Synthetics Corporation Orientation Manual

Editor’s note:  The following document comes from the Synthetics Corporation Orientation Manual for new employees.  Synthetics Corporation provides a vast amount of natural and synthetic foods and beverages throughout the frontier.  They strive to meet the needs of their customers by providing their customers what they trully desire.  This has led them to research racial food preferences and trends extensively.  This is reflected in their new hire orientation where they spend a full day sampling and education their employees about food preferences of the Frontier races.  Released with permission of Synthetics Corporation Personnel and Resources Department Release number ZA172399334-2156 for publication by Frontier Explorer.

Day 3

Introduction to Racial Foods

Welcome new employee of Synthetic Corporation. You have been selected to take part in the joy of providing tasty and nutritional food to the entire Frontier. As part of your orientation to your wonderful new career with Synthetic Corporation, this two week orientation course will give you a basic understanding of how the entire corporation operates. Today we will present you with a basic understanding of the similarities and differences between the core four races’ dietary needs, likes, and dislikes. So grab your eating utensil and let us dive right in with a quick review:

Dralasites

All of us have seen the credit dreadful holovids of Dralasites accidently grabbing something; a laser pistol, a wrench, the all-important microchip, their buddies’ potato chips. The reality is of course very far from the truth. They are omnivores. They eat by surrounding their food and absorbing it, so they also have no digestive tract or intestines.

What is not well understood by the other races is that the act of eating takes a conscious effort on the part of the Dralasite to open up pores in its limb. This could be considered similar to a Dralasite extending or absorbing a limb. If this was not the case then they would be “eating” the ground with every step they take.

Dralasites cannot eat inorganic matter. Trying to absorb it would be like any of the other core four races putting plastisteel screws in their mouths and trying to eat them. Again the credit dreadful holovids are not accurate in portraying Dralasites as hiding the nuclear core from the Sathar inside themselves and then vomiting it back out to save the day.

The most important sense for a Dralasite is smell. They breathe directly through their skin, and the entire membrane is sensitive to odors. They also only see in black and white. When preparing Dralasite foods appearance can almost be forgotten, it is the scents and texture which are the most important elements. We at Synthetic Corporation have found that Dralasites prefer food which comes in small cubes (1cm cubed) or wafers (diameter of 3cm about 5mm thick).

Color is not important but scent is. While some of our snack lines have one scent, our most popular meal items release various scents as the food is absorbed, varying the experience for the absorber. If you are not a Dralasite or Vimh you will be issued a nasal amplifier. Dralasite olfactory sense is very sharp and only slight amounts of scents are necessary otherwise the dining experience can be ruined.

We have also found that texture-wise, a certain amount of firmness is necessary but cannot be overdone. Unless they are absorbing a liquid, Dralasites seem to prefer their food slightly malleable but not squishy.

Dralasites can consume the widest variety of food items.

Humans

Those of you who have dealt with Humans know that nothing can be considered universal with them. They have adapted themselves to their environments so well that food items we make on one world, which are considered an every-meal food, are outlawed under vast financial penalties on other worlds. We have found that Humans prefer “local foods”. This is not just planetary but usually foods that are found in a 500 kilometer range from where they were raised.

The Humans senses of taste and smell is not as highly developed as their sight. This being the case, appearance of their food is all important. Some of our worst failures have come from items which everyone agreed were truly delectable but apparently looked like “rancid Sathar brains”. However some of our failures have been turned into our greatest successes by simply changing the color of the item. Again much of this depends on the planet and region the item is being delivered to. Mistakes in shipping the wrong appearance item can be quite costly. The most important variant in Human tastes are regional. Some are almost totally meat based, others are vegetarian. Most fall in the middle somewhere.

Vrusk

The Vrusk mouth is surrounded by four eating mandibles. The two larger mandibles hold food while the small ones tear it apart and place it in the mouth. They are omnivores but this statement is misleading. Vrusk are apparently descended from a carnivorous semi-social order of insectoid which constructed small nests. At some point as their intelligence increased, additional nutrients where required which they could only get from plant sources. All of this leads to them becoming omnivores but with a preference for meat.

Uniformity is the key to Vrusk society. Their eating habits are the same. At meals every Vrusk is supposed to eat the same food. Since most meals are eaten in their company or trade house, the leader of the company or trade house usually picks the menu.

Synthetic Corporation has taken this challenge up by providing food which is visually identical but actually very different in taste for Vrusk. It started with a line of foods for those who had allergies to some ingredients and could not fully partake in the company or trade house meal.  These alternates allowed them to avoid the shame of not eating what everyone else was eating. Soon floods of requests came into Synthetic Corporation suggestion offices. Apparently Vrusk are not as uniform as they present themselves.

Vrusk food comes in many varieties except for soups. The construction of their mouths means liquids are difficult to consume. The norm for Vrusk is to dip breads in broths and juices to allow it to be consumed or to eat high water content foods such as watermelon, pa’-tik-vu’, and tomatoes.

Yazirian

Yazirians are also omnivores but seemed to have taken the opposite track of Vrusk. Their ancestrial family of beings was almost entirely herbivores. It seems that as they developed intelligence a higher protein intake was required which was met by eating meat.

There is a theory that the Yazirian life enemy may have started with the need to acquire meat. Either the primitive Yazirian warrior/hunter would decide on a life enemy of an animal that thwarted their hunts or choose a life enemy from a favored but very dangerous game animal. As Yazirians developed society and clans they transferred this life enemy choice to opponents in other clans.

Speaking of clans, similar to Humans, Yazirians also like to have meals which are from their clan traditions. The planet they are on does not stop them from preparing food in the clan tradition. Of course Synthetic Corporation has taken up the challenge of providing traditional clan foods no matter where the Yazirian is located to great success. Also Synthetic Corporation specializes in showing how Yazirians can prepare meals of local foodstuffs in the traditional clan way.

Sample Foods

PolPol

A dralasite snack that smells pungent to yazirians, humans, and vrusk and thus comes packaged in a resealable package to contain the odor.

Pa’-tik-vu’

A native vrusk fruit that is prepared by boiling the flesh down into a thick sugary syrup and then immersing the roasted seed into the concentrated solution and allowing crystals to form upon the seed.  Crystallization takes several weeks.

Gollyberries

A genetic variant of ancient strawberry stock that was adapted and crossed with an unidentified Gollywog plant.

Lask-Ga

Seasoned and dried lask meat very popular among all yazirian clans and many humans.