Abidnoi (Ah-bead-no-ee)
Abidnoi is a dish that is prepared and eaten by the Mallad who live in the Noroi Plains and Noian Range. The dish is typically consumed whenever a preothan, or High Priest, visits a community as a display and reminder of the control that preots nominally hold over all the people in the northern Vale.
History
The preparation of abidnoi precedes the birth of the preothan caste, which was largely formed during the reign of the Onyx Prince to control local populations. Before that time, abidnoi was prepared in times of scarcity and necessity, using readily available but low
nutrition ingredients to create a meal which would keep your family alive, but little else.
The first person to create the dish likely made it out of this type of necessity, though its true origins are unknown. It is likely that the first dish was made as an amalgam of ingredients and that it did not have the distinct shape and form in use for ceremonies at present.
When the preots were empowered by the Onyx Prince to control the citizens of the Vale, some preots took away the food supplies of the villages to bring them to heel. This meant that many citizens resorted to meals like abidnoi, and over time the consumption of abidnoi came to represent the coming of the preots. During the early years of the Onyx Prince, many families lost children to starvation, and so creating abidnoi in the shape of more nutritious and beneficial food became both an act of self-deception and an acknowledgement of preot power.
At some point, as preots began to need less and less severe methods to bring citizens of the Vale under control, they began to demand that citizens make and eat abidnoi as a reminder of their power. After the Onyx Prince died and his niece, Rudstone, took control of Varenval, she demanded that all abidnoi be made in the form of animals, to remind citizens of the best meals that they only ate at the wishes of the preots and the Vale's rulers.
Execution
Abidnoi is always prepared the first night a preot visits a village of the Vale. All parents in the village are expected to make abidnoi for themselves and their families, and the meals they would have eaten that evening have to be sent to the preots camp, beyond the village border. Families work together to collect the ingredients needed to make abidnoi, and when the abidnoi is fully prepared, a member of the preot's party will pierce each abidnoi to ensure that no villager has snuck any actually flavourful or nutritious ingredients into their meal. As very young children do not need to eat abidnoi on such an ocassion, it is a rite of becoming an adult to eat abidnoi during a preot visit for the first time.
That evening, the whole village gathers outside of the preot camp and, together, they eat their abidnoi as their last meal of the day. The next morning, the preot returns most of the food to the village, showing that they can be merciful when they are shown deference.
Components and tools
Abidnoi is primarily made with two key ingredients: noianaka and adabea mushrooms. The noianaka, an acrid-trasting mud-like substance, is harvested from cracks in the Noroi Plains where it wells up. The noianaka is unpleasent to eat, and it has almost no nutritional value except a small amount of iron. Abadea mushrooms, by comparison, are very flavourful and nutritious and are a regular staple for citizens of the Vale.
To prepare abidnoi, you need equal parts noianaka and adabea mushroom. To mitigate adabea flavour and nutrition, the mushroom must be sliced very thinly, soaked in hot water for at least one hour, and then cooked until the edges turn black (which is quite quick). After the mushrooms are cooked, they must be ground into a powdery paste and then mixed with the noianaka. The mixture is then placed in a bowl over the fire, evaporating enough water to make the mixture into a clay-like substance. At this point, the mixture is taken off the heat and formed into an animal shape, and then cooked over the first solid. After it has cooled somewhat, a small hole is drilled into the abidnoi (to check for illicit ingredients) and then water is poured into the hole to re-hydrate (somewhat) the inside of the "animal".
Important Locations
Comments