On Tue, 16 Apr 2024 22:15:01 -0400, Richard Aiken wrote:

>I would imagine that there's a story here involving ethnic Vilani food.
>Given the famous Vilani conservatism, would traditional (e.g. barely
>edible) food be valued for ceremonial purposes, with non-Vilani food
>actually eaten by preference?

Actually, I would expect quite the opposite: Food that was
edible-without-processing would have been rare and valuable to the Vilani,
and probably would have had significance that we'd call 'religious'. (And
it would be my guess that the shugilii would have tried to conceal that
they don't need to do a lot of processing to make those foods edible; if it
became general knowledge, it might lead to wider cultivation, which in turn
could potentially break the shugilii power over the people.)

With food, people tend to stick to what they're familiar with, even if they
find an 'ethnic' cuisine that they enjoy. If they _can't_ get a particular
familiar food, substitution will take place - but that substitution will be
to adopt something as close to the familiar as they can manage (such as
corned beef for Irish-style bacon by the Irish in America). Thus, if the
Vilani adopt Terran potatos in place of _argu_ in rimward areas, they'll
still tend to prepare them in styles that were used for _argu_ - if _argu_
is normally pureed, strained, boiled, strained again, and then baked into
miniature "pancakes", that's how they'll prepare potatos, and prefer them,
no matter how lyrical a Terran waxes about baked potatos with cheddar
cheese and bacon bits.

Situations like those described with respect to Blacks and hominy in _The
Two Georges_, or the Romulans from a particular area and flatroot in _The
Romulan Way_, arise from specific events (or chronic conditions) that have
a high _negative_ emotional impact, and the subsequent associations.

®Traveller is a registered trademark of
Far Future Enterprises, 1977-2024. Use of
the trademark in this notice and in the
referenced materials is not intended to
infringe or devalue the trademark.

--
Jeff Zeitlin, Editor
Freelance Traveller
    The Electronic Fan-Supported Traveller® Resource
xxxxxx@freelancetraveller.com
http://www.freelancetraveller.com

Freelance Traveller extends its thanks to the following
enterprises for hosting services:

onCloud/CyberWeb Enterprises (http://www.oncloud.io)
The Traveller Downport (http://www.downport.com)