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.

Bar Foods. Bars throughout Santharia offer the following specialties when it comes to the small hunger of the traveller (sorted alphabetically):

• 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.

Sweet Indulgences. If you like it sweet - here's an overview on sweet snacks you can obtain in Santharia (sorted alphabetically):

• Baych Nuts
  Rather sweet naturally, these triangular little nuts are often tossed with melted milchbutter and crystallized honey to intensify their mellow flavour, then set in a hot oven to form a candied treat.

• Fáberige Hearts
  The fat red berry is sliced vertically to form heart-shapes, which are then dipped in sweetened cream or a thick kao-kao sauce. Very indulgent and considered a stimulant to romance.

• Honeyed Meldars
  A popular sweetened snack or dessert: the sharp little apples are peeled and cut into bite-size pieces before having honey poured over them. They must be eaten with a sharpened stick or the point of one’s eating knife to avoid hopelessly sticky fingers!

• Kao-kao and Doch Nut Cookies
  Probably the most famous and popular cookie in Santharia, if not indeed all of Sarvonia! Who needs to know more than that they contain large chunks of chocolatey kao-kao and bits of mellow doch nuts, imbedded in a rich batter which is baked to a sweetly aromatic golden brown... and particularly excellent with a mug of cool milch straight from the dairy! Please excuse the marks on this page... kao-kao does tend to stain paper irrevocably...

• Lorivluvs
  This delectable ‘cluster cookie’ is made with dried and sweetened loriv berries. The buttery dough is mixed with as many berries as it will hold, then dropped onto heated sheets to crisp in a well-stoked baker’s oven.

 Street Stall Food. Street stalls offer a variety of foods to take away, among them are (sorted alphabetically):

• 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!

• '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.

• 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.

• Jhelhee
  A casserole, coming to us by way of the Thergerim, which is very similar to Northman’s Pot, but increases the amount of kragghi and omits the cheese. Lýth'béls may be added to jhelhee for even more flavor and body. Also popular with inns as it can be left almost indefinitely at the edge of the hearth to thicken and intensify through the day.

• Koeken Chips
  Koeken fungi are sliced across the grain, then baked with beef or pork drippings until crispy and golden brown. They are then broken into smaller irregular pieces, or ‘chips’, and served in a cone of bark paper as is, or eaten with Northman’s Pot/jhelhee (see above) in larger establishments.

• 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.

• '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.

• 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 favorites 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!