Food for thought.

[songbird_slayer]

Sender: Madhuri Qalli
To: Everyone
Subject: Language is strange!


I was writing up menu ideas for next month and a thought occurred:

Should I list hot dogs under 'sandwiches', and a bowl of cereal under 'soup'?

Comments

[songbird_slayer]

There's always the right time for a particular food. No argument there. I wouldn't want beef stew first thing in the morning.

Oogh. My belly turned to concrete thinking about it.

[burnttoashes]

I would argue that miso soup makes an excellent breakfast, but anything heavier would put you right back to sleep. It would defeat the entire purpose of having a meal to get yourself going.

[songbird_slayer]

Miso soup is one of my favorite breakfasts! I've been putting an egg in mine of late and enjoy the extra texture and flavor from the yolk.

So your world has a country like Doma too!

[burnttoashes]

Bifrost.

[Then, realizing he should probably explain:]

The name of my country. Miso soup is a traditional dish there-- it is in your country as well?

[songbird_slayer]

Sort of! Doman cuisine is enjoyed in my country. My people have a fair few merchants from neighboring Doma who bring wares as well as food. We all appreciate a good meat bun, but kumis- fermented mare's milk- is a little tough to sell to them.

More for us, if you ask me.

[burnttoashes]

[... yeah, he has to say he can understand that one.]

What other sorts of food are common in this Doma? It's curious how different worlds can have so many similarities when it comes to recipes. Not just similar combinations of ingredients, but dishes with exactly the same names.

[songbird_slayer]

That's always been rather fascinating to me! My world was once whole but was split into fourteen reflections of itself, so having worlds with very similar cuisine isn't entirely out of the question.

Let's see... zōni is one, and sukiyaki is one of my favorites ever. There's the toasted dango during the hotter months, and I always love some takoyaki.

Any of those sound familiar?

[burnttoashes]

[Another world split into pieces? Hmm. He'll just be making a note to himself to inquire more about this later...]

We have all of those in my world as well, although zōni tends to primarily be eaten around the New Year. It isn't often eaten outside of that season anymore.

Takoyaki was largely a street food in Bifrost-- you would find vendors selling it fresh in the streets there. From what I could tell, it was quite popular. I would it eat myself upon occasion during festivals.

[songbird_slayer]

So you may hail from a reflection of my world... I'm finding more and more similarities in food in the least, but the races, the animals, all so wildly different from one another.

I do wonder why.

[burnttoashes]

... Tir Na Nog and Nibelung. Do those names mean anything to you?

[songbird_slayer]

I'm afraid not. Hmm.

What are those? I feel stories coming on. It buzzes in my horns.

[burnttoashes]

The names my world - or the parts of it - have gone by. Tir Na Nog is its current incarnation, known by some as Dana's Cradle. Nibelung was its former form before the majority of the world was destroyed and the survivors created the Cradle.

[songbird_slayer]

Destroyed!?

Can I ask what happened?

[burnttoashes]

[How to explain this in simple terms...]

A great power went out of control and enveloped the world in an endless storm, destroying all in its path. Those who survived fled - one of the survivors used their power of imagination to imagine a new world, and then the one with the power of creation made it real with the assistance of the one with the power of fusion.

[songbird_slayer]

So a place like this one would be a little bit of deja vu...

There always seems to be an immense power that gets out of hand and spills over... it's no wonder I never got into sorcery outside of white magic.

I know it means very little, but I'm very sorry that all happened. How terrifying.