The ElfQuest Cuisine

The "What are you eating right now?" thread made me think of what we know of the food that the ElfQuest elves eat.. then again apart from dreamberries and the animals they hunt, there might not be much to observe/comment upon?

During SaBM, the Chosen Eight seem to be eating something eel-like, but they don't strike me as the Abode's greatest cooks, so it might have meant to be a cake or something! :D

Well in "FaF" one of the Wolfriders stole a Sun Villager's bread, so we know that the Sun Folk had a little more complex cooking style than the hunting and gathering Wolfriders.

As for the Chosen Eight, of course they couldn't cook. The humans were doing it for them! So I'd assume that the eel was actually eel and not a very badly made cake. The Eight were so stuck up that they'd never eat a mistake like that and if one of them had made it they'd've probably snarked them to death.

I would say that Wolfrider and Go-back cuisine was of the "can I stick it in or over a fire pit?" variety. Roasted meat and veggies, some simple, broth-based soups and the like. Stew might not have been on the menu because the thickening agent comes from flour-- something the Gobacks at least didn't have the time or the climate to cultivate. IF they had the technology to create "Dutch ovens" they could have done some more cooking that way but since none of the elves worked metal they couldn't have made it. I doubt the Wolfriders would have traded for it and the Gobacks probably wouldn't have had a chance to steal one.

The Sun Villagers did work some metal now that I think about it but they could only do the soft metals, like silver and gold. I don't think they had the material to work iron. We take iron's properties for granted but in truth, natural iron is useless. It's brittle, has many chemical impurities and a very high melting point (nearly 3000 F.) The melting points for gold and silver are little more than half that. On the other hand, if (as Cutter said in "Searcher and the Sword" the Sun Folk only worked with soft metals), then what was the tip of Rayek's spear made of? The novlelization of "Journey to Sorrow's End" states specifically that Rayek's spear tip was metal. So what kind of metal was it?

Sorry to get off topic, I know this is a discussion of food but I think technology has a huge impact on food preperation.

The Sun Villagers and the Gliders are the sedentary elfin populations. They would have the opportunity to build things like ovens. The Gliders had lots of time to get bored with basic food and try new, interesting and possibly even "arty" things in their kitchens. Or to order their humans to do so. The Sun Folk also probably had time to experiment, though not to the same degree as the Gliders, given that they still lived outside and had things like jackals, insect infestations and droughts to deal with.

Basically, I would guess that Sun Folk and Glider cuisine was the most complex, maybe even having noodles and other things that need to be prepared before you can even start to cook a meal. They also probably had additives like herbs, thickening things like corn starch and raising agents like baking soda.

The Wolfriders and Go-backs on the other hand, probably had simple meals of the "catch or gather it, stick it in a fire for a bit then eat it" variety. Maybe not even that for the Wolfriders, who like their meat raw and whose need for secrecy often precludes cooking fires, since the smoke, light and scent might catch the attention of the humans.

We know that the Trolls at least have kitchens and massive food-storage rooms! :)

Yeah, but i seriously don't wanna know what they eat

Willowgreen the healer managed to grow some [b:93277ad8ae]pumpkins[/b:93277ad8ae] (as far as I know, it's the only exemple of cultivated veggies amongs the wolfriders until Cutter's time)

I think we've seen signs that the Go-Backs could smoke their meat and probably had some store-houses - having to stock up food would be essential for the (very long) winter up in Iceholt at the glacier, and if I remember correctly, theres a Go-Back chewing on a piece of what might be cured meat while most of the tribes were away fighting for the Palace.

I am not at all sure that the humans did the cooking for the Gliders. It seems to me that most, if not all, of the humans in Blue Mountain were kept as Winnowill's personal attendants. They were more or less in the role of ladies' maids.

In the feast that the Wolfriders attend with Lord Voll and the Chosen Eight, there are a variety of artistically-prepared dishes. It seems quite likely to me that some of the Gliders specialized in cookery and enjoyed preparing elaborate meals, the way others enjoyed artistic rock-shaping.

We know that the Go-Backs ate Troll meat, though it was frowned upon.

If you can't beat 'em, eat 'em!

Speaking of the Trolls, I remember Picknose telling us that his ancestors cultivated Mushrooms.
And on the same page there is a panel with a mammoth falling into a troll pit - i don't think the troll just caught the mammoth for keeping it as a pet.

And trolls do cannibalize - Do you Remember Guttlekraw ( or was ist Greymung? ) saying that the elves would'nt get the [i:75caf6d7ea]honor[/i:75caf6d7ea] to be consumed by him.

Yammy- Yammy!

Although tecnically it's not cannibalism - trolls eating trolls and elves eating elves is. And there are strong indications that Guttlecraw & co. ate the Greymung and the dead from their invasion of the forest trolls.

Yes, you're right, Livie and Three-Edge.

The comics do show quite clearly that the trolls ate mushrooms and cave slugs. Lovely diet!

The Wolfriders are shown munching on the trolls' mushrooms right after they escape from their burning holt in the very first issue.

Wolfriders don't cook their meat, but I would think that they wouldn't be opposed to dried meat. It would come in handy during times of famine, and between hunts. I also remember Teir having a sack of dried Shagback nuggets that he shared with 'White Mother.' He mentioned being able to go moons between kills before she came along. Dried meat would be a necessity for a loner like Teir.

When there were still High Ones with the Wolfriders, wasn't one of the Wolfriders complaints that they were ruining meat by cooking it? (besides the risk of the fires attracting the humans) I think that this shows up in one of the anthologies. The Wolfriders went into a 'hunter-gatherer' mode almost from the get-go.

I could see the Go-Backs using fires for soups and such. (anything for just a touch more heat) My guess is that the Go-Backs were a little more technologically advanced than the Wolfriders. (If nothing else, they had an easier time getting to troll-made metals by scavaging dead trolls - and the Wolfriders had to wait until Bearclaw found out the dreamberry snitch...) And the prospect of needing the most weaponry possible simply to stay alive to kill trolls, well, the Go-Backs would have a MUCH higher incentive to learn metalurgy a LOT sooner. Also, flour is not the only thing that can be used to thicken a soup to a stew. It's what I use, but blood will also work as a thickener, and Go-Backs have never been portrayed as being squeamish. Also, what about acorns?

(Won't go into the Gliders, they had magics - as well as Winnowills pets....)
As to the Sunfolk, uhmmm, HOW long have they been at the Sun Village? More than enough time to learn about ceramics.... Doesn't Leetah drop a water jug when Cutter snatches her from the village? You can cook with fired claywear. Pottery has been around for a long, long time. The mystery metal of Rayek's spear? What about silvered bronze? Or Tin?

Well, the Wolfriders eat their meat and probably fish raw. In Wolfrider, Bearclaw and Strongbow brought back news that humans had arrived, and told of some of the behavior they had seen. Moonshade says: "Ugh! they cooked their meat?" or something to that effect.

Apart from dreamberries, they probably eat other kinds of berries and fruits. After all, one of them was even named after a berry: Brownberry. I can see Brownberry's mother looking at her infant and saying "You're as sweet as a Brownberry!" or something to that effect. Of course, brownberries might have a bitter taste, and be a reflection of her personality, but I never got that impression from what we've seen of Brownberry.

We know they ate different kinds of roots. Before they get captured by the Picknose and Maggoty, Cutter and Skywise try to dig for roots. The knowledge about whistleleaves, and Nightfall's comment to Greymung about how they've brought healing herbs to the ill trolls indicates herblore, so it's hard to imagine that they didn't know about edible herbs, or take advantage of them.

The Sun Folk certainly ate meat, and this exchange between Cutter and Leetah:

Leetah: "I will not live in a cave by day and howl at the moons by night!"
Cutter: "And I don't eat cooked meat."

shows that the Sun villager ate their meat cooked. We know that they were an agricultural people, and we know that they grew crops and could bake bread. They also have a certain amount of fruits available, though I suspect that the fruits grew wild. According to the novelisations, they were also able to make fermented "squatneedle juice". It seems they were able to make an alcoholic drink, in other words.

The Gliders showed an advanced grasp of cooking. The hints we see at Blue Mountain shows that they valued presentation as well as high food quality. After all, One-Eye (I think) claims he's: "never tasted fish like this!" The fish in question is raw, so perhaps the Gliders have "invented" sushi? They have wine, which means they must have and eat fruits and/or berries, and I doubt they use those big hawks to dig for herbs. Obviously, meat (probably cooked) is on the menu, I think I saw what looked like vines on one of the trays on the banquet table, so they seem to have an advanced herblore, and knowledge of roots. Apart form the Chosen Eight and Tyldak, no one went outside the mountain, and there seems to have been no "clearstone windows" to let light into the mountain. Plants need light, so it doesn't look like there was any agriculture going on. Unless of course, it was done by the Hoan G'Tay Sho outside and then brought into the mountain.

The Go-Backs, as mentioned earlier probaly had smoked meat, and definitely made drinks from animal fat, the bowl of melted bearfat that Treestump brings Clearbrook being an example. Krim claims that she likes her meat well roasted in Dreamtime, and Skot shows the same appreciation of cooked meat. The climate of the Frozen Mountains backs this up, in those temperatures you want something warm inside you. In the summer, the Go-backs probably harvested what they could when it comes to herbs, but their diet would probably be based pretty much around cooked meat.