The Snacks Overview

In the markets of New-Santhala, the merchants boast that a traveller can experience tastes from one end of the continent to the other. We may expand upon this boast and claim that a traveller through the kingdom of Santharia can always find food to suit his or her particular taste, whether savoury and hot, cool and refreshing, crispy, soft, spicy or bland... for proof we refer you to our own Compendium cook of note, the well-known Dame Sausade.

Particular favourites are the various snacks which street stalls, bars, small inns, and cross-roads vendors sell from sunup to sundown. We fear that we may set the hungry man's mouth watering, but in the interests of accurate research we must have as complete a list as possible. Should you discover, dear reader, that we have omitted any commonly-consumed treats, whether sweet or salty, we ask you to rectify our error by leaving a note for us in the Public Hall of the Compendium, preferably with an adequate sample of the foodstuff in question.

	DOCH NUTS An addictive little snack which has a very pleasant nutty taste and a soft, buttery aftertaste, with a slight natural saltiness to the shell. They are mostly used as a drinking snack in inns and taverns, as they go well with ale, but are also popular just by themselves. They have become popular over Southern Sarvonia since a few traders first started dealing in the dried, salty nuggets, and they are still spreading over the continent.
	POPPED GRAIN Ripe bredden grains with a certain amount of moisture remaining can be placed in a heavy iron pot with a bit of seasalt and sunseed oil, and roasted for a delicious snack. Care must be taken to cover and shake the pot, as the grains will puff up and attempt to hurl themselves out of the pot! Whether the name ‘Popping Grain’ was bestowed on the bredden for this attribute or for the explosive way in which the male releases its seeds, is unknown. At any rate, farmchildren do not seem to care as they wolf down their ‘popgrain’, and innkeepers have recently begun to realize that the salty, buttery snack is almost as effective as doch nuts or sunseeds at evoking thirst in their customers!
	OYA NUTS The dried peas are roasted in small batches, usually on a shield-shaped piece of metal over a circular brick hearth. They are moistened with jeraflame oil (sunseed oil in which kragghi root has been steeped) and then shaken with seasalt, cracked peppercorn, and other unrevealed ingredients. The result is a crunchy, salty, delectable nibble which equal doch nuts for flavour, though they have neither the doch’s fame nor flexibility… Oya Nuts should not be used in cooking, as the doch can be, but are an unparalleled snack, particularly with liquor!
	PEPPERED HEARTHBERRIES This vivid-coloured berry with a heating effect is prepared as a spicy snack by coating them in a light eyren-and-grain batter and then deep-frying them in a shallow pan of jeraflame oil. For extra spice, ground peppercorn is often added to the batter, along with a few drops of straight kragghi sap. The result is a succulently hot, crispy nugget with a fiery core, which stimulates the tongue and encourages appetite.
	'PETITIONERS' Also known as pretzels or bretzen, these salty twists of baked dough are marvelously good at sating appetite. They take their name from their unique shape, which supposedly resembles a human's arms folded over his breast in devout prayer, a posture said to please Eyasha and Seyella in particular. And indeed, baskets of these 'pretzels' are often given out at the temples of the Peace Lady to the faithful worshippers and to the poor of the area.
	SUNSEEDS The small grayish seeds of the sunflower are harvested, dried, and treated by the Mitharim with trumpuk ("rock salt") and a kind of lichen distillate to create a salty snack food known as "sunseeds". The invariable accompaniment to a mug of dwarven ale, or in a pinch a cup of cider, sunseeds are loved by Thergerim children and adults alike. The hobbits have recently discovered the receipt and are primarily responsible for the current ‘aboveground’ interest in this crunchy, thirst-inducing snack.

	CRISPIES Are almost always sold wherever Timbers are, as they are prepared and served identically. The main difference, which alters their texture and flavour pleasantly, is that they are sliced across the grain into round 'chips' of tuberroot before deep-frying. This produces a much crisper and browner result (thus their name). They, like Timbers, can be eaten with gravy, djelhee, cream that has soured, moorgall, lythebel chutney, melted cheese, or any other sauce which a vendor may decide to offer.
	JHELHEE DIP WITH KOEKENCHIPS The Thergerim, who call the fungus “griineb” or “griineberons”, enjoy roasting them on sticks directly over the hearthcoals until brown, then dipping the resulting crispy wafer into “JhelHee”, a dragonishly-hotly spiced spread made with lythe’bel fruit, onn beans, weeproot, and kragghi sap”.
	TIMBERS Any of the many varieties of tuberroot may be sliced into long chunks (resembling squared-off lumber, thus the name) about the size of one’s little finger, soaked in salted water, then drained and plunged into hot oil. Cooked thus, they are crisp on the outside and deliciously hot and mealy on the inside. They travel well when cold but are much tastier fresh.

	BATTERED SULCHO SHROOMS The famous dwarven mushrooms are cubed and dredged in a thick batter (a coarse-ground flour is preferred here), then deep-fried in a vat of smoking oil. Indescribably marvelous crisp spheres with a satisfying meaty aroma are the result.
	DRAKE'S EYREN An egg is boiled in a strong decoction of cha’ah and salted water. The shell is then cracked lightly and the cooked egg left to sit in the dark liquid until called for by the customer. When peeled, the white is mottled with brown and amber veinings and flavored with salt and tea.
	NORTHMAN'S POT A warming and filling stew, usually consisting of spicy beans with cheese and onions. Served at the larger street stalls, and almost always at inns and hostels.
	ROAST YAMS Hot roasted yamtubers are sold wrapped in barkpaper on city streets in the winter as handwarmers and a ready-to-eat snack all in one. They have a naturally sweet, earthy taste of their own and are served without spicing or sauce, other than the woodsmoke scent they acquire during the roasting.
	THYSLAN SPICE CAKES These sugar-and-nut filled little cakes are sold hot-fried on Thyslan and Nyermersys streets of a cold morning, and are known to be favourites of the famed artist Rephaell "Faugar" Rýnngaewish, for one. However, every citizen who has two or three sans to clash together can enjoy the same sweet frycake taste!