Archan Cuisine Tradition / Ritual in Aequus | World Anvil
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Archan Cuisine

Culinary tradition of the people from the Kingdom of Archana

Special thanks to Rosana Dos Santos Pinto for writing this entire article for me to translate to English

Introduction


"The Archani's cuisine is just another reflection of our unity."
— an Archan chef

As multiethnic as its people, the culinary of Archana has been adapted to the lack of resources, wars, and countless attempts of invasion. As a refuge for casters and people of all kinds, Archana not only shelters them, but also their cultures, including their culinary traditions. And due to the lack of resources when under control of the Artalgnian Empire, the people of Archana found themselves forced to consume even what used to be discarded from animals, vegetables, and fruits.

Making the most of we have

Persisting until this day, the need to make the most out of everything has become a tradition to the Archan people. Pigs are taken full advantage of; ears, snout, leather, and feet are used in stews and the bones are boiled for many hours until they become a thick broth. Chickens are frequently used in soups during the winter; necks, feet, and giblets are used in most soups for the sick, together with cornflour. Rabbits, deers, wild boars, ferrets, sheep, and even frogs are commonly consumed.

Sweetening hearts

The hardships weren't enough to keep the Archani from trying to make their days less bitter with jams, cookies, and pies. The ripe fruits are mixed with sugar or molasses and taken to the fire until they become a jelly, the most common being the ones made from pomegranate, apple, blackberry, fig, pear, plum, and strawberry.

Sweet pastry, pear pies, and apple cookies are only some of the many sweets in which the jams are used. Compotes are often served with meat and birds in the banquets of the royalty. While jams are crushed fruits with sugar, compotes are big pieces of fruits cooked in sugar syrup. Another way they conserve fruits is by making liquors and wines. Juices and almond milk are alternatives for the kids who need milk, the elderly, and the bedridden who can't ingest solid food.

Spices such as cinnamon, clove, anise, vanilla, and fennel are frequently used in drinks and sweets. The kids' favorite is almond milk with honey and cinnamon.

Traveling Flavor

Brought by immigrants from many different lands, herbs have also earned their place in Archana's culinary traditions. In harder times, they were primarily responsible for making some dishes more edible, like the hated goose liver pate. Parsley, thyme, dill, cumin, sage, and mint are the most common. Among the most exotic spices, peppers of all colors and levels of spiciness earned the spotlight in the hot dishes of Blackbourne.

All the herbs mentioned are often used in conserves and even in drinks.

Delicious Cereals

Wheat was once part of archan cuisine, but due to loss of the Esperbrook region to the Blight, it fell out of use giving way to small crops of corn, rye, and oat. Despite recent rumors about the emergence of new wheat seedlings, the corn, oat, and rye flours are still the main bases for doughs of all kinds, being corn the most common, present in almost all salty doughs. Rye flour is reserved for bread and baguettes, while oat is used for pies, cookies, porridge, and sweer dough.

Countryside Traditions

Vegetables, leafy greens, and tubers. Archana has fertile soil for them all! Peels become compost, leaves become delicious salads, roots go into soups. Potatoes, onions, cauliflower, beans, pumpkins and so many more. Imported or not, they are present in all soups and stews of the Archani families.

A Touch of Forest

The elven diet greatly influenced the Archani cuisine, turning them into loves of flowers and seeds. Hidden inside the forests around the Springdrop Sanctuary, almonds, chestnuts, hazelnuts, dandelions, and sunflowers seeds are harvested to make oils or to be consumed raw.

Tastes like sea

Fish are by far the most common and important meat in Archana, as its trade not only feeds the people but also generates jobs and moves a good portion of the kingdom's economy. Mostly coming from the Blackbourne Bay, the fish were responsible for keeping the Archani on their feet in times of crisis.

Brought mostly by the Rovers, together with the fish came many ethnicities, cultures, and spices, slowly forming the Archana we know today. As the Archani say, "the riches come from the sea", and there is not one Archan citizen that doesn't like a good fish, be it fried, roasted, cooked, or even raw.


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