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Since Rhodolite is central to ADT/ABT, I think it would be better to camp out here and dive into the nitty-gritty details rather than move on to its neighboring countries. But those details don’t have to be serious. How about a fun chapter this week?
Food. Everybody loves food.
Rhodolite lives, breathes, and eats roses. Literally. The national drink is rose liqueur (Silvio’s beverage of choice when he’s visiting). Rose tea is another popular drink and is commonly paired with crème brûlée (a combination Chevalier particularly enjoys).
A traditional Rhodolitian dish is rose fricassee, which is a stew made with meat, vegetables, and cream, with roses added for flavor and to create a gentle shade of pink. This dish is also a favorite of Silvio’s in the game, although that may have more to do with Belle making it for him than the actual flavor.
Non-rose-themed dishes favored by the game’s characters are beignets (Chevalier), darioles (Licht), échaudés (Nokto), pain perdu (Rio), and galettes (Keith), which are all French dishes. Yves and Licht’s favorite cafe in the capital city is the only one to use home-grown, freshly picked berries in its various desserts. Items on the menu include berry pies, custard tarts, macarons, honey beignets, and for something a little more substantial, sandwiches.
Basically, if I want to add a specific food into the story, I look up French pastries.
Most of the kitchen scenes I write are baking sessions that aren't about sustenance as much as letting loose and eating sweets, so I really haven't looked up French cooking. Meatloaf seemed like a safe bet for me to throw into the mix, since it's essentially a quick, cheap meal commoners can throw together from whatever meat and herbs they have on hand.
Side note: My mom’s meatloaf is one of my favorite meals. I have never eaten anybody else’s meatloaf. It seems like every family has their own version of it, and I’m picky, so I stick with what I know. Especially since it’s really good. Good enough that I didn't know until middle or high school my mom had been sneaking mustard into her meatloaf's gravy all my life. (I hate mustard.)
Another side note: It has always been clear in the game that Chevalier doesn’t like sweets. Whenever Belle bakes for him, she cuts back on the sugar to suit his taste. I don’t recall reading anything in the game about Chevalier liking beignets until I wrote that into ADT. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t there, but I just hadn’t noticed it until the “Taming the Beast: Chevalier” story event came out.
Coincidence? I hope so. I’d really hate to think Cybird is ripping me off, especially since they haven’t replied to my inquiry about getting permission to publish. (It’s a long shot, I know, but I thought I’d try.)
Last side note: Funnel cakes probably aren't French or medieval. But they're basically fried bread and powdered sugar, similar to beignets, so I decided funnel cakes fit the vibe. Plus, I only see funnel cakes at fairs and festivals, so I thought they worked with Rhodolite's Foundation Day festival. And I love funnel cakes, so there.
Anyway, books, TV shows, movies, and games always like to cut the time out of cooking. Somebody wants to make something for somebody else, and bam, they magically get it done in five minutes flat. Or so it seems. And that makes sense for most entertainment purposes. Unless you’re watching a cooking show, you don’t want to watch somebody standing at the stove for an hour. Even cooking shows cut the long waiting periods short.
But that’s not realistic, and I want realism.
So, I looked up medieval French recipes.
All the details about Ivetta’s baking sessions come from the links below. In particular, pain perdu and échaudés take a long time to make, potentially a full twenty-four hours. Pain perdu has to be started the night before by soaking the bread in a cream mixture. Échaudés have to soak in water and then dry before baking, and the length of the drying process varies with temperature and humidity.
So, when you see Belle deciding to whip up a batch of either of these in the game, just realize that isn’t how that works. But Ivetta and Belle deciding to bake together and starting pain perdu and échaudés the night before in preparation? Yes. And I think adding little details like that into the story (or any story) really gives it depth.
Recipes
- Beignets: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/classic-beignets-recipe
- Darioles: https://www.medievalcuisine.com/culinary-journey/recipe-index/dariolles
- Échaudés: https://leslefts.blogspot.com/2014/12/medieval-pastries-echaudes.html
- Pain perdu: https://norecipes.com/pain-perdu-recipe-french-toast/
- Pastry for darioles: https://www.medievalcuisine.com/culinary-journey/recipe-index/paest-royall
I haven’t actually tried making any of these recipes yet. If anybody does, let me know how that goes. And if there are any other medieval recipes, period cooking facts, or French foods you’d like to share, I’m all ears.
