Dynastic Dim Sum

Dynastic dining tends to focus on a large variety of smaller dishes, rather than one large main course, in a style known as ‘dim sum’. Dining is a political game of itself: what a host serves at a function reveals her political agenda: the value of ingredients shows the importance of the effort, while the choice to serve (or not to serve) the favourite foods of certain guests can show who the host is attempting to influence, and who they consider to be their enemies. Some dishes can be used as a form of coded language, though it must be noted the exact significance of certain dishes is rarely common knowledge, and is usually restricted to members of a specific scheme. Serving a guest at a dinner an empty plate, at least, is a quite universal signal, tantamount to a declaration of war by the host.

Dumplings and Buns

Shrimp dumplings: Tender, semi-translucent dough pleated in a distinctive half-moon shape around a shrimp filling and then steamed. Dynasts judge a teahouse by the quality of its shrimp dumplings.

Pork dumplings: Small, round steamed dumplings with a juicy, gingery pork filling peeking though the gathers of a thin wrapper.

Potstickers: These steamed and pan-seared appetizers are heartier than most other dim sum dumplings. They have a thicker dough enclosing a filling of pork sometimes with shrimp as well.

Chive dumplings: Flat and round, with a chewy dough thin enough to reveal a delicate green colour on top and seared to a crisp on the other side.

Scallop dumplings: Flat and round, with a chewy dough seared to a crisp on the bottom, and thin enough on top to reveal the green tint of a cilantro-chive and scallop filing.

Steamed buns with roast pork: Soft, fluffy white rolls filled with morsels of sweet, red-glazed roast pork.

Baked buns with roast pork: Roast pork enclosed in a yeasted dough and baked golden brown.

Curried beef crescents: Miniature turnovers with extremely flaky dough and a curried beef filling reveals culinary influences from the South.

Varangian Pyramids: A variation on the curried beef crescent originating amongst the Varang City-States, larger and more pyramidal than crescent in shape. The fillings used eschew beef in favour of curried legumes and mashed root vegetables.

Spring rolls: These flaky-crisp, finger-length rolls were the inspiration behind larger and more oily egg rolls popular in the urban slums, River Province and the inner Threshold (egg rolls are seen as ‘low class’ in the Realm). A filling of pork, shrimp, bamboo shoots, and water chestnuts is rolled a thin wrapper and then fried until golden brown.

Peanut Dumplings: Stuffed with peanuts, garlic, chives, pork, dried shrimp, and/or mushrooms, using a thick dumpling wrapper made from glutinous rice flour. Usually served with a small dish of chili oil for dipping.

Soup Dumplings: A difficult dish to make, requiring a skilled cook to master, soup dumplings use a fatty soup stock, usually pork lard with some combination of green onion, nori, miso paste, or horseradish. The stock is extremely fatty, and is allowed to congeal into a semi-solid mass before being scooped up and enfolded in a thin wheat flour wrapper. When the dumpling is then cooked and served, the fatty stock returns to liquid form, exploding in the mouth of the diner in a burst of flavour. Evena a tiny mistake in closing the wrapper, or a tear or weakness, will cause the stock to drain out during boiling.

Bean Curd Rolls: Ingredients such as diced shrimp, leek, shredded chicken, bamboo shoots, small carrots, tofu, scallions, sesame oil, or bean sprouts, wrapped in a thin bean-curd skin and either steamed or deep fried.

Rice Dishes

Rice pearl balls: Rolling small spheres of seasoned ground pork in uncooked kernels of glutinous rice before steaming them creates these pearly rice “dumplings.”

Lotus leaf rice: During steaming, the leaves of the lotus plant infuse their delicate flavor and aroma into a filling of glutinous rice studded with a variety of ingredients including chicken, roast pork, sausage, and black mushrooms. A preparation considered to be more appropriate for the Immaculate clergy includes only rice and lotus seeds scattered within, the seeds providing a crunch and more intense lotus flavour... perhaps surprisingly, the most discerning gourmands also favour this approach, for it allows the lotus to truly emerge as the hero of the dish.

Egg Fried Rice: Fried Rice is a staple of Blessed Isle cuisine, served in small bowls as part of dim sum dining or as penultimate dish in many banquets. Egg Fried Rice is made primarily with Glutinous Rice, that has been cooked, then allowed to cool. This is fried along with vegetables (bamboo shoots, peas, corn), green onion, and egg. There is a saying "As refined as rice fried egg", a joke for the nouveau-riche habits of citizens and patricians who have riches without culture, referencing the tendency of wealthier households to include more egg in their fried rice, those without appreciation for the dish's nuances to sometimes go too far.

Dark Fried Rice: Fried Rice is a staple of Blessed Isle cuisine, served in small bowls as part of dim sum dining or as penultimate dish in many banquets. Dark Fried Rice is made primarily with Unbound Rice, that has been cooked then allowed to cool. This is fried along with vegetables (peas, garlic, carrot, celery, onion, peppers), cured pork belly, sausage, and/or dried fruits (such as plums). Its dark colour comes from the ample use of dark soy sauce during preparation, making the resulting dish very dark brown in colour and quite salty.

Chestnut Rice: Steamed Glutinous Rice, with Oakwood Mushrooms, chestnuts and sweet potato, sprinkled with radish sprouts and sesame seeds. A dish favoured in the Water and Earth seasons.

Meat Dishes

Steamed Meatballs: Finely ground beef, shaped into balls and then steamed with preserved orange peel and served on top of a thin bean-curd skin. Some consider the dish to be a representation of House Cathak: respect for tradition through steaming, fire through the citrus, martial power (and Threshold cattle assets) through the beef, and purity of Immaculate faith through the bean curd.

Four Happy Balls: A set of four pork meatballs in a chicken and cabbage broth, derived from the larger dish known as the Lion's Head Meatball

Red Ribs: Pork ribs, hooked and cooked hanging in a large oven after being slathered in a paste made from honey, spices, soy sauce, and red wine. This gives them a distinctive red colour. Typically they are served over noodles or rice when the main course of a meal, or thin-sliced with bones removed as dim sum.

Black Ribs: Pork ribs, hooked and cooked hanging in a large oven after being slathered in a paste made from black bean paste and rice wine.

Minced Pork Rice: Dish with origins amongst the patricians and Dynastic households of the Silk and Pearl Peninsula on the southwestern Blessed Isle. Pork belly is finely minced and fried with shallots in oil, then boiled in a sauce containing some mixture of sugar, soy sauce, rice wine, hot peppers, and aromatic spices. The dark brown meat sauce produced is served over rice, though this can sometimes be substituted for noodles or even thin-sliced vegetables. Sour pickled fruits and vegetables are a common accompaniment.

Braised Pork Belly: Dish using pork belly, the fattiest part of the pig. The belly is cubed and cooked slowly in a braising liquid until the fat and skin become gelatinous in texture and melt easily in the mouth, while the liquid becomes a thick, sweet and fairly sticky sauce. The braising liquid itself contains garlic, ginger, sugar, soy sauce, and wine or vinegar: use of red wine (a variation termed ‘Red-Braised Pork Belly') makes for a heavier, sweeter sauce, while use of rice wine leaves the flavour of pork fat more dominant, and rice vinegar is used for those wishing to counter some of the richness of the dish. Often mushrooms are added partway through the braising, and when served the dish is topped by diced leeks or scallion greens.

Succulent Squares of Swine: Succulent Squares of Swine are a Shogunate-era variation of Red-Braised Pork Belly. The key to the dish is the method of cutting the pork belly: the pork must be cut into a cube shape, 3 inches to a side, the top half all fat and the bottom half all meat. The pork is first pan-fried to form a crust on top and bottom, then slow-cooked in its sauce for many hours. The resulting dish carries fragrant aromas of wine and is oily, but not greasy, in the mouth... this makes it popular amongst battle-worn officers and celebrating dilettantes seeking to counter excessive consumption of spirits. The dish draws its name from the Shogunate poet-official Kugawa Dongpo, who was said to have declared it the greatest of pork dishes in a now-lost poem.

Beef Sashimi: The cooking of any creature has an effect on its natural flavours, and so the best way to truly appreciate it is in its raw form. In the case of beef, the favoured preparation is thinly sliced strips of tenderloin, served with a sauce derived from citrus and seaweed.

Blossom at Bright Summit: An elaborate dish of thin-sliced boar meat arranged in the shape of rose petals.

Poultry Dishes

White Chicken Feet: A delicacy amongst Dynasts, these severed chicken feet are served whole, boiled and very lightly spiced.

Black Chicken Feet: A delicacy amongst Dynasts, these severed chicken feet are served whole, first boiled, then braised in hot sesame-ginger oil.

Stuffed Quails: Small birds, spiced then stuffed with small, sweet onions and roasted. Said to be a sensual dish… some say because of the sexual suggestions so often conveyed by Dynasts as they ‘finger’ out the onions at parties. Eagle Prefecture is considered source of the finest-flavoured quails, and this dish is a favourite of House Sesus.

Strategoi Zuo’s Sweet Poultry: A dish of the south-central Blessed Isle along the Caracal River , said to have been developed to suit the palate of the Legion general Peleps Zuo of Arjuf to honour his victories against the rebels in the Unbroken Rushes Rebellion, where he led the defense of the port city against the peasant hordes. Strategoi Zuo’s Sweet Poultry consists of cubed chicken, battered and fired for a crispy texture and then tossed in a sauce of sherry, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, sugar, and crushed hot peppers. The dish has some spice, but sweetness is by far the most dominant flavour, and some view it as excessive, making the dish far less popular in the rest of the Blessed Isle as it is in the South. It is also very popular in The Lap.

Chicken Sashimi: Thin slices of chicken breast, served raw with a sweetened soy sauce for dipping. As chicken is considered to be one of the lightest-flavoured poultry meats, this preparation is popular for letting diners appreciate the flavour of the bird without losing it to cooking or heavy sauces.

Seafood Dishes

Seafood dishes in the Dynasty vary widely both by geographic region and (much more importantly) by season, and example dishes can be seen in Dynastic Seasonal Seafood . However, some dishes remain popular year-round as part of dim-sum meals.

Barbequed Eel: Long eel fillets, oiled and grilled, then served with a tangy brown drizzle of spiced fish sauce.

Stuffed Squid: Small squid, hollowed out and stuffed with spinach, red pepper, and onion, before being quickly baked.

Tempura: Fish, zucchini and sweet potatoes dipped in batter, then deep-fried until golden. Said to have roots amongst the Haslanti, where the deep-fried fish is eaten with equally fried white potatoes and ale, but this method is viewed as too ‘foreign’ or ‘uncultured’ amongst most Dynasts.

Smoked Seafish: A salt-water fish, skinned and smoked, served raw. Like most raw fish dishes, it is favoured by House Peleps.

Braised Seafish: A salt-water fish, braised and served wrapped in kelp. Far more salty than the average Dynastic dish, more popular amongst those raised on the coast than inland. Said to represent the vastness of the open sea.

Roast Seafish: A salt-water fish, roasted and served on a bed of spiced fruit.

Riverfish in Sauce: A fresh-water fish, cooked soft in a herb broth and then served on the bone covered in cream sauce. The bones remain hard and inedible amidst the softness of the flavoured fish, which inspired a poem of Imperial consort Tepet in years past: “Outer Softness, seen and open to all. Hidden Strength within, opening to none.”

Drunken Shrimp: A raw seafood dish of river shrimp. The shrimp are eaten while still living, the creatures calmed by immersion in a ‘marinade’ of rice wine and honey. They are quickly tossed in a hot pan of pepper-infused oil for only the briefest moment, to perfect colour while not killing them too early, and then served, just beginning to return from stupor as they are eaten. Drunken Shrimp are eaten with the fingers, and traditionally diners are given small bowls to wash their hands once they are finished, containing green tea and slices of lemon.

Clouds Nestled in Oak: A refined dish dating from the Shogunate, consisting of Oakwood Mushrooms, stuffed with an airy mousse of whitefish (sometimes including scallop) and then deep fried. The stuffed mushrooms are served individually in a flavoured soy-based sauce, topped with grated daikon, green onion, and hot peppers.

Sun-marked Tuna: A dish known in less devout circles as Tuna Sol Invictus, this dish consists of red tuna wrapped in nori seaweed sheets, with a light crust of breadcrumbs, served with sour plum sauce.

Sunrise on the Mountain Lake: A dish of the central Blessed Isle, using freshwater White Mussels whose natural tough rubbery texture is softened by steaming in salted water and vinegar before they are grilled in-shell and tossed in a sweet chili sauce.

Tofu Dishes

Dipped Agedofu: A dish of tofu bean curd, cut into triangles and deep-fried to crisp its outer skin. Served with a sauce made from mustard, soy sauce, & spring onions, into which the trinagles are dipped using chopsticks. Dipped agedofu is a popular appetizer amongst the scions of House Cathak and House Mnemon.

Soldier-in-the-Trees: A dish of tofu bean curd, deep-fried to crisp its outside, placed in a bowl of noodles along with steamed broccoli and a sauce of leeks and miso paste.

Vegetable Dishes

Stuffed mushrooms: Mushroom caps filled with shrimp and bamboo shoots then steamed. The dish is sometimes called “a hundred flowers,” for the mounded caps resemble open blossoms.

Scallion Pancakes: A batter derived from mung beans, mixed with small onions and sometimes mixed with fish, chicken, or pickled cabbage, then fried.

Roasted Root Vegetables : Roasted turnips, carrots, potatoes and yams. A low-class peasant food, often served to unwanted guests.

Greens and Oyster Sauce: A simple dish that is nevertheless incredibly popular, using steamed broccoli, kai-lan, or bok choi tossed in oyster sauce.

Glazed Eggplant: Slender eggplants, slit lengthwise and brushed with sweetened soy sauce, then grilled until tender, after which they are coated in a glaze of miso soybean paste.

Autumn Rain: A vegetarian dish more common amongst the religious than more extravagant Dynasts, Autumn Rain is also seen (simplified) on citizen and peasant tables. It consists of an assortment of vegetables, stewed in a broth of soy and ginger. Traditionally it is considered a warm and filling dish to be eaten on those days allocated by the Thousand Scales for rainy weather. Simmered Embrace: A vegetarian dish often favoured by the devout, though the complexity of its preparation put it well within the standard of Dynastic dim sum. Cabbage, radish and fern leaves are shredded then wrapped in sheets of tofu skin and tied with edible ribbons of gourd, then simmered in a sweetened soy broth. The resulting wrap is sliced into rounds before serving.

Kimchi: A staple dish of the Blessed Isle’s peasants, kimchi is made primarily of cabbage, fermented with anchovies, hot peppers, and salt, most often buried in clay jars where it will last for years. Dynastic kimchi is served as a side dish to accompany dim sum or balance out alcohol during drinking parties.

Bouquet of Sextes Jylis: This dish is not a set of specific ingredients but a preparation, rendering raw fruits and vegetables into something worthy of a Dynastic table. The ingredients are chosen based on season and colour (though carrot, cucumber, melon, papaya, and pineapple tend to be staples), and intricately carved into bite-sized flowers. This undertaking is time-consuming and demands significant knife skills, proof of a well-appointed kitchen.

Five Mountain Shoots: Five seasonal shoots and herbs, enjoyed when they appear during the Wood season.

Toes in the Mountain Stream: A salad dish associated with the Ascending months and the Wood Season, when fresh young leaves are in abundance, Toes in the Mountain Stream consists of flavourul leaves (Wasabi leaves, Perilla leaves, Mint leaves, or some combination thereof), and a dipping sauce of soy and sometimes citrus, scattered with sesame seeds. Diners simply lift a leaf with their chopsticks, dip lightly, and eat.

Sweet Dishes

Custard tarts: Tender egg custard baked in a flaky crust, these delicate little sweets are a perfect ending with tea.

Melon Cherries: A lightly honeyed half-moon of melon, wrapped around a sour cherry.

Stuffed Pears: Sweet pears, halved then filled with honey and dates and gently steamed.

Mango Pudding: A rich, sweet pudding made with fine cream and fresh fruit. The favour is quite strong, and is generally dismissed by many in the more conservative Great Houses as ‘uncultured’… the pudding would never be found near a Tepet party. However, it finds favour with the younger Houses, and the more hedonist Dynasts.

Sweet & Salty Balls: Steamed rice-dough balls filled with peanuts and chestnuts, sprinkled with honeyed coconut.

Thousand-Layer Cake: A dessert pastry made up of many layers of sweet egg dough.

Egg tart: Dessert composed of a base made from a flaky pastry dough with an egg custard filling, which is then baked. Some high class restaurants put bird's nest on top of the custard.

Manju: A chewy dough filled with red bean paste, rolled in sesame seeds, and either steamed or deep fried.

Heavenly Silk: A dessert consisting of silky tofu served with a sweet ginger or jasmine flavored syrup.

Longan Tofu: Almond-flavoured tofu served with longan fruit, usually chilled. A dish for hot summer days.

Pineapple Bun: A dessert bun which, contrary to expectation, contains no pineapple. The top of the pineapple bun is made of a dough which consists of sugar, eggs, flour, and lard. Baked to a golden-brown color, its checkered top resembles the epicarp of a pineapple, crunchy and quite sweet compared to the bread beneath. In some Threshold cities such as Nexus, the dish has been completely misinterpreted, and bakers stuff the buns with actual pineapple, something which sets Dynastic visitors laughing uproariously at the uncivilized idiocy of those outside the Center of Creation.

Moon Cakes: See New Year Celebrations.

Stamped Cookies: A sweet cookie, stamped with a Mon or other imagery.

Floss Bun: A small, sweet bun, topped with a thin curled floss of sweetened meat, usually pork, though Beef and fish can also be used.

Soup Dishes

Wonton Soup: Small dumplings filled with pork and spinach, sitting in a lightly flavoured vegetable broth.

Miso Soup: A soup made with miso soybean paste, flavoured with small pieces of parsley and chives. Considered to be a palette cleaner at the start and end of a meal.

Ivory Hot Springs – A hearty variation on miso soup, with a thicker broth and steamed daikon radish chunks.

Condiments

Soy Sauce: Condiment. A sauce made from fermented soybeans, with a salty flavour. Used as a dipping sauce for many Dim Sum dishes. Often is mixed with other elements for this role, including crushed garlic, citrus juice, and horseradish paste.

Horseradish: Condiment, One of the Fivefold Flavours of the Enflamed Palate. Coming in a variety of flavours, the weakest being white (often used in peasant cooking) and the best being green. Sometimes powdered, but more often made into a paste. The heat of a horseradish is very intense, perhaps more so than the hot peppers of the South, but this heat is localized in the nasal cavities and fades much more quickly than the heat from peppers. Most Dynastic diners consider it the finest of the hot spices, having the great intensity needed to impart its unique flavour, but without lingering behind to spoil the food that follows.

Oyster Sauce: An expensive condiment made from boiling down oyster broth until it begins to caramelize, taking on a thick texture and rich brown colour. This process is very demanding and time consuming, and amongst those of middling income a cheaper version is created by artificially thickening with starch and colouring with soy sauce to produce a passable, if far less flavourful, version. It is often used to add flavour when tossing noodles before topping with meat and vegetables.

Black Bean Paste: Condiment made by a two-part fermenting and salting black soybeans. The process turns the beans black, soft, and mostly dry, with moisture added to create a smoother paste through addition of soy sauce and minced garlic. The flavor is sharp, pungent, and spicy in smell, with a taste that is salty and somewhat bitter and sweet.

Red Bean Paste: Condiment and filling made from pulverizing and cooking red adzuki beans with honey or sugar to sweeten. Used most often to stuff desserts such as Manju, sometimes it also appears as a dip for pastries or a topping for Melanated Cream.

Beverages

Grape Wine: An alcoholic beverage derived from fermented grapes, coming in an array of different vintages and varietals.

Rice Wine A catch-all term applied to a number of different rice liquors, fermented rice brewed or distilled. Typically stronger than its grape counterpart, various brewed versions are typical in the cups of commoners, while the distilled rice wines are consumed more by patricians or Dynasts. Generally rice wines are cheaper to produce (and thus to obtain) than grape wines, a reason for dismissing them in the most refined circles. In a protest against House V'neef, House Peleps uses mostly rice wines at its functions (as they lie outside of the monopoly).

Plum Brandy: Traditionally seen at private meetings rather than large social occasions.

Shochu: Typically serving a guest this peasant-class liquor is an effective way of delivering an insult.

Fruit Schnapps: Typically taken accompanying sweet desserts, or as either an aperif before the meal or a digestif at its conclusion.

Fruit Juices: Freshly squeezed juice, a beverage of the wealthy due to the amount of waste it produces. Common fruits are Tangerine, Passion Fruit, Pineapple, Grape, Plum, and Melon.

Sugarcane Juice: Common in the southern Blessed Isle but rare elsewhere, this sweet juice is produced from pressed Sugar Cane.

Tea: Tea is a staple of life across the Blessed Isle, plant matter dried and then steeped in hot water. The tea plant gives the drink its name and the plant does the same to the drink, linguistically intertwined beyond unravelling, but many peasants without much true tea supplement with local leaves and berries more easily obtained.

--- Green tea: Green tea is the simplest variety of tea, left unprocessed. It is served as standard with just about every meal or ceremony, and is said to aid digestion and clear the palette.

--- Black tea: Black tea is fermented before baking, causing a less bitter flavour. It is primarily produced in Pangu, and is the standard tea of the Legions.

--- Oolong tea: This represents a variety half way between the green and the black teas, undergoing only partial fermentation. It is said to have medicinal properties, speeding up healing and reducing appetite.

--- Jasmine tea: Green tea scented with jasmine, a slightly more costly and more aromatic variant.

--- Spice tea: A harmonious blend of hibiscus, cloves, lemon balm, other herbs and spices, naturally sweet, tart and spicy.

--- Chrysanthemum tea: A sweet tea of Chrysanthemum blossoms and honeysuckle, one of the most costly teas in the Realm.

--- Milk Tea: A sweet tea created using tea and sweetened condensed milk, very popular with children and soldiers.

--- Pu-erh Tea: A black tea that has been heavily fermented and aged, sometimes for decades, imparting a black colour and a strong earthy flavour.

--- 25-Flavour Tea: A complex, bitter tea containing twenty-five different plants, the combination said to have medicinal benefits harmonizing one’s Essence with Creation. It includes mulberry leaf, chrysanthemum flower, honeysuckle flower, bamboo leaf, peppermint, bloodgrass, blue giant hyssop, monkfruit, perilla leaf, beefsteak leaf, fermented soybean, lidded cleistocalyx flower, cacao leaf, holly leaf, and green tea leaf.