Here's something a little more conservative: Armada and her party's favorite foods.

• Armada: Often walking the frontier, Armada largely maintains a humble, if lean, diet of simple foods such as apples, nuts, ash cakes, and crackers — things which keep well and can be eaten with little to no preparation. If she is to partake in more complex dishes, her favorites include chicken fricassee with herbed biscuits and apple pie.

• Willow: It's a common misconception that since Dryads are anthropomorphic plants, they do not need to eat food like the other races and can simply photosynthesize for sustenance; on the contrary, since photosynthesis alone would not generate enough energy for proper ambulation, Dryads have evolved to become a species of carnivorous plants possessing internal digestive glands. This takes the form of an organ in their stomach that resembles a pitcher plant (which, consequently, gives their "breath" a faint floral scent). The gland generates within itself a chemical pool of acids, enzymes, and proteins which break down the material they consume and later absorb the released compounds, much like a normal stomach. That being said, Willow herself is still markedly vegetarian. One of her favorite things to eat is the fruit of the ghostline plant, which tastes like what we would consider to be blue raspberry candy.

• Baltimore: A worker at heart, Baltimore likes anything warm and filling (preferably cheap, as well). His favorite is a large helping of honey-glazed grits, though he’s never had a bowl as good as his mother used to make.

• Wisp: Wisp’s favorite food is the ordinary sugar cake, which she holds symbolically as the first luxury she ever earned for herself after escaping from slavery. She copied the recipe from a cookbook she once borrowed from Whitelocke’s lending library, and she keeps the copy in her Hertha (the Phylianist holy book).

• Cyrus: Coming from a family of new wealth, Cyrus grew up in relative comfort in the colonial city of Blackwridge. His favorite meal, cream of mushroom soup, dates back to his childhood, when he and his father would look for mushrooms in the chilly woods near their estate. Cyrus somewhat ironically considers these mushroom hunts as what planted the seed for his later interest in detective work.

• Vivian: Vivian keeps to a scientifically organized diet, although her recent ventures into the frontier have given her cause to expand her palate and eating times. She only chooses to eat meat when nutritionally necessary, preferring her meals to consist of a simple spread of bread, milk, vegetables (especially cauliflower), a soup, and red wine — the last of which is her favorite part.  To Vivian, red wine is not only an essential health supplement, but also an important religious custom as a Nocrothian.

• Su: An avid survivalist, Su most enjoys the food he hunts and gathers himself. He especially prides himself on his bear-meat stew, for which he digs up carrots and potatoes after the fated kill — of course, this meal is only made on occassion. In his heart, however, Su’s favorite dish is baked haddock. He had his first after his father taught him to fish on the east coast near Port Hopeful, where Su lived as a boy.

• Lucius: Having grown up in the Bloodied Barrens, Lucius is intimately familiar with all the different ways to preserve food. As such, cured, salted meat is a staple in his diet, and his favorite cut of all is smoked bacon. It’s a breakfast tradition to him, and what he doesn’t eat is usually incorporated into his meals later in the day.

• Phineas: One may be surprised to learn that the favorite food of the monstrous Captain Phineas Flavo is not the flesh of men, but instead apple jack cookies. This love comes as an extension of the love he once held for a particular woman he had met in his journeys as a sailor — before the onset of his transformation into a Deep One. His fondest memories of her are marked by the apple jack cookies she would bake for him whenever they met. She was different from all the other women Phineas would leave behind for the high seas, and to him, the cookies are just as much a fragment of a pleasant memory as they are a reminder of what he has lost.

• Elizabeth: Despite her questionable mental stability, Elizabeth is a remarkable cook. Her gastronomical skill had been fostered by her mother, who hoped that doing so would help to domesticate her and curb her violent behavior. Even though much of Elizabeth’s culinary knowledge stems from more refined Hrenish cuisine, her personal favorite meal is shepherd’s pie topped with garlic and Huramom cheese (comparable to Parmesan). She prefers it burnt, a predilection she holds for everything she eats; burning her meals brings them closer to simple carbon, which better feeds her internal fire (she also likes the crunch). However, she is keenly aware that most people don’t like their food burnt. If the meal she serves you is blackened, it’s because it’s her birthday and/or she doesn’t like you.

• Colette: Although Colette has fairly firmly established herself within Gorish colonial society, she still practices many Niamian customs at least in part to maintain an exotic persona among her clientele — this extends what she eats. While the Niami are physically large enough to consume solid foods, much of their historic cuisine is still liquid-based due to the race’s evolutionary lineage. One such dish, which happens to be Colette’s favorite, is called Veljavii. It is a soup primarily made from Laelamani silkfowl stock, watercress, ginger, and, most importantly, lightly beaten egg mixed with lemon juice. The dish is peppery with a bright citrus backnote, and exhibits a slightly thick and almost fluffy consistency similar to egg drop soup.