Kemrian Cuisine

Kemrian cuisine is the culinary traditions, practices, and specific food and drink of the Kemrian region of Sparwood Minor, a territory controlled by the Principality of Novoros within the Autokratoria of Sirradra. It includes foods from both the island-city of Kumaur, as well as the foods eaten on the Kemrian mainland.

Due to Kemria's small size, there is little diversity between the foods of islanders and mainland residents of the region, but because of the generally isolationist and xenophobic nature of its people, there is surprisingly little influence from the neighbouring regions such as Aezenfjord or Interland, with only Eisenland and their potatoes finding their place in the Kemrian diet.

Plants
In terms of hardiness zones for plants, Kumaur itself would be considered zone 6 or 7, while the Kemrian mainland varies wildly, with Kairos being between 7 and 8. However, due to the geothermal activity of Kumaur, plants that would otherwise not survive on the island are able to be cultivated inb massive underground gardens, allowing for the growth of plants native to much warmer climates, and more productive cultivation of other crops. The mainland does not have the same geothermal traits, and these underground gardens are thus absent in the agricultural practices.

Seal & Whale Hunting
Seal hunts are held twice a year in Kemria, once in summer and once in the winter. Both are highly regulated by the regional government, with strict laws around the number of seals able to be culled, with less in the summer, and more in the winter. Seal meat is a staple alongside reindeer, and the meat, if not eaten fresh, is smoked, dried, or salted for eating and use later.

The summer hunt takes place on the shore in the early morning, with young, recently weaned seals, and the winter hunt most often takes place on the water in small boats with harpoons or rifles to hunt the adult seals. The seals are killed as quickly as possible in order to prevent unecessary suffering, and failing a clean kill with a ranged weapon, they are dispactched quickly by slitting the throat or severing of the spine.

Whale hunting is a bit more complicated. During certain seasons, usually the summer and spring, the muk'an hvalur, or whale driving, is permitted, though it does not happen every year. Hvalur only takes place when a pod of whales or dolphins enters the region of the eastern coast of Kumaur, allowing for fishing boats to drive the pod towards the small northeastern bay, which is then closed off by heavy nets. Young calves and nursing or pregnant females are not permitted to be hunted, and it is only considered acceptable to take at a maximum 25% of the pod. Once the whales are selected, the ones that have not been marked for slaughter are driven out of the bay once the nets have been lowered, and hunters kill the remaining whales after bringing them up onto the sand; by severing the spine and arteries using a specialised spear behind the blowhole. Afterwards, the animals are butchered and the meat is distributed as needed. To outsiders, hvalur is often seen as rather brutal, since the water of the bay is often dyed red for some time with the blood, but the slaughter is done as quickly and humanely as possible, and there is no active attempt to search for the whales. Some years they may be no hvalur, while in other years there may be multiple drives.

Similarly to seal, whale is also eaten fresh, as well as salted, smoked, or dried.

Ingredients
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 * Grains & Carbohydrates
 * Rice (short grain + sticky varieties)
 * Potatoes
 * Wheat, Barley, Rye, Oats, Buckwheat
 * Corn (limited, usually sweet corn)
 * Meats
 * Caribou
 * Cattle/Yak
 * Pork
 * Sheep
 * Goats
 * Rabbits
 * Poultry (quail, pigeon/squab, geese, chicken)
 * Seal
 * Whale/Dolphin
 * Shark
 * Fish (salmon, eel, cod, mackerel, squid, herring, halibut, tuna, halibut, octopus, shark)
 * Shellfish (clams, oysters, mussels, crab, lobster, shrimp, sea urchin, abalone, sea cucumber, scallop, sea snails)
 * Eggs
 * Wild Game (seabirds, wild hares, etc)
 * Fruit & Vegetables
 * Kelp, Seaweed, Seagrass
 * Radishes (red and daikon)
 * Garlic, Onions, Shallots, Chives
 * Ginger
 * Stone Fruit (cherries, plums, apricots, etc)
 * Pear
 * Pomegranate
 * Persimmons
 * Cabbage & Mustard (most plants in the Brassica family)
 * Bamboo Shoots
 * Chili Peppers
 * Soybeans, Tofu
 * Sunflowers
 * Bamboo Shoots
 * Tomatoes
 * Misc. Wild Greens
 * Beans (white beans, red adzuki beans, mung beans, black beans, lentils)
 * Peanuts
 * Roots (parsnip, carrot, sweet potato, dandelion, burdock, parsley)
 * Mushrooms (wild & cultivated)
 * Berries (elderberry, jujube dates, chokecherry, blackberry, blueberry, wolfberry, dogwood, hawthorn, mulberry, currants, autumn olive, buffaloberry, cloudberry, gooseberry, hawthorn, kaskap, lingonberry magnolia vine, sea buckthorn, thumbleberry/raspberry, etc)
 * Nuts (chestnut, beech, pecan, stone pine, walnut, hickory, pine)
 * Rhubarb
 * Lotus (seeds, roots)
 * Mandarin/Satsuma Oranges, Kumquats, Lemons
 * Melon/Squash (winter melon, pumpkin, bitter melon, cucumber, watermelon)
 * Dairy Products
 * Milk (caribou, cattle/yak, sheep)
 * Cheese (especially hard cheeses)
 * Yoghurt


 * Spices & Herbs
 * Chili Pepper & Peppercorn (dried, fresh, ground, oil)
 * Saffron
 * Cumin
 * Star Anise
 * Cinnamon
 * Cloves
 * Nutmeg
 * Coriander Seed
 * Seaweed (dried or fresh)
 * Salt
 * Curry
 * Ginger
 * Lemongrass
 * Garlic
 * Tangerine Peel
 * Bay Laurel Leaf
 * Cardamom
 * Ginseng
 * Galangal
 * Sugar/Honey
 * Basil

Drinks
Tea, Fermented Caribou Milk (kumis based?), Rice Wine, Soy Milk, Beer/Ale, Mead, Sour Plum Tea, Spirits/Hard Liquor, Osmanthus Tea/Wine, Butter Tea/Milk Tea, Rice Beer (chhaang)

Uncommon Foods (Seasonal & Special Occasions)
Ortolan Bunting/Songbirds, dormice, monkfish/Monkfish Liver, fish roe, bird's nest, wild mushrooms, horse meat, gink nuts, wild geese, imported game from cymrian novoros (peafowl, antelope,?), turtle, stugeon, pufferfish,