I wonder what food would be like in Britain if the Nazis had won the war? Obviously no Chicken Tikka Masala - but maybe Italian food would still be popular. No doubt some German foods would be popular too - I can see a German infuence particularly on the snack food market (pretzels, pastries, biscuits, salamis, cheeses) and on Yuletide cuisine. Would German food and drink become more popular than British cuisine, or would the Germans encourage the traditional regional foods and drinks of this "Aryan" nation? Encouraging regionalism might be in the German's interests, and "traditional culture" generally could act as a safe outlet for Britons' nationalist impulses.
Food in AH
- Thread starter Justin Pickard
- Start date
I like that thread... It's nice to see this calmer, more relax side of the alternate history covered, and it allow one to use the imagination. 
I like that thread... It's nice to see this calmer, more relax side of the alternate history covered, and it allow one to use the imagination.
I agree fully.
Cool!
This thread rocks! I actually am working on a TL based on the simple premise of No Potato - here's a link:
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=40032&highlight=potato
This thread rocks! I actually am working on a TL based on the simple premise of No Potato - here's a link:
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=40032&highlight=potato
I'd still like to see a longer lasting Suez (for lack or a better term) Canal. Much safer transport for goods, and more cultural exchange. No need to sail around Africa or anywhere else. It would make Egypt a pretty tasty morsel to control, however.
Visigothic cuisine most likely was essentially a modified provincial Roman tradition enriched (if that is the word) by a prodigious appetite for meat, mead and beer. It remains undiscovered largely because, well, we have no documents and almost no viable archeological materials. But anyone attempting a reconstruction could do worse than to turn to the writings of Anthimus, sixth-century dietician reporting on the foodways of the Franks, Gregory of Tours' writings on and correspondence with Visigoths, and whatever few episcopal letters we have.
Mr. Steingarten (in his book the man who ate everything) says it was "sweet-and-sour cooking". But where he gets that info from, he doesn't say.
OK, let's give it a try. Sorry for my English. The observer is from an OTL, and he's dining in Riga, in an ATL akin to Chaos TL...
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"I have a bad feeling about this", I whispered.
"Why? It's an international cuisine resaurant". The word he really used was "overseas".
"That's what bothers me". Since I had no other choice, I'd got myself used to local food, but it was hard. Ubiquitous breakfast lemishki [buckwheat fritters], and peas-and-raisins pryazhentsi [fried patties, but with different fillings] as fast food... Often I found myself yearning for a hot dog.
"Surely you'll find something to your taste".
"And where am I to seek? Do they have a menu in the house, or I am supposed to know it by heart?"
"A what?"
It turned out they didn't. You booked a seat in "The Goldenred Roan", like in a cinema, and you got what you're served, along with other guests: an eight, twelve or fifteen course dinner. It made your meal a social occasion, and what I dubbed "restaurant" was in fact more a "club" or a "salon". I've already noticed that most guests were already acquainted with each other -- obviously, they were used to dining here. They looked at me and Vlad with a hint of suspition. Maybe that was because I didn't manage to lose my accent...
And then it hit me.
"Twelve courses?"
-----------------------------------------
Should I continue?
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"I have a bad feeling about this", I whispered.
"Why? It's an international cuisine resaurant". The word he really used was "overseas".
"That's what bothers me". Since I had no other choice, I'd got myself used to local food, but it was hard. Ubiquitous breakfast lemishki [buckwheat fritters], and peas-and-raisins pryazhentsi [fried patties, but with different fillings] as fast food... Often I found myself yearning for a hot dog.
"Surely you'll find something to your taste".
"And where am I to seek? Do they have a menu in the house, or I am supposed to know it by heart?"
"A what?"
It turned out they didn't. You booked a seat in "The Goldenred Roan", like in a cinema, and you got what you're served, along with other guests: an eight, twelve or fifteen course dinner. It made your meal a social occasion, and what I dubbed "restaurant" was in fact more a "club" or a "salon". I've already noticed that most guests were already acquainted with each other -- obviously, they were used to dining here. They looked at me and Vlad with a hint of suspition. Maybe that was because I didn't manage to lose my accent...
And then it hit me.
"Twelve courses?"
-----------------------------------------
Should I continue?
Hendryk
Banned
In Robert Cowley's What If?, there is speculation about the cultural consequences of Harold winning the battle of Hastings rather than William. The idea is that the British Isles would remain part of the cultural sphere of influence of the Scandinavian world, which at the time stretched from Novgorod to Vinland. One wonders how British cuisine would have evolved in that TL.
BTW, in another chapter of that book, the historical role of the potato is mentioned. Does RCTFI already know this?
How about a very cheap, but nutritionally balanced, foodstuff for feeding the lower classes/untermenschen/serfs/slaves. I picture it as being like a very stodgy and flavourless bread. Or possibly like dog food, or cold porridge. "Serf Scoff - the perfect nutritional solution to your serfs' needs! Just add water! Only 1 Auric per 100 kilos! No other food necessary! The unpleasant flavour discourages inefficient gluttony!"
Foods that might only exist in OTL: Breakfast cereals, eating chocolate, potato crisps, spreads such as Marmite, Vegemite, Nutella and peanut butter, popcorn, Quorn . . . any others?
Is anyone an imaginative enough cook to post some recipes from ATLs?
Foods that might only exist in OTL: Breakfast cereals, eating chocolate, potato crisps, spreads such as Marmite, Vegemite, Nutella and peanut butter, popcorn, Quorn . . . any others?
Is anyone an imaginative enough cook to post some recipes from ATLs?
Why not some kind of budget quorn for the first question? soc.history.what-if has a thread postulating that it (fungus protein) could have proved a useful domestic strategic resource during WW2, had it been discovered slightly earlier.
Flocculencio
Donor
What, you mean the potato?
IIRC you just need a diet of potatoes, milk and beer to get everything you need.
What, you mean the potato?
IIRC you just need a diet of potatoes, milk and beer to get everything you need.
Also, fish and whalemeat are pretty much all the human body needs as the inuits have proven.
What, you mean the potato?
IIRC you just need a diet of potatoes, milk and beer to get everything you need.
Actually just the beer is enough.
You get that with fresh clabber. Not a good amount of it, but it'll keep you alive.
Potatoes contain lots of vitamin C.
Okay, I looked around the internet about whether you can live on potatoes and milk alone. I can't find anything definitive, but based on nutritional analyses I would say it is possible, provided you drink whole milk, not skimmed milk. I'm not sure whether this would still work if you are lactose intolerant.
The beer I think is superfluous, but at least if you lived on potatoes and milk, you'd have plenty of money to spend on beer.
Okay, I looked around the internet about whether you can live on potatoes and milk alone. I can't find anything definitive, but based on nutritional analyses I would say it is possible, provided you drink whole milk, not skimmed milk. I'm not sure whether this would still work if you are lactose intolerant.
The beer I think is superfluous, but at least if you lived on potatoes and milk, you'd have plenty of money to spend on beer.