Dwarven diet

A roasted nug, considered a delicacy.

The diet of the dwarven race is unique to all other races in Thedas, owing to the majority of dwarves living their entire lives underground. The diet of those living in the thaig of Orzammar is the most documented, as opposed to the unknown diet of the more secretive dwarves of Kal-Sharok. As a result of living underground, a dwarf's diet relies heavily upon foodstuffs harvested, and animals found, in the Deep Roads.

Harvested Food

Dwarves make use of all edible items that can be scavenged in the Deep Roads, some of which are hazardous due to their proximity to Lyrium, and the darkspawn taint which pervades the entirety of the Deep Roads.

• Lichen: Can be made into a bread.

• Deep Mushroom: While it grows in close proximity to the darkspawn taint, these mushrooms are considered by dwarves to have a "unique flavor and intoxicating scent."

• Moss: Used in the production of dubious liquor.

• Fungus: Possibly used to brew liquor.

Food Animals

Dwarves both catch and breed animals as food sources.

• Nug: A small animal that appears as a cross between a pig and a rabbit. Its flavor has been described as an "unholy union of pork and hare." It is favored as a food source by poor and wealthy alike.

• Bronto: Selectively bred by the Shaperate as beasts of burden and food sources.

Known Dwarven Liquor

Dwarves have a long-standing love for, and uncanny ability to tolerate, liquor. They both import liquor and produce much on their own.

• Valenta's Red, the "Paragon of Ales"

• Brakien Brew: A beer with a heavy head and a deep, rich taste.

• Mosswine: A toxic wine brewed from moss.

• Hirol's Lava Burst: A gift for Ohgren in Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening, produced in lost Kal'Hirol.

• Dwarven ale: A drink with a reputation as being almost undrinkable for anyone not a dwarf. Reputedly made from fungus.

Surface Foods

Trade with the surface is essential to the wealth of the city of Orzammar, and food products are a part of that. Indeed, without the lifeline of trade, including food, into the city, survival in Orzammar would be very difficult. Surface food products are necessarily in high demand in Orzammar due to the few choices of food produced by the city itself and the exotic novelty of surface foods. Due to their great expense typically only nobles or the very influential are able to purchase these goods. One notable surface delicacy is plum jam. Surface goods in Orzammar include liquor too, such as honey mead, served in Tapster's Tavern, traded from a surface family who ships it every month.

Known Cuisine

• Old cheese and shredded dried meat: Used as a spread.

• Nug pancakes: Favored food of children.

• Nug-gets: Favored food of children.

• Seared nug: Seared on a hot metal plate and finished in the oven-and dressed in a cream sauce flavored with deep mushrooms.

• Fried mush

Trivia

• Paragon Varen discovered the edibility of nug while lost in the Deep Roads.

• Tapster's Tavern serves 52 types of ale, 17 meads and 12 imported wines, a testament to the dwarves' long-standing love of hard drink.

• As noted by Ohgren, Orzammar ale tastes like dirt in comparison to Ferelden ale, as dwarves put dirt in it.

• Nug-wranglers catch nugs to sell, and may also practice some form of nug farming to breed the animals.

• Dwarves farm mushrooms for food.

• Ohgren's gift, the Beard Flask from Feastday Gifts and Pranks, is fashioned from a nug stomach to facilitate hands-free drinking.

• Alistair and Leliana will comment upon drinking dwarven ale in location-specific dialog in Dragon Age: Origins. Wynne also professes interest in it in party banter with Ohgren, and even develops a taste for it by the time period of Dragon Age: Asunder.

See also

• Codex entry: In Praise of the Humble Nug
• Codex entry: The Noladar Anthology of Dwarven Poetry
• Codex entry: Nug
• Codex entry: Traditional Dwarven Folk Songs
• Codex entry: Deep Mushroom
• Codex entry: Bronto