Naglovian Cookery

“Can I interest you in some Blutburg Grubwurst? No? I swear drylanders are so prude when it comes to their palate.”
-Naglovian Househusband.
The cuisine of Naglovia is (in)famous for its rather odd and exotic tastes. The region being a cool swamp ensures there is an overabundance of different types of fruits, vegetables, herbs and meats available. The crux is that an overwhelming majority of these resources tend to think of mortal kind as sustenance as well.
The region has hence developed a rather off putting mix of delicacies and dishes based on whatever they could find that was accessible enough without getting eaten themselves. They also eat practically anything caught from the waters and tend to pickle and preserve any fruits and vegetables that cross them.

Traditional dishes

Bogbread and broth

The bogbread is a dish made from a combination between dried and ground up leaves from various random trees and bushes, as long as they are not poisonous they’re edible. This powder is turned into a type of flour which is combined with dried parts of various insects, eggs from mainly reptiles but also random birds or chickens, with butter made from oils of seeds and algae.
This bread often ends up being coarse and dry, although incredibly rich in nutrients and vitamins to the point regular intake of the bread can significantly boost an individual's immune system.
To make it actually edible though due to the dryness, it always comes with some form of broth. Usually broth brewed on the cracked shells and bones from the remains of crustaceans and fish.

Seared Bloatfly

An infamous dish made from the remains of the accursed bloatfly. By grilling the meat of the Bloatfly, the overwhelming amount of fat in this gargantuan insect tends to impregnate the meat itself. If seared black, the meat underneath its skin loosens easily and gets a tough savoury texture with a crispy rim.
This dish is then generally served with various pickled fruits and veggies accompanied by Naglovian spirit sauce and a sprinkler of salt.

Blackmire Stew

This stew is one of the less outrageous dishes that came from Naglovia, mainly due to the Blackmire’s influences from the Dyskhari heartlands.
It’s made by boiling the meat from the bones of boars, alternatively pigs, then adding a combination of dried meats from swamp fish along with the fish eggs. Then, pickled plums, apples or other sweet fruits go down into the boiling crockpot. Lastly, the eggs of birds or reptiles are added. Where the stew is considered done when the eggs are hard cooked.
As a side note, the larger eggs usually tend to be removed from the stew while done and eaten on the side of it. As to not get shells all over the dish.

Blutburg Grubwurst

A dish considered heresy by anyone with common sense. At least according to any Dyskhari that lives outside of Naglovia.
This dish is simple and relies on finding different edible worms. Preferably grub worms. These bugs are then deep fried in vegetable oils, crushed into pieces, filled into the intestines of other animals and then cooked again into a type of sausage.
Generally, this sausage is also filled with different types of herbs and spices to give it a further unique edge. Sometimes even the dried leaves of Blackthorn are even used with the fried grubs to make it spicy.
Grubwurst is typically enjoyed with bread and various combinations of tomato sauce, mustard, mayonnaise, shellfish sauce or spirit sauce. Though sometimes a thicker and more fatty version is made for feasts.

Misthaven Bloodcakes

Bloodcakes is a type of traditional dumpling-like food typically enjoyed by Misthaven residents.
Its origin comes from the earliest attempts to domesticate pigs in Naglovia. Both to use as a source of food but also as trackers of shrooms and fruits.
As these pigs regularly suffered attacks from giant bloodbugs. A madlad named Bacchus Hertzenkranz came up with the idea to collect these bloodbugs in large jars. Then slowly heat up the jars over a fire so that the bugs get boiled alive alongside with the pig blood inside of them.
These dead bugs were then crushed into a blood based paste, which were then inserted to a bread paste made from algae and pulverised seeds, that are cooked within leaves that create a steamy, goey meatbun.
Generally the cakes are enjoyed with spirit sauce and preserved greens.

Writing by Tonarus
Art AI generated with Midjourney

Naglovian Beverages

Snakespit

Thankfully snakespit has nothing to do with the name of the beverage. Rather, it’s an alcoholic brew that is made from different types of algae, with a an alcohol percentage of around 60-80%
It’s typically drunk in small amounts like whiskey and bourbon and is a popular and common export to various shady places that sport a lot of pirates and sailors. It is also far cheaper than most other booze except grog, while still having a fancy, refined touch to it.

Naglovian Sourwine

The Naglovian Sourwine is technically not one, but a dozen different sorts of wines based on unripe apples, plums, other sweet fruits that grow around the marshlands or its more dry mountainous regions or herbal mixtures.
The name of these wines derives directly from how the fruits are supposed to be bitter and sour as it’s believed wine is best made from ingredients that are yet to be ripe, as to give a more powerful sensation brought forth by the alcohol.
The Naglovian spirit sauce is also made from sourwines as its main component.

Nachtblut Tea

A herbal remedy brewed from the dried leaves of the Blackthorn blossom. By combining the leaves with water, honey and a single drop of snakespit.
The Nachtblut tea is known to be deeply regarded as a religious, healing and honorary drink that is made by the priesthoods of Sarak as a ward against evil. Though the spicy taste of liquorice that tends to burn the tongue also has a rather unique and refined flavour that many nobles around the world crave.

Naglovian delicacies

Naglovian Camembert

A desert based on a type of cheese with maggots inside of it. By allowing the cheese worms to wiggle through the aged mouldy cheese, it gains a unique creamy texture and flavour. Whole pieces of this cheese are thereafter deep fried along with the maggots still inside, creating the original Naglovian Camembert. Obligatory served with cloudberry jam. This delicacy has also been recreated by many other cultures as well, though none use cheese with actual worms in it

Hard Blackthorn

A simple delicacy which is made by letting the root of Blackthorn naturally dry up underneath the sun. The black charcoal-like pieces that remain from it tastes just like liquorice, but with the exception that rather than poisoning someone who eats vast quantities of it, this candy has the adverse effect of purifying.