Post by Catsmate on May 13, 2014 19:29:39 GMT
I was talking about the "What's in his pocket" thread with my usual gaming group at the weekend and they suggested a lot of ideas that I'm currently integrating. One of the things that was brought up is food.
It's a common idea in sci-fi from the poisoned grain and tribble induced famine of Star Trek, to the planet Grayson (in Weber's Honorverse) whose society is hugely influenced by it's inability to easily grow edible crops due to the heavy metals in the ecosphere. Lack of food in the future was in fact a common theme in sci-fi before the Green Revolution (e.g. Asimov's Lucky Starr series, and influenced quite a few Troughton and Pertwee era Doctor Who stories.
It's also a useful plot point revealing the villain's plan ("Ah ha, the vaccine for the plague was administered in the free beer") or a sign that Things Are Not What They Seem ("Why are they loading three years worth of rations on our ship? This is supposed to be a two month patrol".).
Anyway here are twenty seven futuristic foods to tempt you players with, and a few plot seeds to use with them.
All Grapes
Self-fermenting grapes. They were an early biotech product, originally developed as a source of ethanol for industrial feedstock, they're now obsolete and more often grown for consumption. Contain 3-6% alcohol by volume. They can be juiced to produce a crude wine, or allowed to ferment to ~30% abv. The name is a corruption of AlGrape.
Babyburger
Succulent FauxFlesh human veal, tank cultured for purity, finely ground, seasoned and served in a high fibre bun. Also known as 'Terran Veal' ("The other white meat").
Beatharan
This is a dense, lightly sweetened cake enjoyed on several planets in the Gulnes cluster. Texture and weight are similar to the Terran scone and it's packed with complex nanoengineered vitamins and nutrients. It is possible to live for an extended period of time solely on beatharan because of this high nutritional content. Quite tasty too.
Blob
This sweetment is marketed primarily to children and is a jelly like dessert that is encased in a rubbery, edible membrane. When warmed slightly through body heat, Blob can flow slowly down inclined surfaces. Despite its semi-liquid consistency, Blob should be chewed before swallowing to prevent choking.
Bouncy Bubble!!!
Bubbly pink beverage sold in self-chilling plastic cans that play irritating music (think J-Pop) when opened. The drink is available in several flavours (all identically coloured) and is loaded with sugar, caffeine and synthetic cannabinoid and PEA analogues. Mildly addictive (between chocolate and tobacco) and occasionally restricted.
Dehydrated Beer
Actually the alcohol is trapped in polysaccarides but the idea is simple, a powder which when added to water produces an alcoholic beverage (of sorts). One 25g sachet turns 500ml of perfectly good water into a half litre of mediocre light beer (2%). Two produce normal strength beer, and a lots of residue at the bottom. Taste is, well awful really, very sweet.
Dole Yeast
Not actually yeast, this is a range of genemodded mycoprotein foodstuffs that have been engineered to grow on anything organic and produce human edible food. Utterly tasteless without additives but nutritious. As the name suggests often a staple of the bottom rungs of society.
Drink Crystals
Just drop the sachet's contents into water and voila, instant hot beverage. An endothermic reaction heats the water while the flavour/colouring disperses and create an excellent simulcra of the real drink. Available for all the usual hot drinks. Soup and higher nutrition drinks are available but bulkier. Cold drink versions are also produced, as is a "wilderness" version that can purify the water (forming an easily removed lump) as well.
EverFresh
A brand name for a range of sandwiches and pastries that are engineered, treated and packaged to stay fresh for several years (somewhat like the US military's Pocket Sandwich programme). Widely available across Known Space there's a huge range to choose from. Generally adequate in terms of taste and nutrient content but no better.
Glop
Generic term for the paste like food produced by a number of nanotech food processors (as used on low end spacecraft, cheap accommodation, lifeboats and survival equipment) from pretty much any organic material. Tastes like flavourless wallpaper paste but capable of supporting life indefinitely. Better quality machines can process the paste into something resembling real food.
Foof
An early offworld food fad, foof is the sap of the Jarkal tree. It resembles a cross between honey and maple syrup but hardens quite rapidly as it cools. It's rich in simple sugars and naturally human edible. The most common early serving methods was to wind it onto a stick while liquid and lick/nibble but it's found other uses as a sweetner and toffee like snack.
Glowfruit
Originally a naturally occurring pear-like fruit (size and shape anyway, taste and texture are more like peach) with a bioluminscent glow to attract insects for pollination. Some geneering has led to variant flavours and colours (the original was red-orange and tasted like a strawberry-peach hybrid). Glows in darkness but not in sunlight.
Glowpops
When the insulated packaging is unwrapped a chemical reaction chills these flavoured ice lollies perfectly; they're about 16cm x 2cm with a short plastic stick and they glow faintly in a variety of colors, thanks to some clever bioengineering. Their main trick is that, when consumed, they spark a harmless chemical reaction in the body that causes a faint glow matching the candy color. The glow disappears in about 15 minutes.
Hamapples
A geneered apply with the texture and taste of ham. Low in salt, highly nutritional and tasty.
Lut!tlang
Originating with the herbivorous Vertlang race this sugary treat is widely cultivated by humans, Draconians and others with sweetness tastebuds and the ability to metabolise sugars. It's also popular aboard starships, due to the ease of cultivation in confined spaces. It's a tall, bamboo like plant, somewhat similar to sugarcane and simply cut and chewed or sometimes boiled in water.
Malmar
Originally native to a a fringe planet colonised during one of the Terran Empire's expansionist phases, Malmar are now
specifically bred. It's a small forest reptile that secretes a cocktail of simple sugars in its "sweat" as a defense mechanism (they're toxic to it's usual predators). Human colonists found that licking them led to a
sugar rush. Due to oral infections (from parasites common to the animals) they're now specially bred.
Martian water
This is water, from Mars; a luxury item on some planets; no special properties other than the rather metallic taste from the mineral content.
Meatshake
What it says on the (self-heating plastic) can; thick, meat flavoured drinks with various options (bacon, chicken, beef, venison, ostrich, kangaroo, goat, boar........)
Omakrra
Omakrra are larvae of a species of large water hopping insect found on the planet Gelak. They grow up to 15cm long and are cultivated as appetisers. Generally they're eaten after cooking, light sauteeing is preferred, but they can be eaten live, usually as a test of fortitude (reminscent of fugu). The writhing of the creature as it is being digested is said to bring good luck, and occasionally death from a toxic reaction to certain enzymes released by the animal under stress.
Pidran cockroach
This is a weird one. The composition of the planet's biosphere causes an unusual biochemistry in the Pidran cockroach, an otherwise ordinary insect. The result: body tissue that is not only edible but has an amazing chemical similarity to chocolate. The bugs are prized delicacies.
Pop crystals
Another instant drink these are soft drink pellets, a more advanced version of Kool/Flavor Aid. Drop into water (six pellets per litre) and they'll fiz, aerate the water (oxygen, nitrogen or carbon dioxide, if applicable) and disperse the appropriate flavourings and colours. Many varieties available, some of dubious quality, some including psychoactives. Teenagers like to mix them. More advanced version produce luminescent or effervescent drinks.
Rak
Rak is a chewy, jerky-like treat enjoyed widely in the Terran Emipre (and earlier and later). There are hundreds of variations in composition, texture, flavour and nutritional augmentation.
Salushi
A form of sushi from the planet Salus. Various meats, fish and grains are stuffed into a local jellyfish analogue (while alive) and wrapped in cultivated seaweed.
Shamnut
Geneered coconut where the milk has been replaced by a cloudy, mildly alcoholic sparking liquid.
Slyme
Gelatinous lumpy material sold in clear sachets. Feels dry, puttylike and doesn't adhere to skin. Many variations with different tastes (from meat to sweet) usually brightly coloured. Aimed at kids.
Song Grass
This palm like plant originated on Harlan; the leaves contain thousands of tiny pores used by the plant for transpiration and respiration. When the wind blows through them the resulting sound ranges from a low moan to a high-pitched squeal depending on the size of the leaf and the density and size of the pores.
A field of songleaf in a stiff wind is fascinating event to hear. It's been cultivated on a number of planets, though nutritional supplementation of soil is often needed, from the late Imperial period onwards. It's a moderately common garnish as well as a foodstuff.
Splurge
This is cake/bar hybrid confectionary; when a tab on the package is pulled the bar inflates using stored gas to produce an aerated cake, with multiple layers, somewhat reminiscent of trifle; various favour configurations, savoury and sweet, including some interesting combinations (e.g. mustard beef with strawberry jam and cream).
Other ideas.
On Earth foods, and the consumption of them, have often had ritual or cultural significance; from the xian Eucharist celebration, to the haggis served at a Burns supper, to teh traditional Japanese tea ceremony, food is culturally important. This isn't likely to change and may well be true for alien species.
Take a culture where the idea of eating or drinking in public is repugnant, actually allowing another person see you doing this is an intimate act. Now add a couple of time travellers with no knowledge of the local quirks......
When entering a planet the party experience no more than the usual problems at customs, even the weapons passed OK. Until one Earthling was scanned and the shocked customs agents pulled out..............a ham sandwich.
Soon there's a ring of unfriendly (and nauseated) cops staring at him. "It contains actual animal flesh".
On that planet, as in most of the civilised galaxy, meat is cultured, grown in vats without any actual living animals being involved. They look at someone eating "real" meat in the same way cannibals are looked at today.
It's a common idea in sci-fi from the poisoned grain and tribble induced famine of Star Trek, to the planet Grayson (in Weber's Honorverse) whose society is hugely influenced by it's inability to easily grow edible crops due to the heavy metals in the ecosphere. Lack of food in the future was in fact a common theme in sci-fi before the Green Revolution (e.g. Asimov's Lucky Starr series, and influenced quite a few Troughton and Pertwee era Doctor Who stories.
It's also a useful plot point revealing the villain's plan ("Ah ha, the vaccine for the plague was administered in the free beer") or a sign that Things Are Not What They Seem ("Why are they loading three years worth of rations on our ship? This is supposed to be a two month patrol".).
Anyway here are twenty seven futuristic foods to tempt you players with, and a few plot seeds to use with them.
All Grapes
Self-fermenting grapes. They were an early biotech product, originally developed as a source of ethanol for industrial feedstock, they're now obsolete and more often grown for consumption. Contain 3-6% alcohol by volume. They can be juiced to produce a crude wine, or allowed to ferment to ~30% abv. The name is a corruption of AlGrape.
- Some strains also produce methanol, glycols or butanol and there's been some cross breeding so not all of them are safe to eat.
Babyburger
Succulent FauxFlesh human veal, tank cultured for purity, finely ground, seasoned and served in a high fibre bun. Also known as 'Terran Veal' ("The other white meat").
- Controversial to put it mildly. On some worlds it's available in fast food cafeterias, on other you'll be executed for admitting you ever ate one. Quite tasty though.
Beatharan
This is a dense, lightly sweetened cake enjoyed on several planets in the Gulnes cluster. Texture and weight are similar to the Terran scone and it's packed with complex nanoengineered vitamins and nutrients. It is possible to live for an extended period of time solely on beatharan because of this high nutritional content. Quite tasty too.
- The cluster has a number of cultural quirks pertaining to Beatharan, including serving 'home made' only to honoured guests in a house.
Blob
This sweetment is marketed primarily to children and is a jelly like dessert that is encased in a rubbery, edible membrane. When warmed slightly through body heat, Blob can flow slowly down inclined surfaces. Despite its semi-liquid consistency, Blob should be chewed before swallowing to prevent choking.
- Other than the possibility of choking, poisons or kids getting very sticky it's pretty simple. Of course the surface is excellent for taking fingerprint impressions ("Gee thanks for returning my Blob mister").
Bouncy Bubble!!!
Bubbly pink beverage sold in self-chilling plastic cans that play irritating music (think J-Pop) when opened. The drink is available in several flavours (all identically coloured) and is loaded with sugar, caffeine and synthetic cannabinoid and PEA analogues. Mildly addictive (between chocolate and tobacco) and occasionally restricted.
- Other than dependency, the main risk is being beaten to death for opening multiple cans in a public place and exposing bystanders to the awful music. Unless it's a vector for mind control agents of course.
- Due to a legal snafu the name is Trademarked only with the !!!, hence there are a number of copies, with even more dubious ingredients.
Dehydrated Beer
Actually the alcohol is trapped in polysaccarides but the idea is simple, a powder which when added to water produces an alcoholic beverage (of sorts). One 25g sachet turns 500ml of perfectly good water into a half litre of mediocre light beer (2%). Two produce normal strength beer, and a lots of residue at the bottom. Taste is, well awful really, very sweet.
- Given the inability of the average politician to learn from past mistakes, somewhere is space a human colony will rediscover Prohibition. Even then dehydrated beer is a pretty poor choice for smuggling though.
- On planets where the art of brewing is taken seriously importation of this stuff may be punishable by confiscation, public flogging or being made to eat it.
Dole Yeast
Not actually yeast, this is a range of genemodded mycoprotein foodstuffs that have been engineered to grow on anything organic and produce human edible food. Utterly tasteless without additives but nutritious. As the name suggests often a staple of the bottom rungs of society.
Drink Crystals
Just drop the sachet's contents into water and voila, instant hot beverage. An endothermic reaction heats the water while the flavour/colouring disperses and create an excellent simulcra of the real drink. Available for all the usual hot drinks. Soup and higher nutrition drinks are available but bulkier. Cold drink versions are also produced, as is a "wilderness" version that can purify the water (forming an easily removed lump) as well.
- The wilderness version is notoriously unreliable at removing all but the simplest hazards
EverFresh
A brand name for a range of sandwiches and pastries that are engineered, treated and packaged to stay fresh for several years (somewhat like the US military's Pocket Sandwich programme). Widely available across Known Space there's a huge range to choose from. Generally adequate in terms of taste and nutrient content but no better.
Glop
Generic term for the paste like food produced by a number of nanotech food processors (as used on low end spacecraft, cheap accommodation, lifeboats and survival equipment) from pretty much any organic material. Tastes like flavourless wallpaper paste but capable of supporting life indefinitely. Better quality machines can process the paste into something resembling real food.
- While the paste can keep you alive losing the will to live after a few weeks is a possibility.
Foof
An early offworld food fad, foof is the sap of the Jarkal tree. It resembles a cross between honey and maple syrup but hardens quite rapidly as it cools. It's rich in simple sugars and naturally human edible. The most common early serving methods was to wind it onto a stick while liquid and lick/nibble but it's found other uses as a sweetner and toffee like snack.
Glowfruit
Originally a naturally occurring pear-like fruit (size and shape anyway, taste and texture are more like peach) with a bioluminscent glow to attract insects for pollination. Some geneering has led to variant flavours and colours (the original was red-orange and tasted like a strawberry-peach hybrid). Glows in darkness but not in sunlight.
- Farms of the fruit, especially mixed types, are a weird sight in darkness.
Glowpops
When the insulated packaging is unwrapped a chemical reaction chills these flavoured ice lollies perfectly; they're about 16cm x 2cm with a short plastic stick and they glow faintly in a variety of colors, thanks to some clever bioengineering. Their main trick is that, when consumed, they spark a harmless chemical reaction in the body that causes a faint glow matching the candy color. The glow disappears in about 15 minutes.
- Despite the repeated manufacturer assurances to the contrary, many parents are convinced that they are harmful. This of course may be true.
Hamapples
A geneered apply with the texture and taste of ham. Low in salt, highly nutritional and tasty.
- These were controversial at first due to a luddite reaction to the bioengineering
Lut!tlang
Originating with the herbivorous Vertlang race this sugary treat is widely cultivated by humans, Draconians and others with sweetness tastebuds and the ability to metabolise sugars. It's also popular aboard starships, due to the ease of cultivation in confined spaces. It's a tall, bamboo like plant, somewhat similar to sugarcane and simply cut and chewed or sometimes boiled in water.
Malmar
Originally native to a a fringe planet colonised during one of the Terran Empire's expansionist phases, Malmar are now
specifically bred. It's a small forest reptile that secretes a cocktail of simple sugars in its "sweat" as a defense mechanism (they're toxic to it's usual predators). Human colonists found that licking them led to a
sugar rush. Due to oral infections (from parasites common to the animals) they're now specially bred.
- There are persistent rumours of strains genemodded to produce other effects
Martian water
This is water, from Mars; a luxury item on some planets; no special properties other than the rather metallic taste from the mineral content.
- The main risks are contamination, bacteria and being thought an idiot for paying so much for water. Oh and of course, fraud.
Meatshake
What it says on the (self-heating plastic) can; thick, meat flavoured drinks with various options (bacon, chicken, beef, venison, ostrich, kangaroo, goat, boar........)
Omakrra
Omakrra are larvae of a species of large water hopping insect found on the planet Gelak. They grow up to 15cm long and are cultivated as appetisers. Generally they're eaten after cooking, light sauteeing is preferred, but they can be eaten live, usually as a test of fortitude (reminscent of fugu). The writhing of the creature as it is being digested is said to bring good luck, and occasionally death from a toxic reaction to certain enzymes released by the animal under stress.
- Being challenged to eat one live, dying or at least getting sick.
Pidran cockroach
This is a weird one. The composition of the planet's biosphere causes an unusual biochemistry in the Pidran cockroach, an otherwise ordinary insect. The result: body tissue that is not only edible but has an amazing chemical similarity to chocolate. The bugs are prized delicacies.
- Lots of possibilities. Smugging, attempts to breed them. Theological arguments.
Pop crystals
Another instant drink these are soft drink pellets, a more advanced version of Kool/Flavor Aid. Drop into water (six pellets per litre) and they'll fiz, aerate the water (oxygen, nitrogen or carbon dioxide, if applicable) and disperse the appropriate flavourings and colours. Many varieties available, some of dubious quality, some including psychoactives. Teenagers like to mix them. More advanced version produce luminescent or effervescent drinks.
- Quality control can be poor, can produce explosive amounts of carbon dioxide, due to their popularity they may contain odd drugs intended for other species
Rak
Rak is a chewy, jerky-like treat enjoyed widely in the Terran Emipre (and earlier and later). There are hundreds of variations in composition, texture, flavour and nutritional augmentation.
- The grizzled fringer chewing on a stick or Rak is a stereotype.
Salushi
A form of sushi from the planet Salus. Various meats, fish and grains are stuffed into a local jellyfish analogue (while alive) and wrapped in cultivated seaweed.
- This is one of those cases where it may be better not to know what you're eating.
Shamnut
Geneered coconut where the milk has been replaced by a cloudy, mildly alcoholic sparking liquid.
- The alcohol can't be easily tasted so it may take someone by surprise.
- Oh, never spell the name with a C, the Neo-French will be very upset.
Slyme
Gelatinous lumpy material sold in clear sachets. Feels dry, puttylike and doesn't adhere to skin. Many variations with different tastes (from meat to sweet) usually brightly coloured. Aimed at kids.
Song Grass
This palm like plant originated on Harlan; the leaves contain thousands of tiny pores used by the plant for transpiration and respiration. When the wind blows through them the resulting sound ranges from a low moan to a high-pitched squeal depending on the size of the leaf and the density and size of the pores.
A field of songleaf in a stiff wind is fascinating event to hear. It's been cultivated on a number of planets, though nutritional supplementation of soil is often needed, from the late Imperial period onwards. It's a moderately common garnish as well as a foodstuff.
- Someone may want to listen to a ripe field of the stuff, other than that it's a moderately tasty garnish quite popular with children who rejoice in annoying other diners using small fans on the stuff.
Splurge
This is cake/bar hybrid confectionary; when a tab on the package is pulled the bar inflates using stored gas to produce an aerated cake, with multiple layers, somewhat reminiscent of trifle; various favour configurations, savoury and sweet, including some interesting combinations (e.g. mustard beef with strawberry jam and cream).
Other ideas.
On Earth foods, and the consumption of them, have often had ritual or cultural significance; from the xian Eucharist celebration, to the haggis served at a Burns supper, to teh traditional Japanese tea ceremony, food is culturally important. This isn't likely to change and may well be true for alien species.
Take a culture where the idea of eating or drinking in public is repugnant, actually allowing another person see you doing this is an intimate act. Now add a couple of time travellers with no knowledge of the local quirks......
When entering a planet the party experience no more than the usual problems at customs, even the weapons passed OK. Until one Earthling was scanned and the shocked customs agents pulled out..............a ham sandwich.
Soon there's a ring of unfriendly (and nauseated) cops staring at him. "It contains actual animal flesh".
On that planet, as in most of the civilised galaxy, meat is cultured, grown in vats without any actual living animals being involved. They look at someone eating "real" meat in the same way cannibals are looked at today.