Spartan Food

Poul Anderson wrote a few good descriptions of food, mainly banquets consumed by Nicholas van Rijn or meals prepared for Dominic Flandry by Chives, a sort of alien Jeeves. However, the main contributor to our food thread has been Anderson's successor, SM Stirling, who might also be responsible for these meals served in the Cock and Grill on Burke Avenue, Sparta City.

Margreta Talkins has:

a bowl of garden salad;
a wooden platter of spiced steak strips, pork loin, rockcrawler claw, mushrooms and fried onions;
wine.

The Serpentine Continent and islands have been terraformed and seeded with modified Terrestrial organisms but there is plentiful edible native sea life which is even exported to other colonized planets. In Welfare on Earth, Margreta had eaten:

starches;
synthetic protocarb;
bacteria-vat protein.

A party of soldiers and their dates consume:

five roast chicken;
six burrito platters;
seven home-fry orders;
ice-cream;
three sarsaparillas;
a carafe of red wine;
two half-liter steins of Pale Brewmaster.

Stirling, on this occasion collaborating with Jerry Pournelle, continues to feed his characters well.