets can be found on almost every major street in Absalom. Originally invented by a enterprising Pathfinder agent, who used to sell these simple snacks filled with rice, dates, and pork for some pocket change in between missions.

Nowadays the fillings and the exact way of preparation varies from seller to seller and from district to district. One stall might sell steamed crab pockets while the one next to it is peddling dwarven-style fried satchels with mushrooms and mince. However, the general pocket-like shape is a tradition that no self-respecting street cook would seek to break.

Despite the history of the street satchel, it's always been most popular with the permanent residents of Absalom. Amusingly enough, this has lead to some sellers specializing in using ingredients that preserve well, allowing for departing Pathfinder agents to grab some tastier rations as they leave.

[UnArcaneElection]

Potto wrote:

22. Street Satchels - more of a vehicle for other ingredients than a meal in itself, {. . .}

Funny you should mention that. One or two of the videos about Medieval English food that I linked above mentioned that some things like pie crust were more for packaging of the stuff inside than to serve as food themselves, despite the general theme in Medieval food preparation of attempting to avoid all waste.

[Master Valdemar]

Paizo writers if ye be reading this, give us a food splat book please.

You've whetted our appetite in APs like War of the Crown, Council of Thieves and Hells Vengeance and made us salivate in the Tavern collection.

But an actual, Cultural based cookbook with dedicated feats, archetypes and more would be incredibly awesome. Not to mention hilarious in the characters it'd inspire.

Rangers who hunt only the most succulent prey, Alchemists seeking that very, special blend of spices, Bard's who perform with cooking displays and clerics who literally heal with comfort food.

The possibilities are endless.

Also, for my own contribution?

Goblin Bites.

Take leeches, make them feed on pig blood then pan-fry the whole thing after patting them in flour. Add garlic and other seasoning to taste. A popular peasant dish in the more swampy regions.

[Gark the Goblin]

25. Grilled river cichlid in groundnut sauce with plantains, classic meal of a Bonuwat tribe on rivers in the Bandu Hills of the Mwangi Expanse.

I would definitely appreciate a Foods of Golarion book, if only to sort out which food plants have been developed in which continents.

[Gark the Goblin]

An attempt to (begin to) organize food origins in Golarion, based on this page, with the assumptions that African crops would have surfaced in Garund, American crops in Arcadia and Azlant, European/Middle Eastern crops in Avistan and Casmaron, Asian crops in Casmaron and Tian Xia, Austronesian crops in Tian Xia, and Australian crops in Sarusan. I add in the assumption that more than 7000 years of recorded history is enough time to develop these real-world crops within currently inhabited regions.

1. Oats (Middle East) - Avistan, Casmaron
2. Wheat (Mediterranean/Middle East) - Avistan, Casmaron, Tian Xia
3. Barley (Mediterranean/East Asia/Middle East/Americas) - Avistan, Casmaron, Arcadia, Tian Xia
4. Cattle (Middle East/Indian subcontinent) - Avistan, Casmaron
5. Rice (SE Asia/Sahel) - Casmaron, Tian Xia, Garund
6. Pea (Middle East) - Avistan, Casmaron
7. Turmeric (Indian subcontinent/Austronesia) - Casmaron, Tian Xia
8. Sugarcane (Indian subcontinent/Austronesia) - Casmaron, Tian Xia, Garund
9. Sugar palm (Austronesia) - Tian Xia
10. Potato (South America) - Arcadia, Irrisen (presumably imported from Earth rather than Arcadia)
11. Maize (Mesoamerica) - Arcadia
12. Bean (Americas, Mediterranean, Asia) - Arcadia, Azlant, Casmaron, Avistan, Tian Xia
13. Squash (Mesoamerica) - Arcadia
14. Lentil (Middle East) - Avistan, Casmaron, northern Garund
15. Chickpea (Middle East) - Avistan, Casmaron
16. Flax (Middle East) - Avistan, Casmaron
17. Rye (Middle East) - Avistan, Casmaron
18. Sorghum (Africa) - Garund
19. Coca (South America) - Arcadia
20. Llama (South America) - Arcadia, Azlant, Avistan
21. Alpaca (South America) - Arcadia
22. Guinea pig (South America) - Arcadia
23. Banana (Austronesia) - Casmaron, Tian Xia, Garund
24. Cotton (Mesoamerica) - Arcadia, Garund
25. Orange (Asia, Australia) - Avistan, Casmaron, Tian Xia, Sarusan
26. Sweet potato (South America, Austronesia) - Arcadia, Tian Xia
27. Manioc/cassava (South America) - Arcadia, Azlant
28. Turnip (Europe) - Avistan, Casmaron
29. Fig (Australia, Americas, Middle East, Mediterranean) - Sarusan, Arcadia, Azlant, Avistan, Casmaron)
30. Tomato (Americas) - Arcadia
31. Chili peppers (Americas) - Arcadia
32. Peppercorn (South Asia, Austronesia, Australia) - Casmaron, Tian Xia, Sarusan
33. Millet (Asia, Mediterranean, Africa) - Casmaron, Tian Xia, Garund, Avistan
34. Acorn (Americas) - Arcadia, Azlant, Avistan
35. Water chestnut (Austronesia) - Tian Xia
36. Kola (Africa) - Garund
37. Coffee (Africa) - Garund
38. Taro (Austronesia) - Tian Xia
39. Date palm (Mediterranean, Asia) - Avistan, Casmaron, Tian Xia, Garund
40. Sunflower (North America) - Arcadia, Azlant

[Gark the Goblin]

But back to the meal list.

26. Pickled beets and boiled oats with savory cream sauce, a classic of northern Cheliax but also the Lands of the Linnorm Kings.

[Agnetha]

My ganzi oracle from the Crown of the World is very found of ...

27. Walrus Jerky

[Gark the Goblin]

28. Isgeri pepper tea, a bracing drink made from normal Vudran black peppercorns stewed in boiling water; sometimes seasoned with milk or honey

[DeltaCain]

29. [Xa Hoi] Phở Rồng: a broth made from the bones of drakes, seasoned with ginger, fish sauce, fire salts, and brown sugar. And served with cilantro, (drake flanks if any left), pork belly, sliced carrots, onions in a bowl with rice noodles.

[Gark the Goblin]

30. Shocker lizard eggs, scrambled in garlic butter and served with smoked perch or tilapia and braised plantain. A favorite of the old merchant families of Sargava; shockingly salty to the uninitiated.

[Edward the Necromancer]

31: Ghoranian Salads. Considered a Delicacy of the wealthy, these dishes are also very popular with visitors who seek to experience this infamous meal. Unknown to most visitors though, just as there are multiple parts of a cow and thus multiple meals that can be created (steaks, ribs, sausages, etc), so to are different parts of a Ghoran used to make different types of dishes. Most of the organs have tastes and textures similar to fruits, the head for instance has been compared to a melon, the muscles are similar to vegetable roots, their skin is compared to lettuce or spinach, while their bones are comparable to nuts.

Just as with most plants a Ghoran can be consumed raw (non of their parts are poisonous), but a skilled chef will mix and match the different parts and often cook parts of them to enhance the flavor and overall experience. Their are as many different ways to prepare a Ghoran as their are different ways to prepare more traditional plants.

[Gark the Goblin]

32. Oven-roasted parsnips, onions, carrots, and runner beans, drenched in mustard oil, honey and reduced vinegar, with fresh river egg bread on the side. Popular among the lower class in the River Kingdoms and Galt, particularly around Winter Week.

[Set]

Edward the Necromancer wrote:

31: Ghoranian Salads. Considered a Delicacy of the wealthy, these dishes are also very popular with visitors who seek to experience this infamous meal. Unknown to most visitors though, just as there are multiple parts of a cow and thus multiple meals that can be created (steaks, ribs, sausages, etc), so to are different parts of a Ghoran used to make different types of dishes. Most of the organs have tastes and textures similar to fruits, the head for instance has been compared to a melon, the muscles are similar to vegetable roots, their skin is compared to lettuce or spinach, while their bones are comparable to nuts.

Just as with most plants a Ghoran can be consumed raw (non of their parts are poisonous), but a skilled chef will mix and match the different parts and often cook parts of them to enhance the flavor and overall experience. Their are as many different ways to prepare a Ghoran as their are different ways to prepare more traditional plants.

I like the idea, which I hadn't considered before, that some parts of a Ghoran are like hair on a human (or berries, fruit or nuts on a plant) and can be removed without lasting harm to the Ghoran.

Ghoran who are kept in a kind of perpetual debt-slavery, forced to sell their succulant 'hair,' which is painfully 'plucked' every couple of days when new leaves grow in, for the rich rulers to eat in their fancy salads, sound creepy and evocative.

[Edward the Necromancer]

Set wrote:

Edward the Necromancer wrote:

31: Ghoranian Salads. Considered a Delicacy of the wealthy, these dishes are also very popular with visitors who seek to experience this infamous meal. Unknown to most visitors though, just as there are multiple parts of a cow and thus multiple meals that can be created (steaks, ribs, sausages, etc), so to are different parts of a Ghoran used to make different types of dishes. Most of the organs have tastes and textures similar to fruits, the head for instance has been compared to a melon, the muscles are similar to vegetable roots, their skin is compared to lettuce or spinach, while their bones are comparable to nuts.

Just as with most plants a Ghoran can be consumed raw (non of their parts are poisonous), but a skilled chef will mix and match the different parts and often cook parts of them to enhance the flavor and overall experience. Their are as many different ways to prepare a Ghoran as their are different ways to prepare more traditional plants.

I like the idea, which I hadn't considered before, that some parts of a Ghoran are like hair on a human (or berries, fruit or nuts on a plant) and can be removed without lasting harm to the Ghoran.

Ghoran who are kept in a kind of perpetual debt-slavery, forced to sell their succulant 'hair,' which is painfully 'plucked' every couple of days when new leaves grow in, for the rich rulers to eat in their fancy salads, sound creepy and evocative.

This gives me an idea, an evil idea. Plants can basically regrow almost everything as long as you leave their stem/bulb/core intact. You cut off a branch and the branch will eventually grow back. Since Ghorans are plants, just how much of a Ghoran COULD you cut off and have it grow back? Could they regrow an arm, what passes for organs, how long would it take?

Obviously this would be VERY evil, but a merchant with no morals could hack off pieces of a Ghoran for sale and simply keep the Ghoran in a cage as their parts grow back.

[UnArcaneElection]

^Since Ghorans can plant their seed to survive the death of their body, said merchant with no morals could use everything except the seed.

[Gark the Goblin]

Yeah, I think that's explicitly how ghorans got created.

33. Steaks of swamp rabbit (or any other game), rare, served on a bed of thinly sliced raw turnips and roasted chestnuts. A popular dish among lizardfolk in the River Kingdoms, it has yet to make the leap over to other cuisines.

[TheGreatWot]

34. Shriek: A favorite among demons in the Worldwound, this dish is made by filleting a subdued human while alive, done by making only the most precise and superficial cuts. This leaves the subject living, with strips of skin and flesh hanging off of them. Traditionally, strips are plucked from the dish and seasoned with whatever dripped out/fell off of the person while they were being flayed. According to several babaus witnessed consuming this dish, "The pain makes it taste like chicken."

35. Hanspur's River Fare: A mixture of sliced fish (whatever is available in the region), leafy greens, nuts or fruits, and a paralytic agent so that you can drown your guest in the river.

36. Orc Grog: Dwarven grog with a healthy splash of dwarf blood.

[Set]

UnArcaneElection wrote:

^Since Ghorans can plant their seed to survive the death of their body, said merchant with no morals could use everything except the seed.

And one with even less morals than the average terrible person who eats Ghoran 'flesh' could be a decadent user of snuff created from powdered Ghoran seeds...

(Warning: It burns like pepper. Then the hallucinations start. Usually a nosebleed. Occasionally, violent psychosis. If you experience convulsions lasting more than four hours, consult an exorcist...)

[Gark the Goblin]

37. Steamed glasswort. pork fat fried-semolina cakes, and cream gravy seasoned with sage and oregano. Popular in Cheliax, especially along the Arcadian coast.

[Gark the Goblin]

38. Knifebread, a sweetened cookie cut into ghoulish forms with a sharpened knife before baking. Knifebread is eaten on the Night of the Pale in many towns in the Inner Sea region, but particularly along the northern coast of Garund where molasses is an easily acquired byproduct of sugar refinement.

[Darth Game Master]

I love this thread! But someone skipped from 23 to 25 so the latest one is actually #37. No need to go back and edit it all, just pointing out that the next meal should be #38.

38. Roasted hydra head. Rare, domesticated hydras sometimes have heads removed for food. Hydras stop growing once they have double the heads they started with, so a single hydra could have between 6 and 12 heads harvested from it without killing it. Due to the high rarity of domesticated hydras, roasted hydra head is highly expensive, and mostly eaten by nobles who can afford it.

[CrystalSeas]

Darth Game Master wrote:

I love this thread! But someone skipped from 23 to 25 so the latest one is actually #37

Your "solution" is causing confusion. Please don't re-use numbers that have already been used for another meal.

Your meal is #39 (or #24 if you prefer); the next one will be #40

[zimmerwald1915]

Darth Game Master wrote:

No need to go back and edit it all

Isn't that impossible, because the board locks posts for editing after an hour?

[Gark the Goblin]

I think it'd be fine either way honestly!

40. "Fish pancake" seasoned with potash salt as well as pickled capers, olives, and garlic. A Shackles endemic, purported to ward off both scurvy and gout.

[Darth Game Master]

CrystalSeas wrote:

Darth Game Master wrote:

I love this thread! But someone skipped from 23 to 25 so the latest one is actually #37

Your "solution" is causing confusion. Please don't re-use numbers that have already been used for another meal.

Your meal is #39 (or #24 if you prefer); the next one will be #40

How is it confusing if I explained the reasoning behind it in the same post?

[Pope Uncommon the Dainty]

OK, so I kinda ended up perseverating on this topic a bit, and spent the weekend looking into various cuisines and writing up 2350 words on the cuisines of Taldor, Cheliax, and Nidal. I won't post all of that here at once, but here's the first bit, and the most appropriate to this thread.

41. Azlanti placenta cake: An ancient dish consisting of many dough layers interspersed with a mixture of capramance cheese and giant bee honey, flavored with bay leaves, baked, and then covered in more honey.
42. Taldan cheese-pie: Along with baklava, cheese-pie is a descendant of Azlanti placenta cake uses head and feta cheeses and replaces the honey with thunderbird eggs
43. Taldan flowery cheese: Made from a combination of sheep and chimera milk, the dry variety is a very salty, hard cheese much like myzithra with a powerful sherry-like smell, while the fresh variety is dry, white, soft or medium, with a sweet, creamy taste. It is often eaten for breakfast with honey and fruit, or in savory dishes with oil, chiles, and wild herbs. The dry is often added to salads.
44. Taldan head cheese: Not the meat dish known as head cheese.
A hard, salty cheese made from chimera and sheep milk that is often fried in oil or grated over meat or cooked vegetables. An aged variety is drier with a stronger flavor.
45. Chelish eggplant parmiggiana arrabiata, served with the Chelish black bread mentioned in The Sixfold Trial to sop up the sauce: much like Italian eggplant parmiggiana, but with the addition of red pepper flakes (or up into, like, habanero territory, if you’re going for big flavors), extra onions/garlic, and a dose of asafetida
46. Chelish stacked-leaf pastry: Descended from Taldan baklava (itself derived from Azlanti placenta cake), this pastry is made by rolling a thin dough brushed with olive oil into a log and then cutting disks from the end. The disks are then shaped to form pockets, and filled with orange-flavored ricotta and black garlic, almond-horseradish paste, or candied chile peppers. The pastry is baked until the layers separate, forming its characteristic ridges.
47. Chelish spinach pie with onions
48. Avernal: A popular Chelish sweet wine made from a black grape grown in the Archduchy of Longmarch spiced with a few chile peppers imported from Anchor’s End. Boiled-down grape syrup is added to the wine. A dark, almost opaque purple-brown, its flavors of caramel, chocolate, coffee, raisins, and plums sparkle against the burn of its spice.
49. Chelish resinwine: A white or rose wine which has pine resin added to the must during fermentation, giving the surface an oily film which is then clarified at racking. It is well-known to have a pungent aroma of turpentine, which many non-Chelish have difficulty appreciating.
50. Kharijit: An amber-coloured sweet dessert wine made in the Chelish province of Kharijite in northern Garund made from sun-dried red and white grapes.
51. Nidalese drajei: Lumps of sugar hardened with lemon juice and seasoned with sumac.
52. Nidalese cucumber sausages: These pickles begin fairly similar to their Earthly counterparts (which is to say: pickles), though finocchio/fennel and rosemary are used instead of dill. Then they are smoked to dry them out and allow them to remain edible for even longer.
53. Nidalese pickled rhubarb
54. Nidalese digestive wine: A sour red wine spiced by soaking apples, rose hips, lemons, almonds, ambergris, cinnamon, ginger, clove, cardamom, and black pepper in it for a day before sweetening it (with sugar for the nobility and honey for the people) and heating it. Various medicinal, digestive, and aphrodisiac properties are ascribed to this wine by the Nidalese.
55. Southern Nidalese beef bourguignon, halfling style, served over plain rice: Julia Childs’s recipe, replacing the wine with a sharp red wine vinegar, increasing the alliums by a half, adding cayenne peppers, replacing the thyme with rosemary, and sweetening with date molasses
56. Southern Nidalese slave pickles: Also a halfling recipe, this giardiniera-like mixed pickle of chile peppers, celery, beets, cauliflower, and gherkins with crushed red pepper flakes, mustard seeds, and white sugar is also made in a variation in Almas in Andoran, which replaces the chile peppers with sweet onions, removes the red pepper, and adds some turmeric
57. Andorani poullet au vinaigre, served with brown buttermilk biscuits: Basically the same as the Earth version, only with balsamic vinegar instead of red-wine vinegar, quite a bit more black pepper, and a bit of honey, accompanied by a buttermilk biscuit made with rye bread and black cocoa (soft for the rich, and hard for the poor)

[Paradozen]

58. Drider Chili: A chili made from ground drider flesh mixed with kidney beans diced tomatoes and mushrooms, seasoned with powdered drider chitin. While the true recipe is only tasted by the highest of drow nobles, Oenopion has a slightly spicier cruelty-free variety made with alchemically grown meat and chitin.

59. Gebbite Quickloaf: A dietary staple of the living in Geb, Quickloaf is a vegetarian meatloaf made with oats, diced onion, lentils, cheese, tomato sauce and assorted spices. The undead of Geb insist slowloaf, quickloaf with a 'secret ingredient' has superior flavor, but the Quick know better than to try it.

[Gark the Goblin]

60. Zucchini-paste flatbread with alpaca cheese: Zucchini slices fried in sunflower seed oil are then pureed through a sieve and spread over a thick maize-flour flatbread dotted with fresh alpaca cheese (having a similar production process to quark) and seasoned with allspice.

[Pope Uncommon the Dainty]

OK, so first, some starting assumptions for this post and the next one:
* Taldan cuisine is similar to Byzantine cuisine
* A lingering Tolkienism has led me always to associate halflings with sweet tastes
* The Kellid are, obviously, pseudo-Cimmerians ~ both Howard’s proto-Celts and the actual pre-Scythian culture from the northern shores of the Caspian. Super-quick Wikipedia/Googling gives me some info on Insular Celtic cuisine but precious little on Cimmerian/Scythian cuisine; I know (very little but) some about Georgian cuisine, so I’ll work with that, as Georgia is just a bit south of there. If I were a real food historian, I’d peg Kellid cuisine to the 4th-century BCE Scythians, when the Celts were pushing them out of the Balkans after they fought Alexander the Great. I’d downplay but keep the Greek influence, as a marker of interactions with the Varisians (especially in, like, Nidal, which shares a border with Varisia and used to worship similar gods).
* Nidal, ecologically, seems very similar to France
* Andorani cuisine would likely mimic American cuisine, primarily, and French, secondarily

Cheliax seems very Italian often. It also appears to have been a terra nullius prior to Taldan colonization (seriously, who were the indigenous Chelish?), so I would model Chelish cuisine on medieval Italian cuisine built atop that Byzantine substrate.

I doubt pasta would be much of a thing in Chelish cuisine, probably being more associated with the faux-Norse Ulfen and the northern Kellids, due to trade routes over the Crown of the World. (This also suggests the intriguing idea of noodles being present in some significant way in the pseudo-Inuit Erutaki cuisine). Tomato would be relatively new, being imported from Anchor’s End. On Earth, they and chile peppers were originally considered decorative and possibly poisonous, so it took a while for them to be incorporated into recipes. I tend to think that such a reputation would have actually sped their incorporation into Chelish cuisine, which also would have taken to eating food that brought to mind the fires of Hell. I like the idea of modern Chelish cuisine since the rise of House Thrune being very spicy, actually, to imitate the fires of Hell, so their love of the burn would likely also come from black pepper, mustard (the late-season greens can really get you!), and horseradish (all of which would have been available before the founding of Anchor’s End). This piquancy is often paired with an even heavier dosage of sulphorous flavors than they are in Italy ~ onion, garlic, and asafetida.

That selfsame desire for an “Avernus of the mouth” (as one famous Chelish chef once called their preferred flavor profile) has led to smoking foods becoming the primary method of preservation over long periods of time, though brine and salt are also often used for food preservation. There are a wide variety of smoked sausages eaten throughout Cheliax, many resembling Earth salami, as are a wide variety of savory torts.

Rosemary can be quite harsh when used heavily, so it’s also featured in Chelish cuisine, and I’d also emphasize finocchio (fennel) ~ but that’s just cuz I personally love it.

Shellfish, fish, and poultry provide the bulk of Chelish proteins, the last especially being cultivated in every home, primarily cooked by boiling in either water or capon stock flavored with saffron. Snail are often eaten in Cheliax, as well. Perch, sardines, turbot, rudd, bass, shad, eels, and grayling are the most commonly-eaten fish. Cheliax is famous throughout Avistan for their spongy omelettes, an inheritance from Taldan cuisine. Hunted boar and wild deer, and also lamb for the wealthy, occasionally liven up the Chelish table. Poorer Chelish, on the other hand, usually slaughter a pig at the beginning of winter to give them sausages, salt pork, and lard throughout the year. These meats are often served beside cabbage, soft squash, olives, carrots, figs, grapes, oranges, and beans; spinach, almonds, and rice brought over from Taldor; and salt cod and stockfish introduced by the Nidalese. Many varieties of fermented fish sauce and fermented barley sauce deepen the umami of Chelish cuisine.

Chelish black bread appears to be based on/similar to a Russian recipe, involving rye flour, apple cider vinegar, molasses, black cocoa, espresso, and finocchio seeds. Cocoa might have filtered down to Cheliax from Valenhall (it does keep better than tomatoes), but this indicates that the bread is probably a more recent innovation. I’d probably shift the vinegar to a wine vinegar, maybe balsamic, though using pomegranate vinegar might add a nice color element and help emphasize the Taldan substrate to Chelish cuisine. Speaking of, I would definitely use date molasses instead of cane molasses.

There is also a strong thread of very bland, calorie-less food in Chelish cuisine, mostly used to achieve and show off an austere asceticism or as a tool for social control (to get folk to give up hope that things can be better). Combine this with the Byzantine predilection for salads, and you actually get something similar to the NXIVM diet (800 calories or less, no meat, and lots of green veggies, with the calorie limit coincidentally editing out most carbs and fats, too, leaving the dieter with almost nothing in the way of macronutrients). Wealthy Chelish probably add a good amount of raw mustard greens to their salad, however, and I can certainly see (having eaten mustard-green salads) this being a way to show off one’s toughness, with cocky youths daring each other to eat ever-larger such salads.

[UnArcaneElection]

Pope Uncommon the Dainty wrote:

{. . .}

I doubt pasta would be much of a thing in Chelish cuisine, probably being more associated with the faux-Norse Ulfen and the northern Kellids, due to trade routes over the Crown of the World. {. . .}

Really? I would expect pasta to be a Mediterranean thing, which on Golarion would translate into the coastal areas around the Inner Sea, with what most Europeans and Americans think of as pasta being more on the northern coast and things like couscous being on the southern coast. This would also go for original-style pizza, perhaps with Andoran making the modification to something like American pizza.

Pope Uncommon the Dainty wrote:

{. . . } This piquancy is often paired with an even heavier dosage of sulphorous flavors than they are in Italy ~ onion, garlic, and asafetida.

{. . .}

Looks like I would actually enjoy Chelish cuisine, but I would probably make quite the impressive volume and concentration of sulphurous fumes after eating it . . . .

[Pope Uncommon the Dainty]

UnArcaneElection wrote:

Really? I would expect pasta to be a Mediterranean thing, which on Golarion would translate into the coastal areas around the Inner Sea, with what most Europeans and Americans think of as pasta being more on the northern coast and things like couscous being on the southern coast. This would also go for original-style pizza, perhaps with Andoran making the modification to something like American pizza.

Well, the problem is one of differing geography, and therefore trade routes.

On Earth, my ancestors, I think (and I've seen indications that there might be counter-evidence), got the idea of pasta from the Chinese, particularly by means of Marco Polo's expedition. While such a thing is still possible on Golarion, Cheliax seems to have less of an exploratory mercantile focus than Italy did. Moreover, the most appropriate moment for noodles to enter Avistan would have been when Amatatsu Aganhei crossed the Crown of the World in 1300 AR, though they probably wouldn't have taken hold until his maps resurfaced three millennia later (effectively, in terms of cultural processing as compared to Earth's timeline, about 1500 years, thanks to the effect of having elfs and dwarfs and the like around, who live longer, and experienced as the equivalent of only about 428 years or so to the elfs). The Path of Aganhei connects Lung Wa (pseudo-China) to the Mammoth Lords (inhabited by Kellids, so pseudo-Celtic/pseudo-Scythian) and Minkai (pseudo-Japan) to the Linnorm Kings (the Ulfen are pseudo-Norse). Since Arcadia doesn't seem to have been explored in any region resembling South America overly much (there's some Mesoamerican stuff, obviously, but that's very different, and very far), I would imagine that the potato hasn't yet crossed the ocean into Avistan, leaving noodles (probably cold, considering climate and route, so possibly resembling some Korean dishes in several ways) as the primary starch of the Kellids.

So as to avoid derailing the core idea of the thread:
61. Mammoth Lord noodles: An iced dish of noodles boiled with cabbage and carrots in a garlic-hazelnut sauce made with dill, malt vinegar, caraway, mustard seeds, and marigold petals. The poor just eat it like this, without meat, while a version is also made with salted aurochs and bison meats. If it is made with fresh-cooked meats, especially mastodon meat, then you know you're at a real feast.