imaginary food

[truepenny]

Talk to me about food in fantasy. (And science fiction, if you like.)

Readers, what kinds of details do you like to see? What makes a culture's eating habits come alive for you?

Writers (oh, please, writers, you're my only hope), how do you go about inventing cuisines and delicacies and what the street vendors sell? Especially when you are not relying on the old trick of, "I'll make this culture !Japan or !India or !France." How do you figure out what people eat?

Comments

[sakuratsukikage.livejournal.com]

I've been lurking about here for a while without saying anything, but this particular question is one close to my heart in a way--I just love world-building, really, especially food-related world-building (as odd as that might make me sound), so I thought I might chime in.

I think, as so many people have said above me, I think it has a lot to do with geographical location, climate, and subsistence mechanisms. For instance, an agricultural society would be eating a lot of grains, starches, vegetables, but then there are lots of different forms of agriculture, depending on climate, average rainfall, all kinds of stuff like that. (I'm sure that's pretty obvious, but that's always where I start, anyway, along with a staple food--rice, wheat, barley, sorghum, amaranth, potatoes, sago, sweet potatoes?) In societies that rely more heavily on animal husbandry, meat might be somewhat more common, but not when they need the cattle to plow the fields. You can always think of things from a nutritional standpoint, like--where do they get their main starches, carbs, proteins? Do they have any religious holidays of fasting, like Ramadan, or like Lent, where people don't eat meat?

I think another important thing to consider is trade routes, and so on. Do they have plants from the new world or the old world, or both? Spices from India and Indonesia used to be among the most exotic and mysterious delicacies out there, with stories being told that cinnamon birds collected the sticks from a far away land and used them to build their nests, and so on. But of course in India spices aren't nearly so rare, thus leading to spicy, heavily flavored food. So whenever I want to come up with a delicacy, I think about what things would be most highly coveted but the hardest to get (and for a lot of history, a lot of delicacies involved sugar, I think). As for what the street vendors sell, I usually think fried food, but I think that's kind of an American stereotype. I think the key to figuring out what street vendors sell is whether or not you can carry it around with you or eat it standing up, really (though in Edo period Japan a major street food was noodles, which isn't usually what I picture). And also how they tend to flavor and cook things--heavy spices? Not heavy? Bland? A lot of dairy? Not much dairy at all? A lot of fermented food? A lot of frying? Boiling? Roasting? Indian food tends toward sauces and mixtures, Japanese food toward rice and raw food, British food toward boiling. I think there tends to be a whole culture surrounding and infusing what people eat, since food tends to take a prime place in people's thought processes--especially when they don't have it. And then there's always alcohol--wine, beer, distilled or not, or what, people will definitely put effort into acquiring it. Do they mainly drink alcohol? Tea? Water?

I think a major thing that makes food come alive for me when I'm reading about it is the table manners (fingers? flatbread? eating only with the left hand? communal eating around a brazier? sitting down to eat at the family table? dressing for dinner? four forks? forks at all?). Another would be the smells involved, even more than the tastes, I think, because it can be so evocative of place and mood, whether it's the smell of spices or baking bread or when someone's just burned the dinner for the third time.

I don't know, I hope that's helpful and not just repetitive!

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

And as to street food, what do they have to carry it in and eat it with? Presumably disposables: banana leaf, chopsticks. Are gourd skins or coconut hulls plentiful enough to give away and throw away? In parts of India, cheap clay cups, use once and smash (sun fired?).