fandomhigh | International Cuisine

Entry tags:

cuisine

International Cuisine | Friday, 3rd period

Class had been alerted that they would be meeting at Portalocity unless otherwise specified, and that their destination this week would be somewhat cooler than Baltimore currently.

When they all showed up, Hannibal nodded to them. "Welcome. The idea of this class is that each week we will experience a different cuisine of the world. Those of you who are not from Earth may not be aware, but this world is home to thousands of different cultures and cuisines. Even those of you that are from Earth may not be familiar with many of the sorts of foods available to you."

He waved them through the portal that appeared, where they ended up on a street in front of a building with a tree growing through it.

"Welcome to São Paulo, Brazil. Brazil is the largest country on the continent of South America; São Paulo is its most populous city. There are influences of both the indigenous peoples and the Portuguese empire in its culture and food. This restaurant is Figueira Rubaiyat, so named because of the tree it is built around. Some of the food is raised and grown locally. They employ a number of meats, from beef to octopus; they also take particular pride in their desserts. The local language is Brazilian Portuguese, but they should also speak English here, or Spanish if you prefer."

He led them in and they were shown to their table. "Please enjoy, and let me know if you have any questions."

[OOC: Anybody that wants to drop by Portalocity and catch them will be welcomed on the field trip, this week or any week! Auditors encouraged. :) ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Is there anything you recommend for a first-timer?"

You know, for someone who had only ever tasted dirt before?

"Try the steak," Hannibal said, cutting her off a piece. "It's a fairly simple dish - cooked bovine and a few spices. And then try the roasted vegetables and the baked mushrooms; that way you'll be able to taste animal, plant, and fungal matter."

Peridot looked thoughtful as she reached across the table for the piece of steak that Hannibal had cut for her.

With her hand, yes.

Hannibal bypassed her deftly to put the piece on her plate. "Please do put it in your mouth with a fork, however," he said. "There are specific foods that are to be eaten with the fingers, but none of these are."

"With a...?"

Peridot looked at the assortment of cutlery on the table and squinted a little.

"I can do that."

Just as soon as she figured out which one the fork was.

"Like this." Hannibal cut off another piece of his own steak and lifted it properly to eat.

Peridot watched carefully while he ate, with a stare intense enough that some people sitting nearby were getting sort of uncomfortable. And then she reached for her fork and, holding it awkwardly in her hand, skewered the beef on it.

If anybody else was paying enough attention to be uncomfortable, that was their own lookout. Hannibal just finished that bite and went for another, giving Peridot an encouraging nod.

Peridot looked somewhat dubious, but that wasn't going to stop her from sticking out her little blue tongue and giving the steak an experimental lick.

She looked at it thoughtfully. And then she licked it again.

...

And again.

"Organic matter tastes amazing!"

Just wait, Hannibal. She was going to get it in her head to start licking people, now. Just to know.

Hannibal could absolutely help with that.

Right now, he just grinned. "Different creatures taste different - that goes without saying. But also where an animal lives, what it eats, how it lived - these all affect the flavor. For vegetables, the soil they grow in and their nutrients affect their flavor. And there are a near-infinite number of combinations of the two. And there are then many different cooking methods - cooking is in large part applied chemistry."

Peridot perked up a little bit at that.

"I made bread once, in Home Ec class!" She paused. "Nobody would eat it, so I built a duck."

She... probably could have fed it to real ducks. But that hadn't really been presented to her as a possibility.

"So you have experience already," Hannibal said, pleased. "What did you think of baking?"

"It's much faster than most of the chemistry I'm used to," Peridot offered. "And more pointless, if nobody has any interest in eating it."

It had been made perfectly! She was a technician, she could follow directions!

"True," Hannibal agreed. "If it won't be eaten, it's purely ornamental. If you enjoy it, the trick would be to find other people interested in eating what you make."

"Do humans not like bread?"

Maybe they just ate it because they needed to in order to continue to live?

"It depends upon the human and the bread," Hannibal said. "I enjoy many breads. Did nobody volunteer to eat yours?"

Yes, he was aware he was setting himself up for this. He didn't much mind.

Peridot shook her head a little.

"I carried it around for days," she muttered. "I don't think there was anything the matter with it."

Well. After a few days there had been.

"Hm. Well, after a few days, it was likely stale," Hannibal said. "The starch molecules crystallize," he explained. "Before then...did you ask people if they wanted to eat it? Most humans, unless they are extremely hungry, are unlikely to simply ask for your food. It would be considered rude."

"I brought it into one of the common rooms," Peridot replied. "I was under the impression that that was what humans did when they had food they wanted to share."

Well. She wasn't wrong.

"I'm not familiar with the common rooms, I'm afraid," Hannibal said. "It could be that there was simply nobody interested in bread those few days, or that they still felt wrong simply asking."

He smiled at her. "Humans are overly complicated, are they not?"

"They are," Peridot muttered, scowling a little bit. "It's frustrating."

Even for those of us who did grow up on Earth, 'Dot.

Hannibal chuckled. "It can take years or even decades to gain a decent understanding of humans, even for other humans," he said. "Some never manage it. You seem to be doing fairly well so far. Willingness to learn is the most important part."

"Oh, I have that." Peridot snorted and shook her head. "And alllll the time in the world."

More than the world used to have! Which wasn't actually saying much.

"Then I have no doubt you'll succeed." Hannibal toasted her with his wine, then stopped to explain.

"When drinking, particularly alcoholic beverages, it is often customary to touch the rims of glasses together in what is called a 'toast'. It can be as simple as that, a gesture wishing others well, or it can involve a speech for specific wishes. And when the other person has no glass, or many in a group are toasting together, we simply raise our glasses like this in imitation of the touch."

"Oh... I had wondered."

She'd seen something like that on the television, and mostly what she'd gotten out of it was, 'yes, that is definitely a roughly spherical glass container full of fluid. Good for you.'

"Thank you for that explanation."

Re: Introductions!

sharp_man - 2017-07-12 14:34 (UTC) - Expand

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only