For the SF&F writers among us: describing food

[yowser]

Stew shows up in plenty non-SciFi/Fantasy stories as well. As far as I know I'm the only one to link a story's meal to Russ' (fabulous) recipe thread.

The bean and barley stew was still simmering away when we entered the kitchen, and Roger sniffed the air and put his big manly hands together.

"Sure smells good, Barb. You make a mean meal."

 

[ronde]

The characters in my sci-fi stories about an intergalactic trader eat what most humanoids would eat. The foods just have different names. Some I particularly like are"

Jananga fruit - this is a fruit craved by the Yuglicks because they have to eat it to get horny enough to reproduce
Wischan Water Weed - this is an aphrodisiac for humans
Felinian Ale - very potent ale made by the humanoids on Felinia
Rugaloge - the pickled penis of the amaxyl, a creature somewhat like a camel. Borchan females are particularly fond of them, though they tend to used them for another purpose.
Mungi berries
Various cakes and crackers made with gronic flour, austilbi meal, and ground mengilee. Yuglics use mengilee to make Yuglic beer.

 

[Melody_Lightdraft2]

Well as one of my characters was a human on Earth turned accidentally into a centaur, the use of magic to construct Earth fast food is easy.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Roddenberry was from the old school of misogynistic egotist producers: get all you can out of all of them (especially the women) and take credit for all of it. But they all just worked in space.

Kirk originally was from Iowa, right? He must have brought some of the Midwest with him into space.

 

[UsuallyPresent]

-snip-
Rugaloge - the pickled penis of the amaxyl, a creature somewhat like a camel. Borchan females are particularly fond of them, though they tend to used them for another purpose.

A flyswatter, right?

 

[THBGato]

In my latest, on a wing and prayer, the society is very patriarchal. Among the ways I tried to so thus, I used food, both what is eaten and where. The men have a separate dinning room to women and children; men get platters of meat piled high, women salads and vegetables, maybe some cheese. Having some thin slices of ham is considered a rare treat.

Nobody eats stew at any point.

 

[Somethingnew1124]

I think stew is a super sexy food. It takes planning and effort- you know that whoever made it for you was thinking of you all day long. It appeals to all the senses. The house is filled with the scent, the steam caresses your face. The flavors of the herbs and onions and the way the meat falls apart on your tongue. The rich fat in the broth fills your mouth, satisfying your soul. Seriously, what is not to love about stew?

 

[RejectReality]

If anything, I fall back too much on bacon and eggs for breakfasts. I realized I've been doing that during OWT, and I'm purposely trying to avoid it. Let me see if I can remember what was in One Whore's Town... First I know was fried rabbit and potatoes. I remember rump roast early on in the story. I never explicitly mention the meal it went in, but pheasants and lots of vegetables come up when they're bartering their services for supplies. Fruit tart comes up. That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I know Danica roasted a turkey once. Thakkor noodles a catfish and roasts it over a fire in Merchant Princess.

Stew comes up, but I typically use it as a signal for a poor inn or a necessity due to resource constraints and questionable meat. If there's time and ingredients for something else, I'm probably going that way.

Especially if there's a proper kitchen somewhere.

I don't spend a lot of time on cooking, eating, or the spread. It's typically a time jump from beginning preparation to everyone pushing away their plates if it comes up.

 

[ruddygore]

Food may depend on the fantasy setting. If there's no magic, think about food preservation. No refrigeration or canning limits what is available.

 

[MetaBob]

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

Even in Texas, this is far from a universal belief.

I personally think that chili REQUIRES beans. There are only three essential chili ingredients to this home chef: beans, peppers (cayenne powder can be used in an emergency), and time, to let all the ingredients get to know each other. Another protein is desirable but not required. My favorite chili recipe uses seafood, white beans, fresh habañero and Anaheim peppers, plus several others (ancho, chipotle, poblano).

Chili is, after all, a dish that Texas got from Mexico, who got it from Native Americans.

In one of my fantasy stories-in-progress ("Celtic Vampiress"), which is set in first-century Ireland and Wales, I lay out several banquets. I also apply two levels of indirection to the food names I cite: Irish words spelled phonetically, so it might be difficult for ANY audience to track what these food items are, but at least it's consistent and decipherable. It's not like modern Irish spelling seems phonetic to English-language readers, after all, and of course at that time in Irish history there really wasn't any written language other than Ogham runes. One of these banquets was thrown by Romans in Wales, however. One example:

There was a veritable feast laid out on her table, food for a score of hungry men: sausage, roast lamb and veal, broiled salmon and bacon, sheep's milk and honeycombs with sooa, fraechmes, and ooal, honey wheat-cakes with butter, currants, dulsk, and salmon roe, a pot of creamy oatmeal mixed with nettle-tops, hazelnuts, mead and frothy ale, biror and mackans with more dulsk in an annlann, but who else would eat and drink so much with us?

I did a fair bit of research to learn what foods would have been commonly consumed at this time and place in history.

 

[Voboy]

I just realized the thread title incorporates SF, too.

When I was writing my SF series, it involved a space navy operating far into the future. I mentioned food in passing, sprinkling it throughout the series at mealtimes to lend a sense that this was the future, and these were humans, but not quite like humans now. There was also an overall sense that humanity had homogenized by that time, emphasized by mixed elements in peoples' names ("McChang" and "Kobayashewicz," that sort of thing) and by everyone eating the same foods, often thought of as culture-bound these days: everybody seems to like matzoh and khorkhog in the future, even though nowadays they're little-known outside their ethnic areas.

I think of it as the "sushi-ization" of future cuisine: when I was little, sushi was exceedingly rare in the Americas. Now it's all over the place. I don't see a reason why that trend wouldn't continue in the future.

Sure, I also flat-out invented a few food items, ostensibly found on other planets. But I mixed them on the same plate with haricots and creamed corn, then didn't bother explaining. Again, it lent an sense of futurism. The point was not to describe the cuisine.

 

[UsuallyPresent]

I just realized the thread title incorporates SF, too.

When I was writing my SF series, it involved a space navy operating far into the future. I mentioned food in passing, sprinkling it throughout the series at mealtimes to lend a sense that this was the future, and these were humans, but not quite like humans now. There was also an overall sense that humanity had homogenized by that time, emphasized by mixed elements in peoples' names ("McChang" and "Kobayashewicz," that sort of thing) and by everyone eating the same foods, often thought of as culture-bound these days: everybody seems to like matzoh and khorkhog in the future, even though nowadays they're little-known outside their ethnic areas.

I think of it as the "sushi-ization" of future cuisine: when I was little, sushi was exceedingly rare in the Americas. Now it's all over the place. I don't see a reason why that trend wouldn't continue in the future.

Sure, I also flat-out invented a few food items, ostensibly found on other planets. But I mixed them on the same plate with haricots and creamed corn, then didn't bother explaining. Again, it lent an sense of futurism. The point was not to describe the cuisine.

In short it seems you've gone more for the classic bit about "show, don't tell." You're showing the plate, you're showing the interactions and group dynamics, you're not telling the reader about it. IMO that's usually the way to go, leave the details in de tails, way off in the background somewhere.

On the other hand, there are times and places to go into details. Steven Brust's Jhereg series integrates the world's cuisine intimately throughout the series, to the point where one of the novels spends about half its word count on recipes and kitchen-lore. Given the story, it worked quite well, IMO. Avitue off Royal Road has a habit of spending chapters on lovingly detailed and described meals with lots of story-lore worked in around the edges. Etc.

 

[yowser]

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

So you're saying vegetarians, by definition, can't do chili? Take this.

For my next visit to Austin I'll have to challenge you to a duel.

Aubergines at ten paces.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

For my next visit to Austin I'll have to challenge you to a duel.

Aubergines at ten paces.

Those are some big ... eggplants you have, there.


-Rocco

 

[UsuallyPresent]

So you're saying vegetarians, by definition, can't do chili? Take this.

For my next visit to Austin I'll have to challenge you to a duel.

Aubergines at ten paces.

I'm confused. How does duelling eggplants mix with chili? Maybe poblanos at ten paces, but eggplants?

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

So you're saying vegetarians, by definition, can't do chili? Take this.

For my next visit to Austin I'll have to challenge you to a duel.

Aubergines at ten paces.

I will qualify my comments by stating My Venison Texas Red has won an ICS competition, so I have a little experience(It was a long time ago). I'm also a purist, and will readily admit that, qualifying it with the caveat that my zeal is purely tongue in cheek - you put whatever you want in your chili. But if you're going to run with the big dogs and compete, No beans allowed.

We are absolutely picking nits here so I'll defer to the ICS; International Chili Society. But the short answer, according to the experts is, no, vegetarians cannot do chili because there is no meat.

---

The ICS defines Traditional Red Chili as "any kind of meat, or combination of meats, cooked with red chili peppers, various spices, and other ingredients. Beans and non-vegetable fillers such as rice and pasta are not allowed."

If that sounds a bit uptight, the ICS's Homestyle Chili competition defines chili as: "any kind of meat, or combination of meats, and/or vegetables cooked with beans, chili peppers, various spices, and other ingredients. Homestyle chili may be any color." However, it does specify that "Beans are required," so bean lovers, enjoy!

---

PS.

You want a real treat, cook it in a Dutch oven and pour ready made corn bread batter into the pot while it simmers. The corn bread will rise to the top and keep the moisture you want in the chili. Damn good eating.

And thanks for the recipe. I'll give your vegetable stew a try sometime.

 

[Erozetta]

Regardless of what genre I'm writing in, if I have a chance to write a food into it, I will, and it will be prepared on the page so if someone would like to try to mimic it, they can.

My most recent culinary offering in writing was a spinach salad with diced and roasted BBQ spiced sweet potatoes, fresh diced apples, toasted pecans, BBQ spiced chicken breast and a honey mustard dressing.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Roadkill chilly, what a treat!

I will qualify my comments by stating My Venison Texas Red has won an ICS competition, so I have a little experience(It was a long time ago). I'm also a purist, and will readily admit that, qualifying it with the caveat that my zeal is purely tongue in cheek - you put whatever you want in your chili. But if you're going to run with the big dogs and compete, No beans allowed.

We are absolutely picking nits here so I'll defer to the ICS; International Chili Society. But the short answer, according to the experts is, no, vegetarians cannot do chili because there is no meat.

---

The ICS defines Traditional Red Chili as "any kind of meat, or combination of meats, cooked with red chili peppers, various spices, and other ingredients. Beans and non-vegetable fillers such as rice and pasta are not allowed."

If that sounds a bit uptight, the ICS's Homestyle Chili competition defines chili as: "any kind of meat, or combination of meats, and/or vegetables cooked with beans, chili peppers, various spices, and other ingredients. Homestyle chili may be any color." However, it does specify that "Beans are required," so bean lovers, enjoy!

---

PS.

You want a real treat, cook it in a Dutch oven and pour ready made corn bread batter into the pot while it simmers. The corn bread will rise to the top and keep the moisture you want in the chili. Damn good eating.

And thanks for the recipe. I'll give your vegetable stew a try sometime.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Roadkill chilly, what a treat!

Depends on how fresh the kill is, and how big a critter you got.

 

[MillieDynamite]

They was possoums, skunks, a dog maybe two, and cat! Aged about a week afore, we cut um up and plopped down in the pot. MMmm, mmm, made me barf!

Depends on how fresh the kill is, and how big a critter you got.

 

[StillStunned]

Not to drag this thread even further than it already is, but...

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

They was possoums, skunks, a dog maybe two, and cat! Aged about a week afore, we cut um up and plopped down in the pot. MMmm, mmm, made me barf!

The cat’s wut done it. Ever’body knows you ain’t s’posed’ta mix cat with possum.

 

[AllenWoody]

In Sci-Fi creating the backstory for food can help flesh out your world and add detail. On a spaceship or station is food grown? Synthesized? Have the occupants started growing their own or making creative uses of what's available? Are some things in short supply? In a story I'm working on all meat is synthesized, but some is better than others and when possible people supplement their meal with window-box-esque vegetables/herbs.

 

[MetaBob]

I will qualify my comments by stating My Venison Texas Red has won an ICS competition, so I have a little experience(It was a long time ago). I'm also a purist, and will readily admit that, qualifying it with the caveat that my zeal is purely tongue in cheek - you put whatever you want in your chili. But if you're going to run with the big dogs and compete, No beans allowed.

We are absolutely picking nits here so I'll defer to the ICS; International Chili Society. But the short answer, according to the experts is, no, vegetarians cannot do chili because there is no meat.

---

The ICS defines Traditional Red Chili as "any kind of meat, or combination of meats, cooked with red chili peppers, various spices, and other ingredients. Beans and non-vegetable fillers such as rice and pasta are not allowed."

If that sounds a bit uptight, the ICS's Homestyle Chili competition defines chili as: "any kind of meat, or combination of meats, and/or vegetables cooked with beans, chili peppers, various spices, and other ingredients. Homestyle chili may be any color." However, it does specify that "Beans are required," so bean lovers, enjoy!

---

Yep, two (actually three, with chili verde) categories recognized by the ICS, including the Homestyle Chili category where beans are required as chili rather than "stew", as you had earlier claimed.

I grant that you did so in good humor. I also thank you for linking that ICS page, which helps to refine that "what exactly is chili?" question I'd had for some years. It didn't answer the question definitively, of course, (I don't think there is such a thing as a definitive answer except in the context of a cook-off where some definitions and/or rules must be agreed upon), but at least provided some framework.

I congratulate you on your ICS cook-off win, that's certainly an achievement worth mentioning (and celebrating!). The one time I entered a seafood (mostly shellfish) chili into a cook-off, I did not win my category, of which there were three: meat, vegetarian, and "other", which is where mine landed, though the chili I made was very well-received. That recipe's starting point (from which I deviated somewhat significantly): https://www.tablespoon.com/recipes/seafood-chili-recipe/1/ . Be warned, seafood ingredients make that chili kind of expensive. And definitely wash your hands before touching around your eyes after you chop the habanero (I only used one rather than the three called for by the linked recipe, 'cause I'm not that crazy)!

I would certainly expand the definition of chili beyond the three categories recognized by the ICS, however. The chili you (and the ICS) define as "traditional" is actually shorthand for "chili con carne" (chili with meat). So, yeah, I think chili can definitely be vegetarian, including the pumpkin chili I made several times last decade.

Hmmm ... now what to do with that decorative pumpkin left over from Halloween beyond toasting the seeds...?

 

[Voboy]

In Sci-Fi creating the backstory for food can help flesh out your world and add detail. On a spaceship or station is food grown? Synthesized? Have the occupants started growing their own or making creative uses of what's available? Are some things in short supply? In a story I'm working on all meat is synthesized, but some is better than others and when possible people supplement their meal with window-box-esque vegetables/herbs.

I agree that this kind of thing can be fascinating for the writer, but it's very easy to bog down a narrative with a side discussion about hydroponic farming or something.

I find I get more mileage out of creating that backstory and spelling out those details for myself, so that they "exist" in my world, but leaving everything more opaque in the narrative so that it flows well. I'm telling a story, not writing a treatise.

I took that idea from Tolkien; LOTR references hundreds of things that were fully fleshed out in the author's mind, but at that point none of it had been published. It still "existed" on some level, and all those references helped deepen the narrative without needing to be explained in any kind of detail. The reader senses that depth without needing to fully understand it. Herbert does something similar in Dune.