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Stew
Aug 10, 2012 19:06:39 GMT -5
Post by Kessie on Aug 10, 2012 19:06:39 GMT -5
In the Tough Guide to Fantasyland, we learn that stew is the food staple of fantasy. As I've read more fantasy, Christian and non, I see this trope everywhere. Stew. In the inns. On the road. The characters always manage to cook up a big pot of stew.
My brother notified me that in the Name of the Wind, which he's reading, so far in the first five chapters, they've been eating stew.
Also, fruits and vegetables are almost never seen in fantasy.
So how about you? In your books, do you feed your characters exclusively on stew?
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Stew
Aug 11, 2012 9:25:22 GMT -5
Post by birdnerd on Aug 11, 2012 9:25:22 GMT -5
Nope. In Bird's Eye, they eat cooked critters that a kid with a bow brings down, nuts, jerky dried fruit, dried veggies, potatoes and eggs, bread, hard tack, soup, etc. They eat a more varied diet than I do. In Lines of Succession, they eat porridge, rice and roast critter (I forget which kind), sandwiches, and I forget what else. I think stew only shows up once between the two of them.
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Stew
Aug 11, 2012 12:34:09 GMT -5
Post by Kessie on Aug 11, 2012 12:34:09 GMT -5
Haha, Cindy! Props to you! :-D
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Stew
Aug 11, 2012 21:29:59 GMT -5
Post by yoda47 on Aug 11, 2012 21:29:59 GMT -5
I think in one book out of four they eat stew one time.
Now tea, though... I have a character that's practically addicted to tea.
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Stew
Aug 12, 2012 20:26:50 GMT -5
Post by myrthman on Aug 12, 2012 20:26:50 GMT -5
I actually just introduced a characteristic to one of my teleporting gnomes: he's always collecting ingredients for his "World Famous Nine Meat Stew." Of course, he's forgotten or lost the recipe. Interesting fact, Kessie.
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Stew
Aug 12, 2012 20:28:12 GMT -5
Post by myrthman on Aug 12, 2012 20:28:12 GMT -5
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Stew
Aug 13, 2012 8:24:15 GMT -5
Post by birdnerd on Aug 13, 2012 8:24:15 GMT -5
Interesting site.
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Stew
Aug 13, 2012 19:26:18 GMT -5
Post by Divides the Waters on Aug 13, 2012 19:26:18 GMT -5
I have to remember to feed my characters at all. Mind you, they eat regularly, but I don't generally like to expend a lot of thought on what it is, simply because it's rarely relevant to the plot. Though dinnertime does allow me to introduce some quirks (like one character who doesn't like mushrooms). Generally, mealtime is a chance to talk about what's going on, not for me to show off my knowledge of cuisine.
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This Baron of Mora
Full Member
?Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.?
Posts: 113
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Stew
Aug 14, 2012 0:35:32 GMT -5
Post by This Baron of Mora on Aug 14, 2012 0:35:32 GMT -5
When it comes to fantasy, which generally take place in medieval times or later, I percieve that more archaic and ancient foods are used. This generally follows something like this:
Bread, Soup, Bread, Hardtack (or long lasting bread), Soup, Stew, Root Vegetables (despite the fact that potatoes come from America they are still present), Mushrooms, and Stew.
Most fruits and vegetables weren't present in a medieval setting and aren't very good for travel. Another appeal of stew/soup is the number of things that can go in it and also the ease of making a full pot worth for your battle-weary troop. In this regard I can hardily claim to differ in my tales. Somehow a great Dwarven mountain King seems more fit to crowd 'round a great table by the hearth eating hearty stew than eating entire deer or spaghetti!
Extending on that, I don't recall reading a story extending very far off from such a diet as I listed above (the largest being Turkish Delight in the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe or parts of the English diets of Hobbits).
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Stew
Aug 14, 2012 11:27:07 GMT -5
Post by morganlbusse on Aug 14, 2012 11:27:07 GMT -5
My mom does a ton of research on food, so I looked at some of her books. "Stew" was pretty much anything you could find and throw into a pot lol.
When I wrote my book, I considered the different cultures in my story and what they would eat. Like a town on the coast would eat more fish, towns in a forest would eat more wild game, etc... Also I thought about what crops (if any) were grown, what could be found naturally, and how much trade occurred between towns and countries.
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Stew
Aug 14, 2012 11:37:06 GMT -5
Post by metalikhan on Aug 14, 2012 11:37:06 GMT -5
In my stories, it depends on what the characters are doing and where they are. Stews figure in, yes, because (agreeing with baron) they're easy to prepare fare and can be made with whatever's at hand. One of my characters loves stroganoff and has several dehydrated trail packages of it in her trail pack, but she also has nutrition bars, dehydrated fruits (whole or in leathers) and Jolly Ranchers (cinnamon). But other characters have game roasted over campfires, steak & bread at an inn, roast haunch with bread & gravy (after poison tasters check it), sweet rolls and a sludgey caffeine more like thin pudding than an actual drink when the leaves expand. In one milieu, the farmers grow a type of squash that's eaten as a veggie if it's harvested at an early stage, but harvested later, it provides fiber for a variety of products — closest parallel I can think of is the plant that gives us luffas. And in another milieu, bugs are the primary protein source, cooked a variety of ways including dried & ground for bread additive. Mmmm-mmm good! In short stories, though, it's rare that the characters dine. Just hasn't been necessary to any of those stories yet.
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Stew
Aug 15, 2012 10:27:45 GMT -5
Post by metalikhan on Aug 15, 2012 10:27:45 GMT -5
Looking back through my stories last night, I found a couple of other things.
In one milieu, the characters are part of a culture in which oxen figures as the primary protein, but lichens and mosses are food staples, too. Growing the lichens involves particular laws because lichen grown on dead oxen is edible, but lichen grown on their own dead can only be used for fire, a taboo against indirect cannibalism as well as the belief that the fire from a person's lichen is the person's final physical gift to the tribe and offering to God (warmth to the tribe, smoke and "incense" to God).
In another story, the dead (all dead) is placed in digestion cisterns and plumbing provides access to the primary inhabitants who partake via sip-tubes (their food must be liquefied). The slaves of that place are, yes, fed stews cooked in big vats and dumped into troughs. Regarding the slaves, they are given items when they arrive -- their garments and their cups for feeding.
Almost forgot -- there's a another story where ham, eggs, biscuits, and ham gravy is served for breakfast.
The first two, however, are from stories in the recently released TC2 anthology (shameless plug for the anthology and MLP ;D).
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Stew
Aug 15, 2012 15:50:50 GMT -5
Post by Kessie on Aug 15, 2012 15:50:50 GMT -5
Here's the STEW entry from the Tough Guide to Fantasyland:
STEW (the Official Management Terms are Thick and Savory, which translate as "viscous" and "dark brown") is the staple FOOD of Fantasyland, so be warned. You may shortly be longing passionately for omelette, steak, or baked beans, but none of these will be forthcoming, indoors or out. Stew will be what you are served to eat every single time. Given the disturbed nature of life in this land, where in CAMP you are as likely to be attacked without warning (but see BATH), and in an INN prone to be the center of a TAVERN BRAWL, Stew seems to be an odd choice as a staple food, since, on a rough calculation, it takes forty times as long to prepare as steak. But it is clear the inhabitants have not yet discovered fast food. The exact recipe for Stew is of course a Management secret, but it is thought to contain meat of some kind and perhaps even vegetables. Do not expect a salad on the side.
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Stew
Aug 15, 2012 19:04:53 GMT -5
Post by jacoblindaman on Aug 15, 2012 19:04:53 GMT -5
There is this really cool book called Gallimaufry that looks at older English words and tries to put them in historical context on how they were used. words discussed/defined include: Porridge Pottage Peas Pease Pottage and many others. This book is a treasure trove of old words that fit nicely into a medieval world. I don't have it handy otherwise i would throw out a few more. You can check out a preview at google books. www.amazon.com/Gallimaufry-Hodgepodge-Our-Vanishing-Vocabulary/dp/0199551022#reader_0199551022
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Stew
Aug 20, 2012 3:36:20 GMT -5
Post by newburydave on Aug 20, 2012 3:36:20 GMT -5
Makes sense to me. 1. Most fantasy is set in "poor but honest (.....)" [fill in the localle] 2. Most fantasy people are "poor but honest (....)" [fill in the race] 3. Most fantasy involves travel through wastelands with poor accommodations. Hence: Stew being the most common food of poor people, combining some kind of protien (dead things; Gluck!), vegetables and starch and cooked by simmering in water in a pot over whatever heat source you have available is the natural victuals of Fantasy Characters. Cheap, easy to fix (from what ever you have at hand, filling, nutritious, always ready to eat and ...um ...well, Cheap. Viola, the natural fantasy food (if you really have to show them eating, I ususally skip over that "they got something to eat at the run down Inn where they got the dope on where the Snarklefussess were lairing this spring; and then they were off to avenge the Alderusses... [well you get the idea]) Really, who cares what they eat just so long as they keep their strength up to continue their fantastic (fantasty / fantastic, get it ;D) quest. Well now you know why I ususally don't try to write fantasy . Write on Sibs SGD dave
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