Chapter 621: A Culinary Adventure (Part One)
Several minutes later, Ashlynn was munching happily on a fish fritter that was still piping hot from the boiling lard it was cooked in. The exterior was perfectly crisp while the interior was soft and pillowy though she had to admit that each fritter seemed to contain more bread, herbs and vegetables than flakes of tender, flakey fish, and they contained far less of the spicy peppers that Jacques added to his, but they were still a nostalgic treat that reminded her of her time in the Briar and the unexpected family she’d found there.
Ollie was the first to return, awkwardly juggling a platter piled high with skewers of spiced, roasted meats and half a dozen small bowls of brightly colored sauces. The scents of sweet onions and fresh parsley mingled with fatty beef and pork to create a simple, welcoming aroma that all but cried out for one of the dark red, bright orange, or vibrant green sauces stacked around the edge of the platter.
"That was fast," Ashlynn said as she blew on another hot fritter, waiting for it to cool slightly before she began to nibble again. "Why did you pick those?"
"I wanted to try something new," Ollie admitted as he held a skewer and eyed the colorful sauces, trying to decide which one to try first. "I’ve never seen minced meat roasted on a skewer over a fire like this, and there were so many different sauces to try, so I thought this would be a good time for a little food adventure," he said with a wide grin.
For so long, his focus on food had been figuring out ways to turn the scraps he foraged in the Lothian kitchens into something palatable. From off-cuts of meat to slightly burned bits that couldn’t be served on a lord’s table or odd combinations of leftovers, he’d tried just about everything to make an enjoyable meal out of the castoffs of the noblemen’s tables.
Ever since coming to the Vale of Mists, however, Georg had been slowly expanding Ollie’s knowledge of food, adding not only to the young man’s repertoire of techniques but enhancing his sense of flavor and what made food truly enjoyable. Now that he found himself confronted by so many different dishes cooked by people from so many different Eldritch Nations, he felt like he couldn’t possibly taste everything he wanted before the end of the festival, so he set out to find something that offered as many different flavors as possible.
"The green one," Virve said, sitting down next to the young knight with a heavy -THUMP- as she set down a platter of her own, this one laden with thick sausages and crumbly blocks of pale cheese with blue veins of mold. "You want to slather the skewer with as much of the green sauce as you can, and then take a big bite so the juices of the meat mix with the sauce in your mouth," she said with a wide smile.
"No, no, no, no, no! What are you doing?" Heila cried as she walked up in time to see Ollie spooning the chunky green sauce over a skewer. In her arms, she carried a basket filled with deep-fried pastries drizzled in honey that she nearly dropped in her haste to stop Ollie from following Virve’s helpful ’advice.’ "That much spicy sauce and you won’t be able to taste anything but pain," she said, giving Virve a pointed look.
"It’s fine," Virve countered, leaning forward to snatch the sauce-laden skewer from Ollie’s hand, biting off nearly half the meat in a single large bite and smiling broadly as she savored the savory, spicy treat. "See?"
"Don’t trust her, Ollie," Heila said, stepping between the young knight and the bearish warrior like a comically small guardian. "I don’t think Virve can taste anything unless it has so much seasoning that it burns your tongue."
"I can eat spicy food you know," Ollie said, reaching out for another skewer and preparing to scoop even more of the fiery green sauce on it. When he noticed a subtle headshake from Ashlynn, however, he significantly reduced the amount of sauce he added before taking a bite. The instant he did, he felt like his tongue had been stabbed by hundreds of needles, as if he’d unleashed the cypress needle magic he’d learned during his trial, only in his own mouth and set on fire.