Lartasian Cuisine

A Feast of Color

Lartasia is well known for its oddities. The coexistence with Universal Mania has developed a strange culture with stranger customs. I spent a week in jail for skipping a halfstep on the way to see the Daimyo of the court of spiders.
While some customs seem unfair, others are a delight to experience. Their food, in particular, is a rare treat. When its not trying to kill you...

— A Feast of Color, by Dimitris Ivyhollow, The Ivyhollow Legacy

The food of Lartasia is unique in more than one way. The food is colorful and vibrant, having an assortment of textures and flavors not found anywhere else. It also happens to have a habit of being toxic if not prepared correctly. There was a time when more people died every year from poorly cooked food than war and disease combined. The mercury thermometer was invented for and the Daimyo established Lixuo, an organization of culinary experts who are responsible for training and liscensing of all chefs in the nation.

The story goes that back in the age before slavery was abolished, the greatest chefs of Lartasia took a hundred slaves of there own, or those donated by the Daimyo, and gave them a choice.
"You could die from eating our food, but if you choose to do so and survive, you are free." Many slaves jumped at the chance, and many of them survived. These experts knew their craft well, and created many dishes that were safe and enjoyable. They kept their recipes and expiriements in the Lixuo Scrolls, which gave the organization of chefs its name. Since the abolishment of slavery, it is said that many use this very process to settle debts and unpayed tabs.

— A Feast of Color, by Dimitris Ivyhollow, The Ivyhollow Legacy

Daimyo Testing

Every Daimyo has a man or woman who is paid more than anyone else. This person is the taste tester for all food presented to the Daimyo. They are a select few as it takes a certain natural resistance to survive the job. Needless to say, they have a low life expectancy as some use the food to assasinate rivals and even the greatest chefs make mistakes.

The Kitchens

On a Daimyo's estate, the most serene environment one can find is the kitchens. It is also the most guarded save for the living quarters of the Daimyo. The kitchens are heavily defended and serene to avoid poisoning of the food and to give the chef a calm and peaceful environment to work in. Stress makes it easy to make mistakes. Usually it has good ventilation, even a private musician to play soft music for the chefs while they work.

Recipes and Styles

Lartasian cooking is a product of the mania surrounding many who live there. Flora and fauna are used in great abundance from the afflicted land that suffers from the Universal Malady. This is where the many strange tastes and colors come from. In Lartasia, presentation of your food is just as important as the taste. Food made from ingredients harvested in mania never spoils and insects refuse to touch it. Sometimes food is made specifically to display in windows of shops, and even after months, look just as they did when made. Cooking is an art and every chef has their own style that makes them unique.

Xix Siok

A Siok fruit, known for its conplex blend of reds and purples, can be seared om a pan til the temperature internally reaches 145 degrees. With a pinch of salt, the dish takes on a unique and savory sweetness uncharacteristic of fruit.

Frio ligi

Using sokgh techniques, once can carefully fry the meat of a hilk trout, ensuring the temperature never raises above 128 degrees internally but it must reach 128 max. this is a hard dish to cook as 127 degrees and 129 degrees will both result in death. The toxin will boil out at 128 degrees but the meat will start to react to temperatures over 128 and the meat will become toxic and cause nerve damage in the mouth if one survives consumption.
The flavor is delightful and naturally smells and tastes similar to citrus. This combined with various spices make it a versatile dish when pairing with white wine.

Glossery

Xix: A technique in which the surface of the food (usually meats like poultry or fish) is cooked at high temperature until a browned crust forms. Pronounced: Sheesh, the term is meant to emulate the sound of meat hitting a pan .

Sokgh:

a technique involving cooking in heated oil. Oil usually comes from an olive tree from the southern regions bordering Dis

Houjoxn:

A form of smoking done in a special kind of clay oven. The oven heats small grates made of metal that conducts heat very well. By burning wood in side pockets of the oven, it heats the metal and the food. It forces the smoke down onto the food through vents that serve as the only escape for the smoke.

Kioxi:

A style of cooking popular among the Daimyo of Lartasia, the chef is a performer as well as a culinary expert. A Kioxi chef will use a complex set if tools and knives to stylishly prepare, cook, and serve each dish.