Worldbuilding Wednesday! Do the Kal'syr have any special dishes they prepare?
Bear with me for this post, because I haven’t really established a lot of flora/fauna/names stuff yet, so a lot of the food references are probably going to be similar to Earth’s.
So the kal’syr are sorta patterned after archosaurs except they have mammal-like dentition. I haven’t settled on a specific dental set-up yet, but what I definitely think is concrete is that they’re primarily carnivores but they can and will eat plants (grains and vegs) since they are able to grind those up in their gizzard and digest them.
The main staples for kal’syr are typically poultry and seafood (including fishes and shellfishes). Most meals are accompanied with a grain such as rice and millet. Seaweed and kelp also figures prominently in their diet, as well as seeds and nuts. In terms of spices, many kal’syr living in on the Ashaii continent prefer their food to be bright and focused on ingredients, so they often use salt and syrup to highlight some of the specific characteristics of ingredients. But other spices they use are analogous to star anise, cinnamon, sesame, ginger, and more. That’s kind of a basic understanding I have for now of what the components of their meals are like (never mind figuring out agriculture and availability oops).
But why talk about food without mentioning actual dishes? Here’s a possible breakdown of meals during a regular day in Litan for a kal’syr:
Breakfast/First Sun - A common dish for many kal’syr and humans is rice porridge topped with slices of eel and dried kelp, served with a cup of strong citrus tea. Other dishes include light fishbone broth with fermented curd, savory chunks of agar, glutinous rice dumplings, and millet bars. Breakfast is usually light on the meat.
First Lunch/Mid Sun - It’s pretty common for breakfast items to be consumed for lunch, but there are some kal’syr dishes exclusive to the lunches. The first lunch is usually the lightest lunch and is often consumed while on the move. This lunch can be skipped in favor of a larger lunch later on in the day. These include pan-fried rice cakes, roasted legumes, kelp stew with clams, sweet bread, and pan-fried lustpalm leaves.
Second Lunch/Full Sun - This lunch occurs between the first lunch and the late meal, and is typically eaten with friends and acquaintances. This lunch is typically heavier and has an emphasis on sweets as well as more grain-based dishes. Common dishes include steamed fish over rice cakes, raw eel served with sweetbread, and sweet fruits served in agar custard.
Late Meal/Last Sun - For the kal’syr, the late meal represents an opportunity to eat a meal with families, especially extended ones, and neighbors. Typically, there’s a large collection of dishes accompanied by a multitude of desserts and copious amounts of tea. Main dishes often are composed of meats, such as whole steamed fish served with onions, tea-stewed shellfish, whole roasted poultry, and so on. These dishes are often lightly-seasoned in order to bring out the flavors of the meat. Accompanying the main dishes are multitudes of side dishes such as thickened fishhead stew, dried sour fish, sugar-dusted candied clams, and so on. Desserts and teas are an interesting affair, with the majority of desserts being very fruity and teas being brewed to play off the flavors of the dessert. It’s a really filling meal to be honest.
That’s kind of a break down of what a kal’syr could eat, but hey it’s /probably/ going to change once I figure out food availability, cooking styles, and their biology.
