base camp stew

The Mereshnari are nomads and they focus on food that is easy to carry and prepare, but the Mereshnari love to eat slow cooked food when doing so is practical.   A common example of Mereshnari slow cooking is "base camp stew."   While the Mereshnari are often on the move, Mereshnari base camps routinely stay near a water source for weeks at a time until the hunters and gathers have depleted easy resources in the area, in which case they will pack up the base camp and move to another water source.   Base camp stew is made at base camp and varies a lot from day-to-day and week-to-week. Base camp stew is popular with the Mereshnari because they only need to carry and wash one large pot instead of a whole set of dishes.   Essentially today's base camp stew is principally made of whatever the hunters and foragers brought to camp yesterday. Whatever meat the hunters got or if the hunting was bad they might kill a goat or a horse or go meatless (meatless stew stew is sometimes disparagingly called "grass stew"). Add to this whatever herbs, vegetables, or fruits were gathered recently go into the pot.   Since the Mereshnari are regular trading partners with the rest of the Colassian Confederacy, they can spice up their stews with...spices.   Even though the other members of the Confederacy are far less likely to maintain roving base camps, "base camp stew "is still found on the dinner table of many East Colassian humans. A lot of sedentary East Colassian humans have Meresh blood in their veins and are fond of Mereshnari-style stews. These imitation Meresh stews are usually made with goat or lamb meat as the base, but they use Mereshnari wild herbs and spice combinations for the flavoring.  

"Hope you are hungry!  Just because we don't live in a base camp doesn't mean you cannot enjoy some base camp stew. We Midlanders have a fair bit of Maresh blood in our veins and even though we no longer run across the deserts, we picked up the Desert Runners' love of stews."   -Hasana, shepherd's wife