Ann Can - no, no, not finishing that joke

[hotshot_momma]

Who: Anna Lin, Souji Seta, Sora
What: Lessons in Hunan and Hong Kong home cooking
Where: Creche Alpha
When: Shortly after this discussionWhy: Souji missed Chinese food, which Anna happens to have grown up with, and offered to teach them how to cook. Bring your own ingredients

Comments

[sistagonist]

After careful perusal of the various buildings in the Necessities and some very specific words with the delivery birds, Souji had managed to get together an adequate selection of spices - far from complete, but she had the necessities in a variety of earthen and plastic containers from the different settings. The most important part of cooking foreign foods properly was, after all, the flavoring.

Probably the second most important was the meat, which was still unfortunately lacking. There hadn't been any whatsoever in the Necessities, though a fridge in The Onsen had contained a good deal of (unlabeled) mystery bird meat, which should cook the same way as chicken judging from the appearance.

Lost in vaguely Nasu-ishly detailed thoughts about dinner, Souji leads Sora to Anna's cozy little bunker and, contrary to the general appearance of the stronghold, knocks on the door.

[hotshot_momma]

Anna flicks a switch, disengaging the locks on the door. "Enter," she says.

hdjsfkhgsf Sorry this took so long.

[namedforthesky]

With their own ingredients gathered, it's time to see what Anna has to add to the pot. It had been a fun search, and she'd taken note of anything that could be used in pies in the future. But for now, it's time to focus on the vaguely Chinese food they'll be making.

So when the door opens and they're told to enter, it's Sora's turn to lead Souji. So she pulls her inside, otherwise unsure of where to go.

"Hello?" she calls into the barracks.

Logs are called logs because they sit there most of the time. It's cool.

[sistagonist]

Oh, hey, handgrabbing and being led. By a girl who looked like a middle schooler, at that. Sora's confidence and general bounciness were impressive like that.

Souji follows along into the shelter, looking around at the inner workings. Recognizing a few fixtures from a certain underground base back home, she makes a connection about people being able to make things while trapped here, and makes a mental note to investigate the Wild matter closer. Still, this place was way more sanitary and straightforward than a Shadow dungeon would be, so she's not worried.

Re: Logs are called logs because they sit there most of the time. It's cool.

[hotshot_momma]

Anna looked up at the two of them, and smiled. She indicated a couple of chairs and asked one, simple question:

"What did you bring for me to work with?"

[sistagonist]

"Vegetables, spices, some kind of dark meat poultry..." Souji lists off, wondering whether she should be amused, aggravated, or sympathetic toward the brusqueness of the question. She wasn't one for small talk, especially when it would delay dinner, but this girl was really...focused.

[hotshot_momma]

She laughs. "Spices. Honest to god five-spice powder. You are a woman of intelligence and grace and let no one tell you otherwise. Means that we can make a decent stir-fried chicken, specially with the peppers I found."

[sistagonist]

"Thanks."

She blinks once at the compliment and sudden change in attitude, but that probably just means she's found another food-lover, and she's not going to complain about that.

"Think it's going to be stir-fry quail or something, though."

[hotshot_momma]

"Shame we couldn't get the eggs and marinate them for a bit," Anna says.

And yes, she's a foodie. What other luxuries are there to enjoy, after the Bliss?

"That works, though. Just going to need a lot of - ah, that you have. And save the bones for soup," she says. "Do you know how to use a knife or cleaver?"

[sistagonist]

"On food or on people?" Souji asks, as deadpan as she can manage.

[hotshot_momma]

Anna pauses, clearly unsure whether it was meant as a joke. Then, she shrugs. "At the moment, it's culinary training. Combat training is a whole 'nother class."

[sistagonist]

"I can definitely manage, then. I've lived more or less on my own a lot," she says, cracking a smile to hopefully clue Anna in on the joke.

[hotshot_momma]

"Good," Anna says. "Best way to learn. Okay then, take this -" she hands you a cleaver - "and dice some veggies while I work on disjointing the birds, okay?"

She takes a quail and scores it's skin. "For lack of better fat," she says.

[sistagonist]

Souji takes note of that. For all her ability to make food out of random leftovers, she did still rely on storebought things that apparently didn't exist here, like cooking oil.

She gets to work on the vegetables, dicing them neatly and quickly in a practiced manner. Stir fry wasn't a hard dish, so she could concentrate on doing it right.

Hey, you know what would be a great idea? Independently tagging you and Souji

[hotshot_momma]

"Enter," Anna says. With Souji already here, the safety was disengaged.