fandomhigh | Food & Cultural Appreciation, Tuesday Third Period

Food & Cultural Appreciation, Tuesday Third Period

"All right, guys," Raiden told his students, "today we're heading to beautiful Rome, Italy, where it should be cloudy and in the mid-sixties when we arrive, if my weather app hasn't lied to me. We will be arriving in the evening and going on a bit of a food tour, because unlike Singapore, Rome hasn't conveniently put all the delicious food in one place for us.

"Rome, for those of you who might not be familiar, is the capital of Italy, and was in ancient times the capital of the Roman empire, which at its largest stretched from Britain in the west to the Persian Gulf in the east, and from, well, Britain in the north to Egypt in the south. It's also the home to the Vatican, the headquarters of the Catholic church, but I'm not going to go into all of that. The point is that Rome has a long and storied history. I understand that some of you may have already been to Rome recently with Professor Beniko, but it's the kind of place that's worth a second look." With your stomach.

"I'm not going to say Roman food hasn't taken influences from different cultures--like the rest of Italy, they happily adopted the noodle and the tomato when they got access to them--but also like the rest of Italy, the food here is very regional, using the ingredients that are available in the area and focusing on traditional preparations. Pecorino Romano, a sheep's milk cheese, is more common here than the cow's milk Parmigiano Reggiano, which comes from Parma. Artichokes, for example, grow very well here, and when they're in season you'll see a lot of dishes using them, especially a Jewish preparation where they're deep-fried. Delicious. Offal is also traditionally common in Roman cuisine, and it's worth giving a try, but I think our itinerary will be skipping it tonight." Some of you might be more disappointed than others.

"Of course you can't talk about Italy without talking about pasta! Fettuccine Alfredo was invented here, but it's not common or popular the way it is in the United States. Instead, here you'll find bucatini all'amatriciana--that's a sauce made with tomatoes, guanciale, which is cured pork cheek, kinda like bacon, and that pecorino romano cheese we talked about--or cacio e pepe, a very simple preparation of pecorino romano and black pepper, or spaghetti alla carbonara, which is made with guanciale or pancetta, pecorino romano, black pepper, and eggs. You can't go wrong with any of 'em. Pizza in Rome comes in two forms. If you order a round pie at a restaurant, it'll typically have a very thin, almost cracker-like crust, where if you get the kind of pizza we're going to be having tonight, pizza al taglio, it comes by the slice, with a thicker, focaccia-style crust. Of course we'll also be trying some delicious gelato, and then we're gonna split off from the food tour to try another dessert, tiramisu, if you've got room." Be strong. It was gonna be worth it. "Sadly we're here at the wrong time of day for maritozzi, which are brioche buns filled with fresh whipped cream--so simple, so good--but if you're ever back in Rome during the day, I would encourage you to seek one out.

"Now, the drinking age in Rome is eighteen, and Italy is known for its wine, so I'm not gonna tell anybody what to do." That would go against Gluttony. "Anybody wants to have a few sips, I fully support that. Just make good choices, okay?" Not singling anybody out here. "All right! Let's head to the Eternal City and see what she's got for us today. Uh, tonight. You know what I mean."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh wow. What an interesting stone facade this was on the wall!

"I did," she said. "Go away, I mean." Hoo boy. "And I ended up getting a car? Like, a luxury sports car?" Take the distraction, Lydia!

"Gray's whole family is just super kind and supportive." Okay, again, maybe not Galen and Daman, but she hadn't really interacted with either of them to know for sure and she was pretty sure their absences had been a kindness.

"A car?" Lydia asked before shoving an entirely normal-sized, nay, positively dainty spoonful of tiramisu into her mouth. She was only vaguely familiar with cars, and asked, "Like the school bus?" as if to thoroughly demonstrate that.

A positively refined spoonful!

"Nooooo," Arden said, pulling out her phone and showing Lydia the picture she'd snapped of the truly ridiculous car Castor had given to her, solely out of the goodness of his heart and not at all to spite Alastair and his incredibly rude demands that Castor limit his number of luxury automobiles to a mere half-dozen or so.

"What's, like, a super-expensive kind of carriage or whatever? Like, the kind only the very wealthy and titled people could ever hope to afford? That's what this is."

And it looked like the Ratmobile.

Lydia knew absolutely nothing about cars. The aesthetics of this thing might as well have been a spaceship to her understanding. But she could tell that it was worth a hell of a lot of money.

Perhaps Arden was planning to marry Mr. Gray? That would be a major improvement on Mr. Kestis!

"Oh, my," she said to the photo. "All I did this weekend was watch Mr. Blackwood bury his heart." What?

(Alastair's incredibly rude and completely unreasonable demands!)

Oh, Lydia. Arden couldn't even begin to explain all the reasons why marrying Gray was a terrible idea.

"Yeah, I--wait, you watched what?"

"Mr. Blackwood bury his heart," Lydia repeated. "It's a tradition for his kind of witches, you see. Something to do with claiming the land." She could explain better than that, but Arden, being just an ordinary human, certainly wouldn't understand any of it.

She did not mention that Mr. Blackwood had very rudely insisted that she should go fight Wormentongue (-heart. Whatever.) again, because really. The cheek! (She did so hope she could make it Miss Lambe's problem...)

And also, a rich husband who slept all the time seemed like a huge step up on that scurrilous gambler, Mr. Kestis. Arden should really think about this! ~~LOL~~

An entirely normal human! Like how Dean was walked an entirely normal armchair!

But you know what wasn't entirely normal? THAT.

"Like...it was his heart? Not somebody else's?" She didn't know whether that would make it more or less weird. Or more or less horrifying. "How does that work?"

Oh, Lydia. There were just so many reasons it would never work out between them. Gray not being interested in women at all, was one of the more explicable ones!

"Oh, yes!" Lydia assured her. "There wouldn't be much point in burying someone else's heart. Well..." Not unless they were the sacrifice, but she wouldn't frighten Arden with such talk. She wasn't that kind of witch, after all, and Mr. Blackwood didn't seem to be, either, what with his 'you must protect the hypothetical witches of the future from the stupid dragon' and all. "I'm not really sure of the how myself. Certainly I could never remove my heart from my own chest and stay upright after. But Mr. Blackwood seems perfectly healthy!"

Dash Lydia's hopes, why don't you, Arden.

"Oh, and Miss Belova was there as well, of course." She hadn't been left unchaperoned, you see. "Like Mr. Blackwood, she is new to the island. She mentioned something she thought I should look into...vacations? No. That's not the word."

"I still don't think I understand the point of burying anyone's heart, including his own," she said. And was a little surprised that Lydia wasn't more weirded out by it. Like, sure, which, but...someone's heart. That was some Snow White bullshit right there.

"I mean, vacations aren't the worst thing to look into either," she said. "What was the context?"

When you had been sent on a quest by a dragon that wanted to eat you and then watched your friend turn into a statue that you had to drag across the countryside with you, a little bit more fairy tale nonsense was just 'of course.' Imagine if she'd told Arden she'd gotten to hold the box with Mr. Blackwood's heart in it!

"Mmm," Lydia tried to remember. It was so hard to remember when she was full of delicious food, though. "I told her I was from 1810, and she asked if I'd heard of this thing, and then suggested I talk to the clinic...?"

Arden would be wondering if Mr. Blackwood was trying to make Lydia an accomplice after the fact or something.

"The medical clinic?" Arden asked, frowning. Then her eyes went wide. "Why would she--oh! Vaccinations! Oh! Shit! No, she's right. That should be a thing we warn everyone from different worlds and times about." A pause. "...Fuck, I wonder if I'm missing vaccines."

Didn't you get most of them as a little baby or something...?

"Oh! It's a medical facility? I did wonder because Dr. Navaan worked there, but from everything that's said on the radio I thought it might be some sort of worship center for a crab god."

What?

"I mean, that's fair on both counts," Arden said. "I'm not fully sure you're wrong. But I think, like, there's one actual doctor there? One that isn't a crazy drunk vampire and actually has a medical degree?"

Sorry, Professor Not-The-Rich-One-Stark. But Arden hadn't heard anything about a real-life medical degree in your background.

"We could also ask Dr. Blake to check in?"

"I don't know Dr. Blake ~~for some mysterious reason~~," Lydia said, "but if you think he would be able to help, that might be a good idea." Even if she still didn't know what a vaccination was. She was really going to have to ask her phone at this rate. (Please not TikTok, Lydia.)

"Have you bought anything good? I must confess I'm not much of a cook, but the food here makes me want to try." Or to shove bread slathered in pesto in her mouth and call it a meal. That was allowed, right?

Who could even say why that would be? Though Lydia had just definitely ensured that Arden was going to avoid the dude who buried his heart in his yard, that was for damn sure.

"It will," she said. "Vaccinations help you not get a ton of diseases, like..." Shit, what were old-timey diseases? "Measles and, uh, smallpox and stuff."

...Close, Arden. You didn't need smallpox vaccines anymore. BECAUSE OF SMALLPOX VACCINES.

"Okay, okay, but Lydia, have you considered...take out?" Sorry Miss Lambe, for that sudden jump in Lydia's expenses. "Il Pollo is right there on the island."

Not as good as food in, y'know, Rome, but with less effort on Lydia's part.

Lydia would be addressing the thing about takeout at some other time, because, "You can...not get smallpox? Or the measles?"

"Yeah," Arden said. "There's just a whole list of diseases you end up immune to after you get the vaccines. Uh..chicken pox...umm...hang on."

She pulled out her phone to get a list to show Lydia. "Like, they give a bunch of these to newborns, even, cause I guess a bunch of babies don't normally survive till one...?"

Yeah, Arden. Lydia knew.

"Dipheria, pertussis...mumps? Is that a real thing?" She shrugged. "I haven't even heard of most of these. Oh shit, there are some you get at eleven and older? I need to get those, too."

Being a sylph, Arden didn't even know if she could get these. But why take stupid chances?

No, you were about to cry on the street outside a tiramisu shop in Rome. "I didn't know that was an option." Keeping the babies from dying, and also not getting the mumps. "Oh, Arden, how wonderful!"

Lydia better be bringing those five babies back to the 2030s and 40s to get all their immunizations.

"Yeah," Arden said, leaning over to give Lydia a hug if she wanted. "You wanna go together? Since I guess I'm due for some, too?"

"Oh, yes!" Lydia exclaimed. "That sounds like a good idea. Since I don't have the first clue what I'm doing."

They were just going to poke her with a needle and then she wouldn't get smallpox? That couldn't possibly be correct. If it was that simple why would anyone ever not get vaccinated?

Did that sound like someone screaming in the distance? Coming, from the direction of...Massachusetts? Huh. Weird.

"I'm pretty sure we just walk into the clinic sometime and ask if we could get a full suite of vaccinations," Arden said. "You might have to go a few times, cause some have to be spaced out and they might not wanna give you a million at once? And then your arms'll be sore for a few days and you might sleep a lot or feel really sick, but then...yeah, bang. Immune."

She started poking at her phone again. "...Huh."

"Oh, well, that's fine," Lydia said. "I don't mind a bit of pain. Well, I do, but I can manage it...what is it?"

"...We'll have to find a special way to get you the smallpox vaccine," Arden said, looking up at Lydia almost apologetically. "It doesn't exist anymore. The disease, I mean. We eradicated it in the word in...the 80s? I guess? You literally can't get smallpox anymore, not anywhere in the whole world."

Which, you know, sucked still for folks in Lydia's time, but wasn't that good to know? That one day it couldn't hurt anyone anymore?

"You can't get smallpox?" Lydia all but whispered, and then threw her arms around Arden. "Oh, Arden!"

Her whole family was getting vaccinated whether they knew it or not.

Arden wrapped her arms around Lydia and hugged her tightly. Don't worry, they'd find a way to smuggle vaccines to 1810. Including smallpox. Somehow. Lydia had enough fri--

"Oh!" she said. "Ellie! Eleanor's from the 60s! And if you go to visit her, the portal will bring you back to her time easy-peasy! And we'll get you vaxxed and safe from smallpox, too!"

And then set up some kind of heist to mug a clinic for enough doses of the vaccine for Lydia to inoculate her whole family and probably a couple of people on the side, too.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Food & Cultural Appreciation, Tuesday Third Period

Re: Rome!

Re: Rome!

Re: Rome!

Re: Rome!

Re: Rome!

Re: Rome!

Re: Rome!

Re: Rome!

Re: Rome!

Re: Rome!

Re: Rome!

Re: Rome!

Re: Rome!

Re: Rome!

Re: Rome!

Re: Rome!

Re: Rome!

Re: Rome!

Re: Rome!

Re: Rome!

Re: Rome!

Re: Rome!

Re: Rome!

Re: Rome!

Re: Rome!