‘Game of Thrones’: Weirdest Foods in the Seven Kingdoms
Game of Thrones had everything from drama to war and incestuous love affairs, and food was no exception. Creator George R.R. Martin used food to symbolize power throughout the series. Many of the stomach-churning treats seemed like they were made to kill enemies, so let’s look at the weirdest foods in the Seven Kingdoms.
Game of Thrones featured a raw horse heart in Season 1
The Dothraki are tough warriors, and their diet and way of life show it. After finding out they’re expecting a child, Daenerys and Khal Drogo hold a pregnancy ceremony where Daenerys has to consume a raw and wriggling horse heart in front of the tribe.
She does so without taking her eyes off the Khal. Despite a few understandable gags, the Mother of Dragons finishes the organ. The raw horse heart was a test for the Dothraki and one meant to test the gag reflex.
In reality, Emilia Clarke was consuming a giant gummy candy. She elaborated, “I ate roughly 28 hearts throughout the days we filmed that scene. Fortunately, they gave me a spit bucket because I was vomiting in it quite often.”
Questionable pies
Pies are delicious, and while they are not that odd, the elite of Westeros had their take on the popular meal. In Joffrey’s wedding, the audience learns that pigeon pie could be a sumptuous meal item.
While today people aren’t necessarily flocking to make pigeon pie, the delicacy was common in the medieval era due to the rarity of meats such as beef, pork, and chicken. Pigeons are lean, similar to chicken, and are almost everywhere, although Joffrey’s pigeon pie consisted of live pigeons.
The Westerosi made a mean lamprey pie, assuming it was delicious since Tyrion couldn’t get enough of them. For those who are unfamiliar, lampreys are a type of fish that look like eels that suck blood from other bigger fishes. While it’s easy to dismiss the pie as something best left for the peasants, the nobles, such as the Lannisters, enjoyed the meal cooked in spices and wine and covered with pie crust.
Lamprey pie is a real dish to be part of King Charles III’s coronation feast next year. The delicacy is a staple of formal royal celebration even though the parasitic fish is a protected species, perhaps making it all the more exclusive.
Bowl of brown
If you’re wondering what the bowl of brown is, let us clarify. The bowl of brown means a brown meal component that Westeros’s peasant folk, often residing in Flea Bottom, made to beat their hunger. There were no specifics regarding this dish as it encompassed different items from spoiled meat, pigeons if they were lucky, and rats if they were desperate.
Often, the brown component was sludge which, while it may not have provided the peasant population with nutrition, was enough to get them through another day.
Jellied calf brain
Caviar is tasty, but its Westeros equivalent is repulsive. The nobility in Westeros treated jellied calf brains like fish eggs because, to them, slaughtering a calf to fish out its brains is mostly a sign of wealth and luxury, compared to allowing the calf to mature for more meat. Walder Frey’s Red Wedding guests didn’t seem to mind eating the semi-raw calf brains as they merrily gobbled up the delicacy.
Pork sausage
There’s nothing bizarre about pork sausage. But if it’s mentioned in GOT‘s Ramsay Bolton’s context, it induces a cringe-worthy and disgusting emotion. When Bolton retakes Winterfell, he captures and tortures Theon. After castrating him, Bolton eats a pork sausage in front of the helpless Theon to mock him after mailing his severed body part to House Greyjoy.
