Random D&D headcanon #137: since most of the things humans use as spices are technically naturally evolved insecticidal poisons,...
Random D&D headcanon #137: since most of the things humans use as spices are technically naturally evolved insecticidal poisons, dwarvish poison resistance also gives them enormous spice tolerance. This doesn’t actually come up all that much in their native cultures, as the chemical defences of underground flora tend toward relatively flavourless neurotoxins rather than powerful irritants, but those dwarves who’ve taken to surface cuisine often develop tastes that members of other species find downright frightening.
Supplementary headcanon: owing to the fact that most alkaloids are harmless to dwarves, the dwarven sensorium never evolved the ability to taste bitterness – it just doesn’t register for them. They do, however, have at least one flavour in their basic gustatory palette that has no analogue in the human experience; attempts to describe this flavour are largely incomprehensible to surface-dwellers, but the dwarvish name for it translates approximately as “shiny”.
#what are some things that would taste ‘shiny’? (via @arwainian)
A variety of subterranean mushrooms and lichens, most shellfish and cephalopods, many legumes (including peanuts), certain rocks (though not metal ores – the flavour is apparently named by analogy, not because it’s literally what shiny things taste like!), and also, oddly, chicken.
Again, let me invoke the flavor “foxy” (like a particularly savory rock), which exists in wines made from American Vitis labrusca grapes