Taste of the Mandarlo

The Mandarlo Wastes is a desolate place filled with sand, bandits, and monsters of all kinds. It is not a place one would associate with fine food, however some of the plants and creatures that do live here make for excellent dining if one can survive to gather the resources. The dish is known as Taste of the Mandarlo, and it is made of five different food sources found in the Wastes, that are cooked and presented as a five-course meal. The first course is fried Deria bird eggs. The birds have ten-foot wings span, and the nesting mothers are fiercely protective of their eggs. A Deria bird is extremely aggressive and deadly to an unprepared traveler, even if they are not defending territory. The eggs are extremely large and delicious when prepared properly. The second course Penlampa bread, which is a sweet tasting bread made from wild Penlampa grains that grow in the Wastes. This grain can be produced by modern agricultural means, but it almost never tastes the same as wild Penlampa. It is theorized that this is due to unique soil compositions in the wild places that it is found. To gather these grains is an arduous task. It lies deep into the Wastes and there are any number of dangerous creatures in which ingredient gathers must contend with, including a creature which is involved in the next course. The third course is grilled red scorpion meat. The red scorpions are the size of large dogs, and their stings are deadly. A prepared traveler of the Wastes knows to bring antivenom with them as these ambush predators tend to attack unexpectedly. All parts of the scorpion are useful as the chitinous plate is used for making weapons and armor on a budget and the poison is even more potent is prepared properly. The fourth course is Yaraja root minced and mixed with peeled Falcip plant and wrapped in Iroka tree leaf. The Iroka leaf is shaped into a spherical shape. The entire mixture is then cooked in a woodstove for 3 hours. Once the cooking is done, the Iroka leaf sphere is carefully cut in half and the sphere becomes two bowls, ready to serve. The final course is the desert which is made from the Rembon cactus fruit. The sweet taste of the fruit is world renown and it’s a simple matter to slice them and sometimes add a light sprinkling of sugar as well. The Rembon cactus grows plentily in the Wastes, so finding them is never an issue. The only real danger in gathering them is that they are a common food source for other animals as well and some can be dangerous. The Taste of the Mandarlo meal is an extremely rare delicacy and entire businesses have come into existence to gather the hard to obtain ingredients. It is extremely rare for anyone other that nobility to taste more than one or two courses and if anyone brings any of these ingredients to be sold, they could fetch enough money to live comfortably for well over a month. Wealthy merchants, nobles and monarchs have been known to plan important business based on the availability of ingredients as serving such a rare and expensive meal is seen as a sign of status and prestige. A noble maybe delay an important meeting because the Rembon fruit wasn’t expected to arrive for another few days. A wealthy merchant may move a business transaction up because they had all the ingredients ready and to wait the extra few days would see the food spoil before then.