Tasslehoff Burrfoot is not a thief (tas_wanderlust) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-09-01 13:19:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, isabela, tasslehoff burrfoot |
Who: Tas and Isabela
What: Tas shows Isabela how to make Otik's Spiced Potatoes (or something close to them)
When: Recently
Where: The Hanged Man kitchen
Rating/Warning: Low/none!
Status: Complete
Tas was really excited. He’d been practicing at home, and while it wasn’t exactly the same, he’d finally stumbled upon a combination of spices and herbs that could pass for Otik’s spiced potatoes. He was beginning to wonder if some of the herbs weren’t native to Krynn itself, and had become resigned to the fact that he probably wasn’t going to be able to get an exact match.
But now that he’d figured it out, after months of experimenting, he couldn’t wait to show Isabela. They were in the kitchen of the hanged man. “These will be the best potatoes that you have ever tasted, cross my heart!” Tas said over his shoulder to Isabela as he cooked the potatoes.
Herbs native to a land Isabela could understand - after all, it was similar for Thedosian herbs, whenever you needed them for something. It wasn’t really her bag, crafting, but she knew Trevelyan had an herb garden at Skyhold for the purposes of cultivating and selling them - mostly for potions and medicinal uses, in various occult shoppes, but she supposed you could use some types for cooking too. Deep mushrooms had such a unique flavour, after all! Unless you didn’t prepare them right, and then they killed you.
“Oh, I believe you, love,” she grinned cheerfully, stepping a bit closer to watch what Tas was doing. She peered over his shoulder but tried not to get in the way. “And Otik was...he was a dwarf? Or something else?”
They certainly smelled delicious, these potatoes. Now the tricky part would be teaching Isabela how to make them. Ha. In all actuality though, she wasn’t too bad a cook - when she could be arsed to do it, though for pub food clearly she’d make the time.
“Oh no, Otik’s an Innkeeper!” Tas said cheerfully, as if ‘Innkeeper” was a race of its own. “A human innkeeper,” he clarified. “He’s kind of fat, but he’s really friendly! And his ale’s really good too! Just like yours. I bet yours is going to be the best pub in California once you start serving these potatoes!” He dropped the potato wedges he’d cut into the deep frier.
Human innkeeper, ah, yes. Why did Bela assume he was a dwarf? She was picturing someone fat and hairy, wearing an apron, perhaps that’s why. At least she’d been on the money about the fat part. “Our ale really is delicious, isn’t it?” she sounded proud of her and Hawke’s creation - Rat Droppings, brewed right here on the premises. Crisp and spicy, to get you all warm and sloshy - very authentic, it was a big hit.
“Pub food ought to be the kicker though, I agree. You want something to soak up all the booze with,” she said, and actually decided to put on an apron herself (oh, Maker, was it the end of the world already?) and wash her hands to see about jumping in here. “Alright, kitten, show me how much of what you mix the potatoes with before you drop them in oil.” She supposed there was peeling and cutting too, but that wasn’t much fun. Maybe she could get Hawke to do that part when more potatoes were made later.
“You put the spices on after you cook the potatoes!” Tas said cheerily. “The oil helps make the spices stick to the potatoes.” After a couple minutes, he pulled the potatoes from the frier, golden and crispy, and dumped them into a bowl. Then he grabbed the spice shaker and added a generous amount of the spices onto it. “I’d say about five shakes,” he said. “I can make a whole menu if you wanted! Sheppard’s pie and meat pies and oh! Poutine! I bet you’d be the only place in the county that served poutine!”
“Oh, well, there you go - it’s a good thing you’re here, I’d have cocked it up already,” Isabela grinned - Tas essentially being the talking, walking personification of sunshine and rainbows was a bit infectious. She couldn’t help but feel her spirits lifted a little, not that she was downtrodden before - things were actually going well. Good pub, good raider business on the side, good potatoes! See, all was well. But still, he was an adorable little kender when he wasn’t stealing people’s shit.
Not that she had room to talk there.
Five shakes though, noted. She’d see if she could replicate that with some leftover cut-up potatoes. “Poutine is fucking delicious, you’re just full of splendid ideas, aren’t you?” Her stomach growled even just thinking of all that cheese and gravy slathered on fries - it’d be good shit too, nothing congealed and just put into the microwave. “Looks like I’ll definitely have to hire you as our cook, then. If you pool your funds you and Raistlin might even be able to get out of that place that smells like wet dog.”
Tas grinned. “Really? I’d love to work as a cook here!” Tas said. He’d really grown to love his dingy little apartment and his kind of strange neighbours, but he didn’t love coming home after a long day out only to smell the wet dog anew. “I bet Raistlin would like that! And he sure would be surprised if I got a job. And I’d get to work with you, which would be the best thing in the whole wide world! Though, I think you’d probably need more milk crates for me to stand on.”
Isabela tried her hand at the fryer, dunking the basket in the hot oil and letting the potatoes sizzle and get all nice and golden brown - though the way she held it at near arms length, it looked like the basket was really full of Amelia’s nappies or something. But she was just being extra careful so as not to mess this up!
“Milk crates, we’ve got plenty of those,” she laughed - or crates in general, really. Many people seemed to change physically the more they dreamed, but she’d never heard of anyone getting shorter. Poor Tas. “And cooking’s something you love to do, isn’t it? So it works out.”
With the potatoes being crispy, she decided to see if she could spice them up the same way Tas did. Five shakes! One, two, three, four, five - right there into the bowl. “How was that?” Generally, she’d just let him handle the food orders - but in case they got extra busy or something. She wanted to be able to pitch in.
“Cooking and maps are my two favourite things!” Tas said cheerfully. “Oh! If you ever want me to draw you maps for the bar, I’d be more than happy to! Maybe I can make some up of your dream world!” Assuming that someone could describe the land to him well enough for him to recreate it on paper.
Tas grabbed one of the fries from the bowl, forgetting that they were still hot from the oil. He quickly tossed it between his hands a couple of times so he didn’t burn himself and so that it would cool down quicker, and then popped it into his mouth. “Mmm! Delicious!” he said. “Just right!”
Whew, she hadn’t fucked those spuds up. Isabela was relieved, as she studied the spice canister - what the bloody hell was even in it anyway? It really was good, the combination, but she supposed that it’d remain a mystery as to what exactly went into the ‘flavour profile’ for the potatoes. A couple were popped into her mouth too, once they were cool enough - ooh, that just burst on the tastebuds, didn’t it. That Otik was a brilliant, brilliant man.
“Maps would add a nice medieval touch, I think,” she nodded. “Has no one described Thedas to you yet? Because I could give it a go - I’ve been most everywhere, you know. With the raiders.”
Well, there were a few places she avoided - Tevinter was one of those places, and she wished she could pull Dorian away from drunken revelry and nudity to describe the Imperium since it was so large but she doubted that would happen. Bela would just do the best she could.
“I don’t think I’ve talked to anyone other than you who dreams of Thedas! I know they have dragons and magic though, which is just like Krynn! Do you guys ride dragons too? We’ve started riding dragons in my dreams! It’s really quite wonderful! Me and my friend Flint, we got to ride a bronze dragon named Fireflash! You have to tell me about all the different lands of Thedas though! I wish I could go there.”
“We’ve got a few mounts specific to Thedas, but most tend to not ride dragons,” Isabela chuckled. She could only imagine how well that would turn out! They were beautiful creatures, but very dangerous. “Here, kitten - “
She handed Tas a notepad and a pencil. With their first experiment involving potatoes going so well, she could only imagine that the next would also be just as good. “Write down your recipe for meat pies? I’ll make sure to pick up all the ingredients. For those and poutine too - “ Although that one was a bit simpler, in all its greasy, gravy goodness, “And I’ll tell you all about Rivain, which is where your favourite lady pirate is from.”
Not that she had a tonne of good memories, but that was mostly due to the Qunari invasion and her arranged marriage - overall, it was an exotic land and reminded her a little of Spain, maybe Morocco and Marrakesh. She would try to weave an interesting tale for Tas.