02 - Smoke-cured gravlax; citrus infused grog; hearty cod potage thickened with hardtack.

[tisfinished]

01: Smoke Em If You Got Em (ft Link)

The latest catch of seafood was abundant and the clear if cold weather on the local islands amenable: Senshi is going to smoke herring, cod and salmon, both as a practical way to extend the Fleet’s rations and to satisfy the curiosity of that adept fisherman Link at his request.

He’s already placed inch-thick fillets into barrels with water, salt, molasses, herbs and lemon slices, and is gathering the right kind of aromatic wood for the job - fist sized chunks of dry cherry, oak and applewood. The smokers, each larger than Senshi, squat in a protective layer of gravel.

“Alright, then,” he says. “Curious about how to smoke fish?”

02: Axes of the Dwarves

For all that he insists he is better in the back keeping everyone fed, Senshi has heard the rumblings of an Imp counterattack and knows he will have to defend himself. It’s not often you see the dwarf in the training halls and dojos of Flotsam, but he’s here now, practicing with his cleaver, his adamant shield/wok… and a bearded axe of simple construction, with a spike on the top and a hammer head in the back.

His expression and demeanor are uncharacteristically grim.

“Do folks need a sparring partner?” he’ll ask.

03: Where Everybody Knows Your Name

And, of course, there are always mouths to feed. But there’s a tension Senshi can’t quite rid himself of even as he works the job he loves so well, serving soup and small beer to all and sundry.

He serves himself last, and eats much more slowly than usual, staring into his drink. It’s clear that sonething weighty is on his mind.

Comments

[newmemorywhodis]

Link had watched all of Senshi's preparation - the barrels, the gathering of the wood - with a focused intensity. He is paying very close attention, and is clearly taking in as many details he can.

Yes, Link is absolutely curious about how to smoke fish. He nods his head rapidly.

[tisfinished]

He takes out a bright pink piece of salmon from its dry brine in salt and sugar, dill and pepper.

“This is as much to preserve as to cook it; when we’re done it should last a good month stored properly. We start with rough salt - larger crystals the better, benedict grade if you can find it. That way you fill more space without it getting too salty. Dill’s traditional but there are plenty of herbs that work well.”

[newmemorywhodis]

Ah. Food preservation. Not something Link had actually bothered with much...until very recently, when he'd found himself without his Korok-enchanted pack. Link nods with understanding.

"Rock salt?" He asks. And then pulls out a literal chunk of it from his pack, holding it out towards Senshi. Would this work for what Senshi wants to do?

[tisfinished]

He sees the enormous chunk of the stuff and actually laughs, slapping his knee as he makes a single bark of amusement and approval.

"Maybe grind it a little finer than that, but aye, that'd do nicely!" he says.

[newmemorywhodis]

Link just nods, and then moves to start grinding up the rock salt. Really, he always grinds it up before using it anyway - rock salt's not so useful when it's still, well, a rock. But it is easier to store that way.

With a little mortal and pestle, he starts working on grinding the salt down into more manageable chunk. As he does so, he looks towards Senshi - what else do they need for this recipe?

This is a real recipe

[tisfinished]

“With your salt, grind in: dark lump sugar, peppercorn. Juniper berry and caraway if you have it,” he says, providing these things.

“Once the salt is in small diamond-shaped flakes, pour half of it over a bed of dill in your curing dish, and press the fish into that. Rub on top the remaining spice blend, top with dill, and press and weight a top over it.”

Nice!

[newmemorywhodis]

Link diligently follows the instructions - although he does first have to confirm what some of these ingredients are with Senshi. Not all of these are ingredients that can be found in Hyrule, and so Link isn't familiar with all of them. So first he points to some of them, saying the name for confirmation - "Juniper berry? Caraway?"

With those confirmed, he grinds everything up. Pours it over the dill. Then begins to press in the fish, adding more spice and dill as Senshi instructed. Now though, he starts looking around - what to use as a weight?

Re: Nice!

[tisfinished]

Senshi offers a brick.

Then he takes his own fillet, already half-cured, and then opens up the smoking hut and puts the fish onto a rack inside it.

“This thing’s the real trick,” he says, whacking the smoker door shut. “Keeps it wrapped in smoke and the heat from the smoke as long as we need it to, concentrating it inside. For this, we want low and slow, almost an entire day. Hotter works better for thicker, fattier cuts.”

[newmemorywhodis]

Link blinks.

"A whole day?" he says, surprised. He's never cooked anything for that long.

But then, Link almost always is on the move. He's out and about, going places. Doing tasks, or following Zelda. He's rarely stayed in one spot long enough to let something cook for an entire day.

Maybe it's not such a surprise, that he's never smoked anything before.

[tisfinished]

“Aye, a whole day, for the stuff meant to keep; time spent keeping the fire smoky and just low enough. An hour for more delicate things. I’ve had good experiences going low and slow with tough meat, too: ribs, briskets, the like.”

He pauses.

“I do it on days when I have other errands nearby, not so far that I can’t tend the fire. Like wood to chop or steels to hone.”

[newmemorywhodis]

Link nods. Makes sense. Maybe he'd try those other things out too sometimes as well...if he ever had the time and patience for it.

Right now though, he stares at the smoking fish. What was he going to do right now? (A whole day?!)

He glances over towards Senshi, hoping he might have an answer. "...You need help?" Surely Senshi had some plans? Maybe Link could help with them.

[tisfinished]

"As a matter of fact, there's more fishing to to and more wood to gather," he says. "But I didn't expect you to hang around for a whole cold-smoking. I can show you how to hot-smoke something in an hour; it doesn't keep as long, but it does have that excellent smoky flavor."

[newmemorywhodis]

So...rather than spending an entire day hanging around for hours, waiting, and being bored out of his mind...he could learn how to do this in just an hour?

Well that sounds much more workable. At least if Link was ever going to do this again on his own sometime.

So Link shifts, turning his body towards Senshi in a gesture of attentiveness. Link's listening, Senshi - what do they have to do?

3

[relentless_sentinel]

Being in the same group as Senshi and working with him on food sometimes, Nephenee's gotten a bit more used to the dwarf's moods. So while she can't immediately comment at first, helping out as she is, she comes over after he's seated himself, quietly taking the seat across from him with her own plate.

For a moment, she doesn't say anything, but eventually she softly asks, "...Ya alright, Sir Senshi?"

Re: 3

[tisfinished]

For a moment, his only acknowledgement is a grunt. Then, he seems to realize that he was asked a fairly significant question, and he cups his chin in hand, stroking his beard, thinking on his answer.

“Thinking about what we found out from our esteemed noble guest,” he replies. “Getting myself ready for it. It’ll be a grim business.”

[relentless_sentinel]

The Sentinel nods as she listens, her helmet clinking lightly against her armour. Grim business, indeed.

She sips her drink, taking in everything. All things considered, they do a good job. "Will be. Don't surprise me much, though," the soldier says after a moment of thought. "Sounds like we've more a thorn in their side than before, 'specially with gettin' that mine."

Which has been nice to utilize for the time they have, but in the end, they can get more resources elsewhere. They can't replace lives lost, and potentially losing Flotsam would be far worse than that mine.

Her emerald eyes go to him, trying to get a read, her own face mostly neutral, but for a worry that she can't hide no matter how hard she tries. He's a comrade, so... "...Ya e'er been in somethin' like this, Sir Senshi?"

[tisfinished]

“I’ve been an adventurer before,” he says. “Paid for the heads of monsters and in any salvage or loot I could find. I’ve seldom fought folks.”

He takes a pull of his beer, nodding approval at it and at Neph.

“Pardon me for saying so but you look like you understand the distinction.”

[relentless_sentinel]

Something about him saying that earns him a sudden chuckle and smile from the Sentinel, which breaks some of the tension around them. Well, she's not going to argue that.

"Heh...no pardon needed." She says wryly, "Ah been in two wars, way too many battles...be worried if Ah didn't seem t'know the difference. E'en if some o'the folks Ah had to help take down back home are like the beastkin here...fair bit different than huntin', for sure."

For so many and such obvious reasons, she doesn't think she really needs to explain them.

"Didn't go after treasure much, though. We had others for that, when it came up. But e'en they saw combat in the wars. Real different world, though, treasure huntin' an' stuff like this, Ah reckon...never got into that, e'en as part o'the Greil Mercenaries durin' the wars. After Ah moved my family to the capital an' took on guard work an' teachin' other lancers, never got a chance for anythin' else."

Which, she reflects now, kind of stinks. The wanderlust sure had grown over time, even as she loves being with her family...

"...What's it like? Bein' an adventurer, Ah mean." Given she has no experience there, while she knows it's a different life, it's handy to find out more...and she's a darned curious girl.

[tisfinished]

"I enjoyed it," he replies, "or enjoyed charting the wilderness and the dungeon floors, and taking note of all the new beasties and plants I could find."

He takes a pull of his beer. "Foraged a lot of my food from them, too. I can't say that manticore tail hot pot wasn't delicious, but I admit that pork and beef easier to work with. Less aggressive when you bring them to slaughter."

[relentless_sentinel]

Huh, that almost puts her in mind of something like a cartographer, or a researcher. She listens intently, chewing her way through her food fairly fast. She should probably pay more attention to the flavour, but she's a bit too interested in what he's saying to do more than noting that it's good.

"If ya hadn't said that last part, Ah'd've asked if ya primarily do research or mapmakin'." Well, maybe he still does. "Pretty used to pork an' chicken, lil' less so beef. Can't say Ah've heard o'this 'manticore tail hot pot' thing 'fore now, or e'en a 'manticore', though. But if you're sayin' that, sounds like they're kinda dangerous?"

[tisfinished]

"Large as a man with a venemous sting," he confirms. "Strange things happen when creatures live in areas with an abundance of ether - that's how you get monsters, and 'Dungeons.'"

He doesn't mean underground prisons by that. He finishes his beer, considers, than starts refilling it.

"I've seen carnivorous plants large enough to swallow a tallfolk man whole, banished ghosts using a jar of holy water as a flail, and seen a red dragon take flight. As curious as I was to see how that last was put together, I don't regret fleeing the scene rather than getting closer to check."