fandomhigh | Flavors, Food Choices, and Menu Planning

Hanna waited for the students to file in and get seated, then nodded to them and began.

"I hope you all enjoyed the film last week. So, now we return to cooking. Salt," she said, and uncovered the dishes on the counter. "Throughout the world, salt is the most widely-used ingredient in food. It is also one of the oldest. Long before refrigeration, salt curing was used to preserve foods. Salt pulls moisture from food and inhibits bacterial growth."

She passed around a bit of home-made jerky. "In addition, it affects many of the chemical reactions involved in cooking. Because it helps protein gelatinzation and alters the rate of fermentation, it affects the texture of meats, breads, cheeses - most things in which it's used." Bread and sausage were passed around next.

"Also, it affects other flavors. In small amounts, it can enhance sweetness - hence the salt you may find in fruit dishes and candies - and cut bitterness - hence its being used in pickling like the olives we had in our bitter foods class." Next were more of those olives, and some salted caramels to taste.

"The key with salt is using the right amount, and the right kind. You should at all costs avoid common table salt; it has additives to help it to pour, and iodine. Neither will do your dishes any favors. It melts too fast, behaves unsavorily," pun totally intended, "and offers no benefits other than easy access. Instead, you can use kosher salt or sea salt."

There were several tiny bowls put out now. "Kosher salt tends to have larger crystals, so can add its own texture to a dish. It has fewer mineral notes than sea salt. It's a good choice especially when adding salt early in the cooking process.

"Sea salt comes in many forms - coarse, flakes, and so on - and there are a number of varieties." Including the grey, pink, and black ones she set out next. "The minerals in the area they come from offer subtle differences that can enhance a dish."

She looked around for any questions, then nodded. "So. Taste these, then make something of your own. Preferably that makes good use of at least one of them."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Um..." Sparkle squinted a little, now. "Your sister? Zhahar. Because, you know, she's the one in this class? She was TA along with me last semester and everything. Hates my stupid face? Made cookies? For Valentine's? She didn't give me the burned ones!"

That was a big deal!

=Did he just fuck up my name?= Zee demanded. =Let him know I'm going to kick his ass for that.=

::I think he's just messing with me?:: she offered. ::But I'll pass that along anyway.::

"Okaaaaay, so I'm pretty sure this is one of your incomprehensible jokes," Sholeh said, eyeing Sparkle. "That or my sister Zee will end up kicking your butt for forgetting her name."

Sholeh had one sister. And she was most certainly not the cooking class type.

"What? No, I didn't forget Zeela's name," Sparkle replied, throwing his arms in the air. "Sho, you're starting to kind of freak me out, here. Like, you don't joke about this sort of shit, okay? Where the hell is Zhari? I don't even really like Zhari, but this isn't okay."

"I don't know what kind of game you're playing, Sparkle, but I'm not in the mood for it," Sholeh retorted, crossing her arms over her chest. "I'm not the one making stupid jokes right now." That was all on him. "There's just me and Zee and you know that, so whatever elaborate prank you're trying to pull, you can just stop it, okay?"

Sparkle fell silent, just staring hard at Sholeh's expression, hoping to find some sort of telltale in her eyes that said she was lying. Anything.

He couldn't. And it made his heart twist in his chest and his mouth go dry and he stared at her, long and hard, wringing the bottom of his shirt in his hand.

"Yeah. Yeah, right. The fuck was I even thinking, three for the price of two, like, shit, I must be getting greedy or something. And I didn't even have you going, like, at all. God. What kind of weird Charlie's Angels bullshit would that be, a blonde and a redhead and a brunette just all chilling out there like no big fucking deal and... and... Did you, like, eat her or is she just way the fuck down there and just not coming out because this is all wrong, Sho. You're three. That's what you are."

"Shhh!" Sholeh said, looking around wildly, making sure no one else overheard. "Sparkle, that's a secret! Zee and I trust you not to talk about that!"

Leaning in closer, she hissed in his ear. "Dyad, Sparkle. Dyad means two. Not three, two. So stop it, okay?"

"Tryad," he hissed back, hands clenched by his sides, trying not to shake. "Three! Sholeh, there's been three, there's been three since we met and three since I wound up taking care of a puppy and a deer and badgerface there and it was her that woke up naked at the foot of my bed, three when I turned into a fucking vampire and killed you and you ran and they just went on hating me, you told Ulrik and I together and I swear to fucking God it's been three! How don't you remember, why the fuck don't you remember, you don't just forget something like that!"

Sholeh wasn't the intellectual aspect for nothing. After a moment of confused gaping, she finally put the pieces together. "Oh," she exclaimed. "This must be some kind of Fandom thing."

Oh, god. Yes. Yes yes yes maybe she was getting it, maybe people weren't losing their minds here, maybe the island was just fucking around with them.

"Fandom thing!" Sparkle clung to that idea like a drowning man grasping for a lifeline. "Oh, fuck, god, yes. This has got to be a Fandom thing. Fucking island'll just put this all right in, like, the morning anyhow. What the hell, right?"

Because people didn't just stop existing, that was not okay.

Sholeh reached over and patted his hand. "I'm sorry I thought you were just making some incredibly tasteless joke. It's all just a weird island thing, probably getting a jump on the weekend or something."

Because that was when the island liked to mess with people's head especially.

"Tomorrow or, worst case, Monday, you'll wake up and remember reality correctly. Don't worry, Sparks. You'll be back to normal really soon. And Zee and I will take you out for ice cream to show you no hard feelings, okay?"

Sparkle was pretty sure he was going to throw up. That seemed like pretty much the only option, since the world was twisting around his head and breathing wasn't really going to be happening with the way she'd just punched him in the fucking guts and all.

"Monday," he echoed. "Monday, yeah. Everything'll be just great on Monday."

He didn't sound terribly convinced. At all.

Flavors, Food Choices, and Menu Planning - Friday, 4th period

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