Ch.214214. Food Culture of the Dawn Empire

Dawn Empire Year 80.

In other words, a point in time 80 years after the founding of the Dawn Empire.

With such a long time having passed, it had become possible to completely destroy the remnants of the Rom Empire and fill the void with the Dawn Empire’s unique culture.

In fact, the Dawn Empire was in the midst of its cultural flourishing.

They had erased the hedonistic tendencies that characterized the Rom Empire, replacing them with various artistic elements and a martial spirit.

Particularly since every citizen of the Dawn Empire was required to complete military service, and such a common experience could not help but influence society.

This naturally resulted in the gradual spread of martial spirit throughout the Empire, but at the same time, the Empire was not a nation composed solely of martial values.

While they had to thoroughly extract the hedonism that had permeated the culture, even after this squeezing, the cultural heritage of the Rom Empire still remained.

Among these remaining legacies, the most prosperous in the current Empire was, naturally, the food culture that didn’t particularly reflect hedonistic tendencies.

The Rom Empire, which claimed as its territory the vast landmass people called the continent, was second to none in the development of various food cultures.

The wealthy could gorge themselves on white bread made from wheat flour, and baking techniques were so advanced that various desserts like fried bread were developed.

The Empire could also receive fresh supplies of various fruits grown in different regions, making their dining tables quite nutritionally balanced in many cases.

Grapes and figs were cultivated in such abundance that they were consumed almost as everyday foods, and dates from certain regions were an excellent source of sugar for commoners.

Besides these easily preserved fruits, apples, pears, various berries, and melons were cultivated, and citrus fruits like oranges and lemons also enjoyed considerable popularity.

Various vegetables, somewhat cheaper than fruits, were also cultivated and served as good sources of nutrition for commoners’ tables.

Green beans, lettuce, cabbage, onions and garlic, broccoli and cauliflower, turnips or beets, and spinach or eggplant, among others.

In the Rom Empire, people enjoyed seasoning fresh vegetables with oil and vinegar, so these vegetables were consistently consumed, though not as much as fruits.

But there was one crop consumed more routinely in the Rom Empire than any vegetable or fruit. That was olives, which could be considered a specialty of the southern coastal region.

In the Rom Empire, they would extract olive oil from these oily fruits for use, or simply use the olive fruits themselves as food.

Olive oil was indispensable in their daily lives, much like cooking oil in modern society, and besides food, it was used for finishing wooden furniture and various other purposes requiring oil.

But olive oil was, of course, most commonly used for food. Thanks to its affordable price, this oil was used as a basic ingredient in all cooking.

Meanwhile, olive fruits were often pickled in salt, soda, or vinegar and consumed directly, and being such an everyday food, they were a staple on every dining table.

Thus, the Rom Empire consumed a variety of plant-based ingredients, while simultaneously devouring an enormous amount of animal-based ingredients.

Milk, including the milk of various livestock animals, and cheese made by processing this milk in various ways.

Eggs from poultry such as chickens and ducks and various birds. And butter, which, though in relatively less demand, was steadily produced.

While these secondary byproducts enriched the dining table, the core was still the wide variety of meats from land, sea, and air.

Salted herring and sardines were sold as inexpensive protein sources, and other fresh fish and some shellfish like oysters were popular even among the wealthy.

Poultry like chicken and duck were more expensive than fish but relatively affordable meats, and the meat of all kinds of rare birds was traded more for luxury than taste.

But the most highly regarded of all meats were, of course, those from land creatures—the delicious red meat of large livestock like cattle, sheep, and pigs.

While commoners might only taste the red meat of livestock a few times a year, the nobility was devouring even more expensive meats with abandon.

Particularly, the meat of various beasts and magical creatures originating from the wonderful natural environment where monsters appeared in the nearby mountains was not only rare but also delicious.

And one way to make these splendid ingredients even more delicious was to use the various spices employed in the Rom Empire.

Red and blue salt endlessly extracted from rock salt mines, humble herbs, vinegar made from wine, vegetables like onions and garlic that were also used as spices, imported spices, and the Empire’s fish sauce—garum.

With such splendid ingredients, even excluding grotesque items like sentient being meat, the Rom Empire’s food culture was quite famous in a positive way even in its time—

The Dawn Empire, which inherited and developed this food culture from the Rom Empire, advanced its culinary arts even further despite having a smaller territory.

They imported various premium spices from the India region in the east and enriched their food culture by gathering and cultivating crops from around the world.

Additionally, the grain fruit and meat fruit bestowed by the gods increased the average supply of ingredients, so people began to focus more on cash crops rather than growing grains.

Suddenly, the staple food position was taken over by the easy-to-grow and delicious grain fruit, causing wheat, barley, and other grains to be treated like vegetables almost overnight.

Thanks to this, even the poor could grow their daily staple food in their backyards, and as the overall food prices dropped, eating was better than ever before in the Empire.

Sugar, once a luxury item, became cheaper after the method of extracting sugar from sugar beets was developed, and life stabilized after the wealthy who had manipulated prices were dragged to the gulags.

To understand just how comfortable living had become, one need only look at the breakfast menu popular among day laborers.

This menu—consisting of toasted grain fruit spread with butter, delicious grilled sausage fruit picked from sausage trees, a piece of inexpensive cheese, pickled olives, and fried eggs—was, surprisingly, an affordable breakfast that could be easily enjoyed in the current Empire.

Even for citizens short on money, temples offered free meals daily, which typically included at least three meat dishes as a standard.

As the Empire became so abundant that people no longer had to worry about food, they developed a desire to eat even more delicious meals.

By gathering halflings, who were second to none in cooking, and developing culinary techniques, a great culinary era dawned in the Empire.

First, as meat fruits grew on trees, the supply of meat exceeded demand, and meat naturally became part of the delicious staple diet in the Empire.

Combined with the now abundant grain fruit processing powder—a flour substitute—the result was that the recently popular dish in the Empire became meat pies.

A dish where quality meat was minced and mixed with seasonings, then stuffed into a pastry crust.

With a suitable accompaniment of olives, there was nothing better for a convenient meal, making meat pies the most popular fast food in the Dawn Empire.

Also, variations of this pie, such as primitive pizza with meat and cheese on thin dough, or primitive pasta made by processing and drying grain fruit powder dough into long strands.

These dishes, completed through the “advice” of a mysterious wolf beastman gourmet, ultimately resulted in making the Dawn Empire’s dining tables even more abundant.

And as the overall food culture of society improved, it also influenced the military, resulting in the quality of the Dawn Empire’s military meals and combat rations becoming incredibly good for ancient times.

Pemmican, made by grinding dried jerky finely, mixing it with grain powder or fruit, kneading it with fat, and solidifying it, was used as combat rations due to its excellent preservation and high caloric content relative to its size.

Of course, eating it plain could hardly be called tasty… but at least it was easier to eat and process than hardtack or salted meat.

It became quite edible when put in fire, sprinkled with grain powder, and stir-fried until crumbly, or when boiled in water with appropriate vegetables or salted meat and salt to make a stew.

In the case of the officer’s version, which used good fruits (mainly berries) and quality ingredients,

it wasn’t bad enough to be inedible even when eaten plain.

Compared to before, when they had hardtack so hard it could be used as a blunt weapon, the soldiers tearfully accepted this pemmican as their combat ration.