lacoba
a taste of history and greatness
Lacoba is the general name for any type of desert made from stewed pomm fruit, often sweetened or spiced.
This rare and precious delicacy is a thick, semi-liquid puree, typically a light golden yellow colour although it can be darker depending on added ingredients. It is served in small shallow glass bowl, typically elevated on a delicate stem, called an "aapul glass". It is eaten with small spoon with a long handle meant to evoke the long stem of the bowl. The spoons were traditionally made of decorated shine-steel, but newer examples are often crafted of fine glass to better match their companion dish. Due to it's incredible rarity, even those few Guild Grandmasters and high Council officials who are permitted and able to obtain it, would only serve it at the most exceptional of occasions, and then only in very small quantities. The average serving, even at the induction dinner for a High Stationer's child, would be no more than 30ml per person.
Though there are variations of lacoba, they are few, and are divided regionally by type and flavouring.
There are two main types of lacoba made from the two varieties of pomm fruit: western pomm and southern pomm (often referred to as "old" pomm). The two fruit are are almost identical, with the western variant being slightly better suited to dryer conditions and with a slightly more sour taste.
Western pomm is processed into "rough" (as referred to by anyone below the cascades) or "new" (as referred to by anyone above the cascades) lacoba, and the southern pomm are processed into "old" lacoba. The difference between the two minor variants of pomm fruit aside, the primary distinction in the desert itself, is that the mountain folk keep the skins in the brew as part of the initial stewing process, and the southern variety from the Inesh Daan, remove the skin before the fruit is stewed and processed.
This creates surprising differences between the types in both texture and flavour. The skins, even after processing, leave small soft "chunks" in the lacoba, but they also contain a great deal of flavour and natural sweetness. Because of this, the mountain folk tend to refer to old lacoba as "flavourless" and those east of The Arche tend to refer to rough lacoba as "unrefined".
Both basic types remain incredibly popular and in demand however, though the demand for rough lacoba decreases dramatically east of Catric and Sheridan's Rest.
The two major types have further subtypes differentiated primarily by flavouring.
New (rough) lacoba
- hot - Spiced with simannin, capsicum, and clove, this variety is both highly aromatic and flavourful, and served hot. Since both simannin and clove are relatively difficult to grow in their own right, levels within the hot lacoba will vary, and overall this is the more luxurious and uncommon of the New lacobas. As well as preferred by various Mining Guild Grandmasters, this sub-type is occasionally exported to other capitals around Austur, and is even a frequent desert option at Council banquets in Landen.
- low - This rough sub-type varies far more by city around the Western Mountains, and is almost never exported or made east of the Cascades. It is generally typified by it's much milder flavour. It can be consumed "raw" with no additions at all, or more often with small amounts of munkleaf or winterleaf, but in all cases is eaten either at room temperature, or chilled.
- sweet - As the name implies, this variant is heavily sweetened. Usually with munkleaf, but occasionally with honey. Occasionally, when supplies allow, small amounts of simannin is added as well. Like all traditional lacoba from the Innesh Daan, it is served chilled. Though more common and with far more common flavourings, sweet lacoba is so well loved that it is not considered any less desirable or luxurious than stout lacoba. In fact, amongst the average guild citizen, sweet lacoba is what is more commonly aspired to and sought as a delicacy.
- stout - This sub-type is vaguely similar to the hot lacoba from the Western Mountains, in that is intended to be highly spiced and aromatic, with large quantities of simannin and cloe. It differs fundamentally however, as it is served chilled and lacks the spicy hit of capsicum. Younger generations may also add small amounts of honey to taste.
- real - Real lacoba is the simplest and least consumed sub-type across Austur. Similarly to "raw" New lacoba, it has absolutely no flavouring added whatsoever. Moreover, since the skin of the pomm fruit is removed even before stewing, the flavour is more subtle still. This sub-type is preferred almost entirely on the Inesh Daan where it is produced. It's proponents look down on the more heavily spiced and sweetened variants as being a vulgar corruption, that loses the pure, subtle flavour of the pomm fruit itself. Even on the rare occasions when "a spoon of the real" is taken north of the Inesh Daan, those who prefer it will make a point to remark to any who might listen that they prefer their lacoba "As the Magus intended."
History
The history of lacoba is, in many ways, the history of the pomm fruit it is made from. It's origin goes all the way to The Fall, and humanities first arrival on Ashvaarya.
Like oak and orange trees, tomato plants, rice, and many others, the apple tree was one of many terran plants that proved all but incapable of surviving on Ashvaarya. Some seemed incapable of tolerating the naavitas rich soil and were extinct even before the Cruu were banished from Landen by The Magus. Others, like oak, limped on for more than a century, seeding and growing, but fading quickly and becoming withered and weaker as it grew, only to die out before The Sunder.
By the time a method was developed to mix and filter soils low enough in overall naavitas content, most of these sensitive plants were already extinct. The only notable survivor was a small collection of apple trees, though they could barely have been called trees. These small, barely fruiting shrubs, were kept alive in heavily filtered and managed silica rich soils in large alminium or copper pots, and were tended carefully for generations. It was said that apples were the Magus' favourite food, and this, along with their unique flavour, incredible rarity, and mysterious nature, made them a cherished remnant of the past. Even the lashaan were reported to enjoy the fruit when it was available, and a high ranking apple breeder who once delivered a small barrel to the skla'vin queen mother, was noted to be aghast when the queen said that, while not edible themselves, the apples proved an excellent feed for the best bluefly larva she had ever had.
By the time of The Sunder, tending, breeding and harvesting apples had become a respected vocation in Landen. While some abandoned apple breeding to fortify infrastructure and search for lingering signs of the lashaan after The Sunder, many breeders persevered. As humanity spread out along the Rothum, they took apple trees with them in the hopes their cultivation could be made easier in new soils and climates. Some breeders were successful, but most were not. Eventually, some of the best arborists and apple breeders moved north of the Ora and helped settle the fledgling human nation of Septur.
It was there that the first great successes in apple breeding occurred. A notable arborist, Ada Blancet, eventually bred a variant better than any seen in centuries. Her efforts resulted in a plant that was far more like a bush than a shrub, getting as large as 2 meters, yielded fruit up to 5 centimetres in diameter (large for the time), and most crucially surviving in soil with only minimal treatment. The major downside was that they were very heat averse, and she to grow her new variety in a magically maintained "cold house" that never went above 20 degrees Celsius. Along with that, pollenating birds and insects, even terran bees, were not drawn to the plants tiny blossoms, and they had to be pollenated by hand.
Blancet named the breed in the nearly dead tongue of one of her ancestors, "pomm de spour", or "apple of hope". Her children, and her children's children, carried on her work, improving the resilience and yield of the pomm de spour, though never to a point where it could survive without significant help in the Septurn heat.
When the muada war came to Septur, the descendants of Ada Blancet were some of the first to flee southward, back to ancestral human settlements along the River Rothum. These folk arrived before the first truly massive waves of refugees, avoiding the resulting resentment that would grow towards the Septurn people. They crossed the Ora and arrived in Lashaan's Vigil with cuttings and seeds from the pomm de spour, and were welcomed eagerly by Town and Farm guilds alike.
Some stayed on the Arche and tried to grow their seeds there, but as the war raged and spread southward, the constant effort needed to grow the plants could not be afforded. The practice, and the plants, died out. A few of Blancet's descendants went up river to try and grow their fruit in the higher altitude and cooler climbs along the foothills of the Western Mountains, and were welcomed by the fading royals of the Steel Kingdom. The majority of the apple growers however, were enticed to settle as far south as south could go, the very end of the Inesh Daan peninsula. With the cool winds of the southern sea, the rich and diverse soils and terrain, and a population already devoted to unusual and specialized farming, the pomm de spour, now most commonly called "pomm fruit", prospered. Or at least prospered as much as it could. The tiny blossoms still needed to be pollenated by hand, and the bushes would still wither in naavitas heavy soil, or under the application of most farming magic, but with very careful management of soil and environment, the pomm bushes could be cultivated in small orchards in the open air without constant supervision.
Unfortunately, while more and more pomm fruit were produced, rumour of the arborists success was spreading along the Rothum, and pressure built to export pomm fruit north. This proved near impossible however. Whether taken by ship to Heind, or by cart directly to Landen, spring or summer heat would rot the fruit, and attempts to freeze them for transport would whither them and turn them sour. A couple of small shipments made it to Landen for the mid winter Memorium some years, but they would arrive already soft and need to be eaten almost as soon as they were landed on a dock.
It was a historian, Marko of Landen, who stumbled on an ancient pre-Sunder account of The Magus enjoying a bithday some few years before his death. A special dish was highlighted in the text, a dish that one of his friends referred to amusingly as "la coba". Why this name should be humorous, Marko could not discern, but it was noted that The Magus loved it because it was a puree of cooked apples, his favourite fruit. With this discovery, and as a historian favoured by the Landen Council, Marko was granted permission to go south to Lucas, the capital of Innesh Daan province, despite the general diversion of resources towards battling the muada.
He arrived at the heart of the pomm fruit harvest and it took him only a matter of days, working with local farmers and chefs, to produce the first batch of lacoba.
The process of stewing, straining, flavouring, and jugging the fresh pomm fruit was quickly established and the first batch ever sent to Landen was enjoyed with great gusto by the Council.
The second shipment of jugged lacoba ever to leave the Inesh Daan, was given a central place at the banquet celebrating the historic signing of the Austur Declaration. So popular was lacoba amongst the dignitaries, and it's origin so nearly mythical, that the smooth, sweet-sour puree, became legendary in an evening.
Demand for lacoba from every corner of the newly formed human nation of Austur was explosive. The orchards around Lucas were expanded by Council decree. Rare as the right growing conditions were, every square meter that could grow a pomm fruit bush, was put to that purpose. Farmers and arborists were sent to the foothills of the Western Mountains to aid in their burgeoning cultivation efforts, and chefs at both ends of Austur began experimenting with what little lacoba they were permitted to keep back from export. As the new nation of Austur unified and solidified, the fame and demand for lacoba only grew, and a third aspect was added to it's legend: the association with Unification.
Over the post Unification years, many variants on the lacoba recipe were tried. There was some success using it as a sauce for various meats. Some tried reducing it and making it into baked goods of various kinds. Others tried all sorts of spice and flavor combinations. Ultimately however, the basic, more simple lacoba recipes were deemed as more in keeping with it's symbolic place as a part of Austurian culture, and human history on Ashvaarya. First as a favoured dish of The Magus, then as a story of Ada Blancet's innovation and perseverance, and finally as the symbolic dish over which the great Unification of humanity was built!
Within a decade the only variants to survive in common demand, were the two major Western and Southern types, and the five total subtypes still available almost three hundred years later. For every one of those years since it's creation, lacoba has been the rarest and most precious delicacy found in the homes and banquet halls of Austur's powerful and elite.
Significance
Lacoba is not just a luxurious delicacy, but hold deep cultural meaning. The history of it's main ingredient: pomm fruit, and the historical significant of lacoba's ancient significance to The Magus, and it's modern significance as part of the lore of the Austur Declaration, has left it as an incredibly symbolic and significant dish, cultural icon, and status symbol amongst all Austurians, especially the Guild and Council elite.
"A heaping glass of old lacoba is as close to dining with the Magus as any Austurian may get."
- Marko of Landen, Historians Guild (563AS)
Item type
Consumable, Food / Drink
Creation Date
549AS
Current Location
Related ethnicities
Rarity
Lacoba is perhaps the rarest food stuff across all of Austur.
Due to the incredible difficulty involved in growing pomm bushes, and the fact that their cultivation must be done entirely without the use of magic, lacoba can only be produced in small batches, twice a year.
Thankfully, once reduced down to the basic puree, pomm fruit can be jugged, sealed, and preserved for months at relatively moderate temperatures.
Since pomm bushes can only be grown and cultivated effectively in cooler climates with very specific soil conditions, they are only farmed in some of the small plateau's above The Cascades, and orchards of the southern Inesh Daan peninsula, with the vast majority being grown and processed in the latter. Due to this, the total annual output of lacoba is only in the high hundreds of litres. It is more rare in Heind than rockfish, and more rare in Wilsador than traan eggs. Lacoba could likely only be found in one out of every twenty kitchen stores in a given capital's villa district.
Raw materials & Components
Lacoba is by it's very nature, a form of cooked, stewed, and pureed pomm fruit.
Some variants add spices, herbs, or sweeteners, but these vary by region.
Comments