Equivalents of:
coarse black bread;
cheese;
meat;
fruit;
ale;
milk, like nutmeg and dill pickles;
alien tastes, smells and textures;
similar biochemistries;
nourishment from most dishes;
no danger of infection.
Comments
No imported tea or coffee or local equivalents. Either there is not enough trade yet or hot beverages are not to New Lemurian tastes - whereas, in the Technic History, tea spreads through the Merseian Roidhunate.
Every detail matters when building a fictional future.
See The Food Thread.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And in others of his stories Poul Anderson was careful to point out that even on very terrestroid planets where many plants and animals were nourishing for humans, colonists or visitors still needed dietary supplements to add vitamins not found on those planets. Either by introducing additional crops/animals or by pills.
Sean
The absence of hot beverages doesn't mean they inherently don't like them: they may just not have gotten the habit yet. Caffeine-bearing hot infusions like coffee and tea weren't common in Europe before the Renaissance, when they were introduced -- from the Middle East and China, respectively -- through trade and other contacts.
And cocoa from the Americas -- though the Amerindians usually served it cold. All three became much more popular once they were regularly sweetened with cane sugar, another innovation of the period.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And even non humans with the right biochemistries might find themselves liking coffee, tea, and chocolate! As we see the Merseians doing with tea in Anderson's Technic stories.
Sean
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