In many games lacking a simulated hunger/thirst feature, food items become healing consumables, easily clumped together with cure potions. I propose that we give food items a separate purpose, instead of direct healing. Here is an example of how something like this might function:

degrading health regeneration

This method assumes that you have a "fullness" level. Absolute lowest is starving or famished, absolute highest is full. When you're full, you can't eat any more. Somewhere close to full is satiated. Satiated is the optimal level of fullness. When your fullness level is anywhere between satiated and full, your natural health regeneration is at its maximum. As your fullness level falls below satiated, your regeneration gradually slows.

You can never die as a result of extreme hunger, but your regeneration might sort of grind to a halt. (it'd probably be more like a slow crawl) The onset of hunger should happen slowly, characters should only be required to eat/drink maybe once a (game) day, or perhaps less.. to maintain a manageable rate of regeneration.

additional thoughts:

• When you reach the lower realm of hunger.. like when you've really neglected eating and drinking for a long time.. maybe you become weakened. Not sure how exactly; whether it'd be some sort of status effect or something else.

• Each race might have a particular preference for food and drink. By comparison, Humans and Demons might be fine eating anything. Something like this could be portrayed in different ways. The simplest way would be to restrict each race from eating a certain kind of food.. a variation on that would be giving each race an allergic reaction toward a specific type of food. Tritan for example, might react negatively to spicey foods. Ifriton might hate seafood. Racial food preference might also have benefits. When a race eats its "favorite" food.. maybe they receive a small instant cure, or briefly enhanced regeneration.

• As a dedication to a branch of MUDs, there could be at least one fountain somewhere in the central market square of a city, which dispenses magical water. Drinking from the magic fountain makes you full and quenches your thirst. Water from the magic fountain becomes normal water if it is put in to a container. (so people don't just fill up with magical water and avoid eating) In our game, the magic fountain might just be in Argaes, so that mainly lowbies will use it.

Mundane?

Maybe. ..but without some seemingly mundane features, the game would be little more than a boring, hack-and-slash, level-grind. We need actual game features that will break up the monotony of otherwise constant slaughter.

I like the whole concept because it gives an exclusive function to food. I'd hate to just keep food items as curative consumables (cure potions in disguise). Curative benefit from special/magical food is always an exception.

It gives a real purpose to hunting animals. If you can hunt (and almost more importantly, cook), you never really have to buy food. More importantly, it gives an added motivation for characters, other than an effort to become more powerful/wealthier. (Everyone's gotta eat!)

Food vendors and restaurants have the potential to perform a vital function in the game, instead of just being another place for you and your cronies to sit around.