eden

Knives

an entire aisle devoted to spices

the entire supermarket smells like spices and it is homey and nostalgic even to outsiders

less than a fourth of one side of an aisle devoted to “intergalactic (aka western) food.” This includes the three kinds of cereal they have in that supermarket.

the entire produce area smells like spiced fruit despite the fruit not being cooked yet. bc obviously mandalorian fruit is naturally spicy right?

one side of an entire aisle dedicated to their equivalent of rice

the other side of that same aisle dedicated to instant noodles

another aisle dedicated to various mandalorian alcohols

mandalorian equivalent of durians

mandalorian equivalent of durians

THE PRODUCE SECTION

always fresh, (unless you’re in the dried fruits/vegs section). SOMEHOW.  could be a Shakraan (that’s the word i’m using for MandoMart now) out in the middle of whoknowswhere where imports are v expensive, and yet … they have fresh produce. every day

towards the end of the day, if they’re receiving a fresh shipment tomorrow, prices are slashed to move inventory out quickly. 

only local mando’ade appear to be aware of this, and it is always mayhem the last two hours before closing (or mayhem to aruettise B’), probably bc everyone is speaking some dialect of mando’a, either “standard” or a local dialect )

GOOD FUCKING LUCK if you’re not wearing armor at this time

mandalorian coconuts that they whip out a huge butcher knife out of nowhere to crack open on the spot for you to drink on purchase. They literally crack it open in their hands.

SEAFOOD

there’s a section completely dedicated to gi/gi’e/gise. Fish. Under the crushed-icetrays holding displays of fish, are tanks where live fish are swimming in. you can get them whole, or butchered on the spot. they butcher them right there, in plain view, so good luck if you’re squeamish.

kids love those tanks btw. be careful not to trip over them when ordering. the fish are usually incredibly terrifying to look at, and large enough to feed a family, and sometimes fight each other. 

shellfish, also huge. live space-lobsters big enough to eat a child. barrels of space crabs. No warning signs — you should know the risks.

if asked, they also have dried and spoiled/rotting fish/fish products in a dedicated back area. they have to be asked for, specifically, as they’re not openly accessible to the public — and only mando’ade know to ask.

every Shakraan family (as most of these diasporic stores are family or clan/house run) has their own unique method and recipe to gi’haale reflective of their family history, origins and location

but the smell is strong and especially pungent from this end of the store

there’s also a frozen fish/seafood section, separate from the live section.

SNACKS AND DRINKS

dried fruit. cookies. candies, usually flavored in mandalorian-specific spices or teas. dried sweetened roots. meat jerky. dried fish cut into thin strips. fish-flavored chips. everything has a spicy variation.

they all can be threatening-looking to aruettise (you got the standard snacks, and then some … weirdly shaped ones. fish shaped ice cream sandwiches. caramelized insects. cookies filled with some kind of flavored creams shaped like native mandalorian wildlife — even extinct ones).

nothing is in standard alphabet — everything is labeled entirely in mando’a. everything.

pastries have their entirely own section, separated by savory or sweet and shelf-life. also has spiced/spicy variations. 

they have (non-alcoholic) drinks that are really popular among mando’ade — and they’re always referred to with a soft nostalgic sigh. 

they’re usually softly spicy and/or sweet, with different flavor variations on top of the base sweet-or-spicy, with a unique opening mechanism that requires significant force to open the bottle in some way.

sometimes with a knife. sometimes with a fist. never simple — to those not used to nor expecting it.

all of the above is organized by shelf life, specifically, even if the local diaspora is considered a fixed community, mandalorians were once a nomadic culture and thus food culture still carries this idea of longevity.

TEA AND SPICES

mandalorians are HUGE on tea and spices, btw (they have at least two words for tea, and the implication is that tea is very common part of the culture. I’ll compile a post discussing this in the future) in addition to spices. they have at LEAST one long aisle dedicated to tea, and another to spices if not an block of the store. sometimes it’s the whole Shakraan, depending.

the labels are entirely mando’a, again

separated by type, originating locale, and price

if a dedicated tea section, will have a local expert with vast knowledge in multiple areas (including traditional remedies). he can assist if asked.

dedicated section is also close/near dedicated spices section. sometimes the experts of both work in tandem with each other to assist customers.

HOW COULD I FORGET THE LIVE SEAFOOD TANKS

gotta remember the free samples on weekends

the free sample people probably don’t speak any basic at all, so the mando kids who didn’t learn the language 100% are struggling to communicate

would there be bartering or are prices set hmmmm (open markets definitely barter. idk about supermarkets tho)

some of the herbal tea packets don’t even have a little slit to tear the package open, you’re expected to have something to cut it open on hand

all the cashiers speak at least two dialects of mando’a. few speak basic, either. the younger ones do, the older ones don’t.

you get funny stares if you aren’t mando and you walk into one of these supermarkets

like, “who the kriff is this aruetii doing here”

-jungle world (even if it’s a mess now, everyone remembers the jungle)

-spice is king (and the spice islands make for a good reason why.) So headcanoning Mandalore was the origin point for a whole host of spices that became popular throughout the galaxy. (Se galangal somehow being the most popular spice of medieval Europe)

-beshkar. For a people that love their sacred metal, they’re gonna have metallophones (and apparently stabby flutes?) so yeah. Gonna go with Mando performance tradition being Bali/Java Wayang Topeng because the images of the gods really look it. Also because many dance movements come straight out of the martial arts traditions but made fancy and code as dance rather than fight to make everyone with itchy triggers not feel the need to pull them.

On anything made by/marketed for Mandalorians, not only are the ingredients all listed in Mando'a, but due to the diverse makeup of the culture, there’s often little warning labels for common allergens and inter-species poisons (like if a certain fruit is really bad for Togrutas but fine for Theelins or something, you gotta know about it)

Along with the teaware/ceramics aisle and the kitchen knives, there’s a section with common cooking implements and jars or tins to keep your spices and other ingredients nice and fresh (especially useful for spacefarers, and a hallmark of the nomadic way of life). They’re also made to be easy to open with your gloves and vambraces still on, since you never know when you’ll get hungry (seriously have you folks ever tried opening a little fiddly package while wearing beskar'gam, particularly the gloves? I have and it’s a pain in the ass. They’d definitely have glove friendly containers). There’s a million tea strainers back here too

There’s the back section that just has a bunch of little non-food things crammed onto a shelf. Some guns, some replacement buy'ce hardware and assorted other repair pieces for beskar'gam (just in case your neck seal is acting up, it’s always nice to have the parts you need), the knives of course, assorted bags (and containers for holding food while you’re running around doing Mando osik, like thermoses and boxes), a bit of ammo, some replacement tanks for ventilators, maybe some WD-40, just all the random bits of hardware that aren’t quite special enough to see an armorer about

Also in the back section is all the stuff like chapstick, lotion, shampoo, space tiger balm, toothbrushes, nail and horn files, etc

UJ'ALAYI CAKE. It’s a little fiddly to make but not too bad and VERY shelf stable, and you KNOW everyone’s ba'buir has a slightly different recipe (different fruits in this one, different spice ratio in that one, etc). I bet at the front counter there’s a little shelf with some fish jerky and a little plate of wrapped up homemade slices of uj'alayi cake with a little sign about how the price of each slice goes to the local school’s music program fundraiser or something, and everyone who doesn’t have the time to make a batch or doesn’t have enough kitchen supplies is very grateful (even though it’s not as good as gar be'ba'buir uj'alayi)

Depending on the store, you may find a little shelf with cheap old holofilm discs near the toiletries and other assorted odds and ends. They probably aren’t the most exciting things, but they are cheap, and sometimes you find a hidden gem.

CANNED FOOD. Specialty vegetables? The shakraan has them fresh (no matter how far away they were grown), but you can also get them canned. Fruit? Same deal. Sauces? You bet. Meat? Absolutely. There’s an aisle dedicated to canned fishes and meats. There’s also generally fresh meat, but even the teeniest, tiniest shakraan has a freezer of tongues and tails. The canned stuff is especially nice for spacefarers, since it keeps forever even if life support doesn’t have enough power to run the conservator

The small candy section is colourful enough that it can be dangerous to go in with any ad'e, because while you’re reading to make sure this sauce is fine for Zabraks, they’re over there going “Buir! Buir look they have the tea flavoured ones hey buir”

Since Mandalorian farming does not happen on Mandalore, unless nearby systems get very disrupted, Mandalorian agriculture (and thus the export of Mandalorian foods) is generally EXTREMELY stable, so you can find Mandalorian foods almost anywhere you go, which is nice

MEAT SECTION

HUGE meat section with glass display cases of sausages, hunks of meat cuts that you get sliced up in certain amounts, you name it (i’m thinking St. Lawrence’s Market, Canadians know what’s up if they know where it is/have been there)

different kinds of meat from the Star Wars equivalent of pork to everything else (trust me, Slavic people love pork….and potatoes, we love potatoes)

i feel like Mando'ade would have their own version of kabanos, which is essentially this long, kind of thin sausage i end up eating like candy, and it’d also be in varying degrees of fresh to dry going from soft to jerky-like

TEA (continued)

Poles are big on tea (and homeopathic/traditional remedies, istg whenever i’m sick and my babcia (grandma) comes over she whips up this tea with shit like a peppermint tea bag, honey, lemon, ginger, cloves, some kind of juice mix i can’t read the label of cause my Polish vocab extends to the basics and curses, etc but ANYWAY), but the thing is they’re big on herbal tea specifically. don’t know how, don’t know why, but they make REALLY good raspberry tea so

SWEETS

we’re also big on sweets, like BIG that’s what she said i mean what. why do you think people imagine a stereotypical Polish person and imagine someone on the plump side (I can say for certainty I’m not, but I’m allowed to make the joke, it’s my own people I’m roasting)?

i feel like Mandolorians would have Jaffa cakes. y'know, the cookies with the sponge bottom, chocolate top and jam/jelly filling? I kill for the raspberry ones and so would the ade if they have weapons on them

PĄCZKI PĄCKI PĄCZKI. Oh my stars you eat those things and you can never go back like they’re so GOOD holy fuck- ok so for the uneducated pączki are these Polish donuts that’re essentially Boston cream donuts but without the chocolate covering (don’t worry, they’re COVERED in sugar and they’re sticky heaven not like that you horndogs even if i thought it too) and they have a filling inside, ranging from custard to the more traditional flavors of raspberry/plum/rose jam, i imagine they have their own versions of that (ade can and will commit murder for these things)

While canned meats are the easiest, most convenient forms to carry ship or planetside, I think Mandalorians would have a very developed set of preservation techniques. Dried and smoked meats are VERY popular, with varying degrees of spice.

Two words: Smoked. Fish. Mando'ade are really fond of fish jerky, and smoked fish is jerky’s more delectable yet shelf stable cousin. This is a food that causes vod to turn on vod when they are asked to share

Sometimes I feel like reading Star Wars one shots or fics and it’s often the same statements that make me cringe and close the tab. Like „love isn’t allowed blah blah blah“, „the order is flawed because I cannot love another openly“, „how can the Jedi deem love wrong, it’s only natural“, etc.

Like what?

Even the movies make the distinction between love and attachment. Anakin tells Padmé for example that the Jedi do in fact love.

It’s just that the order comes first because as a willing member of said order that’s your duty. A partner would always come second. „Don‘t lose a hundred just to save one.“

And I mean even in real life there’s a clear difference between the two words: love and attachment. Most people wouldn't tell someone they have feelings for, „I am attached to you“ rather than „I love you“. And I feel like just when you read those two phrases, they give off a completely different vibe. „I am attached to you“ seems more selfish, sort of cold and temporary, it implies a fear of loss somehow, whereas love sounds purer and honest and selfless and everlasting. (But maybe that’s also just me.)

And also how come when people say the Jedi or their Order was flawed, the only flaw they end up mentioning is the attachment rule. And that’s also only a flaw for them because they confuse attachment with love…

But like, you’re telling me an entire culture and people is flawed because they don’t put selfish borderline toxic romance on a pedestal, but rather see the flaw within exactly that type of „love“. And that to you is wrong because why?

Oh and of course how could I forget? The only other flaw that keeps getting mentioned is that they „didn’t do enough“ and they „let“ Anakin fall to the Dark Side and „allowed“ the Empire to rise. Yeah, let’s take all autonomy away from the edgy handsome villain and blame everybody else, because he baby.

Jedi have to go above and beyond to please the audience and are blamed and taken apart for every little mistake or not even mistake, just for „not doing enough“. But when is it actually enough? It seems to me never. What good they actually did gets ignored. On the other hand villains get to do the worst of the worst but get babied and praised for the smallest of kind acts. It’s just complete hypocrisy.

The dialogue in the “attachment is forbidden; the Jedi are encouraged to love” scene in AOTC is not as clear as us pro-Jedi fans would wish. To teenaged me, Anakin was clearly saying that in order to get into Padmé’s pants and may have been twisting Jedi beliefs to justify why it’s okay to sleep with her. Lucas went very, very hard on the “show don’t tell” writing but the problem with that is some things need to be told, and if they are told, they need to be said from the mouth of someone who the audience knows won’t become Darth Vader.

(As a somewhat tangential but still related example: one of my grad school classmates in 2020, when our professor talked about not letting our students get attached to us, asked, “But isn’t attachment a good thing?” I actually used the pro-Jedi arguments/reasoning about attachment (without mentioning I got it from SW) to explain why it wasn’t a good thing. The professor backed me up 100%. Many people in the US really do think there is no negative meaning to the word attachment; they think attachment means connection.)

Worst of all, especially nowadays, people don’t realize Lucas was (is?) Buddhist. He was pretty darn clear about that during the Prequels; I’m not sure I knew any dedicated fan who didn’t know that. But that’s been forgotten over the years and the break between old fandom and new fandom with the rise of Tumblr and the Sequels bringing in new people doesn’t help anything. So the fact that a Buddhist made a film trilogy showing Buddhist ideals is just... ignored.

Imagine growing up in the Jedi Temple… 

there is this feeling everywhere, like something humming or singing in your head, and it comes from all the living things around you. 

Imagine having a lot of siblings from around the galaxy, growing up with them and having adults teaching you a beautiful technique that helps you dealing with your emotions and recognizing that they are just temporary, like clouds passing on the sky. Imagine that you grow with a creche master that deals with your needs and with multiple masters and padawan, learning to trust all adults from the temple, because they are your family. Thousands of people that you can trust because they grew up there in the same environment, and that always look at you with care and interest. Imagine going around the temple, in a crowd full of empath who can tell if you’re lost or alone and willing to help you go back to the creche, or the school, imagine that there is nothing scary in going around the temple alone, even at night, because there always are other jedi, masters, padawans, of all the species, like the nocturnal ones, who can take care of you, without blinking an eye, because you’re another children of the “village”, surrounded by loving adults that take you seriously when you’re in need of help and can play with you when you’re just a kid and you can’t find someone to play with for whatever reason. 

and there is this old frog going around that teaches meditation and saber techniques that has always a word for you, and he’s so warm and sweet and even if he’s so old he always looks at you with kindness

then you grow up a bit and you are taught how to meditate, how to comunicate your feelings in a safe way, how to deal with them so that they don’t harm you, with adults that you can rely on about everything, that will help you learn things about yourself and about the world outside. imagine having all that siblings of the same age learning with you, so that all your relationships are safe, healthy

then you’re a teen and a Master decides that he want to devote the next 10/15 years just to help you learn how to become an adjusted adult, all while learning how to be of help to others and to the galaxy, who teaches you all he knows and how to realize your full potential, so that you can choose if your life will be in the service of the Republic or of the Temple… or if you just want to listen to the Force and become a sort of monk. All this surrounded by the most selfless love, and understanding, and it echoes inside of you, like a song sung by thousands of voices around you. and you join that song, because it’s the Force singing through all the jedi, as it has done for thousands of years, even before the Republic was born

this is the safest place in the whole galaxy, and even when some missions with your master are dangerous you always know that your home is there waiting for you to come back and be healed, both physically and mentally, because that’s what jedi do.