Gnome help please

[malladin]

As Gnomes appear to be flavour of the month at the moment I thought I'd see if anyone could help me out with a couple of small suggestions for my latest product idea.

I'm intending to write a D20 Cookbook, allowing me to combine my two hobbies of Cookery and Roleplaying.

Obviously this book is not going to be of an entirely serious nature, but I do want to add some 'sensible' ideas for workable recepies that you can actually eat.

So I've been working through the standard PC races, trying to come up with 2-3 recepies for each (as well as a smattering of crunchy bits, in gaming terms).

Humans are no problem. Halflings very easy after I gave up trying to not think of them as Hobbits. Half Orcs can make use of a few of my stranger concoctions from my student days. I figure Elves live in woods and so eat birds, mushrooms and berries (and probably some delicate cream pastries, too). Dwarves are seriously into beer, so that gives me a whole host of options.

But what do I do about Gnomes? What do they eat??

Help, anyone ??

cheerio,

Ben, Malladin's Gate

 

[Morrus]

Carrots, I think.

I'll move this to Gen Disc. as it doesn't seem to be a publisher-specific question. I imagine the folks there are more likely to help you out.

 

[Sejs]

Alot of root vegitables, mushrooms, herbs. Goat milk and goat cheese would be there for creme recipies. For meat, I'd see them mainly sticking with fowl and fish, maybe with some goat, mutton or rabbit for red meat recipies.

And for some reason I don't see them as being into sweets as Halflings would be.

 

[MerakSpielman]

Well, I'm not sure about "flavor of the month," but Gnomes are best with a light cream sauce and peppercorns. You have to tenderize the little buggers pretty good, though. They're kind of stringy.

Any white or light red wine is good with Gnome.

If possible, feed your gnomes on only corn for a month before you slaughter them.


Oh, wait, you wanted to have people eat like Gnomes, not to have people like eating gnomes. Well, then, do what those other folks are saying.

 

[Gez]

IMC, their recipes tends to be extremely strong. Chocolate would be 90% cocoa, any meat would be served with chili peppers, and so on. Use honey rather than sugar. Also IMC, eat any berry without problem. Belladona pies are very good, but toxic for non-gnomes. They don't like fish much, however.

A common trick of gnome consist of using their racial prestidigitation cantrips to alter the taste of a meal. It's cheaper than exotic spices.

 

[Kesh]

I would say it mostly depends on which kind of gnome we're talking about.

'Tinker' gnomes like to experiment: with technology, with magic and, of course, with their food. I would expect their foods to be rather exotic by our standards, and quite varied in nature.

Your basic 'rock' gnome is a bit more traditional. They still experiment, but it's more controlled, like a modern science lab. Recipes would be carefully crafted and passed down from generations, so there's probably more well-established ones from this group. These would use common ingredients (mushrooms, small game, woodland plants, etc.) in interesting ways.

 

[alsih2o]

i know that if i could talk to burrowing animals there wopuld be many a truffle dish served in my burrow!

 

[Tonguez]

Belladona pies are very good, but toxic for non-gnomes.

Gez might know that irl the ripe fruit (berry) of Belladona are in fact edible (by humans too) however every other part of the plant and immature fruit are poisonous (so don't try this at home without expert guidance)

IMC the Gnome diet consist mainly of berries, nuts, roots and wild greens (dandelion leaves etc). For meat they include fish, crawdads and lots of different Bugs - from to Grasshoppers to Slaters, Cockroachers and Caterpillars

So try a recipe for Chocolate Grasshopper with a berry brule, or a cheeseboard with berries, nuts and wood grubs fried in garlic

 

[Privateer]

I would think "woodsey, strange, natural." Perhaps you could make a dish based on mealworms (put them in a spicy batter, maybe). Try something that doesn't immediatly sound good (or even palatable), but when you actually try it it's odd, new and rather tasty. This will take some experementing, most likely, or some research.

Edit: I forgot -- think of meals that are not burrowing animals, but could be gathered by one. Hence the mealworms.

(Hint: Mealworms taste like cashews to me, but some say more like popcorn.)

 

[Renaissance Man]

A little off-topic, but in line with some of the comments on berries and belladonna... yew-berries are edible, but the seeds are deadly poisonous. I know of a botany professor that makes a big production of eating the berries in class, taking care to spit out the seeds while no one's looking. (Kids, don't try this at home, yadda yadda yadda.) Sounds like just the sort of foolishness that a gnome could appreciate.