Base Ingredients
Bread - Bread is a staple of Lethan cooking, but the specific varieties differ based on region. In Leon, bread dough is mixed with pink onions and smoked sausage to make a unique delicacy, while sea-salt infused bread and buckwheat bread are found throughout the Peninsula.
Honey - Honey is popular and plentiful in Letha, harvested from bell-like skebs that serve as beehives. Varieties made with chestnut, acacia, heather and sarrasin (Buckwheat), are the most common in the Duchy.
Salted Butter - One of the most popular condiments found in Letha, salted butter is used from everything from pastries to caramels, as well as a preservation tool. Salted butter has a unique texture, filled with thick and visible grains of sale throughout. Letha is exempt from the Gallian salt tax and has gained a reputation for the saltiest food on the continent, drawn from the salt pans of Gwenrann and others. Roazhon and Dinan host large markets selling Lethan salt. Lethan seasalt is typically considered a finishing salt, while finer Gallian varieties are used for cooking.
Strawberries - Grown in Plougastell and available throughout Letha.
Seafood
- Located on the Armorican Peninsula, seafood is a staple in many Lethaned dishes
Crustaceans - Local lobsters, identified by their dark blue and black shells, are common culinary staples in the Ar Mor. Three crab species are commonly eaten. The common tourteau, found in the rocky shallows, is eaten year round, but especially during the summer months. The tiny l’étrille is small, flat and brown, with red eyes. Difnsidered a delicacy throughout the noble houses of Kornôgel. Lastly, the l’araignée de mer are long-legged and large-clawed crabs, commonly eaten in the winter months ficult to catch, but extraordinarily flavorful, these are co
Mussels Mussels are found in two varieties: Gallo (Larger with yellow flesh) and Edulis (Smaller with rich orange flesh). These are harvested from submerged ropes in Kermaria and wooden stakes in Sant-Brioc and Aleth. Mussels are served with fried potatoes and a light broth made from shallots, herbs, butter and Muscadet wine from the March of Gwiniegi Naoned.
Oysters - Letha is renowned for its oysters, harvested from Aleth along the Ar Mor Emrodez to the Bro Bagan on the Northern Coast and along the Southwest Coast near Kemperle on the Belon River, where the brackish water gives the oysters a distinctive nutty taste. They are often served with mignonette, a red-wine vinegar made with shallots.
Scallops - Scallops are dredged up in Erge-ar-Mor, Sant-Brioc and Montroulez along the Mor Breizh. They are typically pan-fried with butter.
Main Dishes
Andouille - Smoked pork sausage, popular in Eastern Letha. Encased in black skin with beige and pink meat, it is smoked over a beechwood fire for two days and then hung to dry for three weeks. It is eaten cold in thin slices and hot in thick ones. Often placed in Kaletez.
Chotten - Pig's Cheek. Enjoyed in Kernev as a treat in Skeotrenn. Pig's heads are cut in half and soaked in brine, ten brought to the baker or communal bread oven and cooked immediately following the day's bread, brought to a sizzling golden brown.
Cotriade -A tradition potato and fish stew, containing no shellfish, commonly made by fishermen out of their personal share of the catch. Cotriade is traditionally prepared right on the beach after a fishing voyage. The dish is made with seawater, fish. often mutilated or otherwise unmarketable, most commonly eel, bream and hake, potatoes, onions, garlic, leeks and a bit of salted butter. There is a special hierarchy and order in which different fish are placed in the cauldron. The dish is typically served poured over a toasted baguette. Cotriade is a speciality of Kernev and the Ar Mor Bihan. The wider the variety of fish used in the dish, the more sophisticated it is considered. A noble won't be caught dead eating a stew made with less than 5 varieties.
[bFish - Sardines, from Douarnenez Bay, are a prized delicacy. Mackerel is typically ground into a rillette pate and served with small bits of toasted bread.
Kaletez - A staple of the Lethan diet, found commonly across the Peninsula, kalatez are thin crepes made of buckwheat, typically filled with eggs, ham or vegetables. The thickness and consistency of kalatez varies, ranging from thick, spongy pancakes to crisp, thin wafers. The Kaletez gant Silzig, a variant popularized in Roazhon, is a buckwheat crepe wrapped around a pork sausage, either eaten plain or with mustard imported from Arle). Kaletez are served folded into rectangle with an open center, while Krampouez are triangular. Both are also served as cones by street vendors.
Kig Ha Farz - A peasant dish from Leon, Kig Ha Farz is a dumpling-like meat stew made with broth and buckwheat pudding, slow simmered in a cylindrical cloth bag and served with a sauce of butter, bacon and shallots.
Kougin Patatez - Thick, Fried Potato Pancakes, a quick and popular dish
Mikael's Lamb - Lamb raised in the salt flats of the Pleg-Mor Menez-Mikael, the high salt content of their grazing gives these sheep a unique and extraordinarily flavourful taste. They are typically eaten just after Emwalc'h and just before Gouel Eost. Mikael's Lamb is almost always served rare.
Yod kearc'h - A speciality of Leon, a salted brown oatmeal porridge improved with seasonal fruit.
Sweets and Deserts
Bara Dous - A specialty of Kernev in Skeotrenn. A soft, very sweet bread made with flour, butter, milk, eggs, sugar and a dash of alcohol, sometimes raisins are added.
Craqueline - A sweet cream puff with a sugary pastry shell.
Krampouez - The sweet cousin to the savory kalatez, a thin crepe made of sugar and flower, rather than buckwheat, typically filled with sugar and fruits. Crepes were popularized in the Gallian Crownlands, but quickly became popular in other regions, including Letha. Krampouez are folded into triangles, while Kaletez are rectangular. Both are also served as cones by street vendors.
Far - A clafoutis-like sweet desert, made with custard filled with dried fruit, often raisins or prunes. The top is then brunt to a crisp. A fairly inexpensive snack, eaten in agricultural areas. A significantly more expensive variety, using imported sugar, is popular among the nobility.
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Farz Buen - A deconstructed pancake made with a thick crêpe batter, sugar and salted butter, the mixture is fried until the pieces are caramelized and sprinkled with more sugar. (Resembles Spaetzle)
Kouign-amann - Lethan butter-cake. A thick but fluffy, muffin-shaped, caramelized croissant topped with a tight swirling pastry, made with a lot of butter and sugar. The exterior, particularly the top swirl is crunchy and sugary, while the soft interior tastes of sweetened butter.
Lait ribot - Fermented milk, resembling a sparkling, drinkable yogurt, similar to buttermilk, but thick and sweet, a modified waste product from butter production. It is typically consumed in the morning.
Salted Caramel - A common treat in Letha. Niniches de Kiberen are a narrow, crayon-like caramel on a thin stick, while others are served as cubes or a drizzled topping.
Traveler's Cake - A specialty of Naoned, a rum-soaked lemon cake with apricot jelly at its core, frosted with white icing.
Vitréais - A cake from the city of Gwitreg made with apples, butter caramel, eggs and almonds.
Drinks
Beer/Coreff. Unlike apples, hops do not grow well in Letha, and local production of beer is limited compared to other regions. The Green Man Tavern in Naoned brews large batches of a honey beer with barley and buckwheat, which is sold all across Letha.
Chouchen - See Chouchen
Cidre - A popular alcoholic beverage in Letha and La Manche. Made of apples, fermented in large wooden casks, this sparkling drink is traditionally served in a small wooden bowl, called a bolée. A pear variant, known as Perry, is less common, but is often imported from La Manche. Cidre is the most common alcoholic drink in the north, with almost every farm having at least a subsistence orchard. Lethan cidre possesses the rich terroir of its soil, carrying with it aromas of other fruits and flowers. It is described as sharp, but fruity. Cidre is served in a bolée, a small bowl of wood, china or terracotta.
Hydromel - A weak mead, made by combining honey and water, and letting it sit in the sun.
Lambig - Meaning "Retort", lambig is a clear, alcoholic drink made of distilled Cidre, aged in an oaken cask for a minimum of 4 months. Similar to Norman Calvados, it is often mixed with cidre. Often produced very locally, it is a popular moonshine and quality varies greatly. Lambig is often clear or light amber in colour.
Wine - The Wine Trade is the exclusive domain of the nobles, with special permits granted along with land and title along noble lines.
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