Foods of Gor

This page describes the foods found on Gor.

Note: not every item mentioned on this page can be found all around Gor (larma, for example, doesn't grow in Torvaldsland).

Sa-Tassna
"Interestingly enough, the word for meat is Sa-Tassna, which means Life-Mother. Incidentally, when one speaks of food in general, one always speaks of Sa-Tassna." Tarnsman of Gor, p. 43

Dairy

• butter - Churned from bosk or verr milk.
• cheese - Made from bosk or verr milk.
• creams
• vulo eggs - The tiny eggs of the vulo, small pigeon-like birds.
• arctic gant eggs

Grains and Breads

• blackbread
• corn, maize
• rice
• Sa-Tarna -   Staple Gorean grain. Most sa-tarna is yellow, but a brownish variety grows in the desert. Sa-tarna is also used to make "paga" (short for Pagar Sa-tarna), a strong drink very common on Gor.
• Sa-Tarna bread (yellow bread) -   Baked in flat, round loaves; usually with eight divisions per loaf, sometimes with four divisions.
• slave bread

Meats

• bosk - Comparable to the cow or ox from Earth; it is called the Mother of the Wagon Peoples. There exist fifteen varieties of bosk.
• kailiauk - It is a staple of the Red Savages. "Kailiauk are four-legged, wide-headed, lumbering, stocky ruminants. Their herds are usually found in the savannahs and plains north and south of the rain forests, but some herds frequent the forests as well. These animals are short-trunked and tawny. They commonly have brown and reddish bars on the haunches. The males, tridentlike, have three horns. These horns bristle from their foreheads. The males are usually about ten hands at the shoulders and the females about eight hands."
• marsh gant - A waterfowl with long legs and broad wings that inhabits the rence islands.
• pemmican - "'Wakapapi', said Cuwignaka to me. This is the Kaiila word for pemmican. A soft cake of this substance was pressed into my hands. I crumbled it. In the winter, of course, such cakes can be frozen solid. One then breaks them into smaller pieces, warms them in one's hands and mouth, and eats them bit by bit. I lifted thecrumbled pemmican to my mouth and ate of it. There are various ways in which pemmican may be prepared, depending primarily on what one adds into the mixture, in the way of herbs, seasonings and fruit. A common way of preparing it is as follows. Strips of kailiauk meat, thinly sliced and dried on poles in the sun, are pounded fine, almost to a powder. Crushed fruit, usually chokecherries, is then added to the meat. The whole, then, is mixed with, and fixed by, kailiauk fat, subsequently, usually, being divided into small, flattish, rounded cakes. Blood Brothers of Gor, p. 46
• tabuk - Similar to an antelope, its meat has a sweet taste. There are several varieties of tabuk on Gor (common, northern, prairie)
• common tabuk - "Once I brought the carcass of a tabuk, one of Gor's single-horned, yellow antelopes, which I had felled in a ka-la-nathicket, to the hut of a peasant and his wife. Asking no questions, as was suitable given the absence of insignia on my garments, they feasted me on my own kill, and gave me fiber, and flints and a skin of wine." Outlaw of Gor
• tarsk - Described as a wild boar. Its meat has a salty taste. There are several varieties of this animal; the giant tarsk among them, which stands ten hands at the shoulder.
• tumit - A huge carnivorous bird of the plains.
• verr - Similar to a sheep or goat.
• vulo - A small poultry bird similar to a pigeon, raised for meat and eggs.
• sausages

Fish and Seafood

• Cosian wingfish - A small, blue fish found in the waters of Cos. Other varieties can be found out at sea.
• eels - Several varieties are mentioned. "Many estates, particularly country homes, have pools in which fish are kept. Some of these pools contain voracious eels, of various sorts, river eels, black eels, the spotted eel, and such, which are Gorean delicacies." Magicians of Gor, p. 428
• oysters - Found in the delta of the river Vosk.
• parsit fish - A small, narrow, usually striped fish. There are several varieties. It is one of the ingredients of bondmaid gruel in Torvaldsland.
• snails
• white-bellied grunt - A big game fish found in the Polar North.
• white-bellied grunt, eggs of - Comparable perhaps to caviar; they seem to be served as appetizers.

Fruit

• apricots
• cherries
• chokecherries
• dates
• ka-la-na fruit - The fruit of the ka-la-na tree, also used to make a dry red wine.
• larma, hard - Similar to an apple. Also called 'pit fruit'.
• larma, juicy - A red, segmented fruit with a hard shell. Some people have compared it to a tangerine. Warning: many on irc consider offering of larma to show a desire for sexual conduct
• melons - Various sorts are mentioned, but only one is described.
• nuts
• peaches - Not described, but both 'peaches' and 'yellow Gorean peaches' are mentioned. I do not know if they are different from each other, or if they are just the same peach.
• plums
• pomegranates
• raisins - Probably made from Ta grapes, since that is the only type of grape mentioned.
• ramberries - A small reddish fruit, similar to a plum, but with many seeds.
• Ta grapes - Purple grapes, often associated with the island of Cos, but grown in several other places as well. Also used to make Ta wine
• tospit - A yellowish citrus fruit, about the size of a plum, very rich in vitamin C. It's very bitter. There are two varieties.

Vegetables

• beans
• cabbages
• carrots
• garlic
• katch - Some people say it can be compared perhaps to spinach; others have compared it to lettuce.
• kes - A small plant whose secondary roots are one of the main ingredients of sullage.
• kort - "…and korts, a large, brownish-skinned, thick-skinned, sphere-shaped vegetable, usually some six inches in width, the interior of which is yellowish, fibrous and heavily seeded. At the oasis, because of the warm climate, the farmers can grow two or more crops a year." Tribesmen of Gor, p. 37
• mul-fungus - A type of fungus eaten by the 'muls' (slaves of the Priest Kings) in the Nest.
• mushrooms
• olives - Red olives from Tyros, and olives (not described) from Tor.
• onions
• peas - Peas and 'Gorean peas' are mentioned, but not described.
• peppers
• pumpkins
• radishes
• rence - A water plant that grows in the marshes in the delta of the river Vosk. It is used for many purposes, from food to making paper (each part of the plant is used for something).
• suls - Supposedly similar to the potatoes of Earth; described in the books as a starchy tuber plant. They are also used to make 'sul paga', a very strong peasant drink.
• turnips
• tur-pah - "… reddish Tur tree, about which curled its assemblage of tur-pah, a vinelike tree parasite with curled, scarlet, ovate leaves, rather lovely to look upon; the leaves of the tur-pah, incidentally are edible and figure in certain Gorean dishes, such as sullage, a kindof soup…" Nomads of Gor, p. 217

Herbs, spices and sweeteners

• honey
• sesame seeds
• salt - Red, yellow and white salt are mentioned in the books. The red and yellow salts are found in the south.
• sugar - There seem to be at least four different types of sugar on Gor. The only colours mentioned, though, are white and yellow.
• spices mentioned in the books: cinnamon; clove; nutmeg: garlic

Desserts

• biscuits - "Grunt, from his own stores, brought forth some dried, pressed biscuits, baked in Kailiauk from Sa-Tarna flour." Savages of Gor, p. 328
• cakes, pastires, tarts - various types
• custards - "The girls, carrying their trays, knelt before the table. (…) On one tray were assorted pastries; on the other was a variety of small, spiced custards." Guardsman of Gor, p. 239
• puddings - "Verr was roasted, and puddings made. Sa-Tarna bread was brought forth and heated." Slave Girl of Gor

Confections

• candies
• hard candy, various flavors
• chocolate -   self explanatory, cocoa beans imported from Urth and grown on Gor
• flavoured ices - shaved ice, I assume, flavored with sweet syrups
• mint sticks - small sticks of candy similar to peppermint, I assume
• tastas - Rounded candy mounted on a stick.

Soups, stews

• slave porridge - Sa-tarna meal mixed with water, also called 'slave gruel'. The Torvaldslanders call it bond-maid gruel and add raw parsit fish to it.
• soup - Soup, thick with shreds of hot bosk and porous chunks of boiled sul."
• sullage -   A soup common on Gor, made mainly of suls, tur-pah and kes, and 'whatever else may be found'.