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Old 03-02-2019, 09:36 AM   #1
L.J.Steele
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Default Traditonal Belter Cuisine

One of my PCs in a troupe-style GURPS Space game is a old-school Belter (Essentially Earth's system) with Cooking as a hobby skill. One of her things is cooking for her team -- traditional Belter cuisine.

Details haven't come up yet, but I'm pondering what traditional Belter cuisine would be. TL is 9-10, contragrav on the large ship/space station/asteroid base exists. Trade with Earth would be limited.

Default sustinence would be fungal food vat paste with flavoring.

But what sorts of Belter gourmet ingredients might there be? Meats like rabbit or guinea pig? Chicken? Goats? Veggies and fruit that do well in hydroponics and are relatively efficient food for resources? Farmed freshwater fish in water tanks? Spices that could be hydroponically grown or grown in greenhouses?

Sadly, fresh coffee and real chocolate is right out.
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Old 03-02-2019, 10:31 AM   #2
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Default Re: Traditonal Belter Cuisine

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Originally Posted by L.J.Steele View Post
Sadly, fresh coffee and real chocolate is right out.
Sez you - since the Climate Apocalypse on Earth during the late 21st Century, the only source remaining of good coffee and real chocolate is in the Grand Arboretum at Ceres Station, where seedlings of the authentic Earth plants were cultivated in the massive hydroponic gardens. Vesta Chocolates is one of the biggest providers of luxury foodstuffs in the inner System!

:D
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Old 03-02-2019, 10:44 AM   #3
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Default Re: Traditonal Belter Cuisine

One of my players who has family in Hawaii told me about now traditional Hawaiian dishes made with Spam. I thought of her last night when we watch the episode of The Expanse where Naomi makes "red kibble" for her shipmates.

If a lot of Belter vegetation is grown hydroponically, they could have an extra water tank with small fish, frogs, crustaceans, or snails, for example. Freshwater varieties like crayfish, of course. Maybe a standard Belter comparison is "tastes like carp"!

Cooking technologies will vary. There won't be a lot of use of flame as a heat source; Belters will likely think that anything charred is revolting. On the other hand, would Belters go in for sous vide big time? A lot of spices are right out, for the same reason as chocolate, but they should be able to grow peppers and ginger root and garlic.

Don't forget Belter booze! They have all the vacuum distillation capability they want. It might be a traditional Belter joke to call high proof alcohol "rocket fuel." Or maybe no longer a joke. . . .
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Old 03-02-2019, 11:40 AM   #4
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Default Re: Traditonal Belter Cuisine

Foods that are intended for microgravity have a couple of characteristics:

* Spicy, since fluid imbalances mess with your sense of taste (red kibble is a nod to this).
* Thick sauces help keep the ingredients on the plate.
* No crumbs to float about the cabin, getting into things. Tortillas are preferable to bread in loaves. Some snacks (e.g., cookies and crackers) can be made bite-sized to avoid this.
* Most condiments are liquids anyway, but salt is dissolved in water while pepper is suspended in oil.
* Drinkable liquids (like soups) have to fit through a straw, so no chicken noodle.

Kilo for kilo, insects produce the most animal protein. Just sayin'...

Last edited by thrash; 03-02-2019 at 11:43 AM.
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Old 03-02-2019, 11:49 AM   #5
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Default Re: Traditonal Belter Cuisine

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Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
A lot of spices are right out, for the same reason as chocolate, but they should be able to grow peppers and ginger root and garlic.
Spices that are tree crops are out, but that's not all that many of them. A lot of people grow a few spices on the kitchen windowsill after all - anise, basil, bay, borage, chervil, chives, cilantro/coriander, dill, garlic, ginger, lavender, lemongrass, mints (multiple varieties), oregano, parsley, rosemary, sage, stevia, tarragon, and thyme are commonly suggested as herbs you don't have to be a particularly expert gardener to grow indoors.

I expect flavorings like that to be a big part of cuisines developed in these kinds of situations. When you only have one set of staples (rice and soy, maize and amaranth, wheat and lentils?) four vegetables (carrots, duckweed, potatoes, and tomatoes) and your choice of goldfish or snails to work with being able to flavor them a lot of different ways with smallish amounts of easily grown herbs is important.
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Old 03-02-2019, 12:36 PM   #6
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Default Re: Traditonal Belter Cuisine

We're talking about TL9/10, so I'd suspect there'd be sufficient chemical synthesis capability to cheaply and easily reproduce flavorings currently delivered as spices and herbs. For example, Belter "pesto" might consist of yeast for umami, some fats the source of which I can't think of a good source for, and packaged basil and garlic flavors, perhaps with green algae coloring.
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Old 03-02-2019, 03:31 PM   #7
L.J.Steele
 
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Default Re: Traditonal Belter Cuisine

I'm thinking that textured, flavored fungus and vat grown meat is the "Human Chow w. Cheez" or MRE of the setting. Organic food is the thing you crave if you can afford it or can cook -- possibly mostly for sides and spices.

Peppers, beans, I like the idea of limited sauces, crumbs, microgravity habits that carry over into the contragrav era. I hadn't thought much about kitchen herb gardens, but that also makes sense.

I'm also thinking this character will have a quirk about abhorring waste -- everything gets re-used or re-cycled in various closed-loop systems.
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Old 03-02-2019, 04:41 PM   #8
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Default Re: Traditonal Belter Cuisine

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Originally Posted by malloyd View Post
Spices that are tree crops are out, but that's not all that many of them. A lot of people grow a few spices on the kitchen windowsill after all - anise, basil, bay, borage, chervil, chives, cilantro/coriander, dill, garlic, ginger, lavender, lemongrass, mints (multiple varieties), oregano, parsley, rosemary, sage, stevia, tarragon, and thyme are commonly suggested as herbs you don't have to be a particularly expert gardener to grow indoors.
This is mainly a semantic issue, I think. Of those you list, I don't use the word "spice" for anise, basil, bay, chervil, chives, cilantro, dill, lavender, lemongrass, mint, oregano, parsley, rosemary, sage, tarragon, or thyme; I call those "herbs." Except for chives, which I call a vegetable.

The spices in my cupboard include allspice, ancho chile, black pepper, California chile, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, cumin, fenugreek, garlic (as a powder; whole garlic I call a vegetable, I think), ginger, paprika, saffron, sumac, and turmeric. I'm not sure I'd included cardamom; it sometimes comes in little dry pods, but its flavor is sweet more than savory.
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Old 03-02-2019, 05:08 PM   #9
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Default Re: Traditonal Belter Cuisine

Pancakes, cooked nude. With imitation maple syrup.
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Old 03-03-2019, 07:22 AM   #10
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Default Re: Traditonal Belter Cuisine

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This is mainly a semantic issue
One of those is a pure semantic issue: cilantro and coriander are the same plant. They even have the same name - korandros through slightly different lenses. A surprising number of people think cilantro is a New World crop grown forever alongside tomatoes.
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