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Drow foods and/or recipes

Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2018 8:34 pm
by Orin
Hey all,

This may be ultimately self serving, as it's kind of research for a story, but anyone know much about any drow foods or recipes? I know there's a LOT of mushroom, but I was more wondering about veggies. Farming is apparently an industry and vegetables are a staple, but what kinds? Are there any analogs to things that are really prevalent, like potatoes or tomatoes? I know they eat lizards and likely insects (though I bet spiders are off the table!) and could probably find a number of other proteins. I'd heard somewhere that they love eating rats the same way we love fried chicken or street food.
Maybe a Hook Horror Bar-B-Q? Any thoughts?

Also, does anyone have any food recipes that are drow related or drow inspired? Maybe a thick mushroom stew, or legit rattlesnake bites?

Hope people find this post fun!

Have a wonderful day!

Re: Drow foods and/or recipes

Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2018 11:19 pm
by Irennan
[quote="Orin":1ckttz37]Hey all,

This may be ultimately self serving, as it's kind of research for a story, but anyone know much about any drow foods or recipes? I know there's a LOT of mushroom, but I was more wondering about veggies. Farming is apparently an industry and vegetables are a staple, but what kinds? Are there any analogs to things that are really prevalent, like potatoes or tomatoes? I know they eat lizards and likely insects (though I bet spiders are off the table!) and could probably find a number of other proteins. I'd heard somewhere that they love eating rats the same way we love fried chicken or street food.
Maybe a Hook Horror Bar-B-Q? Any thoughts?

Also, does anyone have any food recipes that are drow related or drow inspired? Maybe a thick mushroom stew, or legit rattlesnake bites?

Hope people find this post fun!

Have a wonderful day![/quote:1ckttz37]

They obviously can't farm vegetables that are adapted to live on sunlight, due to lack of proper light, due to the drow's problems with light and so on. There are vegetables that live on faerzress radiation, but common food needs to be imported. The drow do import fruits and spices like the ones you mention, tho, especially citrus fruits (the fruits are often coated in clay and then fabric-bagged, and then packed in carrychests or handkegs full of edible oils, to keep the air from them)--this comes from Ed.

Underdark drow rely on Rothé for their meat and cheese supplies.

The Hooded One (Ed's dear friend and his voice over the Candlekeep forums), said this about Underdark food:
[quote:1ckttz37]All I can recall, without checking with him (your queries are winging their way through the Net right now, to do just that), is that there are blind fish in the Underdark lakes and streams, there are plentiful edible fungi that thrive on the moisture and energy provided by the faerzress radiation (which in the Underdark is a sunlight equivalent), and I do remember large, glistening white worms (as long as adult human arms, and thicker, that Ed described as having flesh and taste "somewhat like real-world shrimp") gracing drow plates (which are usually oval, and have raised sides, so they're like flat-bottomed bowls). There was also a vivid emerald-green soup, snail soup I think[/quote:1ckttz37]

I do remember the snail soup and the pyrimo fishes from the Liriel novels. The former is some kind of staple food, Liriel didn't mind it. The latter is considered a delicacy, and--depending on how you cut and prepare it--can also be very poisonous, or simply give you hallucinations, or other kinds of "fun" effects (in fact, it is popular at parties).

As far as drinks go, Ulavir, the drow green wine, is really popular.

The followers of Eilistraee on the surface are encouraged to go around and look for new recipes and spices to pass along, so I guess that their cuisine has received a lot of human and elven influence--especially since their main source of spices is what they can find in the woods (which actually is a quite large variety of stuff). They are also encouraged to learn to grow their own food relying on their skills (teaching this to the converts is actually among the duties of the Dark Ladies), so I think that followers of Eilistraee will often have access to normal fruits and vegetables.

PS: There's also this rather dark tidbit about drow food (in the Underdark) that I found while looking for more info: due to the scarcity of resources down there (even with what limited farming they have developed), due to the very high prices of food, cannibalism is not an uncommon practice. The drow who live in the Underdark are known to eat their dead and those who have aged, according to the 2e FR Drow of the Underdark.

Unless you're noble, you have to be a scrapper down there. It truly highlights how much the common drow bleed under Lolth's tyranny, and why they should have every reason to want to get away from that hellhole.

Re: Drow foods and/or recipes

Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2018 11:58 pm
by Bhaern Quel
Well down there viewtopic.php?t=1773 there is some notes on food from a few years ago.

Re: Drow foods and/or recipes

Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2018 12:05 am
by Orin
[quote="Irennan":jnvj8ojo]
Unless you're noble, you have to be a scrapper down there. It truly highlights how much the common drow bleed under Lolth's tyranny, and why they should have every reason to want to get away from that hellhole.[/quote:jnvj8ojo]

This is one of the major points of the story I'm working on. Lolth and her priestess are bad, but they are reinforced and legitimized by the nobility and the nobility being anything but, is why the small folk always suffer. Thanks a bunch for the info.

Re: Drow foods and/or recipes

Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2018 12:06 am
by Orin
Also, I didn't know Rothe produced milk for cheese. That sounds...revolting.

Re: Drow foods and/or recipes

Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2018 12:57 am
by Irennan
[quote="Orin":34me78yr]Also, I didn't know Rothe produced milk for cheese. That sounds...revolting.[/quote:34me78yr]

A lot of those Underdark dishes don't sound very inviting tbh, lol.

Re: Drow foods and/or recipes

Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2018 4:56 am
by Orin
[quote="Bhaern Quel":hourhydq]Well down there viewtopic.php?t=1773 there is some notes on food from a few years ago.[/quote:hourhydq]

Ahaha! This is totally where I read that they ate rats. I guess I just made up the part about fried chicken and street food through extrapolation. That's funny.