Forums » Crafting and Gathering

Crafter's Roundtable: Cultural Cuisine

    • 1785 posts
    May 26, 2019 12:41 PM PDT
    This weekend a bunch of people in the US are either grilling out or eating out. So in honor of that, here is a food-themed Crafter's Roundtable!

    Should the races of Terminus have distinctly different cooking, and if so, what style of food (in real world terms) might make the most sense for them?

    There's no wrong answer here, so have fun with it and tell us what you think would work best for your favorite race!.... or even for all of them!

    And while you're at it, either cook something awesome or go out to eat something awesome this weekend. Because food isn't something we should take for granted :)

    (Note from Nephele: For the summer, we're switching back to the older roundtable format where we just post the questions directly, rather than gathering Pantheon Crafters staff comments first and posting it all together. We hope everyone will still take time to voice their thoughts in each roundtable that we post however!)
     
    • 416 posts
    May 26, 2019 1:22 PM PDT

    I certainly hope that the races of Terminus have distintive cuisines. If I understand the approach correctly, using cuisines from earth (mostly) I see the races of Terminus in this light:

    Dwarves, very hearty cold weather cuisines resembling Irish, Hungarian, Scandanavian dishes and of course an endless variety of brews.

    Dark Myr I liken to Japanese or Caribean cuisines.

    Ogres a Mongolian cuisine.

    Humans on Terminus, having barely survived, I think have borrowered their cuisine from the other 5 "Sacred" races and started to blend them in new and unique ways.

    Halflings I see having a paleo diet.

    Elves I see as having a very refined diet similar to French or East Indian cuisines.

    Gnomes are tricky, maybe very purified foods with essences added.

    Archai I see eating minerals of all sorts.

    Skar I see having a diet similar to the reavers in Firefly.

    • 372 posts
    May 26, 2019 2:49 PM PDT

    Skar cooking ... I don't know what else to say except ...  NOPE.

    Myr cooking ... Seafood

    Elves ... Paleo diet  (LOL really I know it's posted above but this is what I saw for the elves)

    Archai ... everything.. like how funny would it be if they just ate anything like goats

    Gnomes ... Liquid Diet!

    Halflings ... vegetarian mostly an in place of eating meat, they eat bugs, grubs, insects, spiders, etc!

    Humans ... normal human stuff

    Ogres ... large game and worms and messy, fatty meals

    Dwarves ... will eat nearly anything but in addition to human diet, also things that grow down in the deep places of terminus .. maybe various types of fungus

    • 768 posts
    May 28, 2019 9:13 PM PDT

    I think most players would agree that ingredients and dishes aren't expected to be same on a global scale. What we know of harvesting resources, they will be spread out and geographically coherent.
    So with that in mind, I expect recipes and dishes to differ on a regional/racial level. Perhaps not all recipes but at least a portion thereof.

    What I am hoping for is that the manner of preparation will define the racial focus of dishes. Since we don't know how the crafting (here cookingprocess) will look like, it's all still whishfull thinking.

    I'll try to explain shortly and with more time at hand I'll try to focus on races themselves.
    Cooking or preparing dishes has different steps, similar to other crafting processes.
    Preparing vegetables, crushes herbs, tenderizing meat, steaming leafs, baking to get a crust, mixing herbs or oils to make a sauce etc.
    Where races could differ is in where the focus lies within that cooking process. Perhaps races living in the deep forests will just make shish kebab. So the focus here would be to slice or tear the ingredients, put them on sticks and roast above a fire for X time. Those that live in toxic areas might have their focus on extracting liquids from their ingredients somewhere during the cooking process. Others might heavely rely on using herbs to season the plain tastes of seasfood.

    My thoughts for now are, if all cooking level 2 takes 5 minutes, then the portion of time spend in certain steps of the cookingprocess could differ depending on the region/race. Some might need more time and focus earlier on the process while others might be required to invest most of the 5 minutes at the end of the cookingprocess.
    The plausability of this occurring in the game will obviously depend on the design of crafting and the different crafting techniques and design.

     

    I do like the idea of gnomes requiring a liquid diet. I'll try to add that into my line of thinking to come up with a more detailed example for gnomes.

    • 768 posts
    May 31, 2019 9:09 PM PDT

    Here's a shortened summary of how I think racial differences can be applied in Terminus. For a full read I suggest clicking the following link: 

    https://www.pantheoncrafters.com/threads/crafters-roundtable-cultural-cuisine.279/

    If food is seen as a general feature and all races produce food and drink in similar fashion, the regional resources will have to define any racial recipes. Perhaps those products can only been consumed by characters of said race?

    If food however boosts up the stats when consuming it. The racial recipes might offer something more. This could go two ways; either they boost the primary stat of that certain race (if there are racial stats at all..?) or they could boost certain stats for a broader audience (being the other races as well). Like I’ve mentioned in another thread: regional foods can offer boosts to mitigate environmental issues the ingredients originate from. This might be seen more as an ecological thing rather than a racial feature.

    1) Halflings: I see them eating all sorts of eggs, flowers, smaller game, mushrooms. With their main focus going to mixtures of flowers, eggs and birds. Perhaps eating insects could make them stand out?

    2) Skar: A lot of meat, since they are cannibalistic in nature. Perhaps more in the pure form of cooking. Such as raw meats, bones, bone dust. But also foods in all stages of decay. Similar to how we have come accustomed to eating moulded cheese. The Skar could eat degenerating meats, vegetables, herbs. Cold stews and mixtures. I’m not saying that the main focus lays on them eating rotten stuff. Rather they have found ways to “season” their food by different ways of stocking them or preserving them. 

    3) Gnome: Since they had to give up their fleshy bodies, consumption of food could have taken a different turn for them. Perhaps they extract or consume energy (food/drink) from steaming, cooking, boiling up all kinds of resources. And by inhaling the fumes or damp/moisture, they take in the ‘food’. This style of cooking could be applied to a whole variety of natural resources. Another idea might be some sort of radiation as means of consumption, so they would make resources radiate energy and from this state the gnomes might be able to “eat or drink” the energy by absorbing the manipulated –radiating foods or drinks.

    4) Archai: Since they are partly elemental nature themselves, at least after their True Birth. I see a lot of option for alchemy to be a part of the cooking recipes. Aside of the obvious part, where they perhaps use different kinds of minerals, (coloured?) fires, fumes, steaming processes, perhaps even infusions using all sorts of natural elements. 

    5) Humans: With their naval background, humans could have the biggest array of recipes and usage of resources. They could use all sorts of herbs, common medium-sized game, plants from all across the globe. What could make them stand out is that perhaps their style of cooking is (although very similar to the real world) actually simply unique when comparing to the other races. Humans instead might be the only race on Terminus that actually cooks, fries, roasts their food like we know best in the real world.

    6) Ogres: The time it takes for their food to be prepared might be the longest one of all races, purely because the portions they aim to cook are of such huge size. I could see them tearing flesh or vegetable of a bigger clump of food during their travels. Perhaps various preserving foods/drinks methods are known to Ogres. They could pickle their foods, or use sugar, salt or other natural occurring resources in Terminus to prolong the quality of their food and drinks.

    7) Dwarves: Snow, ice or other frozen resources might be used during their cooking or brewing of drinks. In fact entire frozen meals might be just the thing for dwarves. Where they might brew up a drink and in fact, freeze it so that the only way to consume the frozen drink is to break part off and eat them. Dwarven-made containers might allow them to take these frozen drinks with them during their travels. Other race’s stomach might turn up side turn when trying to consume this frozen beverages. I see a lot of dark drinks and perhaps fungi being a few major traits of dwarven dining.

    8) Elves: I would think about soaking roots to extract a draft to season another resource. Roots, bark, leafs would be commonly used during their cooking processes. They would not be the vegetarians, various game: land, aerial and aquatic could be part of their resources. Their knowledge of herbology is very distinct compared to the newer races.

    9) Dark Myr: Mostly resources found within the sea, being fish but perhaps also other “aquatic wildlife” would be signature to their dishes. Aside of that, certain fruits or crops could be harvested by the dark myr, similar to us eating peaches, there might be underground stony plants that have a consumable exterior. Many sea floor critters could be another part of their diet. Beverages could be a bit more challenging, I would think of certain plants that actually soaked up drafts. Similar to a sponge sucking up moisture, the Dark Myr could use this technique to produce a variety of beverages and carry them along on their travels.

    What do you say?


    This post was edited by Barin999 at May 31, 2019 9:11 PM PDT