General Zelda Food in Hyrule

[Shadsie]

After looking at some art on DA dealing with the infamous Zelda death-chickens... I got to wondering...

Assuming people eat cucco in Hyrule like we eat chicken, how are those tasty, tasty birds dispatched? If old Talon takes a bird to the chopping block, wouldn't the rest of the flock come and destroy him? A friend of mine suggested a soundproof room. I figure, if one is killed quickly enough, maybe it doesn't have time to cry out to its fellows. And cuccos, like chickens, are too dumb to know what one of their own roasted in an oven looks like, so they don't rise up in rebellion unless some dumb young hero actively messes with them.

I was thinking a Guide to Hyrulean Gastronomy would include some kind of recipie for Rock Sirloin (only to be enjoyed by Gorons), and Zoran sushi (it's stated somewhere that they do eat fish so I'm talking the sushi they make, not made out of Zoras). Hylians drink milk, and they eat fruit and bread...

I think Minish must eat beef (somehow...) because Ezlo made a mention of cows looking delicious...


So, what do you think about foods in Hyrule and how they are prepared? I mean, cucco has to take extra precaution that we do not use on real world chickens. *Laughs.*

 

[Mudora]

That's an interesting thought! I probably would never want to try to butcher a cucco myself, that's like asking for a death sentence. Your "Guide to Hyrulean Gastronomy" as you put it seems pretty accurate based on information that can be gathered from the games themselves. I don't think I've ever seen any Hylian market sell meat, maybe they too realize how violent cuccos can be!
As for killing a cucco, maybe you would have to do something to its voice box so that it would be unable to alert others. Perhaps a mini electric collar? *maniacal laugh.

 

[the_gamer]

I don't think I've ever seen any Hylian market sell meat.

I don't think you played the original

 

[Mudora]

I don't think you played the original

I totally forgot about that! That's actually sad seeings how I just replayed that game a few days ago. Hmm, but cuccos didn't appear until ALTTP correct? So what kind of meat is that?

 

[Azure Sage]

I assume that in order to eat a cucco, one must prepare a hunting party of at least twenty highly-skilled hunters. They must approach quietly and attack quickly. One must continue attacking and the other nineteen must act as defense. The one designated to kill the cucco must be fast, for the other nineteen hunters will quickly be drained of their health potions and mana. The durability of their weapons and armor would naturally be reduced because of the constant barrage of attacks. Once the cucco is dead, the hunter must store its remains in his inventory and then they all must quickly flee the scene with a teleport scroll.

I would imagine hunting easier targets like fish would take a lot less RPG-ish tactics. I mean, all it takes to catch a fish is an empty bottle. So, there are safer foods to eat than cucco meat. However, cucco meat is the greatest delicacy of Hyrule, and therefore in very high demand. Because people want to eat the finest foods, many lives must be sacrificed in the dangerous job of cucco hunting. Such is the way of first-world countries like Hyrule.

 

[Big Octo]

Hmm, dispatching a cucco would be a considerable task. Although, I could probably see it be done with a group of people (as Azure Sage mentioned), so the death storm of evil chickens can be a piece of cake. I can see it now, a fight to near-death, all for dinner on the table.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but did I not see a meat vender in southern Castle Town from TP? Well, if that's not the case, then there's still the Enemy Bait from LoZ anyway.

As for other foods seen and sold, there's bread. Remember that unbelievably expensive bread in TP, where even a full giant's wallet couldn't purchase a loaf? Perhaps it's a delicacy... Well, it's also seen affordable in MC, as well as other baked goodies.

By now, it's been strongly established that those Gorons sure do love a good rock. According to Gorons in OoT (when spoken to while wearing a Goron's mask), green rocks (perhaps mossy rocks?) are healthy and are the Goron equivalent of vegetables. So, there are rock food groups? Interesting.

And Zoras... well, both varieties seem to enjoy a good fish, and I don't think that requires any further explanation.

Though not neccasairly anything important, I'd still like to see this elaborated on in future titles. :yes:

 

[Libk]

Just gonna say now, Kokiri fried Cucco. Nobody is ever hungry because this little business started up after link left the forest to go do whether for the news channel. The owner of this business Mido, knew that the great deli tree wanted the kokiri to impact hyrule somehow, so he turned the tree into the resturaunt. A fresh supply of Cucco is delivered monthly from Talon of Lon Lon ranch. These Cucco are then stored in the basement of the tree, where Wait to be used. When a Cucco is needed for frying, an employee takes a cucco from the basement, and then goes into a room with it. The employee makes sure the Cucco they are killing is the only one in the room before killing it. It is then given to a deku scrub to pluck its feathers. After sucking on the Cucco for a little, it is spit back out ready to be cooked. Kokiri fried Cucco has branched and become a chain resturaunt in all sorts of places around hyrule and termina. The castle town market, Jabu Jabu's Belly, Dodongo's cavern, Gerudo Valley, pirates Fortress, Clock Town, and even the fishing pond have a KFC.

We decided to interview the owner. So Mido, how hard was it to get this business started?
"Well. It took a lot of work. I was breaking my back day and night trying to make the deku tree presentable after that dang Link killed him. After a while though, all the monsters were cleared out, we befriended the scrubs, and started putting the fryers and registers in."
So what inspired you to fry Cucco? Why not use fish or cow instead?
"well I was actually about to use cow, but I decided they wouldn't be good for eating. So we keep them here so we can sell milk as well. All KFC have cows so that we can produce milk. All our Cows come fr Lon Lom Ranch. Now back to your question, Zora were already selling fish and Goron had rock, but no one had Cucco on the menu. I asked Talon for one, asked that owl to send the message, and I fried it. As I took a bite of the Cucco and tasted the juices of the meat, I knew, that was it."
So what goes into the recepie?
"Well, I can't tell you everything, but wee use natural herbs and spices to season out Cucco. Deku nuts, forest mushrooms, and bomb flowers are a few things. I tell you, figuring out how to use the bomb flower was difficult, but it all worked out. Then we have a few secret spices I can't tell. "
Alright and lastly, where do you plan on branching next?
"Thats a great question. I'd like to set up in windfall or outset, but it's been difficult getting a branch there. I also want to try and get a shop in Skyloft and I just got done with a meeting with representatives from Skyloft before you came here today. I can say with certainty though, that our newest branch will be located in.....Ordon village. So look forward to that, as we've almost finished setting up shop."
Alright. Thank you for letting us interview you and you heard it here folks, the new shop is going to be located in Ordon village. I am Linkdude74, Bringing you all the news you need to know, signing off.

 

[Dio]

Maybe if you don't give a cucco a slow agonising death by simply slicing at it then it will not be able to alert the others to it being attacked. The way link goes about it is not the way the farmers would do it. They would simply capture the cucco and then chop it's head off on a cutting block in one swift blow.

There is a meat seller in Twilight Princess's Hyrule castle market, there are large bits of meat that look suspiciously like beef and also because of what Ezlo says, beef must be a part of the Hylian diet.

Another meat that is eaten is Pig. We hear from her own mouth that the obese woman on Outset island would like to eat her pigs even though they are her pets. This must be the true reason behind her getting link to round up all the islands pigs so she can gorge herself on the meat whilst everyone else is stuck eating lesser foods. Pigs react in the same way as Cuccos when attacked so therefore we must assume that link is in fact torturing them slowly and painfully rather than taking their life.

Hylian's drink milk and so do Gorons, who reccomend it whilst taking a bath in a hot spring. The people of Termina have access to a very special kind of milk which can have an intoxicating effect similar to alcohol, or it may even be fermented milk and be alcoholic. Potions and Chu jelly are also part of the Hylian diet, there are potion vendors in many different games and they must get allot of customers or else they would go out of business.

We know that fish is part of the Hylian diet as well as cheese and pumpkin. In Twilight princess Reekfish soup is created from a mix of fish, pumpkin and cheese(This part of the game always makes me hungry). The Ordon Goats produce this cheese and clearly export to other parts of Hyrule. It is not mentioned, but I will also assume that goat meat is eaten in TP's Hyrule. Fado keeps a large number of Goats and when they can no longer produce large amounts of milk the most likely option for him is to kill the goat for food. In Skyward sword there is an entire island that is dedicated to growing pumpkins and vending pumpkin soup.

 

[Shadsie]

WARNING: The following may be TMI for gruesome in dealing with the butchery of animals. If you eat meat, it comes from somewhere. I happen to have experience in where it comes from.

Part of why this struck me was... yesterday, I went fishing and I caught two small fish that I wanted to keep (they're in the freezer for eating later). I cleaned them on the dock with a fishing knife I have - a good, sharp knife. I was joking with my guy who was there about my "brutal efficiency." You see, even though fish have primitive brains, I like to make sure they don't suffer/suffer as little as possible so I'm very quick with braining them. (When my dad used to take me fishing, he'd just cut off the heads, but the heads would remain alive, which I always found horrifying, so I took a lesson from a friend who knew how to brain them). Quick, clean...

And I have some lingering memories of "helping" my dad dispatch chickens in the backyard as a kid - the tradtional stump and hatchet method, then let the body run around a bit in its nerve-spasms until the bird figures out it's dead. People who deal with fish and meat do typically like to make it "quick, clean" - not just for the humane-ness of doing things quickly, but becuase distressing your meat tends to be bad for it, and animals thrashing about (like fish on a dock while scaling it) present a pain to deal with.

I got to wondering... if Hylians ate cuccoo - they'd have to kill it *really* quickly and cleanly in the interest of not getting the vengence of its flock. (And I do think Hylians eat cuccoo, as there's a chicken in Ordon in Twilight Princess you can talk to sometime later in the game who hints at wondering if something morbid is going to happen to him. I can't remember what he says...)

And, yes, Miss Rose and her family hint at eating their pigs (one of the funniest conversations in a Zelda game!) and Telma's has meat if I recall correctly - hanging hams and roasts and sausages.



........

If you want some real horror (and hilarity) the cuccos might be like the chickens in "Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita" http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/LightNovel/JinruiWaSuitaiShimashita (Even dead, they want to take over the world)! It's a weird series, I loves it good.

 

[Vanitas Remnant]

I don't know about eating Cucco, but in TP, you can go up to a market stand and the words will say:

"You got some bread!

...

But it's WAY too much money, you should put it back"

Or something. My favorite easter egg in TP. Which stands for Toilet Paper

 

[Cel-Shaded Deku]

In Majora's Mask you can use the look through walls glitch to see that Kotake (In Southern Swamp's potion shop) is standing on a orange/tangerine/clementine box so they have oranges in Termina and possibly Hyrule, too.

 

[zellinkda]

I think cuccos are taken to a far away place where there are no cuccos so they might be slaughtered for eating good things like fried cucco wings. I think that talon has malon put the cuccos in the pen where the horses go run around and frolic. Remember how in Ocarina of Time there is a rock that you can blow up at the front, left side of the castle (if you are facing castle town it is left) which will reveal a hole to jump into. Tell me if I am incorrect, but I recall a cow in the hole. what if the Cow was Talon's ride to the slaughter hole? after a cucco is slaughtered, a big boulder (that we blew up) is placed over the hole. because of this, talon put a treasure chest/life savings down there for safekeeping. The Cucco is then given to Malon, who prepares the cucco with any sort of knife to cut the cucco. it is then cooked like a regular chicken is.

 

[r2d93]

Nothin like a good old bucket of fried Cucco...

And they probs eat cows...
Maybe Moblins... And ordon goat cheese. and pumpkins. and fish..... maybe tingle.....

 

[Skunk]

Hylians may drink water.Gorons drink hot spring water for energy, so maybe Hylians do as well

 

[Libk]

They do have a lot of different potions to drink as well as the water. And I guess they eat fish because fish are sold in bottles. Does that mean poes and fairies are a delicacy?