Adwan Cuisine

Adwan cuisine is the set of cooking practices and traditions of Adwa, characterized by various local influences as well as Abayadi and Auroran (especially Ichorian ones. It varies greatly by region, reflecting the country’s numerous ethnic groups as well as immigrant populations, and the nation’s size.  This has created a national cuisine marked by the preservation of regional traditions and differences.

Ingredients first used by Adwa’s native peoples include ajja (also called Adwan oats), teff, finger millet, false cardamom (also called Adwan cardamom), and ensete (also called the false banana). Crops such as guar, sesame, shea nut, sorghum bicolor, watermelon, yam, okra, black-eyed peas, Estradian custard apples, and fundi were later part my the migratory proto-Adwan peoples who conquered and settled the region around 1115 BC. From there, the proto-Adwan peoples dispersed, and the nation’s various groups were formed. Trade with neighboring Abayad brought some of the region’s dishes to the coastal southeast, but rarely anywhere else. With the 14th century and the installation of the puppet Salih dynasty, the country was opened to an extent, bringing in numerous Auroran (primarily Ichorian) immigrants more accustomed to wheat-based diets, who introduced grape wine to Adwa’s diet, as well as New World crops like potatoes.

Some typical dishes are ulali, considered the country’s national dish, and regional foods such as tidzafi, which is a traditional Adwa Yarim dish consisting of okra, onion, dried shrimp, and toasted nuts (usually peanuts, cashews, or sometimes pine nuts), cooked with palm oil until a spread-like consistency is reached; keyasa, a Mudaan dish consisting of slow-cooked fish, tomato, onions, and garlic topped with cilantro, and deseti, a Pula sausage with a mild, spicy flavor. Most dishes in Adwa are either served over rice or with a side of rice and beans.

The national beverage is coffee, while tafachi is the nation’s official alcoholic beverage. Tafachi is a honey wine flavored with the powdered leaves and twigs of the gesho plant, a hops-like bittering agent.

Mashila is a dish inspired by foreign and domestic ingredients, consisting of pasta or rice spiced with cumin, cardamom, cloves, and sage, heavily influenced by culinary elements imported by Ichorian settlers. Abayadi-style meat pies containing goat or lamb are common as well, as are other various finger foods enjoyed by Abayadis during their custom of tabaq, or snacking, introduced centuries ago by traders across the Sea of Azad.

Overview
Regardless of locality, dining in Adwa often consists of ulali (either a sourdough teff pancake or cornbread crepe) upon which the food is served, itself served either atop rice or with a side of it. The cuisines of central and northern Adwa made use of both the true and false banana, the former of which has permeated other cuisines to a far greater extent. In the north, the latter is commonly pulverized and fermented to make various foods, including its own take on ulali called kocho. Its root may be powdered and prepared to make a hot drink called kiba, which is enjoyed there but used medicinally elsewhere. Coffee is another universal enjoyed across Adwa’s regions and cultures, although the number of additives that can be contributed are much more widespread. After every meal, a small coffee ceremony is enacted and coffee is served.

Regional Cuisines
There is no one single, “national Adwan cuisine,” but there are an assortment of various regional and cultural traditions that have created numerous dishes. The southeast has been shaped by Adwa, Abayadi, and Ichorian influences, with chilis, spices, and palm oil introduced by Abayadis and numerous New World crops such as tomatoes and potatoes brought by the Ichorians. In the northern regions, due to the abundance of forest and freshwater rivers, fish, game, and root vegetables like yams are staples. In the central regions, influences shift toward the tradition of herding cattle that is strong in the region, with many meat-based products originating as local traditions there.

Southeastern Adwan Cuisine
In southeastern Adwa, while ulali is supreme, the region’s numerous other influences play a part as well. Traditional ulali is a staple of both Adwa Yarim and Adwa Amala peoples, and consists of a sourdough teff pancake or cornbread crepe (the former being more common in the southeast) with thicky, hearty stews and vegetables served atop, as well as rice and beans. However, thanks to Ichorian influences, fried potatoes and bananas are a common addition as well. Seafood is popular in coastal areas, as is roasted chicken for those who can afford to eat it aside from special occasions. The strong Ichorian influences have also endowed the region with a taste for fried cod fritters, among the most common street foods there. Spices introduced by Abayadi traders, such as cumin, cilantro, turmeric, cardamom, basil, mint, garlic, pepper, and parsley, have large parts to play as well.

In Bedin, Adwa’s largest city, one popular dish is keledi, consisting of a platter of beans cooked in onion, garlic, fat, and salt; dried, toasted teff flour, fried spicy pork sausage, breaded and fried bananas, eggs (preferably with a soft yolk), and sauteed kale, cut into strips and braised in fat; rice, and topped with a crispy pork rind. It is believed that numerous elements of the dish were introduced or influenced by Ichorian merchants and settlers, but it has become 100% Adwan in the eyes of the people. Bedin is also common to Iyebase, food consisting of thin pastry envelopes wrapped around assorted fillings, then deep-fried in vegetable oil. It is generally accepted that they originated when Abayadi vendors adapted the recipe for their own fried pastries to sell as snacks at weekly street markets.

In other coastal areas of the southeast, regional dishes include more traditional ingredients such rice, beans, pork, and okra. One popular dish is merizi, which consists of pureed beans mixed with toasted teff flour served over rice. Even in the countryside, however, cuisine is not free of foreign influences; numerous soft cheeses inspired by Abayadi and Ichorian ones alike are made there and commonly consumed. Pasta, introduced by Ichoria, has become a staple even in some rural areas as well.

Northeastern Adwan Cuisine
Northeastern Adwan cuisine reflects a much purer form of traditional Adwan cooking, not touched as much by colonialism or trade as other parts of the nation. Inikwani is a dish made from shrimp, coconut milk, finely ground peanuts, and palm oil mashed into a creamy paste and eaten with rice and vegetables over ulali flatbread. Zeyiti is a dish made from peeled black-eyed peas formed into a ball and deep fried in palm oil. Served as a street food, it is served split in half and stuffed with pastes made from coconut milk, ground nuts, and some kind of shrimp or fish. In other ways, further inland from the coast, plates resemble even more strongly precolonial cuisine. Examples include mechohi, made with rice and beans, dried meat, butter, local soft cheeses, and other ingredients.

Concentrated cane sugar made into blocks called hige is also heavily identified with the Northeast, as is nibihige, a candy made of ground peanuts, sugar, salt, and either teff or corn flour. Sweet forms of ulali are also commonly served in the northeast, especially for breakfast, commonly topped with coconut, cheese, or condensed milk, butter, and certain meats.

Central Adwan Cuisine
In central Adwa, due to the long tradition of livestock production and infamous droughts, red meat that has been preserved for storage is often the basis of local cuisine. Ayidalemi is the term used to refer to the specific strand of Adwan barbecue native to the region, which is the most culinarily renowned outside Adwa’s borders as well. It contains a variety of meats which may be cooked on a purpose built grill, with supports for spits and skewers, or simply over a fire. The meat may be alternative cooked on large metal or wood skewers resting on a support or stick in the ground and roasted with the embers of the charcoal (wood may also be used).

Since cow herders were historically often either nomadic or semi nomadic and lived off the land, they had no way of easily preserving their food. To compensate, they would gather after butchering some of their cattle, and skewer and cook the large portions of meat immediately over a wood-burning fire. The slow-cooked meat basted in its own juices and resulted in tender, flavorful steaks. The style carried on to inspire contemporary cooks to emulate the style, where servers in high-end restaurants bring large cuts of roasted meat to diners’ tables and carve portions to order. So-called “Adwan-Style Barbecue” restaurants can be found in numerous other countries, including Abayad, Ichoria, Myrmark, and others. Iweki, an herbal tea enjoyed for centuries historically by the region’s cattle peoples, is commonly associated with the region.

Northern Adwan Cuisine
The cuisine of northern Adwa is heavily influenced by the traditions of the Oriya peoples, although their numbers were greatly reduced after many emigrated out of the country, notably to Florencia. Despite this, numerous dishes originating with the Oriya remain popular with the region’s peoples today.

One popular dish is ketema, a stew made of boiled duck, corn, yams, and various herbs, served with white rice and corn ulali. One transplanted crop that has come to dominate Adwan cuisine is corn; whereas teff or barley remain dominant along the southern coast, corn has all but replaced it in its use in Adwa’s northeast and inland north. Along the region’s many inland rivers, communities draw heavily from the waters for food in the form of freshwater fish and other creatures.

Beverages
There are numerous traditional alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages enjoyed in Adwa, with some stretching back centuries, and others introduced during the modern day.

Alcoholic Beverages
Adwa’s national alcoholic beverage is tafachi, a potent honey wine similar to mead that is frequently served in bars, particularly in tej tafachi or “tafachi houses.” It is prepared with honey and gesho for fermentation purposes. It has a sweet taste and high alcohol content, and can be stored almost indefinitely. The longer it is stored, the higher the alcohol content, and the stronger the taste.

Libi is a beer that is usually brewed by Adwans at home, although it is also sometimes served at tej libi (differentiated from tef tafachi by their less raucous atmospheres). Brewed using various grains, notably teff and sorghum, with gesho, it is commonly enjoyed by laborers in the afternoon after work. Palm wine, brought over by Abayadi traders from Ayeran, is a commonly consumed drink at tej libi as well.

Perhaps the strongest drink originating from Adwa is medosha. Medosha is made with many of the same ingredients as libi: water, gesho, germinated teff, sorghum, or barley, and a meal or batter of some kind of grain. Unlike with libi, medosha is distilled, essentially making it grain alcohol. In Adwa’s various cities, towns, and villages, distillation is carried out with equipment as simple as gourds and wood, or as complex as home stills. The drink has faded in popularity in the nation’s cities, but remains very popular in rural and semi rural areas. Generally, medosha is only drunk for special religious holidays, but something of a problem has developed with predominantly lower class people who cannot afford to produce industrially produced alcohol producing it in unsafe conditions.

Nonalcoholic Beverages
Borsa is a barley and oat flour-based drink cooked with water, sugar, and clarified butter until the ingredients have combined to create a consistency slightly thicker than eggnog. The drink is commonly given to women who are pregnant or nursing, as it is believed to be good for the baby. However, the drink’s sweetness and smoothness also make it a comfort drink for any who enjoy the flavor.

Iweki is an herbal tea prepared by steeping dried leaves of the iweki plant in hot water, served with a metal straw from a hollow gourd. It is most popular in central Adwa’s grassy savannas and shrublands, where it is readily consumed by the region’s cowherds and their families as it has been for centuries.

Coffee, Adwa’s national beverage, is believed by many to have originated right within Adwa’s borders. As well as being consumed heavily, it is also a key sector of the Adwan agricultural industry, with Adwan coffee making its way to virtually all corners of the world.

Following large meals, Adwans often take place in what is called the coffee ceremony. There are two varieties of coffee ceremony: small/informal or large/formal. The informal coffee ceremony involves the use of a clay coffee pot in which the coffee is boiled. The preparer, almost always the woman of the house, roasts the beans in front of the guests before walking around and wafting the smoke throughout the room so participants may sample the coffee’s smell. Then, the preparer grinds the beans using traditional tools, and the coffee is placed into the pot, boiled with water, and served in small cups. Coffee in Adwa is typically served with sugar or butter, but salt is added in some parts of the country.

Snacks such as popcorn or toasted barley are often served with coffee, especially if it has been made for a guest or visitor. In most homes, a dedicated coffee area can be found, with a special table for the coffee making utensils. A formal ceremony has three rounds of coffee and is accompanied by the burning of frankincense. Such ceremonies are considered an art form in Adwa, and individuals may study for years before mastering the practice.

Tea is generally only consumed in southeastern urban areas, brought to Adwa through Abayadi influence. It is generally regarded as inferior to coffee, and is normally only served if no coffee is available (a great scandal in and of itself) or if coffee is declined (perhaps an even greater scandal).