Whats the diet like your fae? i recall you said that they can't do gluten - how does that effect their meals? do they have the three main meals like we do ( breakfast , lunch , dinner ) or do they have a different system ? gimmie all the food culture -
word building questions ; always accepting!!
dokkalfar are omnivores with a lean towards fruitivore and insectivore/carnivore tendencies. they will eat just about anything that does not eat them first. however, like any organism, they have preferences and specific dietary needs. dokkalfar primarily consume a diet that in high in protein and sugars.
they have very high caloric needs, so sugar and other simple carbohydrates are commonly on the menu for dokkalfar for short bursts of energy they need throughout the day, while protein is needed to help maintain the muscle mass they require to do all the funny bug stuff they do.
since they dont consume grains, they consume their carbohydrates from root vegetables/tubers, nuts/seeds, legumes, fruit, fungus, and some easy to digest leafy greens (rarely). sometimes they even consume the flowering bodies of plants. because of their high caloric needs and how fast they go through energy, fruit is a common form of replenishing energy, and its very common for dokkalfar to snack on various fruits they find throughout the day.
since dokkalfar have a few cities along the coastline of their western-most territory, dokkalfar in the west have taken to enjoying sea food, particularly shellfish. insects make up the majority of the protein in their diet, but they do eat pretty much any form of protein they can get their hands on.
dokkalfar typically eat many small meals throughout the day, however they also enjoy camaraderie of eating among their own kind, so even small meals can be enough to warrant gathering -- for this reason drinks like teas, coffee, and wine are all very common to drink throughout the day too to excuse a get together. dokkalfar typically have one or two big communal meals a day, usually at dawn or dusk - during the twilight hours, and many small ones with smaller groups throughout the day.
for a healthy dokkalfar, they would need a big sized meal every 6-8 hours, or small meals interspersed over 3-4 hour periods, to keep their energy levels stable. so dokkalfar can have anywhere from 4 BIG meals in a day, or 6-7 small meals in a day. thats alotta food, almost twice as much and as often as humans need -- ESPECIALLY if they are active. so they would be kinda like hobbits in that they got , breakfast, brunch, lunch, post lunch tea, supper, dinner, midnight tea---
since they have a love of sweets and a resistance to toxins, dokkalfar enjoy drinking sweet teas steeped with the leaves of plants that would impart secondary pyschoactive effects, and many of their wines are cloyingly sweet (as well as strong). dokkalfar very much enjoy black tea seeped with aromatic spices and sweetened with sugar, like chai without any milk.
they love honey, will go to great lengths to harvest honey, and beekeeping is not unheard of among the dokkalfar. though they prefer the taste of wild honey. they refine most of their sugar from sugar trees, sugar-cane-like stalks that contain insane amounts of natural glucose. the bark and natural gummy resin from the sugar trees is popular to chew on throughout the day.
candy and sweets are a cornerstone of dokkalfar food culture, and while they cannot make pastries as we might know them, they have their own ways of creating pastry-like confections from non-grain plant material. im sure they've also figured out how to extract gelatin from animal collagen.
frozen treats are also popular, as dokkalfar extract ice from the mountainous alps that line their northern most border, bring them deep into the earth, and create sort of ice boxes. this allows them to have frozen goods all year round. frozen fruit shredded on top of shaved, flavored ice is really popular in the summer months.
they harvest a lot of spices, more in line with stuff like vanilla, and cinnamon, and other 'sweet' spices or spices that can be used in a sweet context. but they do harvest their own fair share of savory spices too, like spices in line with cumin, paprika, mustard seeds, stuff like that. they export and import a lot of spices and herbs, and like to experiment with different flavors, even if they usually circle back to sweet eventually.
they dont really consume animal dairy products. the concept of milk, cheeses, yoghurt, etc are all weird and alien to them. the only sort of 'milk' products they would use would be nut milks. like something in line with walnut, soy or almond milk. eggs, however, would be used in cooking and eaten. fermented products would be very popular, as dokkalfar are experts are manipulating the environment of their underground abodes to create perfect places for food to ferment safely.
raw meat is not off the table for dokkalfar, they are capable of digesting it without much problem. raw fish, especially in western coastal towns, is not uncommon, and neither is the consumption of raw bugs. however, when they can, they prefer to cook their meals than eat them raw.
