In a small kingdom ringed by mountains, the Prime Minister attempts to write a dictionary. The problem is, no one can agree on the meaning of the word "delicious." Fights break out over the issue, so twelve-year-old Gaylen is sent to poll everyone in the kingdom about the most delicious foods. He is helped in his quest by dwarfs, sentient winds, a woldweller, and a mermaid named Ardis. Meanwhile, the queen's evil brother Hemlock travels the countryside, sowing discord.
The Search for Delicious contains examples of:
- The Ageless: All fantastical beings are immortal. Ardis looks and acts like a young girl despite being over 900 years old. The dwarfs and the woldweller also appear to be ageless, even though they look like adults.
- Asleep for Days: Gaylen eats dinner in a cave with three dwarfs. The smoke from one dwarf's pipe and the music from another one's flute put him to sleep. He wakes up three days later, by which point Hemlock has almost completed his plan to take over the kingdom.
- Doorstop Baby: Gaylen was left in a basket at the castle gate. The Prime Minister took him in and raised him as his son.
- Everyone Hates Fruit Cakes: Gaylen questions a farmer couple about their favorite foods. The wife tells him the question is easy because her fruitcake is the best food in the kingdom. But because all respondents are under a royal decree to be honest, her husband says that he absolutely hates fruitcake and has been suffering in silence for thirty years.
- Food as Bribe: The non-human races are all totally uninterested in human problems and will only provide help or information if a human offers them something in return. The woldweller will answer questions in exchange for rabbits, while dwarfs accept apples as payment.
- Instant Messenger Pigeon: During Gaylen's quest, he and the Prime Minister communicate by tying messages to the Prime Minister's cockatoo's leg. The cockatoo can always find Gaylen, no matter where he is.
- Legend Fades to Myth: Most people think that mermaids, woldwellers, and dwarfs exist only in tales. The dwarfs have all gone underground and rarely come out, the woldwellers got sick of answering people's stupid questions and stopped talking to them, and hardly anyone has been to Ardis's mountain lake in centuries.
- Lost Toy Grievance: The dwarfs had built a house of rocks over the spring that feeds the lake. The door opens and closes to the sound of a whistle. The dwarf who had made this whistle had also made Ardis a doll of linked stones, with a trailing fern for hair. Ardis loved the doll. One day, she left it in the now-submerged house. Then a human man found the whistle, which Ardis had kept on a chain and hung from a rock by the water's edge. The man blew the whistle, which caused the house's door to close, trapping the doll inside, then took the whistle with him. There is no other way of opening the door. Ardis has been grieving for her doll for 900 years. Every night, she cries for hours. After Gaylen realizes that his "Good Luck Charm" is really her whistle, he gives it to her in exchange for destroying Hemlock's dam.
- Mathematician's Answer: Gaylen asks a shepherd boy for information, but thanks to Hemlock's lies, he thinks Gaylen is up to no good, so he gives answers that are as literal and unhelpful as possible. Gaylen asks him what weekday it is, if he saw a man riding a large gray horse wearing a cape, and how long it would take Gaylen to ride to the next town. The boy answers that it's a strong day, not a weak day, that he would remember seeing a horse wearing a cape, and that it will take Gaylen a very long time to get to the next town, since his horse is currently standing still.
- Meaningful Name: Gaylen's full first name is Vaungaylen, which means "little healer." The Prime Minister wanted a child so badly that it kept him up at night, which caused him to get sick. After he adopted Gaylen, he slept soundly and was much healthier. Other examples include Prime Minister DeCree, Mayor Veto, and the villainous Hemlock.
- Nature Spirit:
- The woldweller lives in a tree in the exact center of the forest. His job is to look after the woods. He is angered by clumsy humans who break branches while they walk.
- The winds take the form of a small storm with disembodied voices speaking together. They control all the weather in the kingdom.
- Silly Reason for War: With Hemlock's encouragement, the people of the kingdom divide themselves into two factions, the Squashies and the Crisps, based on their food preferences. Within days the country is on the verge of civil war.
- Spontaneous Generation: This appears to be how fantastical creatures appear — if there are enough trees, rocks, or water in one place, then woldwellers, dwarfs, and mermaids will appear. A possible exception is winds, because it's mentioned that they hatch their young in a hollow in a mountain.
- The Usurper: Hemlock's ultimate goal is getting the people to rise up and kill the King so Hemlock can take over the kingdom.
- Wandering Minstrel: Gaylen meets a minstrel named Canto who sings him a song about Ardis's sorrow and gives him a Good Luck Charm: a stone key that's been in Canto's family for generations.
