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 borderline xenophobic nature of its people, there is surprisingly (or perhaps unsurprisingly) little influence from the neighbouring regions such as Aezenfjord or Interland, with only Eisenland and their potatoes finding their place in the Kemrian diet.

Etiquette
Like the strictly structured legal and clan systems of Kemria, dining and food culture is equally stratified, both by social standing and formality. Food plays a large role in sociocultural interactions (especially in the loosely defined 'upper' class), and even something as innocuous as seating arrangements at a formal dinner can be an open statement from the host of such a meal. Because of this, formal occasions (and to a much lesser degree casual dining at home) are often very stiff affairs, with dozens of unspoken rules that often may make foreigners confused.

As a general statement, in any situation where one is confused while dining in Kemria (especially on their island-city of Kumaur, where the rules are the strictest and formality is more common), observing what others are doing is always a viable option; for non-Kemrians to ask how to do something properly is generally received with appreciation for the acknowledgment of cultural differences and expression of interest in Kemrian culture.

Tables & Seating
At the home, square or rectangular table is the most common, while at banquets or large gatherings, a round table will usally be used instead in order to facilitate the use of lazy susan style turntables to allow for sharing of dishes. Formal and casual occasions both will have the majority of dishes shared communally with only few exceptions. Traditional Kemrian tables are quite low to the ground and chairs are instead replaced with cushions for sitting, while a resturant or bar in the port district of Kumaur, where most foreigners are permitted to visit, may have tables and chairs styled like those from other countries. Sitting positions are dictated by gender and also formality of the occasion. In casual settings, men usually sit cross-legged, while women usually sit with both legs to one side (both of these are common practice, as compared to a hard rule), however, in formal situations, everyone (unless prevented from doing so by factors such as injury, age, pregnancy, etc) is expected to kneel at the table. Position around the table is equally important. The honoured or eldest guest is seated at the central point of the table farthest from the entrance, a practice that stands in both casual at-home dining and formal dinners or eating at a resturant. The host sits closest to the entrance, with their back to the door. Guests are then arranged in order of status and relation to the host- this is determined by the host, and these decisions are often used by leaders of clans and houses as both a show of respect to some guests and a assertion of power over others. The exception to the heirarchal seating arrangements are spouses (in polygamous relationships, this is the most senior partner in a kes'vireh marriage) and/or young children. It is common practice for the host's partner to sit to their left hand side, regardless of the arrangement of the rest of the table, and at the same side of the table if it is square or rectangular, unless there is only room for one person (such as if the table is rectangular and narrow). The spouses of other party members may either be arranged as the normal seating arragements dictate or will sit together as well, with the socially 'lower' partner sitting to the right of the socially 'higher' partner. Children under the age of 6 are expected to sit with their parents, either on their lap when very young, or to their side. If both parents are present, the child will sit between the parents. Older children until the age of 16 will also be placed between the parents and expected to also follow the rules and customs of proper behaviour, though young children are often exempted, and mistakes are often gently corrected, much to the amusment of all adults present. After 16, the child will be seated according to their status as well, though often this ends with them still next to their parents.

At a formal banquet with many tables, the table farthest from the entrance is the table of honour, while the ables on the left hand side of the tables of honor are, in order of importance, second, fourth, sixth and so on, and those on the right are third, fifth and seventh. Guests are once again seated according to their  status and degree of relationship to the host of the banquet. The table of honour will be long and rectangular with guests sitting on one side. The host and (if applicable) guest of honour will sit at the center of the table with the guest to the left of the host.

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 in extensive 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, Millet
 * 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
 * Water Chestnut
 * 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
 * Sesame (seeds, oil)
 * 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), herbal tea, juice

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,