Megelanese cuisine
Megelanese cuisine is a cuisine in Tyran that consists of the ingredients, recipes and cooking techniques developed across Megelan since antiquity; it is influenced by the cuisine of neighbouring countries, chiefly Acrea and Cacerta, and is generally characterized by its simplicity: many traditional Megelanese dishes tend to be relatively plain, and are made from basic ingredients.
Significant changes in the Community's cuisine took place in the medieval and early modern period, as a result of the endeavours of Megelanese mercenaries and merchants abroad: above all, the introduction of corn and rice in the country's crop package, as it was possible to grow these crops in areas, such as the hilly and mountainous western reaches of the Community, and the marshes and swamps that make up Megelan's coast to this day, that were previously unsuitable to agriculture.
History
The cuisine of the first inhabitants of Megelan consisted almost entirely of dairy and meat, due to their semi-nomadic roots; the most ancient Megelanese dish, cuz - a stew of mature sheep meat cooked in its own fat - dates back to this era. The switch to a sedentary lifestyle allowed the old Megelanese to add bread and porridge to their diet, as well as copious amounts of wine and ale, a trait for which they were famous throughout ancient Tyran.
By the classical era, thanks to the influence of Cacerta, the bulk of most people's diet in Megelan became made up by a wide variety of cereals, with wheat and barley being the most common; the most commonly available fruits were apples, figs and grapes, while legumes such as beans, lentils, and peas were often mixed into bread, as they were an excellent source of protein.
The devastating malaria epidemic that marked the end of the Padova Period in Cacerta also put an end to the influence of the archipelago over Megelan; during the early medieval period, the focus of Megelanese trade became Acrea instead, with the consumption of butter and beer being introduced to the country via the mountain passes connecting Megelan to the west, almost completely replacing olive oil and wine in the process.
In the late medieval period, as the city-states of Megelan signed the pacts and treaties between each other that would give birth to the Community, and as the distinction between nobility and prosperous commoners was made more or less irrelevant by the profits of the reborn trade in spices, silk and other luxuries, many staples of the local cuisine were invented and refined.
By the end of the modern period, corn and rice had become ubiquitous in the west and the east of Megelan, as they were much easier to grow in the hilly west and the marshy east of the Community than other cereals; domestic animals and courtyard birds replaced wild game as the main source of meat, especially lesser cuts such as tongue, head and shoulder.
The eventual development of machines and and the use of organic fertilizers increased agricultural production, which resulted in a lowering of prices and in higher accessibility to food for many; easier communication also meant that ingredients traveled more easily, and that a larger amount of people became aware of foreign flavours and recipes.
The years of the Megelanese Civil War provoked immense damages to cultures, even as the Futurist movement tried to leave its mark on the cuisine of the areas under the control of the Futurist Political Party. The movement advocated for a cuisine that was to be, at once, creative and cheap, but that resulted in improbable dishes such as pork marinated in eau de cologne and espresso, and roasted carnation.
The process of decontamination and reclamation of those war zones that had been hit by the extensive use of chemical weapons during the conflict saw the reintroduction, coordinated by local governmental institutions, of animal and plant species that had been driven to near extinction to the Community and to Megelanese cuisine; today, the country's small farms produce about 60% of the food consumed in it.
Regional cuisines
Each area of Megelan has its own specialties; the differences between each Megelanese state's cuisine can come from a variety of reasons, such as availability of resources, climate, geography, history, cooking techniques and lifestyle. Regardless of any of these peculiarities, Megelanese cuisine is very seasonal, with priority placed on the use of fresh produce.
The main divide between the regional cuisines of Megelan is that between the southwest of the country, where corn is widely grown and meat is widely consumed, and the northeast of the country, where rice is widely grown and fish is widely consumed; the facetious expression Polenta Barrier is widely used to describe this divide, as well as political patterns and voting results with a similar geographical component.
Ingredients
The cuisine of Megelan is heavily based upon ingredients like maize, rice, beef, pork, butter, and lard; in many aspects, Megelanese cuisine has much in common with that of Acrea, being rather meat-based and buttery. In general, the cuisine of Megelan is characterized by a preference for maize and rice over pasta and wheat, butter over olive oil, prolonged cooking, and a widespread use of pork, milk and dairy products, as well as egg-based preparations.
The decrease in importance of intensive cattle-raising and the parallel increase in importance of rural homesteading and urban farming, practices encouraged by the Community first out of necessity in the years following the Megelanese Civil War and then as a means of countering carbon emissions, has led to the reintroduction into the wild of several thousand cows and bulls, whose descendants are now being hunted in game reserves.
Due to the need of feeding cattle not being as pressing as in the past, varieties of wheat such as emmer, rivet wheat, einkorn, spelt, barley, millet, and oats, and varieties of legumes such as the lentil, chickpea, bitter vetch, broad bean, garden pea, and grass pea have been able to mount a comeback in the cultivated fields of Megelan, at the expense of the varieties of either that are usually more favoured by the farming industry.
Meals
Megelan has preserved the ancient and medieval two-meal system to a much greater degree than other countries in Tyran: while minor meals and snacks are common, most Megelanese only eat either a morning breakfast or a midday lunch, and an evening dinner, with breakfast being favoured over lunch by working people.
The typical Megelanese breakfast consists of everyday staples like bread, cheese, olives, salad, nuts, raisins, and cold meat left over from the night before accompanied by beer or wine but, due to the introduction of caffeinated beverages into the Megelanese diet from the 16th century onwards and the proliferation of coffee shops from the 18th century onwards, a lighter and more delicate breakfast made up of coffee, jam, fruit, and baked goods is just as popular.
The typical Megelanese lunch and dinner consist of either a hot cereal-based dish, or a hot meat-based dish with a side of starches or vegetables; most hot meals consist of only one course: starters are fairly rare, but desserts are more frequent. As in ancient and medieval times, food is mostly served on plates or in stew pots, and diners take their share from the dishes and place it on trenchers of stale bread or on their own plate.
A small portion of the dinner is usually reserved for the spirits of the household and placed near the family shrine; the day afterwards, it is eaten for breakfast or given as alms to the poor or to stray animals. Commuters and other students and workers often fill the meal gap between breakfast/lunch and dinner with a light snack in the late morning or early afternoon; indeed, working people commonly receive an allowance from their employers in order to buy small morsels to be eaten during breaks.
Food establishments
Even though the majority of the Community's population lives in rural communities or isolated farms and households, that produce about 60% of the food consumed in the country, due to the speed and ubiquity of public transport most of this rural population commutes to work within the country's cities and towns on a daily basis; all of these cities and towns support a wide variety of food establishments that cater to students and workers.
The cheapest ones focus on serving wine (sold by the decanter rather than the bottle) and modest but plentiful food, featuring a short or even no printed menu, and with an emphasis on local specialities, often served at shared tables; another peculiarity of Megelan, the cookshop, can either sell ready-made hot food or offer cooking services while the customers supply some or all of the ingredients.
Fast food chains in the Community are most commonly found next to public transport routes, and serve typical national and international fast food and street food fare for the benefit of commuters, tourists and travelers; moreover, shrines and temples offer free food served by volunteers.
Drinks
Megelan produces the largest amount of wine in Tyran; hippocras, wine mixed with sugar and spices, is especially popular. The first brewery in the Community, on the other hand, was opened as late as the 1840s and, even today, beer is far less popular than wine on average, even though mass-produced pale lagers are very common in the country.
The most popular alcoholic drink in the country is however herbal liqueur, whose bitter taste carries over to the several kinds of non-alcoholic aperitifs that can be found there; as appropriate for the birthplace of the moka pot, consumption of coffee in Megelan is also quite high, even though most of the coffee found in the country is imported from Gylias rather than being homegrown, since the Community has a climate that is not suitable for coffee growing. It is consumed in a variety of ways, and with a variety of other ingredients, such as cocoa, milk, honey, liqueur, spices and sugar.
Desserts
The most common ingredients in Megelanese desserts are perhaps candied and dried fruits, that appear almost without fail in most of the Community's biscuits, cakes and sweets; just as with drinks, bittersweet flavours are preferred over either bitter or sweet ones, the country's almond- and apricot-based macarons being a prime example. Similarly, crumbly or crunchy desserts are favoured over iced or soft ones, with deep fried snacks being also quite popular.
Megelan is especially renowned for its stiff fruit pastes, similar to marmalade or conserves, except stiff enough to mold into shapes. Some novelty versions of these pastes, molded in the shape of dildos or less than popular public figures, have been banned elsewhere in Tyran due to safety concerns, and have sparked disputes and lawsuits concerning the improper use of one's likeness.
Holiday cuisine
Megelanese culture has a number of annual recurring traditional feasts, and numerous holiday dishes arranged according to the mentioned season and holiday; several varieties of sweet bread exist, often containing candied orange, citron, lemon zest and raisins, with cookies made with egg whites, crumbled biscuits, cocoa, dried fruit and spices also being quite popular and widespread.
Major holidays are typically the only days in which full course dinners are had by the average Megelanese, with the exception of other kinds of special occasions not associated with a traditional holiday; they include as the four seasonal Ember days, as well as Midsummer on the 24th of June, the Night of the Dead on the 1st or the 2nd of November, the Twelve Nights from the 25th of December to the 6th of January, and the monthly full moon celebrations.
Abroad
Megelanese cuisine has been exported to several other countries in Tyran, especially to Akashi, via the ancient trade route that brought rice to the Community and, via the Free Megelanese, to Cacerta and Gylias; it is often adapted to local tastes and ingredients, especially in countries that do not share Megelan's foggy, humid climate, that ranges from continental to subtropical depending on a given area's elevation.
The Gylian region of Alscia has been described as the last holdout of Futurist cuisine, as it fit the rapidly developing "hurried province"; those Free Megelanese that opted to stay in Gylias after the end of the hostilities in both countries adopted said cuisine as a display of irony, their descendants bringing back to Megelan a version of it highly influenced by Gylian cuisine, and therefore devoid of unfortunate political undertones.
