Lost Souls & Midian

This is something Kinslayer has threatened to do for years, make a Midian cookbook. Some of these are reprinted from Strolen's Citadel. These are recipes from across the globe. These are real recipes, in the sense that they are cookable if you have all of the ingredients. They are not simply copy-n-paste from a Real World™ cookbook, but are the cooking styles of their originating cultures.

For cooking styles, some general guidelines follow.

Formourian cuisine is Western European & North American inspired. The sort of things you can find at a renaissance festival or medieval theme restaurant are common foods. This is different than modern cooking in that it isn't supersaturated with sugar & preservatives, and from actual European history in that it is things like corn & potatoes rather than the bright curries that were common then. Wheat is the most important staple, and any given meal may be described as "something that goes with bread."

Dwarven food is burnt or boiled into mush. Barbecue & gumbo both work. Real World™ inspirations include Eastern European & Irish foods. Meat should have a crunch. This is the sort of foods that you might think of as simple, but may take hours of preparation. "It's just an apple pie" becomes a greater endeavour when you have to do more than dump the can of filling into the pre-formed shell & microwave it.

Trollish food is raw & chunky. Rare steak & whole vegetables are examples. Think macrobiotic, but take away the tofu & soy crap, and replace it with lots of real (and undercooked) meat. You want the meat to be not just pink & cool in the middle, but actually dripping with blood & other juices. If it's still screaming & begging for mercy, that much the better.

Killian also do the live-food thing, but not nearly as much as advertised. Raw fish & rice make up the bulk of their diets. Foods from Southeast Asia & the Pacific can be found on the menu. It's not all tea & sushi. Some of the most elaborate pastries & meat dishes come from Killian kitchens. Foods are spiced subtly, rather than necessarily just hot.

The Northern Protectorate still shows its martial origins. Long-term stored food, such as stale bread, salted pork, pickles, jams, etc. are their staples. This is mess hall food made into national cuisine.

For the rest of Osterre, think "barbarians". For the most part think "camping". Foods are simple & gathered or hunted, then cooked over an open fire. Common Gothic foods are inspired by the American versions of Chinese food. Firps do eat bugs, but it isn't all just sitting on a lily pad & catching them with your tongue. Traps are laid; swarms are penned & farmed. Fish, crustaceans, fruit, & marsh plants are all important parts of a Firpish diet.

Many Elves are vegetarians. Certainly not all, but they are about the only people who don't eat meat out of choice rather than lack. Foods are light & subtly spiced--if flavour is added at all. Salads may form entire meals. Pasta, cheese, & fruit are also common. Long cooking times are unusual--long prep, certainly, but not long times in the oven. Kinslayer takes a perverse glee with the thought of making an Elf eat a bug. Thus, some of the recipes presented here will feature insects as part of the Elven diet. For the most part though, Elven cuisine is the sort of foods you could find in a place that specialises in coffee & tea where you aren't allowed to actually call them "coffee" or "tea". Weird names for cup sizes are optional.

In Byzant, spice is life. If a dish is so covered in seasonings that it's changed colours, a diner is still likely to shake pepper on it at the table. Inspiration for foods comes from the Mediterranean & from South & Central America. Don't be afraid to mix-n-match: gyro meat is awesome on a hard-shelled taco. If your campaign is set in Formour or anywhere else in the north, you can put whatever strange & foreign foods you want in Byzant & (especially) the Elder Kingdoms.