LongTech Hosts Yet Another Bake Off - RPLOG
Participants
Date
30/3/480
Log
It is early in the afternoon, and the LongTech guards are slowly but surely allowing various beings into the small hallway where mages have set up a series of cooking-stations, complete with something of a magically heated surface, and a water-basin near every countertop. Various foodstuffs have been stalled out among the back wall, largely consisting of flours, honeys, and other easy-to-keep foodstuffs. Finally, there's Flora, gesturing for everyone to move to their chosen station, and await instructions.
"Your sure I can't just wheel my cart in here?" Tam, owner and operator of the Tanuki Express asks the guard trying to usher him to a work station, "Only I got all kinds of great little tools for making cookin' easier, y'know!" Fenris would not miss out on this for the world! He is not really sure why Flora would sponsor an event like this, but it seemed like far too much fun to pass up. In the guise of Tam Mikuzukinoyoi, he is more than prepared to try his hand at a little cooking contest.
The tubby tanuki looks over his workstation and smiles around at other participants.
Cirrus arrives, if only for the opportunity to "sample" some other contestants' leftovers. She had a plan of what she would be making, yes, but there were little to no guarantees as to the quality of it. As she approaches her station, she pipes up to one of the nearby mages. "Just a quick question. Can we have any actual fire? Actual fire is nice, for cooking."
"Welcome, yes," Flora offers, as she moves past the gathered beings for a moment, smiling lightly. "Everyone has a cooking station, complete with magical countertop, and oven," she offers, gesturing at the heated countertop, and the handle to open it and access the oven within. "No fire, the stoves are made of enchanted wood. They can handle the heat, but not fire, no," Flora offers, shaking her head lightly.
"If anyone needs any meat, fish, or fowl, let one of the attendants know, yes. It is kept separate to avoid spoiling, yes. The same for tools not stalled out yet," she offers, as she gestures at the various tools. Knives, meat-forks, wooden spoons and pots and pans are present at every countertop, at the very least.
"Now, the rules, yes. No outside ingredients, only use the provided ones. There should be plenty. Any dishes you can make with them are allowed, and making multiple dishes is permitted. If you make multiple dishes, they should be a part of the same menu, and will be judged as such. Collaboration is permitted, but will factor into judging. And no help from any Spirits, she offers one tusked bear, smiling warmly. "The challenge is to make good food, not to see who has the best supernatural connections, yes."
"You have three hours."
Tam smiles and nods along as Flora explains the rules. "Sounds like a plan!" he says happily, then produces a little pad of paper and a stub of a charcoal pencil. He scribbles out a list of ingredients, some vegetables, a little meat and a number of herbs and snags the nearest attendent. "I'm gonna need these things, pal!" he says amiably, "You mind getting them for me while I get started here?"
An Artic Fox finds himself filtering into the hall along with the crowd gathering for the contest. He isn't a cook, at least not one that would dare go to a contest. 'meat on a stick' is just not all that amazing. However, these things tend to have lots of food, lots of good food... And Russell wanted some of it.
He flicks his tail about as he finds a spot just a bit out of the way where he could still watch the action. Though with being short, his head has to poke out from behind shoulders.
Cirrus goes and grabs a bowl, then peers about, and grabs a few cloves of garlic and nabs one of those bottles of "soy sauce" that you find in the Jadelands. She uncorks the top, takes a whiff, whistles, shakes her head, and recorks it to take it back to her station. She whispers some ingredients to one of the attendants, waiting for some ingredients to come back while she starts crushing up some of the garlic. Can't cook without garlic.
A small smile from Flora as everyone sets to work, and the attendants start moving different foods around, carrying everything on plates of some sort to make sure to touch it as little as possible. Meanwhile, Flora moves to the back of the hall, smiling lightly as she gestures for Russell to take a station. "Anything will do, friend Russell. But Flora does expect participation, if friend Russell wants to partake of the food afterwards," she offers with a small smile on her lips, as the impromptu-kitchen sets to work, and she moves past the different tables, making small inquiries as to what the various beings are planning to make.
Tam carefully sets up his workspace, laying out several cutting boards, some sharp knives, a small mortar and pestle and a large frying pan along with a large mixing bowl. The tubby tanuki rolls his neck and shoulders, stretches dramatically, sets his wide, flat, bamboo hat atop his head, then starts to work!
It would be hard to say the exact recipie he is using, since he hardly seems to measure anything, tossing ingredients into his bowl with speed and practiced precision. Soon he has a generous coating of flour on his thick forearms and he is mixing a thick, pasty dough. The tanuki starts to wander a little, looking at other cooks' work as he mixes.
Cirrus works a lot slower than, say, Tam, and her recipes are much more simple. She pours some of the sauce into a bowl, adds the garlic to it, dices up some beef in nice, large chunks, and sticks it inside. A marinade! She sticks a lid on the bowl and sets it aside for the time being. She then goes and speaks to one of the nearby attendants, seemingly intent on acquiring... swords? She appears to want to acquire rapiers for whatever she's doing.
Russell had not counted on this;he'd gone on the notion that there'd be a surplus he could snag a few bites of. However, without anyone in mortal danger, the fox's desire to stay out of the spotlight overrides anything else, and he backpedals a bit, "I'm flattered but I'll pass. It'd be a waste of food, since I know little aside from cooking things on a spit until they're charred." He slinks a bit further back and silently regrets acting like a scavenger.
A small smile, a shake of the head. "As Friend Russell wishes. If Friend Russell changes his mind, there is still plenty of time left, yes," she offers, before one of the attendants gestures her over to Cirrus's table, and explains what her cousin is requesting.
"Are rapiers necessary? Why not just a prong?" the she-cat asks, looking more than a bit confused at the request, while she keeps an eye on the rest of the room.
Tam wanders around, making small talk with other cooks and some of the attendandants who seem familiar with him. He DOES run a food cart, after all. The tanuki seems most interested in the tusked bear and his work. "What's on the menu?" he asks with a smile, still stirring and kneading his dough vigorously.
"Why -not-?" Cirrus replies, with a smile on her face. She ends up shrugging, however, expanding upon the answer. "They're not strictly necessary. A little heat won't damage the steel, though, and it'll look rather neat. Actually, there's one thing: A rapier is slightly flattened, so the stuff won't slide around or rotate."
Russell's nose samples the air on instinct, but doesn't yet smell anything that makes him curious. The conversation about using a Rapier of all things to cook with makes the fox blink a few times. A Dueling sword being useful in a kitchen? It's so bizzare to his sensibilities that he wanders over to investigate.
"You're cooking... What now?" Russell asks, blinking his eyes a few times, "That has to be one of the more... intresting things I've heard of."
A raise of the brow, a soft muble. "Hrm. Flora will have to think on it for a bit, yes. When does Cousin Cirrus need them?" she offers, raising her brow lightly.
The bear gestures at his plate, smiling brightly. "Peanut-sauce from the Jadelands, creator potato-sticks, and a little invention of my own," he offers, gesturing for one of the attendants, and asking if it's possible to refridgerate or freeze things.
"Jadelands?" Tam asks, "No kidding! That's where my Dad is from! And my dish. . . Guess I shoulda tried from something more local, huh?" The tanuki continues to mix. Apparently the dough he is making needs some good, sturdy kneading. "You ever been out there? Or just got a killer cook book?" To listen to the tanuki speak, one would imagine him growing up in the Sweetwater farmlands, not the far off, exotic Jadelands.
"I'm making kebabs! Basically, skewered meats and veggies. I'd like to get started properly cooking at a little past the two hour mark, so they're still hot and juicy." Cirrus says, prodding around at the fresh ingredient pile for some peppers, onions, and the like. She'll start cutting and salting them soon-ish.
The fox ohs! "Kabab's, suddenly it's making a bit more sense then. since one doesn't want the food spinning around until you need to do that yourself..." Russell then says, "Don't they have kebab sticks, though? I've never used one, but I could swear that it's something I've seen used."
His tail flicks about, and he comments, "I usually use a long straight branch on a spit, but that's because I cook in the woods."
"Yes. What is wrong with kebab-prongs?" Flora offers, smiling warmly, as she gestures to one of the servants, smiling once more.
"Never been there, m'lad. But I talk with other cooks, y'know. Best way to improve your craft," the tusked bear offers with a smile, before gesturing at Tam's craft. "And you're making? Fair's fair, after all," he offers, as he starts preparing a ragout of sorts.
"Steamed meat and sweet bean buns," Tam says, "More Jadeland stuff. Like I said, that's where Dad was from, so its what I know. I'll serve 'em up with a vegetable curry. I like it nice and hot, but I'll probably tone it back for the judges." The tanuki winks and grins at the bear. "Save me some of that, though. I look forward to trying it!"
Fortunately, Tam's station is nearby, and he can keep talking as he returns to his work table, setting his dough aside to start expertly slicing and dicing meat and vegetables, laying them in shallow bowls and throwing sauces and spices about in careful, precise amounts.
"Kebab prongs don't have the same... thing! Y'know, the whole intangible quality bit. Besides. I think you only have normal prongs, the roundy-ones." Cirrus says, huffing slightly. She starts roughly cutting the veggies, however, clearly intending to skewer them. Maybe she should find some rice. Dunno.
Russell's head points to the ceiling, and he flicks his ears a bit in contemplation, trying to remember the term he's heard. "It's all about... presentation, eh?" He asks Cirrus, looking over at the veggies she's cutting before looking over at the cook he'd met before. "Well, hopefully you get a better reception for your dish here then you did the last time we met, eh"
"Certainly hope so, lad. My pact with messer Olloch seems to not sit well with a lot of people, I'm afraid," he offers, sighing a tad. "All I wanted was to hone my craft to perfection. Nothing more, nothing less," he offers with a small shake of the head, as he continues preparing ingredients for the ragout, before moving on to cutting up potatoes into sticks. "And I wasn't aware Lord Good couldn't handle peanuts, either. I'll be serving the sauce separately from now on."
"Kebab prongs are angled, yes. Cousin Cirrus is thinking of another kind of prong, Flora thinks," she offers, smiling at the sight of the rare few beings who've decided to use the available LongTech thermometers for various purposes, before turning back to Cirrus, and scratching her head. "Flora doesn't get it. Food should taste good and be nutritious, yes."
"Oh! Creators!" Tam exclaims, though his preparations are not interrupted by his conversation, "I heard about that! That was you?" Of course, Fenris knows exactly who the bear is. For multiple reasons, but most people find it disconcerting to learn that you know about their affairs before you have been properly introduced. "You've had all kinds of crazy after you this week, haven't you!" he says, scooping slivers of meat into a thick, sweet sauce, "Shoot, proud of you for sticking to your cookin' pot though!" The tanuki works quietly for a moment, tongue sticking out the corner of his mouth as he meticulously minces garlic and grinds it down into a paste. "So. . . " he hazards, "What's it like? The uh. . . the Olloch thing?" he waves vaguely at his own jaw.
"Some beings like food that looks as intresting as it tastes. It's not a fancy I strike personally, per-se, but it's something. Two meals that are otherwise the same, the one done up to look fancier will certainly /look/ tastier." Russ says, and adds, "I think it's pretty common in the royal courts and the like for that reason. All of the food they eat is great. So the only way to improve it is to make it wow the guests."
He notices the strage devices that everyone is using, but he has never heard of or seen these thermometers, so he assumes it's a kitchen tool he's got no experience with, which is quite a few of them.
"Prongs will work, though, yes." Cirrus nods, opening the bowl that contains the meat to massage at it a bit, before moving to wash her hands off and start layering the beef and veggies on the skewer. "Flora probably doesn't care as much about how it looks, but."
"Nope. Flora doesn't get it. Food should be tasty. Smell should be good, probably. Smell adds to the food. Looks don't change the taste, no," she concludes after a short pause, a tailflick. "Flora is quite fond of those. Thermometer. Measure how hot something is, yes. These ones are suitable for the kitchen, but with some changes, they can also be used in forges. Those cost more to make, though," the she-cat offers with a smile on her lips, a flick of her tail.
Tam is offered a wistful smile, before shaking his head. "S'my craft, lad. And mister Olloch ain't done me wrong. It's tough to describe, though. Speaks to me sometimes, he does. When I'm at a loss when it comes to spices or food-combinations. But he ain't done me wrong. Hasn't suggested anything like what the crazies do in his name," he offers with a tusked smile.
"Sounds handy," Tam says, smiling, "Mister Olloch is a good cook too, then?" The tanuki has set aside his meat and veggies for a moment while he rolls out the pale dough he has made and starts to slice it into neat squares. "Maybe I ought to meet this fella, huh?"
"Your metal should get much hotter than your food. If either is like the other, you're probably doing something wrong. Probably." Cirrus notes, pouring some rice into a pot and metering out water, before placing it on the heated surface. "Can I get a time check, please?"
"Thermometer..." Russell commits this to memory. He doesn't have a forge, but he wants one, one day. One of those might be useful. "I'll have to remember that, Lady Flora... You make all sorts of things. I'll come back after going to hunt more furs to find out you invented some sort of macine that do a better job at hunting then I." Flora's comment about not understanding how to making a food dish intresting on the eyes as well as the tounge makes him chuckle a little, but he says nothing about it.
"I imagine Flora's come up with an infresting solution to gauging how hot things are."
"Flora knows. So you need a different type of thermometer for a forge than you need for a oven, yes," the she-cat offers with a smil, a flick of her tail as she looks to the clock. "Two and a half hours remaining, yes," she calls out to everyone, while various beings scurry to put things in the oven.
The bear offers a small chuckle, a slight shake of the head. "Y'can always try, lad. I could call 'im over, but he's a busy man, and I don't like disturbing 'im. And I don't think the Lady would appreciate it," he offers, as he gestures one of the attendants to his ragout, asking them to put it in cold storage for a while.
Tam barks out a warm, pleasant laugh. "No doubt! No doubt!" he says, "Besides, I'm in the middle of my own cookery, ain't I?" The tanuki leaves his dough to do what dough does, and goes to the mathemagically powered hot plate and starts to do utterly inscrutable things with the sliced meat and marinade he has made, as well as preparing two other pots, all three heating at the same time, all three filled with a remarkable assortment of ingredients and spices.
"Two and a half? Still? Huh." Cirrus glances around at everyone shoving things in ovens, instead filling a water in a glass and starting to sip at it. She has time to kill, apparently! Especially if the meet has more time to marinade. "Fun."
Russell watches the collected cooks for another few minutes, but soon realizes that without actually cooking anything or offering much in the way of useful advice he's superfulous to say the least.
"Well, lady Flora, it's been swell, but since I'm no cood and I really don't want to stand here for no reason, I'll be out of your fur. I wish everyone luck with teh contest!" The Arctic Fox gives a grin and a wave as he heads out.
"Two and a half. Cousin Cirrus could make an accompanying dish, of course," Flora offers, before moving over to Tam and Ernest with a smile on her lips. Everything is going well here, yes?" she offers, as she watches Ernest fill a large pot with some sort of vegetable-oil.
"Hello, Lady Flora," Tam says amiably, "My new friend here was just telling me about his peanut sauce! I'm excited to try it later!" The tubby tanuki is leaning against the counter as he watches his three sauces simmer gently in their pots. "This is a fun little contest you got goin," he says, "But I gotta wonder, why run something like this? No offense, but cooking doesn't seem like your cup of tea, if you get my meaning."
"Flora doesn't mind cooking, no. But Flora is figuring it would be a bit of good publicity now, for the thermometer, and a bit of good publicity later. After all, having a contest-winner serve meals at the fair is beneficial to the fair, and the one serving food, yes."
"Now THAT sounds like a prize!" Tam says with a grin, "You're saying that whoever makes the best food here gets to sell at this big fair thing you been doing all the building for? I like the sound of that!" The tanuki removes two of the simmering pots from the heat and starts to ladle savory smelling meat and sweet paste onto the slowly puffing squares of dough he has made. Not together, of course, but a healthy grouping of each. The last pot stays simmering, slowly thickening into a golden sauce. "If I had known that there would be a prize that good," Tam says, "I would have thrown in with my new pal here!" He grins at the tusked bear.
"In principle, any being who wants to sell food is allowed, but the winner doesn't pay a fee for their spot, and has a spot for the entire duration of the fair, yes," Flora offers, smiling warmly as she flicks her tail, looking towards the bear and the things he's doing with the oil-filled pan.
"Oh. Interesting." Cirrus says, prodding at her thing of rice and debating seasoning it up with some herbs. Green rice is easy to make, after all, and the acid with the freshness should work well against the meat. "Never miss a business opportunity, do you, Flora?"
Tam grins at the idea. "Wouldn't that be a pretty prize! Free real-estate for a big fancy affair like that!" he says, starting to fold filling into dough squares and wrapping them into neat buns. He looks around at the various items of cookware around him and frowns. "Uh oh," he frowns, "This isn't gonna work. I need a proper steam tray and I don't see nothing like that here." He turns a smile on Flora. "Got my cart pulled up just outside. Don't suppose one of your helpers here would go and get the big, round trays outta the top for me?"
