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For this list of worldbuilding prompts.
Are there any foods with symbolic meanings that are eaten on special occasions (e.g. katsudon for victory, or new years oranges for luck)? How did the tradition get started?
This was a challenging one! Here are two foods with symbolic meaning and / or eaten on special occasions.
Ambertree fruits and the Þuar
Ambertree fruits are the apricot-sized, very fleshy galbulus of the ambertree. They have waxy white skin and pink flesh, with a single large seed. Their flesh buttery, with a peculiar taste that is both cloyingly sweet and very resinous.
Ambertrees are cultivated for their resin, which can be carefully prepared and baked into artificial amber. For the Þuar peoples, who first mastered ambercraft, both the tree and its fruit are sacred. The fruits were traditionally only eaten by ambercrafters in the purification ceremonies undertaken as preparation for the delicate processes of ambercrafting, or harvested for religious offerings.
After the Þuar Wars, the Namitan Empire stole the secrets of ambercrafting and began growing its own ambertree orchards and training its own ambercraft masters, coveting the wealth to be obtained through the trade of the precious material and aiming to weaken the still-free Northern Þuar Queendoms. Ambertree fruit is considered a delicacy in the Namitan Empire.
Roasted meat and nuts and the Ranaite Tahen
For Ranaite Tahens, the inhabitants of the city state of Ranai on the Ojame archipelago, any meat meal is a special meal as the archipelago's high population density leaves very little land available for the raising of livestock (fish, seafood, and insects make up the majority of their protein intake, along with the meat of some small livestock like kabi).
Roasted meat, however, is a truly special thing and reserved for the solstice festivals. Ranaite Tahen have a strong cultural fear of fire, and fire is heavily regulated within the city of Ranai. Solstice festivals are days of exhuberance and nervousness as (heavily watched) open fires are lighted around the city and meats and nuts roasted on open flames to celebrate.
