06 - Hearty fish chowder; fresh bread and butter; char-grilled eels on rice; coffee

[tisfinished]

01: sustenance
With refugees in the Vault, the Milk Run as a business is less important than making sure the new ones, the strangers, are properly fed. Senshi and anyone capable who cares to help him have set themselves to this task, making sure there’s enough nice hot soup and bread for any starving miner or factory worker, now cut off from their old life, to at least not have to worry about their next meal.

Whenever possible Senshi takes a moment to make sure the new uns are settled in and have a warm bed, and does his best to make them feel welcome, but he knows with a crowd this size that’s not always possible. So many mouths, so little time. Still, he makes the new arrivals feel human whenever he can.

02: luxury
Senshi is going around with a survey, asking new and old what luxury foods and ingredients they most miss from the Empire and carefully noting down the answers in a notebook.

If asked why, he says, “Simple: next time I’m out shopping with the Milk Run, I’ll try to find some.”

He’s dead serious.

What flavors and treats do you miss most?

Comments

01: sustenance

[bearsperminute]

Well, after getting a lecture from him earlier about the importance of keeping her station clean, how could she not come and help out everyone else getting their daily bread?

Besides, it can't all be sorties in the Flotsam detachments. "Here, here." She gives the coin scattered on the counter a brief hairy eyeball.

"... Just take that as payin' it forward, huh..."

[tisfinished]

“A lot of the new folk feel the need. If that one’s already gone, we put it towards the general kitchen funds. Like you said, paying it forward.”

He ladles up another bowl, and the steam wafting from the golden broth and the generous chunks of cod, potato and carrot are inviting.

“Thanks for helping me with the serving, Kanna.”

[bearsperminute]

"I'd've helped you with the prep and the cooking, but you were mostly done by the time I got here," Kanna said. "Thank you, regardless."

"Here, here, one bowl-- that's a way."

[tisfinished]

"And hup -"

He takes it and slides it down the counter to a grateful, hungry newcomer.

"Where'd you learn to cook, anyway? It's not a common hobby for an armor-jock. Not much time or opportunity I'm told."

[bearsperminute]

She passes it on, and keeps the rolls coming. "Oh, that? That was before I became an armor-jock. Even leaving aside that Dad used to take me on wilderness training, actresses and servants hardly get their own cooks, you know?

"So I learned to make do. Came in handy even as an armor-jock, come to think..."

[tisfinished]

"It's handy for anyone, but yeah. Apologies, I had you figured for an aristo, not one of-"

He wants to say 'one of us' and stops himself.

"Not from a working-class background, like I was."

[bearsperminute]

She laughs for a second. "Maybe my family was, what with a family fighting style and a lot of weird worship traditions. But, well, the Empire likes their own aristos, so if we were, it's out of the living memory of even my grand-dad. We were doin' our damnedest just to keep it alive."

"Right--" she serves up some more. "In good health to you--"

02

[frost_and_shinies]

"... Um. I'm not superbly sure, honestly," Kaitlyn observes in response to the question.

"I was kinda hiding and scrounging so I wasn't thinking of luxury components much. So most of what I'd miss would be from before my time in Empire territory. I don't think sodas are something you'd find so easily..."

She does not necessarily realize she's set off another Sidequest.

Re: 02

[tisfinished]

"Soda. Hmn. Describe it," he says.

Because he has heard other outworlders describe the stuff, and it doesn't sound that hard to make. Iced effervescent mineral water with a flavored syrup stirred in is easy, if you can get the flavor of the syrup correct.

Re: 02

[frost_and_shinies]

"Carbonated water as a method of making it bubbly, strong usually sweet flavorings, not alcoholic. Specific flavors traditionally included the cola nut or a specific root, the result being referred to as 'root beer'. I think the same root used differently meant it was instead called 'sarsparilla'?"

... She's clearly not used to thinking about what she eats and drinks so much.

Re: 02

[tisfinished]

“Kola nut will be a worthy challenge, but I can do some kind of ginger or sasparilla beer no problem,” he says.

He scribbles it down.

“Trying to see just how far around the globe the Milk Run and my Merchant Guild contacts’ll take me,” Senshi says with pride. “And if it means outworlders have refreshing kola drinks, so much the better.”

Re: 02

[frost_and_shinies]

"Makes me wonder if, were it not for what I'm best at, I'd be good for that kind of voyage..."

But she knows her role. Combat and infiltration.

Re: 02

[harlequinchimera]

Oki does manage to catch him as he's making the rounds and gives him a smile at the question. "Oh, it's simple. Coffee. Coffee and milk - and I may see about the means to make the best use of these."

She looked at him with a smile and a slight tilt to her head.

"I operated a coffee shop once, and I may do so again - I remember just about all of the recipes, but the technology to make best use of them is a step for after I have the time and resources needed. Coffee is simple. Espresso is less so."

She broke into a sunny smile.

"The other supply worth looking into is chocolate, preferably the dark stuff."

Re: 02

[tisfinished]

He laughs at the first one. "Oh, coffee is easy! Grows all over the drier islands. Been serving it for months - but if you want to do your special thing to it I can get you all the beans and milk you need."

He considers. "Chocolate, on the other hand, that's a trickier thing. I've only heard of Impie bigwigs drinking it to show off how rich they are. All the more reason to try to get some seeds to the Vault, though. Thanks for suggesting it."

Re: 02

[harlequinchimera]

Oki nodded, giving the Dwarf a rare smile. "Excellent, keep in touch - in future, there may be even more to this idea than just the ingredients."

She actually winked at Senshi, closing her dark left eye.

"But that is the secret to a great many things, isn't it?"

02

[spacetogrow]

This gets a smile. "I don't know if they even exist in this world," Ilphyl answered. "And 'foods from deep caverns of my home plane' doesn't exactly seem the Empire's style to bring in, even if they bring in things other than people for forced labor."

Re: 02

[tisfinished]

“Try me,” Senshi says. “Trying to flex my skills as procurer, y’see - put the Imps to shame with how well we feed our people.”

Re: 02

[spacetogrow]

"I might have to include some drawings, since I don't know their names in this language. Oh... but if you could get meat or cheese from a sheep? I think that's the closest this world has to a rothé. Or maybe it's more like a goat. One of those."

02

[theriflespiral]

"... Honestly? A mutton blin, or a Mongolian-styled noodle soup. Hardly luxurious, I know, but... I was not raised in luxurious circumstances."

Re: 02

[tisfinished]

“I think I should rephrase my question,” Senshi replies, gently. “But let’s go where this answer’s going first. Tell me about blin.”

Re: 02

[theriflespiral]

"It's somewhere between a crepe and a pancake," she says. "Often with buckwheat or millet flour in addition to wheat. They're pliable enough you can fold them over most fillings without breaking them, and warm yesterday's meal that way. We... did not get them often at the program, but they were cheap and simple enough to steal some cheese or fish with."

Re: 02

[tisfinished]

“Shouldn’t be hard to add them to the restaurant rotation. Can even do it with a bunch of fillings - savory and sweet. If there’s a particularly good occasion for them next month, let me know.”

He jots it down.

“But I’ll be honest, while I appreciate the comfort food recipes, I was looking for a different kind of challenge.”

Re: 02

[theriflespiral]

"Ah. ... Hm. I don't have much experience with true luxury foods. Though, last time I was serving for the King's Bounty, I heard about something called 'Etheric Meringue'. It had a resemblance to something I'd heard of called a 'Siberian Omelette'-- cake, topped with ice cream, and then a browned meringue. That's... More a matter of capability than ingredients, but you could probably manage it with a salted ice box and a bit of run-up time."

Re: 02

[tisfinished]

“Vanilla ice cream on cinnamon chocolate cake would make it sufficiently luxurious to make a statement,” Senshi says. “Add the virtuoso cooking technique to it - yeah. Time to embarrass some nobility.”

02

[newmemorywhodis]

When Senshi poses the question, Link blinks slowly.

"From...the Empire?"

Link does not remember ever being given any good food from the Empire. It's not exactly something he's nostalgic for.

Re: 02

[tisfinished]

“Ah,” Senshi says, the syllable an apology. “More after foods you miss than after anything you might have had in the Empire. The rarer the treat, the better.”

[newmemorywhodis]

Ah. So things from home would count. That's a bit easier, and Link takes a moment to think.

"...Big hearty radishes," he says. He'd arrived with a lot of ingredients stored in his korok-enchanted pack, but he didn't have any of those. He only had one, solitary normal-sized hearty radish.

[tisfinished]

“Hearty is easy, but large enough… I think I know where to get suitably large daikon; I’ll look into it. I’m also trying to get a stock of rare herbs, spices or potion ingredients.”

[newmemorywhodis]

"I have a normal Hearty Radish," Link says, before pulling out a normal hearty radish. It is indeed a very nice looking radish. Like somehow eating it will make you feel better than ever.

But it is indeed a normal, average size. Not particularly large.

"...Just got one," he says, looking at it. He hadn't been able to bring himself to cook with it; once it was gone, it was gone. And then he'd have no radishes at all.