Moraean Cuisine

CLIMATE: Moraea is a large area with a varied climate. Well-shielded from the morning sun, Refuge is one of the coldest regions on Ainos. It has a mix of taiga, tundra and marsh, all with moderate precip­itation. South of Refuge, the climate is warmer, but cools in the afternoon when the sun is distant. Salt in the soil from the Fall of Eurosia limits what can be grown here, requiring drainage and filtration for any significant agriculture. This is typically undertaken using a network of windmills. Harder still, the Donar Wastes are brackish and hostile. Salt naturally crystallises, in all surfaces, encouraging tough plant life and tougher goats.
Kyuzh-magh is marshland in the north, with wide grassland in the south. Horses are transport, companions and food. There are only a few cultivated fields, but old wheat abounds and is used to make bread, beer, and rough spirits. Fish, fowl and game are plentiful in the extensive wilderness between the bakhat and free zones.
Blending goblin and Pashak culinary traditions, Refuge Cuisine is heavy in meat and mushrooms, with the tough plants of the region dried and ground to flour or paste to use as a condiment, rather than a dish. Berries are the most common sweetener, and in common with most of Moraea, salt is used for both preserving and seasoning. Dried, salted meat, a form of hard tack, is a common staple. Mint is also endemic.
The Backlands, with their culture rooted in pashak and feather- folk tradition, have a cuisine heavy in meat, mostly game and goat, paired with robust vegetables including carrots, potatoes and tomatoes. Rugged Backlands bees, distinguished by their black colouration and considerable size, provide honey from the endemic heather and gorse. Berries, orchard fruits and grapes are used to make preserves, wines and brandies, as well as for eating. Beer, bread and pastry is made with imported grain from Big Green.
Big Green is famous for its food: Bread, cakes and pies, wild and cultivated fruit, long-horned cattle and several breeds of pig. An eclectic note is added to the cuisine in the form of ingredients traded for the region's grown exports. Big Green is most famous for its hops, with which a dizzying array of beers are brewed. Competition between the breweries of Big Green is a cornerstone of local culture.
Kyuzh-Magh has three main culinary touchstones. From the slave-soldiers of the Horde a pragmatism which fosters the use of every scrap of food, including a focus on communal, adaptable cooking and extreme thrift. Horse meat and offal are not used much in modern cooking, but remain part of the traditional canon. Insular goblin cuisine brings cave mushrooms, insects and burrowing rodents to the mix. Finally, the Halflings who never took to the road brought tomatoes, carrots and potatoes from the north, along with the concept of cooking for pleasure as well as need, refining the Horde's potlucks into a range of stews, cassolets and gumbos.