The Regional Cuisine

[Targaryen Restoration]

1. Dorne
2. Dothraki
3. Reach
4. West Lands
5. Slaver's Bay
6. North
7. Iron Islands
8. Skagos
9. Free Folk
10. Pentos
11. Braavos
12. Naath

Your favorite dishes.  The ones you would avoid.   The healthiest.  The easiest to prepare.  Better for the environment.  Sustainable.  Let me know what you think of the foods of aSoIaF.

[Tucu]

Sustainable during the next winter: roasted or stewed wight (original recipe from Coldhands)

[StarkofWinterfell]

4 hours ago, Targaryen Restoration said:

1. Dorne
2. Dothraki
3. Reach
4. West Lands
5. Slaver's Bay
6. North
7. Iron Islands
8. Skagos
9. Free Folk
10. Pentos
11. Braavos
12. Naath

Your favorite dishes.  The ones you would avoid.   The healthiest.  The easiest to prepare.  Better for the environment.  Sustainable.  Let me know what you think of the foods of aSoIaF.

Do you mind starting with your own list?

[The Commentator]

Nothing is off the table when it comes to survival but I would hope to avoid eating Skaagosi style.  Can't say I'm fond of eating puppies on sticks either.  The Dothraki eat horse meat which is really not bad.  The Reach has the best balanced diet due to easier access to fruits and vegetables.  The North is probably malnourished.

[Walda]

	Fave	Avoid	Healthiest	Easiest
Dorne	grape leaves stuffed with a mélange of raisins, onions, mushrooms and firey dragon peppers. AFfC, Ch.40 The Princess In The Tower	Lemons AFfC, Ch.02 The Captain Of Guards	a bowl of purple olives, flatbread, cheese, chickpea paste. AFfC, Ch.02 The Captain Of Guards	Blood oranges AFfC, Ch.02 The Captain Of Guards
Dothraki	haunch of goat roasted with sweetgrass and firepods, basted with honey AGoT, Ch.36 Daenerys IV	raw horse heart AGoT, Ch.46 Daenerys V	fruits and vegetables AGoT, Ch.36 Daenerys IV	a flagon of water, cold AGoT, Ch.68 Daenerys IX
Reach	suckling pig in plum sauce stuffed with chestnuts and white truffles AFfC, Prologue	Arbor gold ASoS, Ch.19 Tyrion III	great loaves of brown bread ACoK, Ch.22 Catelyn II	peaches and pomegranates AGoT, Ch.25 Eddard V
Westerlands	suckling pig, skin seared and crackling AGoT, Ch.62 Tyrion VIII	fertility posset of herbs and milk and ale ASoS Ch.20 Catelyn III	Fish from the Sunset Sea AGoT, Ch.21 Tyrion III	three chickens, and a flagon of wine AGoT, Ch.42 Tyrion VI
Slaver's Bay	honeyed lamb, fragrant with crushed mint and served with small green figs ADwD,Ch.23 Daenerys IV	Feast of Pyramid of Ullhor ADwD,Ch.30 Daenerys V	Autumn greens and ginger soup ADwD,Ch.30 Daenerys V	figs and dates and olives ASoS,Ch.57 Daenerys V
North	Sausage and pinenut/ blackberry oatcakes. ASoS Ch.24 Bran II	wedding pies, stuffed to bursting with carrots, onions, turnips, parsnips, mushrooms, and chunks of seasoned pork swimming in a savory brown gravy. ADwD Ch.37 Prince of Winterfell	salads of spinach and chickpeas and turnip greens AGoT Ch.41 Jon V	pears poached in strongwine ACoK Ch.21 Bran III
Iron Islands	Onion Pie ACoK Ch.24 Theon II	Finger dancers ACoK Ch.24 Theon II	black bread ACoK Ch.24 Theon II	Cold beef and Mustard AFfC Ch.11 The Kraken'sDaughter
Skagos	Crab AFfC, Ch.15 Samwell II	Unicorn ADwD, Ch.09 Davos I	Crab AFfC, Ch.15 Samwell II	Seal or Crab AFfC, Ch.15 Samwell II
Free Folk	roast mutton ASoS Ch.07 Jon I	Any meat at Hardhome ADwD Ch.39 Jon VIII Ch.45 The Blind Girl	hen off a skewer ASoS Ch.07 Jon I	Brace of hens ASoS Ch.07 Jon I
Pentos	delicate pastries AGoT, Ch.11 Daenerys II	Purple urine ASoS, Ch.10 Davos II	Cherries ADwD Ch.01 Tyrion I	fat black mushrooms kissed with garlic and bathed in butter ADwD Ch.01 Tyrion I
Braavos	Hot peppers and fried fish, bread fresh from the oven, sardines fried crisp in pepper oil ADwD, Ch.45 The Blind Girl	bowls of blood ADwD, Ch.64 The Ugly Little Girl	onion broth from soup shop ADwD, Ch.64 The Ugly Little Girl	cockles, clams and mussels AFfC, Ch.22 Arya II
Naath	Bare-hand caught fish with fruit and garden herbs ADwD, Ch.11 Daenerys II	Butterflys ASoS,Ch.71 Daenerys VI	Fruit ASoS,Ch.71 Daenerys VI	Fruit ASoS,Ch.71 Daenerys VI

The quality of the answer is limited by the question. Perhaps you might have chosen the Vale or the Riverlands over the Westerlands and the lands beyond the Wall, Qarth rather than Naath. I'm wondering if you are even going to try to form an answer to your own question. And of course I am not going to tell you what I think of the foods of westeros - this post would be too long even if I just told you what I think of the foods listed above.

When you say 'better for the environment', do you mean in Planetos, or in this world? In both worlds, the best for the environment are raw foods locally available and  in abundance, but which foods depends on where. I'm guessing from the size of their cities and their pre-industrial state that they have less impact on their environment than we have on ours, although there are issues like city sanitation and rivers, and reliance on wood fires for cooking, that could make worse pollution in some places than we are used to. Septa Mordane tells Sansa that there are still wild aurochs in the Neck, and there do not seem to be any wild aurochs in the Wolfwood, or anywhere but the Neck south of that, so I would probably take aurochs off the menu, except King Robert wouldn't and he rules the realm.

Sustainability: Winter is coming. They have just finished a ten year summer. Preparing for the change of seasons is about as close as Planetos gets to the concept of sustainability, and while Westeros seems very poorly prepared for the next season, they are doing better than our response to climate change, and than Essos, which doesn't seem to be aware of the issue. No ravens from the citidel to remind the free cities that autumn and winter are on their way, no magisters telling farmers to set by a  percentage of their crop, no feudal system obliging farmers to abide by their landlord's advice, whether it comes from the citidel, or the hedge wizard, or their leige lord.

Jorah has told Dany how distinctly seasonal the Dothraki Sea is, but the Lhazareen and the Meereenese go about their farming and grazing as if there were no seasons. Braavos has no wood but what is in its boats, and seems to be a place where the winter is normally cold. You would think there would be warehouses full of wood suitable for cooking with, even in the summer. If there are we haven't seen them.

Although sustainability is a woolly concept in this world, too. Perhaps because it is prosecuted by retailers that wish to reduce it to a low-cost marketing ploy, and producers that want to create a premium brand for their same old product that is produced in the same old way for the same old exploitative markets. For example, if a retailer of coffee finds Fairtrade products are taking a demographic from them, but they are not willing to relinquish a price-making hold on the market that gives them the ability to buy at less than cost of production, as long as they don't insist on slavery-free farming practices, well, instead they can specify that some of their producers join the Rainforest Alliance and put that logo on their disposable coffee cups so their customers are not bothered by unpleasant thoughts about where their joe comes from.

If one farm takes advantage of a government subsidy to put in a bio-fuel plant that makes their on-farm processing cheaper when they turn it on, or another goes to spraying pesticides when bug checks indicate it will be most effective rather than on a fortnightly basis regardless, and viola, the farmers have done something that makes them eligible for certification while increasing their profit margins enough to more than pay for certification and their retail friends can claim to have Rainforest Alliance partners and make that claim and use that logo (even if it is only for two in a hundred producers) and avoid issues like why the market price is so low and whether the labourers are getting paid or are in fact slaves. Fair Trade is not necessarily good for the environment, either - just good for people who would otherwise be unpaid or underpaid for their work. Anyhow, it seems especially pointless to talk about sustainability as an in-world concept in A Song of Ice and Fire - except to note that, as in the real world, war and reeving are the most unsustainable ways of getting food to people. 

 

[Targaryen Restoration]

18 hours ago, StarkofWinterfell said:

Do you mind starting with your own list?

This girl is not eating dog.  

Avoid = Slaver's Bay-Ghiscari, Skagos, Crannog people's frog legs.

Eat as last resort = Dornish-too spicy, Free Folk-they're barbarians and I don't trust their food prep.

Healthiest = Dothraki-very little starch and high in protein.

Sustainable = Naath

Favorite = Naath= because they don't eat meat

Now dude, get off your butt and give me an answer   

 

[Targaryen Restoration]

6 hours ago, Walda said:

	Fave	Avoid	Healthiest	Easiest
Dorne	grape leaves stuffed with a mélange of raisins, onions, mushrooms and firey dragon peppers. AFfC, Ch.40 The Princess In The Tower	Lemons AFfC, Ch.02 The Captain Of Guards	a bowl of purple olives, flatbread, cheese, chickpea paste. AFfC, Ch.02 The Captain Of Guards	Blood oranges AFfC, Ch.02 The Captain Of Guards
Dothraki	haunch of goat roasted with sweetgrass and firepods, basted with honey AGoT, Ch.36 Daenerys IV	raw horse heart AGoT, Ch.46 Daenerys V	fruits and vegetables AGoT, Ch.36 Daenerys IV	a flagon of water, cold AGoT, Ch.68 Daenerys IX
Reach	suckling pig in plum sauce stuffed with chestnuts and white truffles AFfC, Prologue	Arbor gold ASoS, Ch.19 Tyrion III	great loaves of brown bread ACoK, Ch.22 Catelyn II	peaches and pomegranates AGoT, Ch.25 Eddard V
Westerlands	suckling pig, skin seared and crackling AGoT, Ch.62 Tyrion VIII	fertility posset of herbs and milk and ale ASoS Ch.20 Catelyn III	Fish from the Sunset Sea AGoT, Ch.21 Tyrion III	three chickens, and a flagon of wine AGoT, Ch.42 Tyrion VI
Slaver's Bay	honeyed lamb, fragrant with crushed mint and served with small green figs ADwD,Ch.23 Daenerys IV	Feast of Pyramid of Ullhor ADwD,Ch.30 Daenerys V	Autumn greens and ginger soup ADwD,Ch.30 Daenerys V	figs and dates and olives ASoS,Ch.57 Daenerys V
North	Sausage and pinenut/ blackberry oatcakes. ASoS Ch.24 Bran II	wedding pies, stuffed to bursting with carrots, onions, turnips, parsnips, mushrooms, and chunks of seasoned pork swimming in a savory brown gravy. ADwD Ch.37 Prince of Winterfell	salads of spinach and chickpeas and turnip greens AGoT Ch.41 Jon V	pears poached in strongwine ACoK Ch.21 Bran III
Iron Islands	Onion Pie ACoK Ch.24 Theon II	Finger dancers ACoK Ch.24 Theon II	black bread ACoK Ch.24 Theon II	Cold beef and Mustard AFfC Ch.11 The Kraken'sDaughter
Skagos	Crab AFfC, Ch.15 Samwell II	Unicorn ADwD, Ch.09 Davos I	Crab AFfC, Ch.15 Samwell II	Seal or Crab AFfC, Ch.15 Samwell II
Free Folk	roast mutton ASoS Ch.07 Jon I	Any meat at Hardhome ADwD Ch.39 Jon VIII Ch.45 The Blind Girl	hen off a skewer ASoS Ch.07 Jon I	Brace of hens ASoS Ch.07 Jon I
Pentos	delicate pastries AGoT, Ch.11 Daenerys II	Purple urine ASoS, Ch.10 Davos II	Cherries ADwD Ch.01 Tyrion I	fat black mushrooms kissed with garlic and bathed in butter ADwD Ch.01 Tyrion I
Braavos	Hot peppers and fried fish, bread fresh from the oven, sardines fried crisp in pepper oil ADwD, Ch.45 The Blind Girl	bowls of blood ADwD, Ch.64 The Ugly Little Girl	onion broth from soup shop ADwD, Ch.64 The Ugly Little Girl	cockles, clams and mussels AFfC, Ch.22 Arya II
Naath	Bare-hand caught fish with fruit and garden herbs ADwD, Ch.11 Daenerys II	Butterflys ASoS,Ch.71 Daenerys VI	Fruit ASoS,Ch.71 Daenerys VI	Fruit ASoS,Ch.71 Daenerys VI

The quality of the answer is limited by the question. Perhaps you might have chosen the Vale or the Riverlands over the Westerlands and the lands beyond the Wall, Qarth rather than Naath. I'm wondering if you are even going to try to form an answer to your own question. And of course I am not going to tell you what I think of the foods of westeros - this post would be too long even if I just told you what I think of the foods listed above.

When you say 'better for the environment', do you mean in Planetos, or in this world? In both worlds, the best for the environment are raw foods locally available and  in abundance, but which foods depends on where. I'm guessing from the size of their cities and their pre-industrial state that they have less impact on their environment than we have on ours, although there are issues like city sanitation and rivers, and reliance on wood fires for cooking, that could make worse pollution in some places than we are used to. Septa Mordane tells Sansa that there are still wild aurochs in the Neck, and there do not seem to be any wild aurochs in the Wolfwood, or anywhere but the Neck south of that, so I would probably take aurochs off the menu, except King Robert wouldn't and he rules the realm.

Sustainability: Winter is coming. They have just finished a ten year summer. Preparing for the change of seasons is about as close as Planetos gets to the concept of sustainability, and while Westeros seems very poorly prepared for the next season, they are doing better than our response to climate change, and than Essos, which doesn't seem to be aware of the issue. No ravens from the citidel to remind the free cities that autumn and winter are on their way, no magisters telling farmers to set by a  percentage of their crop, no feudal system obliging farmers to abide by their landlord's advice, whether it comes from the citidel, or the hedge wizard, or their leige lord.

Jorah has told Dany how distinctly seasonal the Dothraki Sea is, but the Lhazareen and the Meereenese go about their farming and grazing as if there were no seasons. Braavos has no wood but what is in its boats, and seems to be a place where the winter is normally cold. You would think there would be warehouses full of wood suitable for cooking with, even in the summer. If there are we haven't seen them.

Although sustainability is a woolly concept in this world, too. Perhaps because it is prosecuted by retailers that wish to reduce it to a low-cost marketing ploy, and producers that want to create a premium brand for their same old product that is produced in the same old way for the same old exploitative markets. For example, if a retailer of coffee finds Fairtrade products are taking a demographic from them, but they are not willing to relinquish a price-making hold on the market that gives them the ability to buy at less than cost of production, as long as they don't insist on slavery-free farming practices, well, instead they can specify that some of their producers join the Rainforest Alliance and put that logo on their disposable coffee cups so their customers are not bothered by unpleasant thoughts about where their joe comes from.

If one farm takes advantage of a government subsidy to put in a bio-fuel plant that makes their on-farm processing cheaper when they turn it on, or another goes to spraying pesticides when bug checks indicate it will be most effective rather than on a fortnightly basis regardless, and viola, the farmers have done something that makes them eligible for certification while increasing their profit margins enough to more than pay for certification and their retail friends can claim to have Rainforest Alliance partners and make that claim and use that logo (even if it is only for two in a hundred producers) and avoid issues like why the market price is so low and whether the labourers are getting paid or are in fact slaves. Fair Trade is not necessarily good for the environment, either - just good for people who would otherwise be unpaid or underpaid for their work. Anyhow, it seems especially pointless to talk about sustainability as an in-world concept in A Song of Ice and Fire - except to note that, as in the real world, war and reeving are the most unsustainable ways of getting food to people. 

 

Raw foods has its advocates but you need to exercise care because of the possibility of food borne illness.  They may even use night soil to fertilize and that means care should be taken.  Locally sourced eliminates transportation but that is a given for them due to lack of refrigeration and being limited to salting, pickling, and dehydration.  And I say Essos is better prepared for a long winter because the cold will not be as harsh.  They have coast lines in warm waters where they can fish.  

 

 

[Walda]

On 6/10/2018 at 8:32 AM, Widowmaker 811 said:

I would hope to avoid eating Skaagosi style. 

Yeah, I'm not convinced the Skagosi deserve their reputation - we have only heard their history from the point of view of people who are not Skagosi. Davos has sailed past Skagos to deal with the wildlings on the Cobblecat, as a boy. He can deal with wildlings, perhaps including the ice river clans,  but doesn't want to go to Skagos ever, has never docked there before. Perhaps some of his alarm is from knowing how difficult it is to avoid shipwreck at Skagos. But at least some seems to be from Davos believing the stories of the Skagossans being ferocious cannibals (and I suspect a lot is due to GRRM wanting to end ADwD Ch.29 Davos IV with a dramatic flourish).

Thing is, in real life there is this thing where colonising powers claim the natives are cannibals in order to justify some of the more unconscionable acts of brutality against them. This happened to the Sioux, Hawaiians, Australian Butchulla people, none of whom were at all. Also the Aztecs and the Maori, who admittedly did have cultural cannibalism.

The evidence we have is in the form of songs, and stories from an uprising against the North 100 years earlier, and mostly and especially legends from a more ancient time than that. All of these are cultural devices colonial powers use to tell the historical narrative that serves them best.

The way GRRM has Roose Bolton, of all people, claim that 'only the heart trees ever see half of what they do on Skagos' - as he justifies his rape of the miller's wife, of all times to mention it, seems ironic and knowing to me. I mean, Bolton, the guy with the stark-skin lampshade in the study, the one that taught his bastard that a flayed man has no secrets.

So all we know thus far about the Skagossans is from notoriously unreliable sources, rumours, and Roose the rapist. Not a single person who is Skagossan or knows a Skagossan to contradict it. That rings alarm bells for me, sounds a lot like Old Nan's stories of the wildlings who drank blood from skull chalices, and the ghouls that ate the flesh of the dead at Hardhome, and the giants that lived on a diet of highborn maidens.

We know there were a couple of Skagossans at the wall when Donal Noye came 18 years ago. Haven't heard there was any trouble with people being eaten at the wall, in that time.

The carrack Summer's Dream sailed to Skagos (Gulltown, Three Sisters, Skagos, Eastwatch) from King's Landing with Janos Slynt and his hand-picked hundred, who seem to have arrived whole and entire. So not every ship that lands on Skagos is treated like a floating bodega. And bluff bold Ser Janos lived to tell the tale (but didn't have that tale to tell).

I think we have reason to suspect the cannibalism stories.

If what you mean by 'skagosi style' was living off crabs, baby seals, flotsam and fish, I'm sorry I misunderstood you, and heartily agree. But hopefully we will find out in TWoW that they have a unique island cuisine (Like the Japanese, for example.) It would be funny if Davos was fed little bits of this and that, not knowing it was beanpaste, tofu, pickled radish, trying to work out who it came from.

[Big P]

On 6/9/2018 at 10:47 AM, Targaryen Restoration said:

1. Dorne
2. Dothraki
3. Reach
4. West Lands
5. Slaver's Bay
6. North
7. Iron Islands
8. Skagos
9. Free Folk
10. Pentos
11. Braavos
12. Naath

Your favorite dishes.  The ones you would avoid.   The healthiest.  The easiest to prepare.  Better for the environment.  Sustainable.  Let me know what you think of the foods of aSoIaF.

Any inn that serves steak and potatoes for me.  And make that well done.  No horses, dogs, and frogs for me.  Definitely no Soylent Green for me.  Because Soylent Green are people.  

Naath is healthy dining.  Dany's meals in Meereen are usually healthy.  Braavos has seafood.  Clams are okay, but no oysters on my plate will you find.  

The Dothraki have grasslands.  Grass fed livestock are said to be healthier than grain fed.  Dothraki goats is fine.  Wild rabbits are okay too.  I rode horses as a kid so I doubt I can make myself eat their flesh.  

Manderly and his eels make me sick.  Roose and his bloody steak is nasty.  The Reeds and their frog stew don't appeal.  

[Dorian Martell's son]

On 6/9/2018 at 7:47 AM, Targaryen Restoration said:

1. Dorne
2. Dothraki
3. Reach
4. West Lands
5. Slaver's Bay
6. North
7. Iron Islands
8. Skagos
9. Free Folk
10. Pentos
11. Braavos
12. Naath

Your favorite dishes.  The ones you would avoid.   The healthiest.  The easiest to prepare.  Better for the environment.  Sustainable.  Let me know what you think of the foods of aSoIaF.

1: Dornish eggs
2: I have never eaten horse 
3: Suckling pig stuffed wh mushrooms 
4: Venison stew
5: spicy crickets 
6: onions in gravy with honeyed chicken 
7: nothing 
8: unicorn of course 
9: sadness and pover 
10: mushrooms in butter 
11: Sisters stew 
12: deep fried butterfly

[ApostolinO]

Spoiler

Dorne

Favorite: Lamb, stuffed grape leaves, flatbread, white cheese and olives

Avoid: Anything with snake venom in it.

Healthy : Peppers, olives and oranges

Easy: stuffed green peppers - with cheese and onion.

Dothraki Sea

Doesn't sound that appetizing to me. I'd try their fermented milk though.

Reach

I can't recall foods from reach so I guess I'll just go with lemon cakes as favorite and sweet peaches for healthiest/easy. I would avoid any foods cooked with nuts in them (no pun intented)

Westerlands

Dont know anything about their cuisine

Slaver's Bay

Yeah, I'll pass. I guess I'd eat figs and olives.

North

Favorite: Sausages and beef-barley stew

Avoid: Cod Cakes

Healthy: Honeyed Chicken

Easy: Eggs, sausages, bacon

Iron Islands

Favorites: Lobster, crab

Avoid: Fish stews

Healthy: Black bread and most seafood probably.

Easy: Roast fish

Skagos

The only food I know they cook I'd rather stay away from.

Free Folk

Favorite: Roasted haunch of goat

Avoid: Jojen paste

Healthy: oatcakes

Easy: Not sure if there's anything easy about food beyond the wall but let's just say eggs.

Pentos

Favorite: Buttered garlic mushrooms

Avoid: Candied ginger

Healthy: Heron stuffed with figs

Easy: Blackberries in creme

Bravos

Favorite: Sardines fried crips in pepper oil.

Avoid: Eels

Healthy: Seafood

Easy: Shellfish (oysters, clams and cockles)

Spoiler tag added to minimize the length.

 

Being a man of simple tastes I find most of ASOAIF food too gourmet for me. I mostly agree with the Dornish cuisine.

 

Enviroment: I guess healthy for the enviroment would be any farm vegies and shellfish but since there's no mass-meat-production in westeros I think the enviroment is safe enough.

 

Sustainability: I'm not sure how they preserve foods in the South without refrigeration. Probably canning/fermenting but I'm not sure,

[The Commentator]

On 6/10/2018 at 12:15 PM, Walda said:

Yeah, I'm not convinced the Skagosi deserve their reputation - we have only heard their history from the point of view of people who are not Skagosi. On the other hand, Davos has sailed past Skagos to deal with the wildlings on the Cobblecat, as a boy. He isn't bothered by the thought of dealing with wildlings, but he doesn't want to go to Skagos ever . (he has never docked there before). Perhaps some of his alarm is from knowing how difficult it is to avoid shipwreck when attempting to land at Skagos. But at least some seems to be from Davos believing the stories of the Skagossans being ferocious cannibals.

Thing is, in real life there is this thing where colonising powers claim the natives are cannibals in order to justify some of the more unconscionable acts of brutality against them. This happened to the Sioux, Hawaiians, Australian Butchulla people, none of whom were at all. Also the Aztecs and the Maori, who admittedly did have cultural cannibalism.

The evidence we have is in the form of songs, and stories from an uprising against the North 100 years earlier, and mostly and especially legends from a more ancient time than that. All of these are cultural devices colonial powers use to tell the historical narrative that serves them best.

The way GRRM has Roose Bolton, of all people, claim that 'only the heart trees ever see half of what they do on Skagos' - as he justifies his rape of the miller's wife, of all times to mention it, seems ironic and knowing to me. I mean, Bolton, the guy with the stark-skin lampshade in the study, the one that taught his bastard that a flayed man has no secrets.

So all we know thus far about the Skagossans is from notoriously unreliable sources, rumours, and Roose the rapist. Not a single person who is Skagossan or knows a Skagossan to contradict it. That rings alarm bells for me, sounds a lot like Old Nan's stories of the wildlings who drank blood from skull chalices, and the ghouls that ate the flesh of the dead at Hardhome, and the giants that lived on a diet of highborn maidens.

We know there were a couple of Skagossans at the wall when Donal Noye came 18 years ago. Haven't heard there was any trouble with people being eaten at the wall, in that time.

The carrack Summer's Dream sailed to Skagos (Gulltown, Three Sisters, Skagos, Eastwatch) from King's Landing with Janos Slynt and his hand-picked hundred, who seem to have arrived whole and entire. So not every ship than lands on Skagos is treated like a floating bodega. And bluff bold Ser Janos lived to tell the tale (but didn't).

I think we have reason to suspect the cannibalism stories.

If what you mean by 'skagosi style' was living off crabs, baby seals, flotsam and fish, I'm sorry I misunderstood you, and heartily agree. But hopefully we will find out in TWoW that they have a unique island cuisine (Like the Japanese, for example.) It would be funny if Davos was fed little bits of this and that, not knowing it was beanpaste, tofu, pickled radish, trying to work out who it came from.

Yes.  I meant cannibalism.  To your point, prejudice exists.  Like the green mouth of the frog eaters. 

Set this aside for the moment and let's examine what's happening in the plot.  Bran tasted foul flesh from a wight through Summer.  Stannis B.'s men went cannibal on him.  Just consider this as the author's way of preparing people for hard times.  Those who can set aside the yuck factor and do what they can to survive may live longer than the ones who can't.  Sansa doesn't have it in her to catch her own food nor to butcher her own food.  She is not going to survive the hard times brought on by a prolonged winter.  Dany can make herself eat horse heart.  That proves to me that she is very strong and can do what she needs to do to survive during a famine.  That book scene is full of meanings but this suffice for our talk.  That is what I meant when I said nothing is off the table when it comes down to survival.

[Walda]

Cheat Sheet

Of the top two chapters for food references of a given region. From my notes, which are not finished - so maybe there is a North chapter with more food references than the two I have here. And maybe Daenarys' wedding to Hizdar in Meereen (ADwD,Ch.50 Daenerys VIII) belongs on this list too.

Dorne AFfC, Ch.40 The Princess In The Tower ADwD,Ch.38 The Watcher	Iron Isles ACoK,Ch.24 Theon II
Dothrak AGoT, Ch.11 Daenerys II AGoT, Ch.46 Daenerys V	Skagos AFfC, Ch.15 Samwell II
Reach ACoK, Ch.22 Catelyn II AFfC,Prologue	Beyond the Wall ASoS Ch.07 Jon I (Free Folk) ACoK Ch.23 Jon III (Craster) ASoS Ch.33 Samwell II (Craster)
Westerlands AGoT, Ch.62 Tyrion VIII	Pentos ADwD Ch.01 Tyrion I ADwD Ch.05 Tyrion II
Slaver's Bay ASoS, Ch.71 Daenerys VI ADwD, Ch.43 Daenerys VII	Braavos AFfC, Ch.34 Cat Of The Canals ADwD, Ch.45 The Blind Girl
North ACoK,Ch.21 Bran III ADwD, Ch.37 The Prince of Winterfell	Naath ASoS,Ch.71 Daenerys VI

Of course, there are hundreds of references to the foods of these regions that are not in these chapters, and lots more that are absolutely possible and even implied without being explicitly stated in ASoIaF, that are interesting to explore anyway.

eg. @Dorian Martell's son has venison stew as an option for the Westerlands. There are a couple of wooded areas that we know of in the Westerlands, and likely more, so venison is a defensible choice.

Venison stews are very popular in the North and in the Vale, not unknown in King's Landing or to the Free Folk either, but there are few mentions outside of these regions.

Jaime mentions that one of the ways Ser Arthur Dayne won the hearts and minds of the smallfolk away from Toyne's brotherhood was by having Aerys allow them "a few of the king's deer every autumn" (a forest law privilege). That almost certainly means that all the deer in the Kingswood belonged to the King on the Iron Throne, but might also mean that all the deer in the realm did too. Forest law was a big deal in medieval England from the time of William the Conquerer - it had a lot to do with the development of the feudal system.

It makes sense in the context of ASoIaF too, although it isn't explicit. Still, the Night's Watch, that has explicitly been granted the Gift by Brandon the Builder and the New Gift by Jaehaerys I, eat a lot of venison. It makes sense that they would hunt in the Gift, and that there would be more game to hunt as the forests grew back over abandoned cultivated lands.

If we look at the Riverlands, the woods are teeming with deer, but venison is only mentioned twice - at Castle Darry when Lady Amerei feasts Lord Commander Jaime Lannister, and at Seaguard, where Will is caught red-handed with Lord Mallister's buck. There are also only two mentions of venison in the Reach: Lord Caswell serves venison in the feast at Bitterbridge and Lord Randyll Tarly is skinning a deer when he tells Sam to leave for the Wall. No mention of deer in the Westerlands, which most likely has deer. No mention of deer in the Iron Isles, which most likely does not.

Robert, with his love of the hunt, would most probably give dispensations freely to the former Rebels and other favourites. Hence venison is served at the Eyrie, the Gates of the Moon, and even at Petyr Baelish's little drearfort. Jason Mallister was a rebel ally, and has the right to catch Will red-handed (red-handed was one of the four ways to arrest a poacher under forest law. The rhyme "dog draw - stable stand/back berand - bloody hand" covers them all. Thinking on it, skinning a deer might actually count as 'back berand', which is being found carrying a dead buck out of the forest. Red-handed means being found with deer's blood on your person. In that case, the body of the deer is not necessary as evidence for the arrest. The other two causes for charging a poacher are being found with a dog that is flushing or worrying a deer, or in a stable stance with one's bow up, ready to draw an arrow or actually  shooting one.)

Northerners like the Dustins, Glovers, Mormonts and Starks enjoy venison frequently, and seemingly have done so from long before King Robert was on the throne.  Perhaps a more ancient king than Robert gave them all the priviledge, or perhaps, with Aerys closeted in Kings Landing and considering the amount of time it would take Lord Rickard if he were to pointlessly spend his days chopping off the hands of his lieges every time one of them shot a deer, it is not as well policed. Or maybe, while King Torren gave up his right to rule the North when he knelt to the Targaryens, he did not relinquish his forest-law rights, and both the Lord of Winterfell and his bannermen retained the right to hunt in their forests. Jorah Mormont might have gone a step too far when he sold his poachers into slavery, but neither Eddard nor Robert quarrelled with Jorah's right to arrest poachers. He fought for them in Greyjoy's Rebellion, so I can't imagine Robert removing his hunting priviledges anyway.

In fact, there really are only three mentions of venison being served by houses Robert wouldn't happily grant privileged to (Darry, Tarly, and Caswell), and for all of them I can see a way of getting around it that is compatible with some kind of forest law functioning in Westeros.  Lord Tywin, as an ally and a father-in-law would of course be granted the privilege of hunting the King's deer (if only because Robert would want to go hunting while he was on holidays at the Rock, which would be awkward if he had not already granted Tywin dispensation to hunt.)

Darry could have been deemed to have been granted royal privilege when Robert took Eddard hunting for wild aurochs on Darry lands (AGoT,Ch.15 Sansa I). At least by Lady Amerei, in a sly Frey way. She might have thought it better, once Ser Harmen had killed the buck, to keep it in anticipation of Ser Kevan, whom she might have hoped would be the Hand of the King by the time he sat down to eat it as her father-in-law. When that didn't happen she could at least implicate the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard by serving it up to him. Ser Jaime left the table before it was placed on it, but both he and Lancel had better things to do than question her right to serve it.

Caswell was serving the newly crowned King Renly, who loved hunting and feasting and tourney and granting boons. It would be no surprise if Renly granted him such a privilege. He might even have brought down the haunch Caswell served him, himself. 

Unlike the Riverlands, most of the Reach seems to fields and orchards under cultivation, not the kind of land where wild deer would be well tolerated in. Horn Hill is an exception. It clearly has a wood, and the Tarly sigil is a huntsman, implying hunting is a traditional Tarly thing. Perhaps they got their sigil from the Vulture Hunt. House Tarly are on the Dornish Marches. Dorne would look to the Prince of Dorne rather than the King on the Iron Throne for the privileges and dispensations that Dornish Law can grant them, and the dispensations of the King on the Iron Throne do not apply in Dorne.

Of course, the Tarly lands are not absolutely in Dorne, but they are in the Marches. In real life the border marches were also known as the debatable lands. Partly because the lords along the borders could and did switch allegiances depending on which kingdom's monarch served them best, and partly because they were lawless places, with more reeving and internecine skulduggery going on than the Wardens of the Marches could deal with. Or in some cases, wanted to deal with. The Marches were intended to be a kind of buffer zone between the Scottish and English Kingdoms proper, where issues like which king ruled navigation along the Tay or owned the swans on it, or taxed the trade over it could be left unresolved. While the border between the kingdoms was blurred, the borders of the Marches were defined, and the King could expect to be obeyed beyond them, at least.

When the Wardens of the respective Marches were not at war with each other, they developed and upheld Marcher law, a type of customary law that applied only in the Marches (or not, when the locals got out of their control, or when the Wardens went to war against each other, or when their respective kings were at war with each other).

Sometimes the dominant clans would apply some kind of protection racket (the term 'blackmail' originated from these rents farmers paid not to be reeved) regardless of the laws of the Kingdom or the March. And sometimes all law broke down due to extreme reeving. The amount of violence and blood shed over cattle duffing in this area was really extraordinary. The Marches were a haven for criminals and debtors fleeing the laws of other places, and they contributed their chaos, although the locals who knew the territory and had retinues and fortifications enjoyed a distinct home-town advantage.

So it would not be surprising if the Tarlys had or believed they had a customary right to hunt without dispensation from the King on the Iron Throne or the Prince of Dorne.

It wouldn't surprise me if some Anti-Dornish former King on the Iron Throne had granted Randyll's ancestors the forest rights to land on the Dorne side of the border. For example, the right to hunt in the woods of High Hermitage. In the real world Kings could use forest law that complicated freehold land titles they acknowledged, and blur borders they recognised. The King could for example, grant his liege the right to plant forest on his neighbour's land, deny the neighbour the right to clear it. Or grant a neighbour rights to agistment, pawnage and mastage, and cutting of fern and furtze in his neighbours wood. Even outside the forest proper, there were privileges like the right to collect windfall apples,  or allow a neighbour to dam the river, divert the stream, irrigate fields, or place fish traps, that could be used to turn what your neighbour planned to be a battle field into a swamp, or make it impossible for them to sale boats of war or of trade down the river. 

Such minutiae aside, we know that Tyrion as Joffrey's Hand actually granted Doran the right to man some castles in the Dornish Marches, a decision that Tywin approved, when he returned to Kings Landing. These were presumably on the Reach and Stormland side of the border with Dorne, formerly the castles of Marcher Lords that went over to Stannis.

Randyll had marched from Duskendale to King's Landing before Darkstar returned to High Hermitage, and presumably was a young squire and then knight, somewhere far from there. I can't imagine Gerrold Dayne and Randyll Tarly getting along at all. They say good fences make good neighbours, but marches were an alternative to the restrictions, expense and inconvenience of alternatives like Hadrian's wall or the Pale around Dublin. Which didn't make the picts better neighbours for the Romans, or the Irish for the English, now I think about it.

8 hours ago, Widowmaker 811 said:

nothing is off the table when it comes down to survival.

Fair enough, but survival cannibalism is not the same as cultural cannibalism. One is something that people of any culture might do in extreme famine. We see survival cannibalism among Stannis's men, at Hardhome, in Astapore. What happened at Harrenhal to Hoat, and at Ramsey's wedding, was categorically different, and not a moral choice on the part of the person who ate the flesh.

Eating the bodies of people who have already died, because there is no other food,  isn't the same thing as a cultural norm of killing your male neighbours and feasting on them and stealing their widows. That is what the Skagossons are accused of. I strongly suspect it is not because anyone on Skagos has actually become an abomination in the eyes of the Old Gods by feasting on the flesh of men. More likely, that is the excuse Northerners use to justify thinking of Skagossans as less than human, and being prepared to kill them on sight (because they don't understand guest right, and will do worst than that to you if you don't kill them first - think of your wife!).

This kind of perception of threat really has nothing to do with survival. There is nothing, beyond the songs and the stories, to suggest the Skagossons threaten or have ever threatened the existence of Northerners - how can they? They are physically isolated from them. The Northerners might say " ah, but that is what the men of Skane thought, too". Really, a justification to shoot Skagossons on sight, because they exist.

It is not credible to suggest that a culture old enough to speak the Old Tongue has survived on Skagos for thousands of years in a state of perpetual extreme starvation, surviving on the bodies of ship-wrecked sailors from other parts of the world. The Skagossans have to have some viable food source other than human flesh, or they would have eaten each other to extinction.

Even if the songs told the literal truth, it would only mean the current Skagossons' great-great-grandfathers were involved in one documented incident of cannibalism. Cannibalism can't be rampant, because again, they are isolated on an island. Any cannibalism on Skagos has to be sustainable, or, like the unicorn, they simply wouldn't exist. If they really do have wild unicorns, that are extinct everywhere else in Westeros, it would indicate their foodways are more sustainable than the rest of Westeros, and the lands beyond the Wall too.

On 6/11/2018 at 12:06 AM, Targaryen Restoration said:

Locally sourced eliminates transportation but that is a given for them due to lack of refrigeration and being limited

Except that we see crabs and spinach on the table of the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch in late summer, and olive oil sourced in Meereen, because they do have refrigeration and a complex international network of food distribution. While  the wormways resemble a modern industrial cold store more than anything else, the sea trading network does resemble what existed in the real medieval.

On the whole, the books perhaps overlook the restrictions due to transport too much - look at all the fresh seafood Manderley brings to Winterfell, for example. The little fish Tyrion had for breakfast in Ch.9 of Game of Thrones could have been freshwater, from the moat maybe(even then, with castle sanitation being what it was) ... I'd have thought twice before ordering the fish so far inland, anyway. It really surprises me that poisoners have to get their stock in trade manufactured in Lys from spices in the summer Isles and leaves from the Basilisks, when they could just recommend the fish.  

[Moiraine Sedai]

13.  North of Wall.  Anything that has warm blood is edible to a wight.

 

[Walda]

On 6/15/2018 at 1:21 AM, Moiraine Sedai said:

13.  North of Wall.  Anything that has warm blood is edible to a wight.

Do we know anything about the diet of wights? Or of white walkers, for that matter. Melisandre says wights are only dead flesh, animated by necromancy (ASoS, Ch.79 Jon XII). Meryn Trant claims Ser Robert Strong, who is suspected of being animated by necromancy, does not eat anything at all (ADwD, Epilogue).  That is all I can recall at the moment, anyway.

As @Widowmaker 811 points out, wights have potential to become a food source for the living. There are a couple of mentions in the book of warm-blooded animals eating wight (both in ADwDCh.33 Bran III. The first has Summer, One Eye, Sly, and Stalker eating wights, the second has  Summer alone eating a wight's arm).

But there is nothing to suggest what or even that wights eat, or are capable of eating. As far as I recall, not a single instance where a wight is detected eating anything at all, or even tearing with it's teeth at something.