Chapter XV

In this chapter I want to expand on what I have talked about in the last chapter, chapter XIV.

Meat alone is often filling, but a bit boring, and most sapient beings have a tendency to be omnivores, which means they often do not find everything they require in meat. Which is why you will rarely be served just a steak.

As a rule, there will be a side dish with the meat, and it is not uncommon for there to be multiple.

Lets talk about the two major categories of side dish you can, and likely will, encounter.

Vitamin side dishes, which are intended to solve deficiencies in regards of vitamins or trace elements are the first type.

The second type are starch based side dishes.

The vitamin side dishes fall then again into two major categories.

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Salads and cooked vegetables, although fruits are not unknown either here. Still, vegetables are more common, which is why I will primarily refer to them, if necessary.

The starch based side dishes are often of a neutral flavor, mostly seasoned with salt or vinegar.

So, let us begin analyzing the roles of those dishes by looking at the big picture. What role do these dishes fulfill in the overall meal?

Let us begin with the starch based side dishes, because there the answer is easier to figure out.

Starch based dishes tend to be fairly flavor less, but very, very good at soaking up flavor. If you have a sauce based on the steak, that can give you an option of a different texture that tastes very similar to the original, only not as deep and strong. Which is a nice contrast. It also can be used as a way to clean the mouth of the taste, so that you can savor every bite more. If you use a sauce to your meat, it is almost certain that this sauce is also used to flavor the starch based side dish, which offers a nice contrast in taste and texture, letting the sauce shine, which it should not on the meat. It should enhance the meat, but it should not overtake the taste of the meat.

While on the starch based side dish, the sauce is intended to be the flavor, while the side dish only provides texture.

Ok, let us talk about the role of the vitamin side dish.

The primary role of that side dish is fairly simple, get the nutrients you will not get otherwise.

Which is why this dish is often offered as a salad, something you either eat before the meat, or after, although before is more common.

It also gives a different texture, and experience in general, of course, but that is a bonus, not its primary function.

Although the contrast between the starch based dish and the meat based dish in relation to the vitamin based dish is something fairly nice to experience.

But, as a rule, the vitamin based dish is the most likely thing to be left behind.