No matter when, where, and who you are, sitting down with friends family, and strangers over feast and libations is a great way to build bonds. This has been true since before, it's true today, and it will be true even when we're beyond the need to eat at all.
There are few universal truths, but this is one.
Like many cultural features of Ethnis, the landscape of cuisine has undergone drastic change. New methods, standards, and ingredients have emerged to change the nature of the art.— Dartesi
There are many factors to modern cuisine, and with them comes great nuance.
Factors
Fusion of Cultures
"A prime course of salad and sashimi—excuse me, wrong language—deluththarsula, rather, with 15 types of fish and 6 crustaceans of differing worlds, all genesculpted for the most rewarding flavor and texture."— Dartesi serving a meal
With an ever-increasing count of worlds connected to The Hub, there is a constant influx of new cuisine. Savvy
Prospectors raid worlds for cookbooks and ingredients to sell to the networks and chefs.
Ubiquity of Luxury
“Sver'rugr’rutsula bursting dumplings on rice with kale-spice and sweetwine sauces drizzled over. Also meat and mint-jelly in bao so fluffy it dissolves on your tongue. It's all about the kokumi/umami interplay, isn’t it? Yes!”— Dartesi serving a meal
Near post-scarcity has changes what it means to be luxurious. Seafood is pennies for the pound, meat is taken for granted, what once was expensive is now the staple of the poor. Luxury comes from effort, expertise, and presentation, which leads to increasingly complex formulae of presentation and judgement.
Legalization of Drugs
“And the kicker, tartcream marblemelons ‘structed so that even the rind is delicious, yes?
"It's Woven into a nest of flavor-crystal lattice, brushed with a—unf—pearl-dust fondant and with a scoop of veath crystals to pour over it when you’re ready, to release a mild dimethyltryptamine vapor from the lattice that should last about as long as it takes to eat it."— Dartesi serving a meal
The legalization of drugs back before the
Monolith Crisis paved the way for sweeping changes in society, among which was the adaptation of drugs into cuisine. It became commonplace to match certain foods with certain drugs, and then to make them a part of the recipe and experience itself.
Monolithic Competition
The judge stared, wide eyed, as Dartesi poured him a drink of his trademark Sunrise Draught, the color shifted from glittering purple to red, to orange, to yellow, and finally blue as he topped the glass off. Dartesi's eyes shimmered, and a glowing steam poured from him as he stood back and bowed.
"And thus is my entry!" Dartesi said as his Affectations of Grace subsided and left him standing, as plain as any fantastically-dressed Monolith can be.
One of the greatest drivers for modern cuisine is competition among
Monoliths. There are thousands of Monoliths with a
domain in cooking and related to it, and hundreds more with specializations in other fields which improve their cooking.
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