#Andorian salt-fiending

[indignantlemur]

Ok, I binged Emigre and I LOVE IT. I’m on my second read through now. Always jazzed for fellow Canadian representation too.

As someone who adores cooking and has had many a debate about salt and acceptable recipe salt substitutions and volumes (kosher salt cannot be replaced by an equal amount of table salt in a recipe, you need way less when doing that), I am for some reason hung up on this idea of salt tasting different and how that would affect cooking for/with Andorians in mind.

You’ve mentioned that Andorians taste salt similar to capsaicin, I’m assuming it’s more nuanced than just heat but also has a bit of it’s own flavour depending on the salt make up itself. For their cooking adventures, did Dagmar make Thelen undertake a “great salt tasting” in which she acquired every kind of salt she could think of (human and Adorian) and make him taste them to write down the relative spice level and other notes? Does she have a spice rack and a salt rack for cooking? What is Andorian salt culture and opinions around cooking, especially when encountering human food which rely on salt to enhance flavour?

For humans there is a big saltiness difference between kosher salt, flaky sea salt, and table salt, and all have different uses. I image for Andorians there would be “baking salts”, “cooking salts”, and “spicy finishing salts”, and there in might even have opinions on like “Pink Himalayan salt is mild and general purpose, but has x undertone and an only be used with these types of recipes”, and “Human Smoked Sea Salt is a luxury good due to flavour and process, but is only ever a finishing salt”? There must be very strong opinions about the use of salt too, even by generation. With availability and slow dissemination of Federation recipes I imagine use of salt would change with exposure to human recipes.

Hi! It's lovely to meet you!

Okay, first of all, I love how much thought you've put into this! I'm absolutely delighted! <3

Second: Yes. Yes, Dagmar absolutely made Thelen taste-test a bunch of different kinds of salt at one point. She, herself, only generally uses table salt, sea salt, and Himalayan pink salt in her cooking, but for the taste-test she went and found every kind of salt she could get her mitts on. Thelen was a very good sport about it.

For Andorians, while straight salt carries the burn of capsaicin alone, the different mineral compositions create unique flavours. Much like a scotch bonnet pepper has a very different flavour profile to a serrano pepper or a Carolina reaper, the different forms (flakey versus coarse versus pyramid-shaped, for example) and chemical compositions (pink salt versus black salt versus grey smoked salt) of salts impart similar nuances.

(Thelen preferred the grey smoked salts, red salts, and black salts best, with the red salt in particular being described as 'almost sweet' to him.)

Andorians do prefer to use certain types of salt for particular kinds of dishes, but Humans actually tend to find that Andorian food - while pleasant and very compatible with their palettes - lacks a great deal of the salt most Humans are used to in their diets, and therefore feels somewhat bland. Part of the reason why is simply that Andorians don't need to consume as much sodium (or electrolytes) as Humans do, given that they do not sweat outside of extreme temperatures. Excessive salt consumption is hard on their kidneys, of course, but even in advanced age the Andorian metabolism is such that too much salt is far from life-threatening.

On Andoria, the primary kind of salt used is sea salt. It's what you'll most commonly find available for widespread consumption, from restaurants to at-home cooking - though plenty of other options exist as well! Andorian sea salt on its own has a strong and pleasantly bitter flavour profile to Humans, while Andorians describe the flavour as more intense than anything else. Accordingly, Andorians use very little salt outside of traditionally 'hot' dishes, and they don't use salt at all in certain types of foods (such as some of their more traditional and ancient dessert recipes, unless it is a very mild form of salt - and even then, it will be used quite sparingly!)

The oldest generations of currently living Andorians in Emigre's era are very anti-salt outside of very specific traditional dishes, and you'll never find it casually offered to guests either. Salt in all its varieties is, to these elder generations, a precious resource doled out like tiny threads of saffron for only the most discerning of palettes. There is something of an air of ritual about the way it is exactingly measured and added to family dishes hailing from before the Unification, as if each granule is more dear than gold or latinum.

Meanwhile, the youngest generations are far more willing to experiment with novel seasonings and salts - and Humans are more than happy to be a terrible influence in this regard. Gone is the traditional reverence and restraint used around salt, and only youthful enthusiasm and curiosity remains to fill the void!

Hilariously, most Andorians regard their own cuisine as robust, with full-bodied flavours and moderate to high heat levels in many of the modern savoury dishes. The news that their food was considered bland by Humans was not particularly well received by the public at first, until the first Terran foods hit the Andorian market.

Human cuisine, by comparison, is a study in endurance and hubris from the Andorian perspective. We put salt in everything, and we don't warn anyone.

In the years after the founding of the Federation of United Planets, Andorian-born Starfleet cadets and civilian immigrants alike will develop a stereotype on Human-colonized worlds as salt-fiends.

Usually ascribed to young and boisterous Andorians, salt-fiending describes a behaviour of actively seeking out the most heavily salted meals and drinks available in rapid succession and competing with one's peers to consume the most salt in a single sitting. This often resulting in a contest of what is best described (in the word of one bartender whose establishment is a popular haunt for Starfleet's finest) as 'oddly gender-neutral alien machismo.' Since Andorians are not overly rowdy customers otherwise, most bars will tolerate salt-fiending as a novel and somewhat entertaining new campus tradition.

It should be noted, however, that Starfleet's medical residents and physicians get quite tired of fixing the slew of oral salt-burns that inevitably follow a long weekend.

Hope this more or less answers everything! <3

[indignantlemur]

Canonically, Andorians taste salt like capsaicin, so... I've always imagined a bunch of Andorian Starfleet cadets pounding back margaritas and tequila-salt-lime combos like jello shots.

I love that ds9 has everyone ordering raktajino and the ferengi ordering root beer. But I very much need to see an andorian order a iced raspberry white chocolate mocha latte with an extra shot and whipped cream.

[randomencounters]

Okay, fine: a d100 table of races

To be used with NPC templates, that old AD&D 1e Table of Harlots (https://thedurvin.tumblr.com/post/171531933586/), or wherever else you need it. I probably still missed a few canon B-list player-races because it was more fun to scroll Wikipedia’s lists of fictional humanoid species, so don’t say I didn’t warn you

Human

Wood-Elf

Drow

Dwarf

Halfling

Gnome

Goblin

Ogre

Tiefling

Aasimar

Dragonborn

Mind-Flayer

Orc (D&D-style)

Ork (WH40K-style)

Pixie

Troll (roll d4: Tolkien, AD&D 1e, the dolls, Homestuck)

Giant

Hecatoncheiron

Geryon

Ettin

Doppelganger

Slimefolk/Oozekin

Fishfolk (Sahuagin, Kuo-Toa, Deep One)

Octopusfolk

Mermaid (roll d6; on a 1, it’s a Reverse Mermaid)

Frogfolk (Bullywug, Battletoad)

Giant Toadfolk (Slaad)

Centaur (roll d6; on a 1, it’s a Reverse Centaur)

Satyr

Minotaur

Lamassu

Birdfolk (Aaracokra, Kenku)

Hawkman (Flash Gordon)

Lizardfolk (Kobold, those genetically-engineered sapient velociraptors from the Jurassic Park Expanded Universe despite them not being reptiles)

Snakefolk

Turtlefolk (Tortle, Ninja Turtle, Kappa, Koopaling)

Catfolk (Tabaxi, Khajiit, Lionfolk, Tigerfolk, &c.)

Hyenafolk (Gnoll)

Dogfolk/Wolffolk

Bearfolk

Mousefolk

Rabbitfolk

Spiderfolk

Bugfolk (Thrikeen)

Worm That Walks

Imperial Hippofolk (Giff)

Mobian Hedgehog

Dryad

Ent

Mushroomfolk (Campestri, Toad)

Beholder

Undead: roll d6 for template (Ghost, Skeleton, Zombie, Vampire, Mummy, Demilich) and roll again for race

Hag

Dullahan

Sciapod

Kitsune

Tanuki

Warforge/Clockwork (roll d6: Tiny, Small, Medium, Large, Giant, Colossal)

Golem (roll d10: Clay, Stone, Iron, Ice, Alchemy, Flesh, Bone, Diamond, Tallow, Gingerbread)

Elemental (roll d4: Fire, Water, Earth, Air)

Mephit (roll d6: Dust, Ice, Ooze, Steam, Magma, Salt)

Succubus/Incubus

Barbazu

Chain Devil

Pit Fiend

Dread Glabrezu

Dread Gazebo

Ethereal Filcher

Githyanki

Mi-Go

Shoggoth

Race of Yith

Klingon

Andorian

Gorn

Salt Vampire

Namekian

Zentradi

Daxamite

Bismollian

Popuppian

Super-Skrull

Hutt

Wookiee

Jawa

Gungan

Yautja

Conehead

Grey Alien

Martian (roll d4: War of the Worlds, Barsoom, Looney Tunes, Mars Attacks)

Metaluna Mutant

Grimlock (subterranean humanoid)

Grimlock (warforged T-Rex)

Mothman

Skunk Ape

Shloonktapooxis

Crystal Gem

Melmacian

Space Invader, aka Galaxian, aka Mooninite

Muppet