The Great Taste of Pharloom is one of the longer, more-involved wishes in Silksong. You'll need to collect five ingredients so that Loyal Mergwin can feed his master the best dish possible.
Finding those five ingredients will take you across the length and breadth of Pharloom, and not all of them are particularly easy to get. Here's our guide on how to complete The Great Taste of Pharloom, where to find all five ingredients, and the best route for delivering the Courier's Rasher.
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The Great Taste of Pharloom Wish Guide
You'll pick up this quest while exploring the Choral Chambers of The Citadel. On the east side of the map is a dining room. Go through the Cog Core and when you reach the other side, drop down two rooms to reach the dining hall.
Head right and talk to Loyal Mergwin; He'll tell you about a special dish he wants to make his master, the Grand Gourmand. If you want the oil — and trust us, you do — then you'll need to bring him these five ingredients:
- Mossberry Stew
- Vintage Nectar
- Courier's Rasher
- Crustnut
- Pickled Muckmaggot
These vary in difficulty, with the Courier's Rasher being by-far the trickiest, which we've popped at the end. Here's where to find all five ingredients.
Mossberry Stew Location
By far the easiest ingredient, the Mossberry Stew is a dish made by the Moss Druid in Mosshome. She's in the far-right of the area, above the entryway to The Marrow.
You should have already completed the Berry Picking Wish from the beginning of the game, but if not, you might need to complete that quest first.
Talk to her and she'll gladly hand over the stew. Easy peasy! If only they were all that simple...
Vintage Nectar Location
For this delicious-sounding ingredient, make sure you have 480 Rosaries to spare. You can grind these out pretty quickly in the Choral Chambers if you're short.
Once you have the cash, head to Greymoor and go to the Halfway House. Rest at the bench and then speak to Creig. He's willing to part with the Nectar for a price, so give him the money. But you'll have to go and fetch the stuff yourself from the cellar. Okay, fair enough.
Drop down the newly-opened hatch and head to the very bottom to pick up the Vintage Nectar. Well, try to, because you'll be interrupted by a gang of ant enemies.
There are two waves of enemies, with the second wave including a Skarrgard. Save him until last. Once you've defeated them all, grab the Nectar, climb back up, and tell Creig about his little ant problem...
Crustnut Location
The Crustnut is hidden in an optional area, the Sands of Karak. To get here, you need Double Jump and Clawline; don't even try it without, it's impossible.
You need to go from the Blasted Steps and the Pinmaster's hot air balloon and use the rings on the left to make your way above. Use the bench here if this is your first time going to the Sands, as the platforming can be a little tricky.
Once you get there, the gimmick is that you need to 'unblock' the little mounds by hitting the orb to allow branches to grow. Then you can platform and pogo your way through each screen.
Once you reach the tall room (Shakra is in the first room on the left), we highly recommend breaking the floor here and opening up a shortcut to the Blasted Steps. It's right by a Flea after all! Rest at the bench near the Bellway here, it's a much-less painful runback than the tent.
Right, now we're ready. Climb upwards until you reach a second opening on the left. Go through it and you'll enter a room filled with spiked balls. Or are they urchins? Anyway, you need to make your way through this area by breaking the spiked balls and doing some tricky platforming.
When you reach a doorway on your left, break through and go in. You'll see some silk in the top corner, so you want to grab that and keep progressing. Hiding behind some urchins and enemies is your Crustnut. Phew!
Pickled Muckmaggot Location
This is another ingredient you'll need Double Jump for. Luckily, it's much easier to get to than the Crustnut. It does involve a boss fight, however.
Head to Sinner's Road and make your way to the bench (again, close to Shakra's location). Park here and then return to the room where the Green Prince is/was trapped. Go through the bottom right doorway and make your way to the end of the room. In the room below is a Barbed Bracelet, but double jump up and you'll reach a new room.
Open the shortcut to the left in this area, then head right. Hit the gong and you'll have to fight two Roachservers.
Then, the test — Disgraced Chef Lugoli. This fight isn't too bad, but the boss does double damage and if you get hit by the muck and muckmaggots, your silk will slowly be eaten away. The only way you can cure this is by healing.
He only really has three different attacks, with an additional one coming in the second phase, so learn the patterns and stay as close as possible to him and you should get him eventually. You'll get the Pickled Muckmaggot as a reward.
Courier's Rasher Location
Hoo boy; if you remember the Delicate Flower in Hollow Knight, this is very similar. You should save doing the Courier's Rasher last because it's the most time-consuming and most frustrating, plus it takes you directly to Mergwin.
Before you can even do this part of the quest, you need Clawline and Double Jump to maximise your movement. You also need to complete both the My Missing Courier and My Missing Brother Wishes in Bellhart. Doing both of these will unlock Courier Deliveries as well as the Courier's Rasher.
You need to deliver the Courier's Rasher to Mergwin from Bellhart to the Choral Chambers' dining room without using the Bellway, dying, or getting hit too many times. That's a pretty long route!
Your meat needs to be as fresh as possible and you'll see a timer in the top-left corner of the screen; it will steadily decrease, but every time you get hit or run into a wall, a chunk of time will be shaved off. You can afford a few hits, but ideally, try not to run into enemies.
Best Route for Courier's Rasher
We found this to be the safest and most efficient route to get the Rasher to Mergwin in good time. It took us a couple of attempts, but each time things got easier.
Basically, you're going from Shellwood to the Blasted Steps to the Grand Gate to the Choral Chambers. Here's a few little pointers for the route:
- Don't sit on any bench; before you take the Rasher, sit on the bench at Bellhart. That way, if you fail, you can quit and you'll restart right back at the beginning
- Equip the Silkspeed Anklets; these will increase your running speed at the cost of your silk. Yet your silk will regenerate a little throughout, as you won't be running while climbing.
- In Shellwood, use Clawline to jump over the water — it's much quicker than gliding and double jumping
- The Blasted Steps are actually much easier with double jump now; you can skip all of the spikes by using your Clawline and jumping skills to navigate the air and cage section.
- At the Grand Gate, you want to reach the second platform on the right-hand wall and jump through the broken wall here.
- After the broken wall, be careful of the saw blade! We definitely lost a run here...
- The only real danger in Choral Chambers is the enemies. If you have the Cogfly Tool, pop a few as you run through here
- When you reach the dining room, jump up. Be careful not to run into the door to the right instead.
The Great Taste of Pharloom Reward
So, what do you get after doing all of that? Well, remember what Mergwin is keeping? Pale Oil. And yes, that's your very well-deserved reward.
With the Pale Oil, Hornet can now upgrade her Needle again, so go and do that right away!
Perhaps not fast food, but we were pretty fast with that rasher! If you need more help with The Citadel and Pharloom, head over to our Hollow Knight: Silksong walkthrough hub for more handy collectible guides, maps, and our recommended story route.