Common Culture In Adel: Food

The Standard Adelian Diet

Staples: The staple crops of the Adelian diet are wild rices, amaranth, quinoa, legumes and soy. Adelians boil the grains to eat plain or in soup-like dishes, or pound the grains into flour for flatbread dough. Tofu is also fairly common among them.

Milk: Milk serves many purposes for Adelians. It is a staple drink and it is used to make butter and cheese. The milk-giving animal, usually what Adelians call a Big-Horn (a kind of Auroch), is adored by the villagers and all such animals are never killed. They are consumed only when they die of age as part of a funeral ceremony.

Protein: Villages with good hunting or fishing traditions have sources of meat, but for the majority of villages soy and insects are the chief source of those proteins. Meat and fish is eaten for celebrations or ceremonies, or eschewed at all if it would be too hard or taxing to gain in place of insect collection or soy farming. Most Adelian children hunt for insects in their village field as both a snack, a child-like diversion and to protect crops from them.

Vegetation: Adelians consume a variety of herbs, fruits, nuts, and other vegetables to add color and nutritional value, but they are usually small parts or accompaniments to meals. These will vary by region, but all villages have at least some source of citrus or fruit juice, however minor, to prevent diseases and keep their health up.

Regional Variations

The Middle Tropics: In Sargasso and Periterim, sweet potatoes and yams are very prominent, as well as hot peppers, which are indigenous to the area. Corn is also very prominent, and is what’s commonly ground into meal for flatbreads in these parts. Guava, acerola, lemons, pineapples, oranges and mango fruits are the most common bounties of the tree canopies and bushes here. Ginger, lemongrass and tumeric do well in the climate as well. Sugar cane, cacao and coffee are major exports from these two nations, and cacao in particular has a special place in the culture of the tropics villages as an exquisite food.

Andalian mainland and Emderuer: Rice and grains grow perfectly here as well as beans, peas and soy. Adelians find Soy quite important. They grind into meal and they also make soybean milk for the creation of tofu curds. Amaranth is also of great importance, and all of the plant is used. Apples, pomegranates, pears, peaches, strawberries, melons and grapes are native to these areas. Basil, coriander and oregano are common, thriving herbs, and many other leafy plants and radiant flowers thrive, often used for oils to make soap, or ground into pigments for ceremonial or beauty purposes.

Andalian Hetuku: The freezing cold of the Hetuku mountains makes most common products of the land impossible to find, but certain mushrooms can found in caves, and in the lower Hetuku, during the summer thaws, it is possible to find rare berries and plants struggling to grow. Adventurers who brave the mountains to reach the areas untouched by civilization could, in the summer, discover rare plants to bring back to civilization and make a good deal of money off of.

Vedaria: The harshness of the deserts make growing foods a problem. But there are a number of crops are grown near the coast and along the oasis’ and underground waters of the harsh desert. Most Adelians would not believe it, but Orange trees grow well in Vedaria with their own unique varieties, that can fetch high prices in other nations. Thyme and certain medicinal herbs can be found as well. Figs and dates as well as certain berry bushes grow well. Edible cactus is abundant, and is even used for a special liquor. Through trade, the Vedarians gained seed to grow the staple crops eaten worldwide as well.

Protein Sources

Most adelian villagers eat insects for protein. Insects are abundant, and they’re nuisances. Village children are often employed to go around the crop fields and eat their fill of locusts, caterpillars and beetles. Most adults carry a fancy for these insects from their childhood. Some insects are taboo to consume, however. Butterflies and bees are considered bad luck to eat. Ants taste poorly and are ignored, though some children may eat them. Insects are eaten raw, or sometimes boiled.

Where meat and fish can be gained, it is typically eaten only in special circumstances, or it is dried and preserved in stock against coming hardship. For the winter in certain areas, jerky and dried fish are a very welcome part of meals in this sometimes meager period. Some caterpillars can also be preserved in this way, for upwards of a year.

Urban Variance

Cities and towns can have access to food trade from various corners of the world, unlike villages, which generally subsist on their locality or region. This access to food leads to a wider, though not necessarily healthier diet. Meat and fish are consumed more casually, and except for the poor, flatbread is not as staple a product. Towns and cities also give rise to a culture of exotic food, where the wealthy show off their wealth by eating anything from strange seafood to rare flowers, spiced with exotic salts and spices. Urban living also prompts greater consumption of alcohol and there are a variety of brews and distillations. Insects are eaten in much smaller amounts but when consumed are usually candied in some way. It is not unusual to see town and city folk who are a bit plumper than village Adelians who have a local diet.

Traditional Cooking

Adelians have a few traditional methods of cooking based on religious teachings. Adelians believe that every food has certain alignment relationships and preparing a dish with components of opposed alignments or equal alignments will give off different tastes. The alignments are Fire, Water, Earth, Wood, and Steel. The alignments refer to the method of preparation. Earth-style food is raw, Water-style food is boiled or stewed, Fire-style food is cooked in open flame or in clay ovens, Wood-style food is cooked on planks and Steel-type food is fried in oils. What this means in each village is somewhat different.

Magical Food

The use of magic allows for trendy new methods of food preparation. One of the most popular summer snacks in Adel is shaved ice with syrup. While the syrup would be easy to find or make, getting a hunk of ice to Southland villages in Adel would be more difficult. However, student mages with a bit of kinesis know-how freeze water into blocks from which they can shave off the ice. This treat is one easy way for students to get a bit of money on their trips.

The Rare Food Market

Those Adelians who are down on their luck tend to turn to the rare food market to swing their fortunes around. It is possible for a wandering or poor peasant to survive for a month on a batch of rare mushrooms found in the forest, or on a basket of exotic flowers, if sold to the right buyer. More adventurous sorts can try to catch rare beasts, and strip them, selling their eggs, their meat, even the blood to live well for a time. The most important thing to know about the rare food market is that Spirits are not part of it. Spirits are not consumed. To consume a spirit is the greatest taboo – it may even kill you to try, as you’re essentially eating pure magic made flesh.