TotD: Food for characters. Part one.
Airena â when it comes to food, she has no idea what she likes and what she doesnât (since she grew up in circumstances where any foodâeven if it was completely moldy or nearly burntâwas incredibly valuable and meant she wouldnât be as hungry for the next few days; so now it doesnât matter to her at all what she eatsâshe pays no attention to the taste; itâs more than enough for her that what she eats is not only edible but also of good quality).
Arenor â likes: ice cream, especially vanilla (the reasons why he loves the vanilla flavor were already mentioned in the post about the charactersâ favorite and least favorite teas, so here Iâll focus exclusively on the reasons he loves ice creamâit calms him, gives him a sense of grounding, and, obviously, cools him down when he overheatsâfrom the heat outside and from his constant musings on completely different things; dislikes: anything hot (obviously, because heâs already constantly overheating, and he certainly didnât need to overheat even more).
Nasir â likes: anything that contains a lot of protein; mostly, of course, meat (this food is very masculine and ideal for a real soldier who must be strong and manly, and he wants to live up to this image of a âreal manâ that has formed in his mind through a life spent in a âbubbleâ of violence, cruelty, death, and hatred; he wants to be rough, uncouth, cruel, strong, and unyieldingâthe kind of person whose diet consists mainly of protein, that is, meat); dislikes: mushy foods, such as porridges, soups, and other âliquidâ dishes that are very gentle on the stomach and intestines.
Zafir â likes: porridges, especially milk-based ones (even though he and his brother grew up under the same conditions, unlike Nasir, he actually wants to stand out from the image of a âreal manâ that was drummed into their heads during their military training and upbringing; he wants to show that it is possible to remain a so-called "real man" without being rough and cruel, without limiting his diet to meat alone, and without completely rejecting the "easy life" just because they werenât born for it); dislikes: meat and other fatty foods, which are very rich in both taste and smell.
Irai â likes: toast and rolls with jam, preserves, marmalade, and other fruit and berry spreads (his parents ran their own bread-making and baking business, which allowed them to earn a decent living and frequently buy various fruit and berry spreads, making him these mini-desserts throughout the day; after his parentsâ death, he obviously could no longer afford all of this, began to appreciate what he had lost more, and associated this food with comfort, safety, his parentsâ unconditional love, and his carefree childhood); dislikes: everything except what is listed above (after being forced to eat various scraps for many years in a row, he came to hate everything he possibly could, and at some point, the mere thought that he needed to eat or he would simply die filled him with genuine hatred for the whole world).
P.S. The book mentions that Airena loves grapes, and thatâs true, but not entirely; she doesnât really dislike grapes now, but she used to love themâbefore she developed amnesia and lost her memory completely. Also, the fact that she has no foods she dislikes is true, but she does have foods she hates, and the one and only one of them is honey, to which she is allergicâan allergy she didnât know about for a long time (or more precisely, didnât remember because of her amnesia)âso at one point she tried it and nearly died from an allergic reaction.
