Marco and his party enter Woodholme via The Forest Gate, moods high from their victory over The Root of the Forest Dungeon, Marco is extra excited for his haul of monster ingredients.
He begins to plan his menu for the feast he invited his new friends to. “So, for monster ingredients I have Tangle Lemongrass, Ent Cinnamon, and Abomination Horseradish.” Marco thinks to himself, “Lemongrass is perfect for a curry base; using tofu as the protein substitution for my vegetarian friends. Lemongrass is generally very fibrous and hard to chew so if the monster version holds true to the regular kind, then we will focus on steeping and infusing the stock and curry with the flavor.”
Marco makes his mental prep list and menu, “Stuff the curry full of vegetables for texture and extra flavor and maybe top it with some crispy chickpeas.” He nearly runs into a group of older human women while he is daydreaming of food. He makes plans for a butternut squash soup and hopes to make deviled eggs, not knowing if they are a thing on Omnia.
“Shen, I know you agreed to visit House Ivory for dinner this evening, but do you have any food allergies or aversions?” Marco asks, “I am planning certain foods but I can change things around if I need to.”
“No allergies or aversions other than the vegetarianism that you already work with at House Ivory.” Shen replies, the group moving through the streets of Woodholme.
“Awesome! Come by House Ivory tonight at sundown and I will treat you to a meal made of the ingredients we gathered in the dungeon today.”
Shen agrees and they go their separate ways with Shen headed back toward House Lockheart. Marco and Ben head toward House Ivory and the kitchen within, Marco continues to daydream of food.
Marco quickly moves to his bedroom, striping off his monster-stained armor and replaces it with functional clothes, just a plain gray shirt and darker gray pants. He immediately heads for the kitchen unable to hold back his interest in the new ingredients any longer.
The kitchen is exactly the same as always, large bank of heating Inscriptions to the left, tables in the center and a large sink on the far wall. He grabs his usual cutting board and knife and his first set of ingredients, butternut squash, vegetables for the curry, and he pulls his Tangle lemongrass from his [Inventory].
He peels the butternut squash, the thick skin unpalatable and unappealing, quickly cutting it half and scooping out the seeds, placing them to the side. He cuts the butternut squash halves into long planks roughly half an inch thick and then dices those planks into small cubes.
The cubes go into a bowl and Marco adds various spices and seasonings; salt, black pepper, finely ground chili powder, and finally his Ent cinnamon that he dried with repeated castings of [Flash Cure] until he could grind the spice in a conjured mortar and pestle.
Allowing the squash to marinate with the spices and seasonings, shortening the cooking time required later and forcing the flavors he wants into the squash. He cleans off his cutting board and grabs the first of the vegetables he is going to use for the curry.
Peeling the carrot and then cutting the root vegetable into rounds, about an eighth of an inch so they would cook evenly with the other vegetables later on. Cutting broccoli into florets, pulling the undesirable string off of his snap peas, and deseeding and chopping red bell peppers he works on the lemongrass next.
Pulling the monster ingredient on to his cutting board, he first trims the large amount into a workable set of sticks, then using the back of his knife he bruised the lemongrass to allow it to infuse more quickly into his curry. He chops two stalks of lemongrass alongside green onions, some very spicy red chilis, ginger, and garlic; this is the basic set of ingredients he will need for his curry paste.
He grabs a thick bottomed pot from the racks near the Inscription stove and begins to heat it. He mashes all of the curry paste ingredients in his conjured mortar and pestle until semi-homogeneous, adding it to his preheated pot with a splash of oil, frying off the paste until fragrant and gently browned.
Marco moves to the cold storage, grabbing a bottle of blended tomato that he pours into the pot with the paste mixture, cooking off some of the acidity and allowing the flavors to mingle, he adds a heaping portion of turmeric to the pot for color and the gentle flavors it provides. He turns off the heat and moves unto the next step.
Grabbing a new pot, he heats a moderate amount of oil until shimmering and hot. The vegetables join the oil in the pot, sizzling noises fill the kitchen and soon smells join the noises. Incredible scents of roasting root vegetable, fragrant garlic, and lemongrass waft from the pan, he retrieves coconut milk from the cold storage before adding it into the toasted curry paste.
He removes the vegetables from the heat as they reach his desired doneness, adding the curry and coconut mixture into and allowing all of the flavors to marry and combine.
Marco activates an oven Inscription, panning up his bowl of butternut squash and drizzling oil over the whole thing, he places the sheet pan into the oven to roast. “Probably about thirty minutes.” Marco thinks to himself, remembering the squash seeds he set to the side earlier, mixing them with oil, salt, pepper, and dried herbs- thyme and rosemary- he places the seeds on a different baking pan to roast and crisp. “These will make a nice garnish for the soup.”
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He begins his next prep task, grabbing a dozen eggs and placing them in a pot of cold water before setting it to heat on high. Once the water reaches a rolling boil, he shuts off the heat and covers the pot, twelve minutes later he pulls all of the eggs from the hot water and into an ice bath.
Once the eggs are completely chilled Marco begins to peel the eggs, rinsing shell fragments and membrane from the peeled finished product. He cuts the eggs lengthwise and removes the yolks, placing them in a bowl to make the filling of his deviled eggs.
A solid tablespoon of a Dijon mustard, a dash of vinegar based hot sauce, and a quick mayonnaise he made using a quickly spinning blade of [Salt]. Two separated eggs, yolks going into the bowl with the salt blade, a teaspoon of mustard, a splash of mild vinegar along with salt, pepper, and dehydrated garlic that the sisters keep on hand- all spun together by the salt blade as Marco drizzles in neutral oil until the sauce emulsifies and thickens to his desired consistency.
The yolks are mashed together with the other ingredients making a thick paste before he grabs a grater and the Abomination Horseradish, adding a healthy amount, about three tablespoons to the paste before tasting and adjusting any seasoning.
“Delicious, the flavor of the horseradish is very nice. I will have to grate more of this for sandwiches or breakfast burritos in the morning.” Marco thinks, adding just a touch more salt to finish the yolks. He grabs a pair of spoons, filling the cavity of the egg white with the deviled yolk mixture, dusting the tops with smoked paprika and a small baton of chive. “That is one dish down!”
Checking on his butternut squash, he swears lightly at the slightly crispy pieces around the edge of the pan, forgetting to check the oven for hot spots earlier. He grabs brown sugar and another bottle of coconut milk pouring a quart of coconut milk into a new pot set on low heat, adding in a quarter cup of brown sugar, a generous two tablespoons of black pepper and a matching amount of dried chili powder.
He stirs this mixture before adding in the squash, allowing the toasted and golden-brown cubes to soften and flavor the coconut milk before he blends the mixture smooth with various blades of [Salt]. Checking for seasoning once again, Marco is happy he didn’t add more salt to the coconut milk, his [Salt] blades he used to blend the soup into a smooth and silky texture having seasoned the soup a fair amount.
“And that is the second dish done!” Marco is excited by the speed of his cooking thanks to magic and the allure of new exciting ingredients. Checking on his curry, he finds all the flavors have mingled and complement each other nicely, Marco grabs one more pot and cooks some white rice.
He smiles, “All done! And slightly ahead of schedule.” Marco starts to collect all of his dirty dishes after he places the curry, rice, and soup on warming Inscriptions to wait until guests arrive. Scrubbing all of his dishes and laying them out to dry in the Inscribed area.
*Ping* Activate Bonfire (Low) Inscription?
Marco mentally agrees and a warm wind stirs around his wet dishes, quickly drying them. “I love magic so much!”
He quickly scrubs his hands, making sure he isn’t covered in any food particles and exits the kitchen into the dining room. He finds several people already at the table; Shen, Coron, Ben, and Alexandria.
“Hello everyone! I hope you all came hungry.” Marco greets, his stomach rumbling slightly at his own words.
“Marco! It smells amazing in here!” Coron greets the chef, “What is on the menu tonight?”
“You know better than that Coron! You will find out what the menu is with everyone else.” Marco smiles as Coron groans, not enjoying surprises.
“Hello Marco, Coron is right, the smells coming from the kitchen is divine.” Shen says, pausing his conversation with Alexandria. The young heir to House Ivory, still looking slight scared at Marco’s attention but nods in greeting.
“I really need to figure out why she is so scared of me.” Marco thinks to himself, finally turning and greeting Ben with a smile.
“Thank you, Shen! If we are all ready for dinner, let's get everyone in here and get to eating.” Marco says.
Minutes pass and the dining room slowly fills with members of House Ivory and Marco enlists the sisters to help him carry his dishes and platters into the dining room.
Swirls of [Air] raise his food into the air and carry the platters and bowls effortlessly into the room full of friends. He stands at the head of the table, the sisters declining to give their nightly welcome as Marco prepared all the food himself.
“Welcome friends,” Marco starts. “Tonight, I have made a variety of dishes with ingredients gathered from a nearby dungeon. Most of you were able to try the Slime with hot peppers, these ingredients are from plant monsters instead.”
Marco takes a deep breath, preparing to start his dish explanations when the dining room is filled with a quick swirl of wind and a familiar gnome is suddenly present at his table.
“Everyone welcome Guildmistress Samirah to dinner tonight,” Marco greets the new arrival with a smile. “If everyone is ready to eat then I will start explaining.”
Unanimous nods travel around the table and Marco begins to describe his offers for the dinner table. “I know these dishes don’t necessarily mesh together all that well. The ingredients I got from the dungeon were varied however so I did the best I could to make delicious food.”
“The first dish I made is a Tangle lemongrass coconut curry; cubes of silken tofu coated in luscious and flavorful curry, a mixture of vegetables enhances the taste with additional texture and flavor. Plain white rice is the starch of choice for tonight, the fluffy grains will absorb all of that flavor.” Marco explains.
“The second dish I prepared tonight is a butternut squash soup, silky and delicious full of Ent cinnamon, coconut milk, and warm spices. Lastly, I made a snack food that I love from my home, deviled eggs. The boss of the dungeon that we cleared was a Root Abomination, the roots of the plant reminding me of horseradish, a common addition to deviled eggs.” Marco rambles on about his food, he goes on to describe deviled eggs to the dinner guests.
“Please enjoy!” At his words, a small battle of tiny magical conjurations occurs, many people starting with the deviled eggs or soup; treating the curry as a main course.
Small gasps of pleasure or exclamations of joy cause burning happiness to grow in Marco, a similar feeling to Mana.
*Ping* Affinity Growth +1%
Marco smiles at the surprise notification, happy with his growth and being surrounded by people who enjoyed his company and his food.
What dish would you want to eat most?
