For the SF&F writers among us: describing food

[StillStunned]

In The Tough Guide to Fantasyland Diana Wynne Jones, there's an entry for "Stew", describing it as the only meal people in Fantasyland ever eat. I remember reading it and thinking, "Gosh, I never realised that!"

But it's true. Nine times out of ten, meals in fantasy stories are stew, perhaps with some bread. Sometimes there will be some kind of meat roasting over a campfire. Breakfasts usually get more detail: eggs, sausages, bacon and mushrooms. Somehow there's always coffee as well.

I know by now some of you will be saying, "But what about-?" And yes, The Gentleman Bastards is pretty much unique. If they weren't heist stories, they'd be food porn.

Anyway, I was thinking about this with a sword & sorcery story I'm working on.

"Thews grumbled at the cost, but shut up when he was served a platter of spiced curds, flatbreads, dried quinces soaked in honeyed brandywine, grilled onions and smoked peppers with slices of peppered lamb, and spicy sausages on a thick creamy sauce."

I'd eat that.

Another S&S story in progress has this light lunch:

"Her mouth watered at the sight of the sliced pork, dried fruit, vegetable tartlets, peppered beef strips and chunks of brown bread slathered with pale curds."

I try to avoid the trope of "stew with bread" or "bread fresh from the oven, slathered with butter and honey". But even so, I tend to fall back on the same things. Curds, dried fruit, cured meat, something that's peppered.

So what does everyone else do? Any go-to guides for fantasy foods, without getting too exotic? I usually write grimdark S&S, so poached unicorn balls with fried dragon eggs is probably a bit too fancy for me. I could handle salted troll toes as a drinking snack, though.

Let's hear your suggestions!

 

[MillieDynamite]

My new story, which is in a competition on another site's Halloween contest, is Sci-Fi. But the only food mentioned is about eating raw food from a fresh kill on an alien world. Coffee is referenced twice, and Darjeeling tea once. It hasn't got enough world-building except for the alien world and its inhabitants. But due to the contest's rules, Oops, I said too much.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Unless there was some very specific point, I've never given much thought to the food in the stories I read and write. All it does is make me hungry.
I do like a good serving of a mother's milk in a cup though.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Oh, well I'm sure someone can squeeze that out for you, @AwkwardlySet. Not me, but someone.

 

[Katie_Mae]

Just now, I stopped working on my story to check the forums. I see a post on food, and guess what, I'd just been writing a scene where my character was eating.

...[he] made a simple breakfast of flat bread and smoked fish. He ate quickly, as there was urgent work to be done.

In defence of stew, stew is a one-pot meal. There's a bunch of positives to using one pot. It's hot and and fairly forgiving. I have cause to cook without a kitchen, in winter, for a crowd (20-30 people) who've done a hard day's work, and stew is an all-round favourite.

 

[UsuallyPresent]

"..tasted much like chicken."

Whilst half a joke, there's a real point there - mix in sensory impressions the reader can be expected to have had, perhaps in combinations uncommon in the writer's experience. Bitter chickenoid of the alum flats? Sea-brine chicken-fish? Etc.

On top of that, it can help subtly expand the world-building without tracts of expositionary text. If you've got an invasion ongoing, perhaps the invasive species may have a common gustatory element. Bristly or gritty or with a peculiar aftertaste, whatever. Done right, it can add verisimilitude to the setting, and perhaps act as foreshadowing if that's your kind of thing. This merchant is selling invasive species only - because he's an invader agent provocateur! Duh duh duuunnnn!

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Just remember - Chili does NOT have beans or it becomes a stew. yes, I'm from Texas.

 

[UsuallyPresent]

-snip-
In defence of stew, stew is a one-pot meal. There's a bunch of positives to using one pot. It's hot and and fairly forgiving. I have cause to cook without a kitchen, in winter, for a crowd (20-30 people) who've done a hard day's work, and stew is an all-round favourite.

Stew is one sort of single-pot cooking, aye, but there are many other options out there. Dutch oven recipes might be a good subject of research, for one option.

 

[Katie_Mae]

Oh, and this one from a (never finished) book I wrote when I was about 14:

"But it's blue!" And it was! Not sky blue or deep blue, but a blue that could only be described as... blue.
"Well, duh. Why do you think it's commonly called the blue turnip?" Andrlea rolled her eyes.
"But.. this is... blue! Like, blue blue!"

Guess the turnip was blue, huh?

 

[StillStunned]

In defence of stew, stew is a one-pot meal. There's a bunch of positives to using one pot. It's hot and and fairly forgiving. I have cause to cook without a kitchen, in winter, for a crowd (20-30 people) who've done a hard day's work, and stew is an all-round favourite.

Stew is fine in the right setting - when making camp on a long journey, for instance. But who'd always eat stew, for example at an inn? The same story that has the second snippet I quoted above also has this, where stew is what you eat if you don't have money for proper food:

"The girl turned away, knowing what [Avilia] wanted – or what she could afford, at least. A bowl from the Pot, a large kettle with stew that stood simmering day and night, fed from scraps and leftovers. It was filling, and usually didn’t taste bad.

(...)

"Steam drifted up from the bowl. The scent wasn’t a subtle one, and the brown lumps didn’t look particularly appetising, but Avilia was hungry and this was the best she’d get. Pushing down her disappointment with a resignation born of long habit, she picked up the spoon to eat.

"She put it back down again after only two mouthfuls. Straight from the Pot, the lumps of fat were too hot just now. Instead she drank some more of her ale, knowing she’d need another jack after she ate. Fat and salt always seemed to be the main ingredients in a Pot bowl."

 

[Rustyoznail]

I haven't written many fantasy stories but food plays a big part in my "Tales of Leinyere" story, https://www.literotica.com/s/the-leinyere-farmers-daughter. Taverns, home cooked, raw dragon mice, lavdoc (a fish) cooked over a fire at a camp...

This is the opening. Glladin and Roksur are two young and low paid salesbeings.

Glladin stirred his midsun meal with one finger and hooked a piece of fish in his middle claw. "I miss fresh lavdoc." he sighed, giving the limp chunk a sniff. "The canned stuff isn't the same."

"Yeah, well. At least your's looks like fish. I don't know what this stew is, but it's not rabbit," Roksur grumbled. He pushed the bowl away and took a mouthful of ale. "The drink's ok though."

 

[MillieDynamite]

Texas, there be cacti in Texas, or pricklepare if you prefer.

Just remember - Chili does NOT have beans or it becomes a stew. yes, I'm from Texas.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I left Texas just shy of my 13th birthday. I had a pillowcase full of clothes and 75 cents in my pocket, and I never looked back. I'm an Okie yesterday, tomorrow, and forever. I'm a Texican nevermore!

Just remember - Chili does NOT have beans or it becomes a stew. yes, I'm from Texas.

 

[Katie_Mae]

\

"The girl turned away, knowing what [Avilia] wanted – or what she could afford, at least. A bowl from the Pot, a large kettle with stew that stood simmering day and night, fed from scraps and leftovers. It was filling, and usually didn’t taste bad.

Ah yes, eternal stew. Cheap to make with... why yes, this is beef, I promise!

 

[MillieDynamite]

I've never had road-kill stew, but I know a corpse who did.

 

[StillStunned]

\

Ah yes, eternal stew. Cheap to make with... why yes, this is beef, I promise!

As long as it comes from some part of the cow. Or something that could pass for a cow.

 

[Otto26]

There's all sorts of sources out there to look at for inspiration.

For fantasy set in a Medieval Europe setting there are a boatload of recipe books which contain a lot of surprisingly familiar dishes. In a grimdark setting stew (normally called pottage) is your best bet for most meals. If you really want to get an idea of what folks might eat in times of famine there's a Chinese book compiled sometime in the 12th? century which was meant to be a how-to-avoid mass peasant die-offs in times of famine for regional administrators. For grimdark you might be looking a food scarcity so you can look at future scenarios which envision eating a lot of insects, algae, and other non-standard food sources. Simply making meat scarce can be a nice detail that, honestly, most readers won't give a s*** about. Cannibalism/long-pig is always a fallback according to many authors and historical accounts. Look to the diets of non-European cultures and you'll find all sorts of interesting tidbits (Incan Grilled Guinea Pig anyone?).

For sci-fi you can look to crops NASA and other think-tanks are projecting for growth in orbit and on Mars. One common thread you'll find is that meat is an apex consumer food and most people eat grains and vegetables. Bread and beer could account for up to 80% of the calories peasants consumed from the time of the pharaohs onward. This was true even into the twentieth century. The New Deal promised a chicken in every pot and funded a massive growth in chicken farms that made chicken a common dish. Funny anecdote, in WWII Italian POW officers complained that the enlisted men were being served chicken and demanded that this be reserved for the officer tables only.

 

[happyyy_]

In The Tough Guide to Fantasyland Diana Wynne Jones, there's an entry for "Stew", describing it as the only meal people in Fantasyland ever eat. I remember reading it and thinking, "Gosh, I never realised that!"

But it's true. Nine times out of ten, meals in fantasy stories are stew, perhaps with some bread. Sometimes there will be some kind of meat roasting over a campfire. Breakfasts usually get more detail: eggs, sausages, bacon and mushrooms. Somehow there's always coffee as well.

I try to avoid the trope of "stew with bread" or "bread fresh from the oven, slathered with butter and honey". But even so, I tend to fall back on the same things. Curds, dried fruit, cured meat, something that's peppered.

I am totally guilty for going the stew route in my medieval fantasy stories. Its also interesting how the trope also swings the opposite way. Almost like food description porn lol. As a reader and total nerd I like picking out the world building tidbits and characterization from those descriptions, and beyond that it doesn't really interest me. I know lots of people who talk about the total drool worthy moments from their favorite fantasy stories, so I think I might be in the minority lol.

What I am excited to write about is wine and spirits. There are lots of interesting and unique ways to show culture through drink instead that aren't as often explored.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

As long as it comes from some part of the cow. Or something that could pass for a cow.

Or something the cow passes...?

 

[Katie_Mae]

As long as it comes from some part of the cow. Or something that could pass for a cow.

Well, it had four legs.

 

[StillStunned]

Or something the cow passes...?

If the customer is paying for beef, it must be beef. Because the customer is always right. QED.

 

[CherryCupcake]

as a general rule, a meal is a place where characters interact. To put too much emphasis on the dishes may detract from the purpose of the interaction. But, Food is a way to show character. Stew is for people who don't have a lot of money and want to make expensive meats last. But a foodie could show character by listing dishes, and that if you're character likes cooking, he's going to think of the ingredients and how they go in.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Not much on food porn, personally. One of my fantasy tales, Grey Eyes, Green Eyes, made it this far into feeding:

The smell of the broth over the tiny fire reached the figure's nose. Leaning forward again, he looked in the copper pot, nodded to himself and pulled it off the fire. Cupping the hot vessel in a fold of his cloak, he settled again in his seat and pulled a wooden spoon from the top of one boot.

One hand casually brushed off the cloak's hood, revealing the wearer's head. Thin-faced, yet with strong features, he carried a well-trimmed, pointed beard and moustache, mainly grey amid rusty remnants of youth. Deep lines in skin darkened by the sun emphasized how long it had been since that youth had passed him by; his grey eyes were almost buried beneath thick eyebrows framing a long, aquiline nose.

Bending forward, he ladled a spoonful of thin broth into his mouth, sucking in air to cool the too-hot liquid. He put down the pot for a moment, pulled his pack towards him and, rummaging through it, pulled out a well-traveled partial loaf of barley bread. Reaching into his right sleeve, his left hand brought out a thin-bladed bronze knife with a bone handle. The blade featured intricate engraving, now almost obliterated by time and much use. After cutting off a frugal serving, he returned the knife to his sleeve and the remainder of the loaf to the pack.

He continued his meal, dipping the hard bread into the soup and saving the last crust to wipe the pot clean.

Makes my tummy growl, just rereading it, but I’ll try to do better in future.

 

[Bamagan]

I think the only food items I have explicitly described are the ones that get used as sex toys. I may have mentioned a birthday cake, but I can't recall how sex-adjacent it was.

 

[SimonDoom]

If you want to go crazy in your SFF world, leave stew behind and have them eat hot dish and lime jello salad.