Food and DrinkFood Arransian cuisine is often condemned by outsiders as dull and basic, but the Arransians would argue that this view fails to appreciate the quality of the ingredients available. If you have the cream of the land and sea, why disguise it in fancy sauces? Arransia produces some superb beef, especially from the County of Marchwood. Indeed, Marchwood steaks often appear as an expensive delicacy on the menu in high-class restaurants in Aubourg. The country also produces excellent lamb - with the extensive sheepwalks on the Western Moors - and pork. The traditional Arransian Christmas roast is suckling pig, not turkey. There are also some fine sea catches brought into ports like Lemingore, Marske and Bouth, dominated by cod and haddock, but also including sea bream, skate, plaice, mullet, herring and sole. The Arransian bacon and kippers breakfast is famed the world over. The potato, discovered by Brunswickian explorers, never really spread to Arransia, and the normal accompaniments to a meal are bread and wheat noodles similar to German spätzle, which Brunswickians often dismiss as disgusting. If Arransians do eat potato fries, they generally want them as thin and noodle-like as possible. The orchards of Marchwood and Bucklow ensure that apple pie is a favourite to round off a meal. The south-west also produces a variety of characterful cheeses, including the notoriously pungent Barrow Blue. Another distinctive foodstuff is the flatcake, a cross between a crêpe and a pizza, especially popular in the eastern counties with a variety of often fishy toppings. Arransian pubs and restaurants are mostly independently-run, and the quality of food available in even basic establishments is generally high. In recent years, a growing number of fast-food outlets have appeared, but even Arransian burgers seem to be made from better quality beef than is usual. The alternative offering of porkburgers has little appeal outside the boundaries of Arransia, however. Beer With its extensive cultivation of hops and barley, it comes as no surprise that Arransia has a strong brewing tradition. The country has about 75 established independent brewers and maybe 50 micro-brewers set up in the past 30 years. There are also over 100 pubs across the country that brew their own beer on the premises. The city of Ellerdine in Bucklow, strategically placed between the hop and barley belts, and with a good supply of hard water from the Western Wolds, is a recognised centre of brewing, with five long-established brewers. There are also seven in Stainton, but this is more by virtue of the city being Arransia’s major industrial centre than any special advantage in brewing. Most beer sold in Danby comes from the Ellerdine breweries. Most towns of any size have their own brewery, with the distinctive tower buildings often prominent on the skyline. The majority of brewers are family-owned firms and trade mainly in their local area. However, a small number of firms such as Aitken’s of Riccall and Grenfell’s of Ellerdine have established national distribution, generally only for one or two premium products rather than their full range. It is quite common in a free house to see a beer like Aitken’s Extra on sale alongside the standard products of the local brewer. In recent years imported products, mainly lagers, have grown in popularity, but domestically produced beers still account for over 80% of the market. It is estimated that Arransia has in total about 26,000 pubs and bars, or one for every 500 people. Most are independently-run, with only about 20% being owned by breweries. The seaport towns of the Edirn coast such as Marske and Bouth are especially renowned for their concentration of pubs - Marske, with a population of about 44,000, is believed to have over 200. Arransian pubs tend on average to be smaller than their UK counterparts and are more likely to be part of larger buildings - in a sense they are halfway between English and Irish pubs. Several of the larger brewers have over the years built or acquired flagship tied houses while continuing to sell mostly in the free trade. An exception to this is the secretive family-run firm of Firth’s of Wrangle, who over the years have built up a tied estate of about 300 pubs across the whole of Arransia, although their beer is regarded as very much an acquired taste. Despite Arransia being a major hop producer, many of its beers are relatively malty in character with little hop emphasis, although some, such as Bettley’s of Briggswath, are heavily-hopped and uncompromisingly bitter. Virtually all draught beer in Arransia is cask-conditioned, but it is often stored under CO2 pressure, especially in smaller pubs. Arransia requires beers to be sold in standard strength categories so that drinkers have a reasonable idea of what they are consuming, although these are only approximate as there is a 0.3% ABV tolerance either way. Beer duty is low (typically only about 9 pence a pint), but there is an element of progressivity in the scale so that stronger beers are proportionately taxed more heavily. The average pub price of a pint of 3.8% ABV beer is around $1.20 – it is not so long ago that Arransian drinkers were horrified by the prospect of the “one dollar pint”. The normal minimum drinking age is 18, but young people of 16 and 17 are allowed to consume Extra Light beers of 2.8% ABV or below on licensed premises. These are generally only available in bottle. This is something normally only extended to young people personally known to the licensee, often the offspring of existing customers. Measures of a third, half, two-thirds and one pint are allowed. Pints are generally drunk in the industrial areas, but in the rest of the country, especially in the South, the usual measure is a two-third-pint “schooner”. Arransia has its jokes about “Southern softies” too. Permitted licensing hours are generally 10 am – 11 pm, with midnight closing on Fridays and Saturdays, although not all pubs necessarily use all these hours. Drinking-up time of up to an hour is permitted, and the police often tend to turn a blind eye to the serving of “lates” if no trouble is caused. Special licensing hours apply to produce markets in the big cities, and a limited number of pubs in the dockland areas of some of the major ports are allowed to open 24 hours a day except on Sundays, in theory to provide refreshment to sailors coming off ships. Arransians are often caricatured, especially in Brunswick, as a nation of drunks, but in fact they tend to drink steadily on a regular basis rather than indulging in weekend binges, and average per capita alcohol consumption is only about 15% higher than in Brunswick. In general, there is little alcohol-related disorder in Arransian towns and cities, although the mining towns in the Black Mountains do have something of a reputation for fighting. Cider The southern counties of Marchwood and Bucklow are also significant producers of cider. Most of this is bottled, often in distinctive corked bottles with wire closures, although it is widely available on draught in the local area. A much higher proportion of Arransia’s cider production is exported than beer. While bottled cider enjoys something of an upmarket image, the draught version is often perhaps unfairly dismissed as a yokels’ drink. Draught cider is not generally available outside these two counties. Whisky Internationally, Arransia is better known for its whisky production than for its beer. The country currently has over 30 operating distilleries of various sizes. The main concentration is along the north coast between Verne Island and Marske, where there are around 20, but there is also a smaller cluster in the Western Moors around Sabden. The counties of Lunan and Edirn are major barley producers. About half the distilleries are owned by the United Distillers Corporation, but most of the rest are privately owned by small independent companies. The Northern whiskies tend to have a pungent, peaty character to varying degrees, while the Moors whiskies are mellower and more buttery. Although there are blends, over half of domestic consumption is of single malts, the best seller being Fordyce which is made near Bouth in Edirn. Burnfoot, from a small independent near Skelwick in Pentmark, is generally regarded as the Queen of Arransian whiskies, and the picturesque distillery appears on the $50 note as a representative of Arransian industry, although this choice was controversial as some said it promoted alcohol consumption while others saw it as free advertising. Whisky is normally sold in pint bottles at 43.0% ABV. Broxa, distilled not far from Burnfoot, is considered the most uncompromisingly peaty in flavour. A pint of a mainstream malt such as Fordyce retails for around $11, while 12-year-old Burnfoot is about $17. Whisky is a major export earner for Arransia, and in recent years a number of the distilleries have seen major expansions. Other well-known malt distilleries are Dunskey, Skelwick, Keiss and Ulpha. The "grain" whisky used in Arransian blends is made in continuous process "patent" stills from malted barley, in contrast to that used in Scotland which is made from maize. This gives even an Arransian blend something of the character of a Scottish malt. All whisky has to be legally matured for at least three years, but in practice very little is used at less than five years.
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