Food is a HUUUUGE part of my writing process!! When I come up with a new story idea and a new alien species, I ALWAYS think about how they came to be how they are (how they look, how they move, what kind of environment they evolved in) and that always leads to bigger questions about their culture and world. Naturally, the food a culture eats relies entirely on their environment - just like an equatorial culture's food differs from more polar regions, and thus I take into consideration what kind of food grows in different climates.
Take the Dreen, for example: they evolved from seal-like creatures, and were semi-aquatic for millions of years until they started spending more time on land. The majority of their food is going to be sea-based, so shellfish, fish, mollusks and tidal growth like algae and seaweed. I was heavily influenced by Polynesian and Japanese food in my research, so in my book STARFISH they eat things like baked eel, seaweed soup, soft breads made from kelp flour and lots of fish. The area where the story takes place is coastal and warm, so there's also access to native fruits and edible plants. Not only this, but they steward their natural spaces and keep them incredibly clean of trash and toxins so that anyone, anywhere, can simply forage and eat pretty much anything they find on the beach, in the ocean and in the forest:
“I saw some little ones digging around in the rocks looking for shellfish over there,” Nina pointed to a part of the beach where slabs of rock thrust up from the sand, sides slick and green with algae. “They were cracking the shells open with stones and eating fresh kelp right off the rocks.”
Ardus nodded, his enormous blue eyes blinking slowly as he looked between the rocks and Nina. “That does not surprise me. When I was very young I ate things I found on the beach as well – the oceans of Dreenai are clean and most small creatures are safe to eat, even raw. Children who can barely walk are taught the difference between edible and inedible creatures, then turned out to feed themselves as they play.”
My second species, the Drass, started on a much warmer, drier planet but in THE DRAGON PRINCE'S CONSORT they now live on a very cold planet where it snows often. They do much of their agriculture in covered or subterranean greenhouses to take advantage of natural geothermal activity from magma tunnels that run deep underground. They raise hardy, cattle-like animals and produce a good deal of root vegetables, but not a lot of fruit. Since they live in a much colder climate, they eat meals that resemble what you'd find in Siberia, Mongolia and Russia: dense breads, thick noodles, fatty meats, stews, soups, and fried and roasted foods. They also love their sweets, so you can expect to see pastries and cakes loaded with spices and butter. There's a bakery down the street from my house that bakes these INSANE creme brulee Basque cheesecake Danish croissants (yeah, I know, they're absolutely ridiculous) that I think would go PERFECTLY in this world where calories keep you warm (and therefore alive):
God, these things are PHENOMENAL.
I love this part of the writing process, I love thinking deeply about a species' culture and history and how that influences their day-to-day lives. I think it makes for a deeper experience, especially if I can compare the food to something familiar like tofu, sushi, hand-pies and Sunday roast. I also happen to love cooking and baking, and one day I wouldn't mind writing a cookbook to go with my other books. Imagine spooning up a dish of braised eel and kelp-dough biscuits straight out of STARFISH, or some hearty Mongolian buuz to go with your copy of THE DRAGON PRINCE'S CONSORT.
By the way, both of these books can currently be found FOR FREE on my Wattpad account, though in the future I plan to migrate them over to Amazon and publish them as Kindle titles. If you're interested, you can follow my Instagram where you'll see updates on new chapters and other fun nonsense like pictures of my cat and garden.
