Food/beverage demographics in TES III: Morrowind

[Bauglir100 ●]

So I've been playing the game, and I have to say: Morrowind is really lacking in terms of "mundane" food/drinks, especially compared to the other titles. This is just a minor thing, but I couldn't help but wonder:

Where's all the apples/oranges/tomatoes/corn/cheese/etc.? The only "familiar" foods in this game are bread, rat meat, Cyrodiilic brandy, and crab meat. I know that Vvardenfell was only recently settled by the rest of Tamriel, but you'd think the East Empire Company would put more effort into importing a wider variety of food from the rest of the provinces, right? Mournhold in the Tribunal expansion should at least have more variety, since it's not only on the mainland, but it's the capital of the entire province. Yet it really doesn't offer much apart from elixir and Durzog meat.

Even the Bloodmoon expansion, which is supposed to be a break from the more alien aspects of the rest of the game, is lacking in terms of food that people that don't live in Vvardenfell would be more accustomed too. The only "normal" food (not counting the various ingredients that happen to be edible) there is Nord Mead, Holly Berries, and Belladonna Berries. Yeah, that's right: Mead and berries.

There are all kinds of animals on Solstheim, yet all you can loot from them is their pelts/tusks/etc. I can understand that Solstheim is very hostile and the chances of coming across herbivores or plants you'd find at a farm would likely be slim, but are we really meant to believe that the Skaals have no meat in their diets? Thirsk can order all the mead they want from Skyrim, but they don't import meat like mutton, ham, or venison, or even hunt for meat from the local wildlife (Tusked Bristlebacks, Horkers), or even import/produce cheese or other dairy products?

Doesn't that just seem weird?

[Snake ●]

To be honest I haven't really paid any attention to it but now that I'm thinking about it, it does seem a bit weird.

[Imbalance ●]

Conversely, I found the abundance of meat that just laid around in the other games to be more odd.

I think I just assumed that the local climate promoted spoilage of imported foodstuffs, and that you wouldn't want to taste the flesh of much of anything that lived there. Scrib jerky was the one curious exception...

[Bauglir100 ●]

Really, what kind of barbarian village/meadhall doesn't have a piece of meat of some kind laying around on a plate or tray? I don't think they'd bulk up on berries, would you? Heck, there's hunks of corprusmeat found in every other Sixth House base on Vvardenfell, so I don't see why Nords wouldn't want to eat meat gained from hunting "normal" animals, especially considering how cold Solstheim is. Heck, it's just more jarring that they don't have any meat available there for that reason (at least in Bloodmoon). Especially considering there's three different types of pig meat (boar meat, pork, and ham) in Oblivion, and Tusked Bristlebacks are boars themselves.

Even if Bristleback meat isn't as great as regular boar meat, I'm sure it'd still be better than just gobbling up the meat of some plague-infested rat, right?

[Imbalance ●]

Sure, and perhaps they already did. All of it. Nomnomnom...