Nord Nonsense

Sorry for taking so long to answer this, as finding time to write on the road back to Riften is scarce! This is a bit of a longer post than my dishes for the Nine and the Daedric Princes as I wanted to explain in depth what food in each of the Holds is like. These are some of my personal favourites and I hope you like them too!

Falkreath Hold:

The stag isn’t the symbol of Falkreath for nothing! If you love a good haunch of venison and hunting in the woods, Falkreath is a definite stop for any game hunter in Skyrim. On the border of Hammerfell, the locals have taken to enjoying well-seasoned meats compared to the mild flavours preferred in the other Holds. The forests of the Hold and the bountiful seafood from Lake Ilinalta are the prize jewels of Falkreath, and meat features heavily in the local diets. Aside from venison, wild boar is another prized delicacy, roasted whole on a spit and basted in local pine honey and Redguard spices like cloves and chili. It’s stuffed full with a deliciously fluffy and moist sweet-and-salty blend of saffron rice, pine nuts, dried fruit, and a mix of other meat minces including rabbit, pheasant, bear, or deer.

Whiterun Hold:

The largest of all Skyrim’s Holds, Whiterun is bountiful with all sorts of produce. Due to its prominent citizens, from the Grey-Mane and Battle-Born families to the much-loved Jarl Balgruuf and The Companions, the main city of Whiterun prides itself on a strong culinary tradition that has touched not just the elite, but the common folk as well. My time working at The Bannered Mare in the Market District and a stint at Dragonsreach taught me that Nord cuisine is far more than greasy potatoes and leftover stew- it’s heartwarming, delicious, and makes sure nobody leaves the table hungry. The vast plains of Whiterun make it the perfect place for giant camps, and while it is dangerous, mammoth is a prized delicacy that’s brought out on special occasions. A typical dish you’ll find at a Whiterun party is mammoth steak with a tangy, creamy mammoth cheese, mead, and eidar cheese sauce. This is served with a healthy portion of roasted vegetables grown in the Hold, which are mostly potatoes and other root vegetables, as well as cabbage, corn, and millet.

Eastmarch:

Eastmarch, the oldest of the Holds, is a tough and cold place with limited local produce. It relies largely on imports of fresh food from other Holds in Skyrim, as well as Morrowind. The large number of Dunmer refugees since the Red Year has influenced the more welcoming Nords of the Hold to embrace some of the new and exciting flavours brought over by the Dunmer, and has shaped the local cuisine in Windhelm over the years (whether Stormcloaks like it or not). A dish that’s become popular among all races is a delicious Nord-Dunmer fusion of saltrice porridge, containing chunks of salted and fresh fish caught in the fjord, clams, smoked horker meat and lard, and a good sprinkle of fragrant rosemary and oregano. This hearty meal is perfect for any time of day, and you’ll see citizens of Windhelm gobbling it down for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Winterhold:

Winterhold isn’t exactly the first place that comes to mind when one thinks of food. Mages, sure, but not food. As one of Skyrim’s smallest and poorest Holds, getting your hands on more than a simple meal outside the College is going to result in just that: simple food. Yet simple can also be delicious, especially when the inhabitants of the Hold are used to getting by on what little they have and are creative with their resources. A local dessert much loved by young and old alike is freshly fallen snow (yes, I’m not joking!) drizzled generously with honey syrup, sweetened cream, snowberry preserves, dried jazbay grapes, jelly, and freshly picked snowberries. It’s deliciously refreshing and even the mages at the College love a big bowl of this frozen treat! Guaranteed to freeze your brain and warm your heart!

Hjaalmarch:

Hjaalmarch is a small and isolated Hold comprised of deep swamps, and being surrounded by treacherous marshes filled with all sorts of dangerous creatures and an eternal fog doesn’t make it a place that most people consider to be high on the list of culinary hotspots of Skyrim. It is, however, the perfect place for finding the best mudcrabs and slaughterfish in Skyrim, and they are definitely worth a fishing trip for the bold. The local favourite in Morthal tastes far better than it looks or sounds: “swamp stew”, as it’s affectionately called by the people, is a rich seafood-based stew with a mix of prawn and mudcrab shells and offcuts that form a rich stock that’s cooked continuously for 3 days. This forms a thick and flavourful broth that is then mixed with goat’s milk for a bit of creaminess, and the other ingredients are added: crab and various fish meats, clams, mussels and barnacles, and even a bit of seaweed or jazbay grape leaves. It’s got a deep umami flavour that’s complemented by the creaminess, and the seafood within is tender and fresh.

The Rift:

My home town on the shores of Lake Honrich deals mostly in fish, but the forests of the Rift are full of delicious game, wild herbs, and mushrooms. Growing up, I became adept both with fishing rods and nets as well as bow and traps, in addition to learning to source wild plants for food. I would honour the Rift with a simple entrée of lake trout patê with a mild apple jelly on dark rye bread specially made by the Merryfair Farm from grain and nuts supplied by Heartwood Mill; followed by a nice homely rabbit stew that’s loaded with local vegetables and a bit of ale and honey, just like we serve at homes both rich and poor throughout the Hold. And of course, it wouldn’t be a dining experience in the Rift if you didn’t wash it down with a bottle of Black-Briar Reserve mead, or enjoy a taste of Black Marsh with one of Talen-Jei’s delicious cocktails at the Bee and Barb!

The Pale:

Even the average Nord would laugh if you brought up food from the Pale, which is known as a barren wasteland of snow and snowberries. Yet despite this, the folk there make do with what they have and they make it well. Aside from fish and horker caught from the frigid waters of the Sea of Ghosts, the people of the Pale curiously enjoy a very local favourite crunchy frostbite spider legs due to their abundance in the Hold. While this may irk others, properly cooked frostbite spider meat is surprisingly similar to eating crab legs, and are served hot off the coals as an accompaniment to a main dish of salt-baked cod with snowberry jelly and fluffy mashed potatoes mixed with horker fat and bacon. Crack the spider legs with some metal tongs, then suck out the juicy flesh inside and wash it down with a big mug of ale! Tingly!

The Reach:

Food in the Reach is deliciously different to that of any other Hold in Skyrim based on its unique geographical location. Steeped in tradition and inspired by the cultural collision of Bretons, Wrothgarian Orcs, Reachmen, and Redguards, food in the Reach is heavy on meat, which can include anything from dog to beef. Due to the steep and rocky mountains, other cooking ingredients are mostly obtained from the trading hub city of Markarth, yet ironically one of the most prized among Tamriel’s herbs and spices is native to the Reach: juniper berries. A traditional dish unique to the region would be a rich bear-haunch stew with smoked bacon grease, slow cooked with juniper berries, rosemary, potatoes and carrots over three days. Depending on race, various other spices and ingredients can be included in the base stew, such as cinnamon, spicy peppers, and even scribs and saltrice.

Haafingar:

(I probably have to front this with acknowledgement that he is racist, has beyond fumbled the well being of the Dunmer and Argonian people in Windhelm, is the most divisive jarl in the fandom, and his fans can certainly be…a type of way…particularly on Reddit. I personally like the guy (his character; let’s not conflate fiction and reality here) and I get the ick all the time from professed enjoyers. None of this should contest that.)

Putting this under a cut. CW sympathetic light on Ulfric Stormcloak lololol

Beautiful British Columbia, Canada

Icicle Falls at dusk, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Gold Turtle Necklace from the Kingdom of Colchis,

(modern-day Georgia/South Caucasus), c. 450 BCE,

Length: Approximately 33 cm (13 inches).

Composition: It consists of 31 gold pendants (one large central turtle and 30 smaller turtles).

Ornate axe, Italy, circa 1500