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cultural understanding

Cultural Understanding, Monday.

"Hello, everyone," Alistair greeted, sounding fairly chipper. He was a big fan - a conoisseur, if you may - of the subject matter coming up. You know, the reason why they were in the Danger Shop, with a shut door behind Alistair and Morrigan leading to places unknown. "Today, we'll step off the philosophy and the theology for once, and talk about something a bit more practical. Food! Everybody loves food."

"Theoretically, everyone eats food," Morrigan added. "Unless you are a spirit of some sort, in which case, we look forward to hearing from you today about your alternate means of subsistence."

"Or not," Alistair replied. "If you're some stray Fade spirit looking to cause trouble, let's... go with not."

"Each culture has different culinary tastes," Morrigan said, trying to bring Alistair back on track - even if it was her fault he went off in the first place. "I hope you brought your favorite recipes as you were ~~handwavily~~ told to do. Today, everyone is cooking something representative of their home."

Hey, Alistair was totally on track. He lived on track! He-- ...

Was easily distractible, shut up. "Because food isn't something you can talk about," he said. "You have to taste it." He waved his arm vaguely at the door behind him. "We should have that stocked with whatever food items the Danger Shop knows about, so sorry if we're missing tentacled purple potatoes or some other delicacy from your home world."

"Everyone has to try and taste at least one dish not from their own world," Morrigan continued. "And yes, Alistair and I have to prepare food as well."

A beat.

Alistair narrowed his eyes at her. Expressively. "Are you," he said, suspiciously, "just doing this to poison us all? I knew it!"

Morrigan just stared at him. "Do you even listen to yourself when you speak?"

"Oh, come on," Alistair retorted. "You expect me to believe you can cook?"

"Aye, and well," she retorted. "Do you think I leap from roof to roof, stealing pies from the windows of villagers to feed myself?"

"Morrigan, 'Witch of the Wilds'," he didn't actually make the airquotes, but he did give that title a funny inflection, "Standing in the kitchen, making pies? Yeah, right."

"I didn't say I make pies, but I can cook," she replied mildly. "'Tis not that different from brewing potions, I assure you."

"Hey, I've learned how to cook." Or skewer animals and leave them over an open fire until they were tasty, but po-tay-to, po-tah-to. "So what do you do?"

"You'll find out, now won't you?" Morrigan answered, giving him a slight smirk. "May the best chef prevail."
"If you poison me," Alistair said, his chin high for his closing statement, "I'll know."

Yeah, she'll be really impressed by that, boyo.

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Allez Cuisine!

Chuck Bartowski

Princess Rosella of Daventry

Karla

Ben Skywalker ~~calling for takeout~~

Warren Worthington III

Simon Bellamy

Elphaba Thropp

Mercy Thompson

Raven

Billy Kaplan

Petra West

Take notes, pass notes, plot a food fight.

They got to cook today? Between waking up in her proper body again and now cooking in class, today was an awesome day.

Morrigan. Alistair.

You've both just managed to make Warren the saddest little boyfriend-of-a-Queen ever.

Ever.

Though Rosella certainly didn't mind cooking, as she was listening to the lecture, she couldn't help wishing she'd retained some of Alexander's culinary skills during her brief appearance as him this weekend. She'd never be able to reach his abilities, but she trusted she could hold her own, too.

Grab your ingredients and get to work!

If you were brave enough to peer into the cauldrons Morrigan had going, she wouldn't stop you. However, one was brewing up a lentil and vegetable stew, and the other had a health potion mixture going. Neither was harmful, but one might make you hyperactive for a bit.

Underneath both of them, she had set up sticks and was making very basic bannock (http://devorahstone.suite101.com/bannock-campfire-bread-a2002.html).

Firekeeper... didn't really know what to do. She could roast meat over a fire, true, but that wasn't really representative of her home. She was the only wolf whose belly required cooked meat in order to be able to eat it. So, for now she and Blind Seer were just going to stand about, watching as the others in the class worked on their meals.

Ben had ~~been told by him roommate~~ chosen to make a salad today: lettuce was easy, and so were croutons, and really, who didn't like Xizor salad oh god, the punning, the punning?

The Danger Shop couldn't replicate Hocekureem Sea salt, so he was using regular salt. It couldn't make that big a difference, right?

Come on, now. Warren was going to go with a tried-and-true classic. A cultural icon of his people.

... That, and it was really hard to go wrong with a Reuben sandwich on rye with extra-extra-extra meat, with pastrami and corned beef variants because he was all about options.

That, and options helped distract him from the oh-god-what-is-Karla-making-over-there fridge horror of the day.

Edited 2011-09-26 17:00 (UTC)

Most of the recipes Karla had thought of would either have taken too long (chickens marinated in Mrs. Beale's special plum sauce) or they didn't have the right ingredients (honey-pears or pickleberries).

But she'd persevered (long after Warren had begged her to stop, he was so thoughtful and concerned!) and had eventually uncovered a recipe that looked pretty close to nutcakes from back home.

Though she was already running into difficulties. For one thing, she'd forgotten to discard the nuts. For another--

"Eee!"

Blenders had lids for a reason.

A flick of Morrigan's fingers, and the entire blender (and its flying contents) were encased in ice. "You may want to try something simpler," she told Karla. "One that does not require buttons."

"But I don't have another recipe," Karla said. "I just have to remember the lid, is all."

She could do it, Morrigan! Really!

...Ignore Warren's horrified expression. He's thinking about having to share all this deliciousness with the class.

"You have two hands; can you not mix ingredients with them?" Morrigan asked. "Or if you call yourself a mage, know you no potions? Tonics or brews? Or which herbs to add to a soup to cure a fever?"

"No. Buttons."

"I know lots of potions, brews, and teas," Karla agreed, trying very hard not to sulk. "I was looking forward to cooking something I didn't already have lots of experience with."

But Morrigan looked very serious about that 'no buttons' rule.

"...I can mix by hand."

Mercy made brownies. And spicy hot chocolate. Was it representative of her world? Well, who didn't love brownies?

Besides, it was one of the few things she could actually cook.

Raven didn't know how to cook. Unlike Karla, however, she'd admitted it to herself after one disastrous batch of cookies. But since a lot of the food consumed in Azarath wasn't cooked, she felt safe attempting a salad.

Oh, cooking Rosella could do. She wasn't nearly as good at it as Alexander, and she didn't get to do it often since they had people around the castle to do it, but her parents, especially her father, believed in being able to take care of one's self, and so she happily took to finding some vegetables and some meat and preparing them for a simple but hearty stew.

It was bound to wind up pretty good, but, admittedly, anything beyond stew would be significantly more challenging.

Petra considered her somewhat limited repertoire of recipes for a little while before deciding to attempt chowder. She thought it came out pretty well, although it probably needed salt.

Tell us what you made and why, and then everyone can have a taste!

"Out in the Wilds, we do not have access to the variety of foods that those who reside in the cities can purchase," Morrigan said, calmly dishing her lentil and vegetable stew into small bowls for those who wanted to try it. "My mother and I have dug a small cold cellar under our house, which we keep chilly by use of coldstones, which allows us to preserve some butter, fruits, and vegetables, but almost all of what we eat comes from what we grow or catch ourselves, like all the Chasind Wilders. Luckily, it is not hard to feed two, and there is always game should we need additional protein."

She had skipped the meat, knowing that there were a few students here that would prefer not to consume it. "Lentils and vegetables make a good winter stew, and there is bread in my favorite manner, with some honey if you'd like. I confess that I worry for my bees at home, for Flemeth does not have the touch with them that I do."

"This is a Xizor salad," Ben said, holding it out proudly. It looked edible, and that was kind of a big step for him. "It's named for a Falleen prince, which is one of many species in my galaxy, and I made it because I'm better with not cooking things."

"I went with the Reuben sandwich," Warren said, holding up a tray of said sandwiches, enough for everybody to try. "Because... I'm pretty sure everyone here has had some basic Earth food by now, and so I kind of wanted to make something a little more New York. And a sandwich is hard to screw up."

Which was important, seeing as Warren didn't have much in the way of cooking experience, and he didn't think 'bowls of Lucky Charms' were exactly a legitimate option for this lesson.

"I made brownies and a spicy hot chocolate," Mercy said. "Not too fancy, but they're my favorite dessert. The spicy hot chocolate is a little different from what most people are used to, but it's really quite good."

"Those of Azarath do not consume the flesh of animals, and we grew our own fruits and vegetables and grains," Raven said when her turn came to present. "This salad is simple, but it is how we preferred our sustenance."

"I have prepared for everyone today," Rosella stood by her large pot proudly, "some rustic beef stew! I would not say that it is anything exceptional as a dish where I am from, but it is one I not only know how to make, but I know how to make it well. I do not do a great deal of cooking back home, but this I can do, and it's nice in a pinch because you can throw a great many things into. I put in my favorites: some potatoes and peas, a little celery and lots of carrots. Carrots are practically Daventry's official vegetable!"

How else would you explain a whole garden filled with nothing but carrots, hmm?

"Enjoy! I'd have made bread to go along with it, but that's a rather lengthy, all-day process the way we make it back home."

"This is a Rhode Island clam chowder," Petra explained. "It's one of the less well-known varieties of clam chowder, but, well, I'm from Rhode Island so it seemed appropriate. It has clams, which are common throughout New England because we have a lot of coastline where clams grow, potatoes, onions, and bacon, because everything needs bacon, in a clear broth. The broth is what makes it Rhode Island style. Oh, and I also made some coffee milk if anyone wants to try that. It's our state drink."

"I made nutcakes!" Karla said proudly, holding up a tray of what might have been lumpy rocks. "They're a little burned on the bottom, but you can scrape that bit off."

Losing about half the nutcakes in the process, it was true.

"They're really popular back home because they're simple and easy--" just look how easy! "--and we often eat them with tea and sandwiches. Help yourselves, too; I made plenty!"

More than enough for each student to have two or even three!

Warren was taking... you know. His own two or three.

And then he was attempting to sneak another dozen or so, on the chance that maybe nobody was looking because they'd averted their eyes in horror and he didn't want anybody to die today.

He was the one with the healing factor, here. He had this one, guys.

Hopefully not while Alistair is trying to cook. If Morrigan has to put out any fires, she might 'accidentally' douse him too.

Hey, Alistair could cook just fine, thanks. He was roasting up some meat like nobody's business.

On the other hand, he could not be held responsible if anyone tried to eat Morrigan's food and died. They'd been warned!

Morrigan was indeed there, and had a number of freezing spells at the ready should they be needed.

Moooooooooooooooooooooooonday *flops*

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Cultural Understanding, Monday.

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