Hacart

Hacart is a type of fermented fish dish that originated from the Boat Halfling tribes of the northern Stormchalice canals. It is rarely found outside of that region but is known due to mention in a number of Ubrekti comedies where it is mentioned as being perhaps the most disgusting smelling food. Hacart is made from a mixture of herbs, minerals found along the canal banks, and large chunks of the local canal sturgeon, a fish species which is otherwise considered aggressively inedible. Even bears and scavenger birds are known to avoid the fish. The sturgeon follow a large and predictable annual migratory run and only after 2-3 years of aging in a rotating series of jars along the banks of the canal is the fish considered edible (though few outside of the locals with hearty constitution and a small but growing international dwarven trade would likely agree with that description.) It's common for barges and lodgings along the canals to have signs prohibiting carrying even unopened jars of hacart, though being forced to try hacart is a common initiation ritual for crew and foolish travelers along the canal.

A fable among the canal halflings: Back in the real old days before the great canals were built the giant lake sturgeons were enemies of the Halflings that lived along the shore of the Stormchalice as they would grow to great size and frequently made meals of any Halflings who ventured onto the water. The creation of the canals broke apart the primeval paths of the sturgeon and their ancient spawning grounds were no longer accessible to the fish and in their desperation they begged for any nature spirits or druids to help them find their ways again. The only ones who responded were Green Hand who agreed to help but only if the sturgeon agreed to never grow so large as to be able to eat a Halfling again. In desperation the sturgeon elders agreed. Back in those days the the Halfling druids still had the big time powers and were able to reach out and change the energy flows of the canals and the minds of all of the sturgeon. They couldn't actually find the old paths so they just gave them new ones that looped around the canal system instead. The sturgeons' years-long migration routes were replaced with a short and regular looping cycle around the canal system. The sturgeon would only grow to a greatly reduced size and never again be able to swallow a halfling. Within just a few years the sturgeon at their largest were now perfectly sized for halfling nets and poles and they began to make up for all their eaten ancestors by eating the sturgeon instead. Eventually a method was even found to make it mostly not poisonous. The yearly sturgeon surges are so easy to catch that just a few lazy drunken hours with a net can fill several pots with possibly the most disgusting fish in the known world and along the canals of the Stormchalice the Boat Halflings have been doing for so most of written history.