| antlered pigeon |
fowl |
A common bird (common enough to be a public nuisance
in many places), noted mostly for (1) stupidity; (2)
three sharp forking antlers; (3) not being quite fast
enough to get away from hungry Cani children, or hungry
Zi Ri for that matter.
|
| arkenflame |
astounding dessert |
A splendid confection of frozen honeyed cream in the shape
of a jagged tree growing from a flowerpot of cake, served flambeed and eaten very quickly.
A speciality of Darraden's. |
| arhoolie leaves |
spice |
Tree leaves -- thick and heavy, like bay leaves but
much bigger. Arhoolie leaves are quite spicy, with a
sort of spiky blue-orange spice that rakes the top of the
mouth and sometimes feels like it explodes out through
the ears. Fortunately the pain does not last for very
long. Small amounts of arhoolie are pleasantly pungent
and potent.
|
| blackscale eel |
fish |
A long sinuous fish; unlike a terrestrial eel, it has
scales. The flesh is delicious. They go bad quickly when
dead. |
| busky |
fish |
A small fat freshwater fish. The public ponds in
Vheshrame are stocked with buskies, among other fishes,
for swimmers to catch and eat.
|
| certhany |
spice |
A very bright spice-root. |
| chissowary |
spice |
A brown spice, rather like mace with a hint of clove
and peppermint. In an old and highly-inflected
dialect of Ketherian, the name
sounds like the word for "near someone of another
species"; as a result, the spice has connotations of friendship
between the prime species.
|
| chub-beetles |
insect |
Round beetles, one to two inches in diameter, usually
blue or green with symmetrical crimson spots. The
flesh is sweet and a bit spicy, especially when
raw. Chub-beetles are sold live, in small basketwork
cages. They are easily raised in cities, as a home
industry by poor Cani or Rassimel, fed on table
scraps; they are a cheap and popular meat.
|
| chulle |
spice |
A sharp sweet aromatic spice. It is the seed of a
somewhat poisonous and caustic berry, which must be
stripped off carefully. Fairly expensive.
|
| consimmon |
tree fruit |
A common tree fruit in Ketheria. The fruit looks
ominous, having a hard orange shell and three or four
hooked horns. The flesh is sour, bitter, sweet, and
aromatic, in about that order; rather like tea with
too much lemon and not enough sugar. Consimmons
aren't generally anyone's favorite fruit, though
consimmon pies and jams are popular; but they are
refreshing in hot weather, and consimmon trees are
very prolific, so consimmons are quite common. They
are also supposed to be particularly healthy for
Rassimel, though, as far as Bard knows, they aren't.
|
| cyanberry (a.k.a. teanberries) |
berry |
Small, bittersweet berries, an alarming electric blue
color, reputed to have stimulant properties.
|
| Daupdree pudding |
main dish |
A savory steamed pudding, of a heavy grain comparable
to buckwheat, a lighter grain, butter, a strong cheese,
powdered dried mushrooms, onions, and, if it will not be
served to Herethroy, chopped smoked guntry.
|
| Glanceberry |
berry |
Big plump sweet yellow-white berries. |
| guntry |
meat |
A very common domesticated six-legged beast,
cooked like pork, but more like a sheep in most
regards. A World Tree convention demo module
to the contrary, they generally do not explode.
|
| honey-oil |
Condiment |
Honey, dried and powdered, mixed into oil, so that the
result is still liquid, but quite sweet. Good-quality
honey-oil is made from the oil of almonds or some other
sweet nut. Poor-quality honey-oil is made from cooking
oil of some kind or other, and perfumed with the essence
of slaenflowers.
|
| hosh |
grain |
One of the staple grains of the World Tree. The
three-lobed, split seed vaguely echoes the Herethroy
shape (and the Herethroy and the grain were created by
the same god), and in Ketheria hosh grain is regarded as
somewhat sacred, especially by Herethroy.
|
| igneous honey |
sweet |
A peppery-hot honey made from chili flowers. |
| istomard |
spice |
A gloriously azure spice, the powdered nut of the
istomard tree. It is sometimes used for its color.
Some varieties are mild, but some are exceedingly
pungent, with a flavor somewhere between black pepper
and cumin that lingers in the mouth for quite a long
while. Chefs who cook with istomard must sample the
powder from each nut separately, or risk alarming
results from all their blue foods.
|
| jersany |
spice |
A potent and extremely expensive spice, made from the
powdered petals of jersany plants. Jersany plants die
if they are ever exposed to any light at all, making
them hard to cultivate.
|
| jumby |
fruit |
A smallish melon, an insipid sweet taste with a
slight bitter aftertaste. Jumbies grow from the trunk of
a common nut tree in wintertime: they are a secondary
crop.
|
| kathia |
beverage |
A stimulating beverage brewed from the leaves of
kathia trees. Quite popular among students, among
others. It is drunk with a wide range of condiments:
sugar, toasted flour, spices, pren-juice, butter,
marmalade, and various other things.
|
| Khtsoyis tea |
strong drink |
Any of several kinds of mind-altering tea, which are
widely considered to be Khtsoyis beverages. (In fact,
Khtsoyis do drink more than their share of them, perhaps
because Khtsoyis taste less keenly than the other prime
species, and the teas are generally harsh and bitter.)
Depending on the ingredients, the condiments, and the
drinker, Khtsoyis tea can be narcotic, hallucinogenic,
aphrodisiac, inebriatory, or just harsh-tasting.
Contains no actual Khtsoyis.
|
| kshiktav ylluul |
Yistreian appetizer |
The famous Yistreian appetizer: very spicy squaretail
mice en brochette. |
| letoof |
fish |
A very large river fish, the size of a sheep. |
| Maulningo |
incense |
A rather insipid sweet incense. |
| mhorhy |
fish |
A very ordinary round fish, large enough to make a
decent but not excessive dinner for one. The flesh is
firm and a bit stringy; the flavor is mild.
|
| Nihondras Day Cake |
cake |
A fruitcake in an onion-dome shape, stuffed with
almond paste and flavored with cassowary.
Traditionally Rassimel bake or buy these
cakes for Nihondras Day (a Ketherian celebration of the
birthday of the inventor of the oven), and serve slices
to all their non-Rassimel friends.
|
| offirrah |
condiment |
A condiment of fermented snakes, garlic, and chili
peppers, ferocious and fearsome. Cani love it. For
other species it is an acquired taste.
|
| omodjen |
fruit |
A fancy and exquisite fruit, available only briefly in season. |
| Oskameeska |
brandy |
A brandy flavored with, roughly, orange and wasabi. |
| pjedly |
doom |
Partially-dried white beans, rehydrated in strong
pepper vodka. They look plain and innocuous. They are not.
|
| plue |
porridge |
A porridge of hosh grain and, generally, several
sweet and savory ingredients, or strong spices; a
Herethroy staple.
|
| pocker |
fowl |
A medium-sized bird, often farmed and raised for
food. It is traditional to bind contraceptive spells on
pocker wishbones.
|
| pondygreen |
spice |
A spice, aromatic and a bit bitter. It grows as
algae blooms in ponds, but only, it is generally
believed, where Sleeth drink.
|
| poptaloop |
bun |
A little sticky bun with a dot of sweet bean paste on
the top. The gift of a box of fourteen poptaloops is an
offer by the giver to pay the receiver's debts.
|
| pren |
tree fruit |
A very common fruit. The flesh is juicy and citrussy, looking
rather like a large plum, but tasting like an
orange. The pit is octahedral.
|
| quendry wine |
beverage / dessert |
Cheap wine, mulled with guntry blood and spices, and
often served with tiny meatballs floating in it.
|
| quissitica |
bean |
A cheap staple bean. It tastes good, and does not
have the regrettable side effects of some beans, but
cooking quissitica leaves the kitchen rather stinky.
|
| Rampaging Bird |
appetizer |
In Sythyry's words: "Rampaging Bird is a common enough appetizer: fatty
bits of your favorite eating bird are stuck on skewers,
i rubbed with spicy butter, grilled, and dipped in a
fearsome pepper-vinegar sauce and presented to you like
so many weapons. It is served as spicy as anything in the
region's cuisine; people sometimes get into
too-spicy-eating contests with it instead of with just
plain hot peppers. Since it is so hot, it is served with
a bowl of sour cream to calm it down. Eating the sour
cream is bad form in the contest."
|
| sengo |
tree fruit |
A common tree fruit, large enough to fit in two cupped
hands, shaped like a very chubby lentil. The juice,
in tiny bladders mixed in with the flesh, is
syrupy and sweet, the flesh is soft and a bit
starchy. The two dozen seeds in the center are tiny,
and peppery-hot when bitten. A Rassimel staple.
|
| sporchey |
beverage |
A thin custard, drunk as a beverage. |
| stag-radish |
vegetable |
A forking, antlerry vegetable with a spicy
bite (unless cooked), with a crimson skin and light
blue flesh. Biologically, the stag-radish is the
overgrown stamen of a large flower. A steamed whole
stag-radish, served with clam sauce, is a traditional
dish signifying forgiveness for adultery.
|
| tarrissy |
salad |
A general name for a salad of shredded greens; one of
the Herethroy staples.
|
| tilenut |
nut |
Just a nut |
| Tossmiardo's Rue |
incense |
Incense for a bitter remembrance. |
| ving-bean |
legume |
A staple of Vheshrame cooking: a dull green toroidal
vegetable, about an inch and a half in diameter.
Ving-beans grow easily. Although the beans themselves
are unattractive, the flowers are fairly nice;
ving-vines are common on trellises around Vheshrame.
|
| wudgeon |
fowl |
A commonly-eaten bird. |
| yilliat |
inedible leaf |
The long, pointed, hook-tipped leaf of the yilliat.
The leaves are inedible, but tough and strong; they
are often used to wrap things being steamed, and often
used as casual disposable dishes for grilled
foods -- or, for that matter, as note
paper or wrapping paper.
|
| yshmaukki |
cake |
Yistreian cake with nuts and cabbage and raisins and
eggs. |
| zabouf |
fish |
Looks like a manta ray, acts like a whale. Season it
with clove and bay; don't eat the tail. |
| zilwe |
tea-herb |
An herb often used in tisanes. It is considered
relaxing for Herethroy, but stimulating for Orren. |
| Zouville de Mrood |
cider |
A good brand of fermented apple and pren cider. |
