Haha, I did google myself last night and when I saw your post I thought "Oh I have to explain about Wakka!" because I put lots of thought into Spira. Where, say, FFVII is futuristic and multicultural, Spira is conservative and insular, so I stuck closely to traditional Southeast Asian recipes -- like, in FFVII you could probably walk into a bar and order burgers, but in FFX you'd order noodles, yeah?

So, I have Kilika kind of mapped to Thailand with Kilika Green Curry Shrimp and Kilika Grilled Shrimp with Soba Noodles (which OMG is so good, I really recommend that one, it's a little labor-intensive but totally worth it). The Besaid recipes are inspired by the cuisine of the Pacific Islands (Besaid Smoked Duck is based on a famous Indonesian recipe).

I read an interview with the art director who said that Zanarkand was modeled after the Uzbek city of Samarkand. I have a friend who's Uzbek and she gave me a traditional Uzbek recipe that I used to create Zanarkand Lamb Pilaf.

And then the Al Bhed, because of their name and their desert homeland, I linked to Persia and came up with Al Bhed Pomegranate Soup, which is very similar to something they serve at my favorite Persian restaurant.

Anyway, sorry for the tl;dr, and thanks for the warm welcome! I've come by here before on random web searches and never gotten around to registering, glad I finally did And do send me a recipe sometime! I love guest posts.