Races
More races would be great, but the current races themselves don't feel that fleshed out yet. The troll is a good example of a balanced race, it has some minor stat boosts, with a bonus to HP regen and a penalty to hunger. That makes it unique and balanced, whereas a lot of races either have bonuses shared by other races (night vision is one three races) or even just some minor stat bonuses which are pretty inconsequential. The better discussion IMO would be how to improve the existing races to make for more unique play styles. As you suggested, racial abilities would be a huge step in the right direction.
Hunger/Thirst
These mechanics in their current stage definitely feel more like a nuisance than anything immersive or challenging. I think the rate at which you become hungry/thirsty should be dramatically reduced, while also reducing opportunities to find food/water. In this way, it can remain something you should be preparing for without being a constant interruption to game play.
Being able to prepare special meals with potion-like effects from magical ingredients would certainly improve depth and interest in the mechanics, potentially also making use of some items with very limited applications such as the wild mushrooms. But I think the opposite should also be true, perhaps taking minor penalties from eating lower quality food like raw meat (unless you have some sort of racial immunity to that), to motivate players to pursue better foodstuffs without making it feel as much like a forced mechanic as it does now.