Cardassian food hot takes:
They don’t use table salt, they use something akin to Garum (a sort of thin sauce made from fish used across the Roman empire)
Kanar is made of flowers and the colors are distinguished by wether or not berries were added (clearer blue is flowers only, the murkier brown and mauve colors have berries)
Cardassians, while capable of consuming grains and plants in general, still tend carnivorous and a lot of their cuisine reflects this. If one wanted to try and analyze regional Cardassian cultures based on the “wheat vs rice culture” system, they’d actually have to do it on a fishing vs pastoral system or something similar.
As a corollary to the previous, Cardassia subsidizes some basic food stuffs to make them more broadly affordable to those of any class, to prevent civil unrest. A lot of this is things like eggs or fish.
Icon from a picrew by grgikau. Call me Tir or Julian. 37. He/They. Queer. Twitter: @tirlaeyn. ao3: tirlaeyn. 18+ Only. Star Trek. Sandman. IwtV. OMFD. Definitionless in this Strict Atmosphere.
y’know how in Iceland, they ferment poisonous shark meat by (traditionally) burying it in the ground for a few months before digging it up and hanging it to dry for several more months? Cardassians do that with their fish meat
the continuing adventures of Ghezal Chagak, Cardassian baker on post-canon Deep Space 9! She’s having fun inventing some cultural fusion recipes, to mixed success.
@conceptadecency you once asked what she and Garak think of each other, and I replied that I wasn’t sure they’d ever met, but I kept thinking about that idea and finally had to draw it! Garak’s visiting the station for some reason*– she’s starstruck at meeting a war hero, and he’s just excited about fresh baked goods after months of Cardassian emergency rations.
(*could “some reason”’s name be Dr. Julian Bashir?)
OMG I just realized Rikasa juice is fish, isn’t it? Julian mentions being able to smell it. And then in the tribbles episode that Klingon says Cardassians drink hot fish juice in the morning. And I just. Put that together. This whole time I was thinking rikasa was a Cardassian fruit, but is it actually a fish?
Garak, my love, are you drinking fish juice to calm your nerves?
Yeah I love that the Cardassian diet seems to be like. Fruit charcuterie and hot fish juice. It’s so odd I love it
And meat stew! But yeah. They are omnivorous lizards, so I guess it makes sense.
I recently rewatched “Destiny” with Gilora and Ulani. Love the scene when they are like “Yeah the best part of our job is we don’t have to eat Cardassian food…” 😂 I feel like the only person we definitely see enthusiastically eating it is Damar in the finale.
I think there’s very little that makes me more satisfied than dear Mister Garak drinking fucking Harum first thing in the morning. How Roman of him.
The Romans drank fish juice??! No, you know, that doesn’t surprise me actually. How did they make it, do you know? I’ve been thinking about it off and on all morning.
They sell clam juice at the markets and I know they make that by making broth from the clams and remarketing it as clam juice. I suspect they do the same with fish.
Ohhh that makes sense! Idk the word juice was throwing me off lol. I kept thinking, “but if you press it, you’ll get fish oil.” 😂 Anyway thank you!
OMG I just realized Rikasa juice is fish, isn’t it? Julian mentions being able to smell it. And then in the tribbles episode that Klingon says Cardassians drink hot fish juice in the morning. And I just. Put that together. This whole time I was thinking rikasa was a Cardassian fruit, but is it actually a fish?
Garak, my love, are you drinking fish juice to calm your nerves?
Yeah I love that the Cardassian diet seems to be like. Fruit charcuterie and hot fish juice. It’s so odd I love it
And meat stew! But yeah. They are omnivorous lizards, so I guess it makes sense.
I recently rewatched “Destiny” with Gilora and Ulani. Love the scene when they are like “Yeah the best part of our job is we don’t have to eat Cardassian food…” 😂 I feel like the only person we definitely see enthusiastically eating it is Damar in the finale.
OMG I just realized Rikasa juice is fish, isn’t it? Julian mentions being able to smell it. And then in the tribbles episode that Klingon says Cardassians drink hot fish juice in the morning. And I just. Put that together. This whole time I was thinking rikasa was a Cardassian fruit, but is it actually a fish?
Garak, my love, are you drinking fish juice to calm your nerves?