Warning: This post may be dark and full of spoilers…
“I drink and I know things.” ~Tyrion and me
I do drink, and I do know things.
Before I started watching Game of Thrones, though, I didn’t know how much I’d enjoy a story that featured zombies.
Are you a fan? I wasn’t always. I arrived late to the GOT party, not starting to watch the HBO series—or read the books—until 2016. Let us say that this is when my watch began.
I wrote this in my last blog post about the things I’m eating during this last GOT season, but I was never a fan of zombies, or books or movies that featured them. Of course, I have always loved dragons.
Dragons and great stories with complicated characters and really, really good writing. I truly love those things, and thus, after much curiosity and prodding from family and friends, I decided to watch, and of course, eventually did indeed become addicted to this series called Game of Thrones.
It’s a story that makes for some great themed meals.
Game of Thrones
Why did I become addicted to Game of Thrones? Well, besides loving Arya, Jon, Tyrion and all those dire wolves, I think the reason why is exactly what I wrote above: I have always loved the idea of dragons, and of course I love good stories and good writing and I do love complicated characters. Those people you hate, but then understand, get a glimpse into who they really are, kind of forgive–or at least start to like—then hate again, but then they do something to completely redeem themselves and you start to love them, or at least respect them.
Only to watch them die some horrible death.
Oh, and there are cute dogs (dire wolves), too!
(Don’t my girls above look like cute little dire wolves?!)
That pretty much sums up Game of Thrones. Well that, and a bunch of crazy schemes, incest, graphic sex scenes, clothes that are worn for a really, really long time and then more sex and lots of violence. And I mean a lot of violence. Violence that you actually find yourself looking forward to.
All Men Must Eat
Indeed, all men must eat, and when watching the final season of Game of Thrones, all men (and women) must eat well.
Also as noted in a previous blog post, the books and the series are full of meats roasted on spits, ale, wine, lemon cakes, lots of lamb and goat, eggs and sausages and bacon, pigeon pies, rabbit stew, fish, breads and cheese, even more ale and yes, much more wine. It was a true feast for the eyes reading through many of George R.R. Martin’s passages about food. The rat cook aside, they ate pretty well when life was good.
So, what was on the menu the last two weeks?
In The Kitchens
Weeks three and four were going to be epic and good—if not exactly the endings we all wanted to see in the battle against the Night King and the battle among the Stark “siblings” then perhaps in my kitchen with two amazingly epic and good suppers.
One supper contained a young stewed rabbit, one a nicely roasted chicken.
Oh, and some breakfasts, afternoon snacks, and sweets too.
Episode Three: The Long Night
“You’re both very good at skinning rabbits.” ~Bran to Meera and Osha
Thanks to a local meat market, I didn’t have to skin our rabbit. More time to prepare for The Long Night.
A young rabbit for a stew fit for a knight. 
Julia Child’s rabbit stew recipe prep. 
Ready for marinating.. 
The rabbit marinated overnight. 
A GOT Sunday breakfast big enough for the hound.
The long night? The battle was long and dark and sometimes confusing to watch. But wouldn’t it be all of those things? A battle at night, I mean.
To me, Game of Thrones has always been a show that you must watch over and over again, if not at least more than once.
A few times, especially during seasons one and two, Peter would walk in, see me watching and ask, “Who is that? What are they talking about?” Or, “What’s going on?”
My answer would always be, “I don’t know yet.” And, I didn’t. I had to keep watching, keep learning who was who and what was what. And because it wasn’t real life, I got to rewind and/or watch again, and then pick up some part I missed, or start to match the (amazing) music with what was about to happen.
The Long Night has to be rewatched to truly be appreciated. It also helps when you know how it ends once you do rewatch. I could barely fall asleep that night I watched it the first time.
Luckily, I ate well and that perfectly stewed rabbit helped me to eventually fall asleep.
Episode Four: The Last of the Starks
“I understand that if any more words come pouring out your cunt mouth, I’m gonna have to eat every fucking chicken in this room.” ~The Hound
Spoiler: We only ate one chicken.
The last of the Starks. Oh, right.
While of course I knew that Jon never had the surname, Bran can’t father any children, and the girls obviously wouldn’t carry on their family’s last name, I hadn’t thought about the fact that they were the last of the Starks. The last of a family that—according to the books—had been around for 1,000 years or more. It made me sad to think about once I saw the title of the episode.
I know, I know. We knew all along that the sisters would eventually find out that Jon was not their brother, but rather a Targaryen—and their cousin (of course that also means that Jon is in love with his aunt…eww) and chances of a super happy ending died a long time ago, but it wasn’t until after the episode that, for me, that realization started to hit hard. My favorite Stark siblings were not going to live happily ever after. An ever after of any sort is all I can hope for at this point.
Luckily, good meals can always help make for a happy ending to any day. Even a day where some of your Game of Thrones dreams don’t come true.
(Which happens in more episodes than we’d like to admit, but hey, we knew that going in, right!)
The Meals to Come…
Too much again? Maybe. Maybe not. All I know is that, as Cersei reminds Lord Stark, “When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.”
When you watch Game of Thrones, you should eat and drink, and you should eat and drink well. There should be no middle ground.
Two more Game of Thrones meals to go, and I imagine that they, like these two were, will be among the best things I eat in those weeks.
They will at least be the things I blog about. Stay tuned!
Elda XO
P.S. There are two episodes yet to watch—to cook for, and to write about after this, so there will be more GOT-themed food posts coming. I wish you good fortune in the meals to come…
