Homebrew Do people in your game world put cheese on their apple pies??

[Misanthrope Prime]

Heh, fair enough. I mainly asked because I like making poached pears with cream cheese or with brie.which isnt too far from apple and cheese sans Pie crust.

I did wonder if verdigris was some obscure old medieval ingredient, but ae, verjus makes more sense

Dwarves being tolerant to lead, arsenic and similar is a flavourful culinary touch too

Another peculiarity is the nation of Thalaxia makes heavy use of food grade gunpowder as a seasoning. Their version of the wedding at Cana was a miracle performed by a military commander who could feed his entire army with seemingly unlimited horse meat flavored with gunpowder. Nowadays "black powder horse" is considered a common sacramental meal even if no one actually likes it, you gotta serve it on holidays.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Dwarves being tolerant to lead, arsenic and similar is a flavourful culinary touch too

I’ve seen similar things done with nonhuman biology in the Alien Nation movie & TV show, as well as the books of Harry Turtledove (Worldwar and Colonization novels) and C.J. Cherryh (Foreigner novels).

 

[rmcoen]

While I won't comment on the validity of putting cheese on apple pie, the mere question did raise the point of "how important is food, in your campaign?". Which I think is a great topic.

Certain authors I've read spend a lot of book space talking about the food in their worlds. The characters don't just "have breakfast", they sit down to "egg-fried toast, with a side of porridge enlivened with dried apples and peaches from the summer's harvest, and the ever-present side of piglaro leaves for protein. Plus a warm mug of kaf, of course." Does that matter? No. Does it establish a little bit of world-building? Sure... whatever "piglaro" is, it's apparently a plant, and a staple of theri diet. And they have coffee, but call it something different. (Or maybe it's tea, but different... maybe there will be a brewing description in a few pages to answer that question.)

In a book, you can read that section with detail and think about the meanings in the world... but at the gaming table - unless there's a quest about it! - I've found that players want "breakfast is 2 silvers". Or "The Silver Fork prides itself on its gourmet meals and upper-crust clientele... dinner alone is 2 gold each." I have played in low-level games with other DMs who have sometimes had actual full menus for the local town's restaurants and bars. You can get into roleplaying - if you want! - about eating at the Oxtail and Bell because they serve mutton, which reminds you of your childhood as a shepherd, or not eating at the Broken Wheel because their mead is sourced from Berjamin's farm, which put your uncle out of business. And after a couple levels... "Lunch costs 2 silver."

Having said all that, two side quests ago in my campaign, the PCs made a point of fully field-dressing an enormous cave lizard they defeated, because of an off-comment a guard had made about the lizards being "farmed" in the mine tunnels. They ended up making an extra 150 gold from the Silver Fork for the freshness and rarity of the superb meat! (And I can't remember another time that food came up other than the ranger saying "I scout ahead and hunt, while the party catches up.")