#American Chinese Cuisine and Recipes

[lifegoesonevenifeverybodyisgone]

THE Joe Character Analysis. Part 1: The Greasers and J's Mexican Heritage

Merry Christmas, especially to the dedicated Joe fan, @barbieb0y! After torturing myself by recapping and taking notes of the entire 2.0 event, Joe's character story "The San Francisco Kids", looking at his storyboards and comic, getting Joe to 100% bond, having him as my main in the Series of Dusks, and reading + re-reading all of his voice lines/mini stories/descriptions; I can confidently say that I have gained more insights about his character and formed theories of my own that we shall tackle today.

While looking at J's character storyboard I noticed something interesting about his fashion style.

J's fashion style is inspired by the Greaser's aesthetic. Considering that Bluepoch pays attention to character details and their outfits, this is an intentional choice. By briefly looking at the Wikipedia page for the Greaser subculture, I noticed that the most prominent adopters of the style are Italian Americans from the North and Hispanic Americans in the South (including places like California, in this case, Haight Street).

This brought to my attention that J, in fact, could have Mexican heritage. Specifically, he is a mixed White-Mexican American.

Why so?

J's paternal side is the legendary arcanist family, the Waylands. The last name Wayland derives from the Norman French word Wēland, which may also derive from the ancient Germanic words wēla-nandaz, which means "battle" and "brave." This means that his father is most likely a typical White American.

Since J is a mixed arcanist, I would assume that his biological mother is a human Hispanic considering the significant percentage of San Francisco's Hispanic population and also due to J's identification with the Greaser subculture.

A mixed child has a higher chance of learning their mother's culture especially if they grow up around other maternal family members or people of the same culture. I noticed that my mixed-race cousins whose father was an American, identified more with their Filipino side especially since they live in the Philippines. I identify more with my mother's ethnic group due to the same reasons.

Besides his tanned skin, his love for Mexican food and drink and his mastery of cooking the cuisine may suggest that he is of Mexican descent.

Examples:

The most telling of these examples is J's cooking ability NOT his preference for Mexican food. In the first example, he managed to make a hot sauce AUTHENTIC enough that Centurion, a CANONICAL Mexican-American character, was taken back to her hometown. This is a big deal considering that in the 1990s, there wasn't Youtube or online sources that could spread authentic recipes for Mexican food! Due to the limited educational resources in that era regarding cooking Mexican food, this means that he most likely learned it by being taught by someone who could make Mexican food, which I conclude is his biological mother.

Tang Ji, the chef who raised J after his father died, is a Chinese immigrant so it's unlikely that he knows how to cook Mexican food from the get-go. J himself also knows how to cook Chinese food because of this. There is a chance that one of the Mexican immigrants could have taught J how to cook Mexican food but due to his tan skin color (that he had even before he began blacksmithing) this leads me to assume that my conclusion is the more likely option.

But why? I am led to believe that his mother passed down her recipes to her husband and son just like how some of my mixed family members exchange recipes and traditions amongst each other. A fast way to connect to one's culture is by knowing how to make food from THAT culture. Since J lost his mother at a young age (but not too young as not to remember her), I think it is his way of remembering his mother and connecting to his culture (since he cannot speak the language I assume).

So going back to the Greaser subculture that J identifies with, it emerged amongst lower-class teenagers and young adults. The Greaser subculture was associated with motorcycle gangs, their attire, their greased-up hair, and their rebellious attitude.

This is reflected in J's fashion:

(His hairstyle is a more tousled version of a flop)

(His jacket seems to be a modified Perfecto Motorcycle Jacket)

(His jeans are Levi's dark blue jeans that are inspired by the 50s with the cut of the jeans being a bit wider near the end to make way for boots)

(His boots are partially hidden by his jeans but it is a Winklepicker boots which are characterized by their slick body, pointy toes, and straps)

(The Greasers were oftentimes bikers and were fond of the hot rod type of bikes. "Hot Rod" is a way of modifying classic vehicles by stripping them of their parts, which exposes insides like the pipes, to increase speed.)

The original Greasers were from ethnic minorities like those from the Mediterranean, Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Italian. They felt united in the feeling of being left out of the post-war economic boom and also experienced discrimination and poverty. The theme or main philosophy and ethos of the Greaser and the cultural aspects of Mexican-American culture are essential in understanding J, his understanding of the world, and his background in Haight Street.

In three posts, I will discuss the three themes that explore 1) collectivism vs individual choice, 2) masculinity, family, and community, and 3) J's philosophy regarding blades and metals (and how it connects to his views of imperfection and culture). I will also be comparing and contrasting him with characters like Legers, Argus, and Isolde. I will reblog these posts when they come, so sit back and enjoy!

Link to the ultimate Joe Directory: https://www.tumblr.com/lifegoesonevenifeverybodyisgone/771822786973958144/the-ultimate-joe-directory?source=share

[findmeinthefallair]

The timing that I chose to start on Jentry Chau vs. the Underworld --

-- is rather interesting, considering that I'm aching like nothing else to start physically leaving this culture behind in a week and heal from it, while the show kicks off with Jentry - a Chinese girl like myself - having to return to where it all started.

I don't speak about this stuff often at all but I have ended up where I am (after leaving my birthplace of Australia at age 2)...through the odd mix of being brought up in a place where diversity is celebrated and which has (in my opinion) the world's best cuisine due to being such a melting pot, yet people don't acknowledge and celebrate the uniqueness of an individual person. While both individualism and collectivism have their pros and cons, we have to take the good from both to form healthy family units and communities.

It's been overall lonely here in what I call my not!home, since the collectivistic tendencies to stick to tradition remain really strong. People form judgments about you too quickly, since open-mindedness is not a quality that is made a priority at all. This means that anything that deviates from the norm being met with skepticism, being dismissed and minimized. The education level about autism and ADHD is also still very low and there's still a noticeable stigma surrounding those conditions along with mental illness.

It's so weird because my parents spent their 20s and 30s living in Western countries. They chose to raise us to have mostly Western mannerisms, yet at their roots they still parented us in the authoritarian Asian way which caused the trauma. There's literally an entire subreddit, AsianParentStories, detailing the kind of wounding that people like me receive from generational trauma. We're also in the minority here because English is our first language: it's not the norm in Malaysia, and the standard of English here has deteriorated more and more since around the time I was in high school.

It's been a really bad match for my neurodivergence and queerness that Chinese culture unfortunately emphasizes a particular kind of stoicism and "saving face". It's left me with a lot of trauma since an unspoken rule is having to moderate how much you emotionally express yourself. Thus, you can imagine how I've been treated whenever I've had what I much later realized were autistic meltdowns, shutdowns, overstimulation, and RSD: in this case trauma truly begets trauma.

I've never felt like I fit in here, haven't had success in dating because the hard choice I make each time is to never dilute or snuff out who I uniquely am. I'm not even sure how much people's true selves are snuffed out in more collectivistic societies. When it comes to collectivism, it seems like someone like me has to dampen myself, to become boring and dull in order to be taken seriously.

It's gotten so bad that I kinda forget most of the time what my ethnic identity is. The only positive things I've believed I can take from the culture are very yummy food recipes and being given money at gatherings because I'm still single (the red packets, or "angpow"). There's a sort of shame, and I only learnt 500-600 words of Mandarin in classes in the past half year in a begrudging manner, only so that I can know just enough to minimize being shamed by those in the culture who are fluent.

Anyway, I may not be Asian-American yet I felt this so much?:

She's been comfortable forming her new life in boarding school and friends in Seoul, and she dreads going back to where the trauma started.

Plus I couldn't help but internally smile when seeing familiar aspects of my own culture reflected back at me:

The background art and animation is absolutely gorgeous.

It might be wiser timing for me to wait till I've flown down under next week, set up in my mom's friend's house in her cozy guest bedroom, and then rewatch the pilot ep and properly watch through the show. Having plenty of physical distance from Southeast Asia and (finally) being reunited with cold weather is likely to make the watching experience as comfortable as can be, since some themes in the show might be quite close to not!home.

And I cautiously hope that the instigating incident of trauma in Jentry's life:

can be a powerful metaphor for being othered. Because I've been othered hell of a lot in my life here, with the minority stress adding up over the decades till it's majorly affected my mental health.

Being here is only going to be a positive experience once I return here as a visitor/foreigner, after I plant new roots in Australia. It's come full circle where I get to give it a shot going back there, which I hope is something that will be for good.

Anyway, representation matters

[thesilliestrovingalive]

Updated: March 12, 2025

Headcanons/fun facts for the Iron Eclipse cast vol. 1

How good is the Iron Eclipse cast at cooking?

Marco: Although he's a capable cook, his go-to options often involve ordering takeout, barbecuing or enjoying meals prepared by his friends.

Tarma: He's a skilled cook who specialises in traditional Japanese and Mexican cuisine, cooking only when the mood strikes, but he's always happy to assist others in the kitchen.

Eri: She's better at cooking traditional Japanese dishes, but has a tendency to burn them.

Fio: She's incredibly talented at baking and whipping up tasty lunches!

Trevor: He's okay at cooking, but gets somewhat sloppy when under the influence.

Nadia: She's a skilled cook and baker, but often lacks the motivation to do so.

Ralf: He's a good cook, but his tendency to be a bit careless in the kitchen means he frequently gets help from others.

Clark: He can cook and grill, but typically opts for his friends' homemade meals or healthier takeout.

Tequila: He's not the greatest cook, but grilling is where he truly shines!

Gimlet: His culinary skills are lacking, so expect him to opt for cheap takeout instead.

Red Eye: Her cooking skills are average (as Ruoxi), she's amazing at making Chinese food (as Shufen), and she either makes traditional Dutch dishes or dines at high-end restaurants (as Liddy).

General Morden: He excels at cooking North American, European, and Middle Eastern cuisine!

Allen O'Neil: He's more skilled at preparing ingredients, such as chopping food and seasoning, than actual cooking.

Doctor Amadeus: She's great at crafting traditional Western European breakfast and lunch dishes, but when it comes to dinner and dessert, she prefers the convenience of takeout.

Ptolemaios: He prefers that his meals are prepared by his most loyal and trusted followers.

Rootmars, Invader King, Pupipi Avatar of Evil, Sol Dae Rokker, Midori, Pocke, Wysteria, and Celaphios: They have no cooking skills worth noting

Walter: He's alright at grilling and cooking his Mama's classic recipes, and enjoys helping others with meal prep.

Tyra: She's good at cooking simple Arabic and North American meals, and her favourite way to cook is with others.

Hyakutaro: He mostly relies on takeout and meals prepared by his friends, but occasionally cooks decent meals for himself, particularly when he's alone.

Allen Jr.: He's better at cooking and preventing food from burning than at meal prep.

Rumi: She struggles with cooking, often resulting in burnt or unappetizingly sloppy dishes.

Madoka: Her cooking skills surpass those of her younger sister, but occasionally her dishes can appear hastily prepared and lacking refinement.

Sophia: She's an exceptional cook, particularly when it comes to seafood.

Margaret: She's great at whipping up simple meals with fresh herbs from her greenhouse.

Leona: Although she's a capable cook, her busy schedule often leads her to prepare simple dishes or order takeout.

Heidern: Despite his blindness, he's a skilled cook, but often enjoys cooking with assistance or ordering takeout for added convenience.

Alisa Stewart: She's a decent cook, but barbecuing and baking sweet treats are her true specialties.

Nathalie Neo: Her cooking skills are limited, so she often relies on takeout, meals prepared by friends, and simple, low-effort recipes.

Roberto Nicola: He’s exceptionally skilled at baking pastries and cooking a wide range of recipes he’s learned during his time in Portugal and the Middle East.

President Marx: He's capable in the kitchen, but tends to leave the prep work to his two bodyguards.

Nayutaro: He excels at preparing vegetarian meals, but struggles with cooking meat, often ending up with burnt or undercooked dishes.

Issenmantaro: It's best to keep him out of the kitchen or he’ll burn it to the ground!

Nanahyakumantaro: His skills lie in dessert-making, and he's also proficient in cutting vegetables and fruits.

Happyakumantaro: He's an expert with the grill and enjoys helping his cousins and friends with meal preparation.

Abul Abbas: He knows how to cook, but his skills are limited to Middle Eastern cuisine. Additionally, he's often too lazy to cook, so he usually relies on takeout or having others prepare meals for him.

Hilde Garn: He’s a phenomenal cook, but he truly excels when making Central Asian and Far Eastern cuisine.

Macba: Due to his tendency to burn food and accidentally cut himself while preparing ingredients, he often opts for takeout or meals made by his friends.

Wired: While his overall culinary skills are subpar, he's exceptionally talented at crafting dessert pastries and homemade ice cream.

Oghma: He's a capable cook, but occasionally needs to refer to a recipe book.

Zoilo: He's a terrible cook, but he's great at roasting meat, vegetables, and marshmallows.

Anastasia: She specialises in Greek and Italian cuisine and isn't as good at cooking dishes outside of her expertise.

Dilovar: Like his clone father, he excels at cooking Central Asian and Far Eastern cuisine. Additionally, he's a skilled baker, and his desserts almost rival Fio's.

Sagan: She struggles with cooking traditional meals, but excels at crafting delicious desserts.

Logan: He's most skilled at preparing meals that are easy to make and require little prep work.

Torquil: He's a surprisingly talented chef, but he prefers cooking dinner.

Guilherme: He's a skilled self-taught cook who draws inspiration from his aunt's and great-grandmother's homemade recipes.

Ferdinand: He excels at meat preparation, specifically cutting and seasoning, but his overall cooking skills are mediocre, so he often relies on Guilherme's expertise.

Mikuláš, Ekaterini, and Yohanes: They're a decent cook and can make just about anything with enough time and patience.

Thandolwethu, Juozapas, Priyanka, and Zdravko: They're a really good cook, but they're only skilled at making the cuisine from their own culture.

Harvie: He struggles to cook more complicated meals, but he can make simple dishes and is really good at making candy.

Amilcare and Gyeong-Hui: They're a terrible cook, but they can spice up microwavable dinners and order healthy takeout.

Souma: He's not the best cook, but he can make just about any Japanese street food and some basic Western desserts.

Dezső: He's really good at making Hungarian lunches and dinners and can bake simple desserts.

What does the cast of the Iron Eclipse AU prefer to call the SV-001 by?

Marco: Tarma's metallic princess

Tarma: Metaru-chan

Eri: Bakana kuso sensha ("stupid fucking tank" in Japanese)

Fio: Ottimo serbatoio ("great tank" in Italian)

Trevor: Kulhan taegnki ("cool tanky" in Korean)

Nadia: La camelote lente ("the slow junk" in French)

Ralf: The prettiest of all tanks

Clark: Gimmicky fucker

Tequila: Presagio de batalla ("omen of battle" in Spanish)

Gimlet: Schneckenmädchen ("snail girl" in German)

Red Eye: Fighting tank (as Ruoxi), reliable toy of war (as Shufen), and sluggish rider (as Liddy)

General Morden: Machine of destruction

Doctor Amadeus: Valkyrie of tanks

Ptolemaios: A gift from Illapa

Allen O’Neil, Rootmars, Invader King, Tyra, Pupipi, Alisa Stewart, Nathalie Neo, Roberto Nicola, Avatar of Evil, Sol Dae Rokker, Midori, Macba, Wired, Pocke, Zoilo, Torquil, Ferdinand, Thandolwethu, Ekaterini, Souma, Priyanka, and Yohanes: They have no nicknames for the SV-001

Walter: Sluggy

Hyakutaro: Silly tankette 

Margaret: Trusty ol' miss

President Marx: A being of pure firepower

MS-Alice: Great beholder of fear

Nayutaro, Issenmantaro, Nanahyakumantaro, and Happyakumantaro: Regular Army’s warhorse

Abul Abbas: Mutahad (“wobbly” in Arabic)

Hilde Garn: Shedder of blood

Oghma: Blind man’s garbage

Anastasia: Katastroféas zoís (“life destroyer” in Greek)

Wysteria: An interesting metal thing of warfare

Dilovar: Khort ("greyhound" in Ukrainian)

Sagan: Battlefield ravager

Logan: Precious metal baby

Guilherme: The Regular Army's biggest mistake

Mikuláš: The popular Super Vehicle

Gyeong-Hui: Stupid war trash

Harvie: The miracle tank

Amilcare: Scrap incarnate

Juozapas: Lielisks cīnītājs ("great fighter" in Latvian)

Zdravko: Horrible plaything

Dezső: Ijesztő gép ("scary machine" in Hungarian)

Which characters are right-handed, left-handed or ambidextrous?

Marco: He’s right-handed, but he's unexpectedly skilled at wielding knives with his left hand.

Tarma: He's ambidextrous, yet he tends to favour his right hand.

Eri, Ralf, Allen Jr., Leona, Roberto, President Marx, Midori, Issenmantaro, Nanahyakumantaro, Hilde Garn, Torquil, Thandolwethu, Amilcare, Ekaterini, Juozapas, and Zdravko: Left-handed

Fio: She's right-handed, but has left-hand proficiency in certain tasks like signing her name and handling smaller firearms.

Trevor: He's ambidextrous, but shows a slight left-hand dominance.

Nadia, Clark, Gimlet, Allen O’Neil, Ptolemaios, Tyra, Margaret, Heidern, Alisa, Happyakumantaro, Macba, Celaphios, Mikuláš, Harvie, Souma, and Dezső: Right-handed

Tequila: He's ambidextrous, but sometimes experiences limitations with his left hand, especially when it's shaky or sore.

Red Eye: Right-handed (as Ruoxi and Shufen) and left-handed (as Liddy)

General Morden: He's left-handed, but has developed proficiency in using his right hand for specific tasks, such as signing names, shooting his pistol, and opening cigar boxes.

Doctor Amadeus, Rootmars, Invader King, Avatar of Evil, Hyakutaro, Sophia, Nathelie, MS-Alice, Nayutaro, Wired, Oghma, Wysteria, Ferdinand, Gyeong-Hui, Priyanka, and Yohanes: Ambidextrous

Walter: He's right-handed, yet displays ambidexterity when playing musical instruments and handling military firearms.

Pupipi and Pocke: They don't have a dominant hand or any notable ambidexterity

Rumi: She's ambidextrous, but defaults to her left hand for fine motor tasks like writing and shooting targets with smaller guns.

Madoka: She's ambidextrous, yet displays a right-hand preference for tasks requiring precision, such as writing and handling smaller firearms. However, her right hand occasionally experiences stiffness, causing her difficulties.

Abul Abbas: Although he's left-handed, he wields his sword with his right hand, using it to attack and signal his troops.

Zoilo: Although he's left-handed, he uses his right hand for pointing and wielding blades.

Anastasia: Although she's right-handed, she wields handguns and her magical staff with her left hand.

Dilovar: He’s left-handed, but he has adapted to perform specific tasks, such as writing and painting, with his right hand.

Sagan: She's right-handed, yet surprisingly displays left-hand dominance for specific tasks, including throwing explosives, handling heavy firearms, and writing. She occasionally needs to give her left hand a break, particularly when it becomes sore.

Logan: He's left-handed, yet surprisingly displays right-hand dominance for specific tasks, including knife handling, operating lighter firearms, bomb defusal, and drawing.

Guilherme: He’s right-handed, but he uses his left hand for activities like journal sketching and handling kitchen utensils.

[jackest-jack]

Got on rednote and lookin at the cooking side of things. Theres a lot of chinese recipies with stuff ive never seen before that a lot of americans canadians and whatever else are eager to try out. And at the same time theres a lot of non chinese recipes flooding the app that chinese people wanna try.

I believe this will lead to some of the best and worst fusion cuisine we have Ever Seen

I saw someone make a "hotdog" that was a grilled frank wrapped with american cheese into rice sushi style, then fried with some kinda sauce on top. It looked pretty good. I also saw someone ask if they could put apples in salsa

[fixfoxnox]

We’ve seen the 141 react to southern food but what about Roach and Jacksons reactions to british cuisine?

Gonna say a quick thank to the anons who have sent questions involving Jackson y'all know I love him and I love getting to include him

Also before we start I should just say that I'm an American, so my knowledge of British cuisine literally extends to what I've seen in tiktoks and tv. So my apologies if this is horribly stereotypical or wrong, but also I'm an American so it's kinda a national like expectation to make fun of the British, just know its all in good fun.

How Roach and Jackson React To British Cuisine

First of all, before they've even tried anything I know these two are making fun of British food just based on what they've heard.

Roach jokingly replies "fish n chips" in a terrible British accent any time Ghost asks what he wants to eat. Soap lowkey thinks its hilarious but tries to hide his laughter.

(He always fails and Ghost always gets mad at them)

Jackson sends random ass like wack foods he see's online to Price and Gaz like "was this something you ate as a kid?"

One day sends Gaz the recipe for like raisin meat salad or some shit and is like "reminds you of home huh"

So its obviously only a matter of time before Jackson and Roach are forced to actually try some British food by the British.

The first time that Gaz or Price or Ghost looks one of them in the eyes and says "thats it, I'm making you try a Chinese" I think they die a little inside.

Both of them sitting patiently at a table as the boys debate on what to make them. Ghost suggests beans and toast and I think both Roach and Jackson have a little southern heart attack when they're brought out beans on plain bread.

Roach literally can't eat it because of a texture thing with the soggy bread (me too babes) but Jackson tires to power through it

He tries it and Roach swears up and down that Jackson actually starts to cry but Gaz swears that they were tears of joy (they weren't)

They try some other things, and that goes a bit better, but overall Jackson and Roach generally aren't impressed by most of the foods.

Jackson asks at what point which seasonings they used on the food and when Gaz answers back "salt" he dies a little inside (the poor man is from Louisiana you know he's sobbing)

Eventually the British Boys are just like "okay well you know what, fuck them what could we give them to make them gag."

They try black pudding

Immediately disappointed when, upon hearing what it is, Roach and Jackson don't flip out and instead try it perfectly fine

"This isn't bad. Could be a good way to use more of the animals during hunting season"

"Wonder how hard it is to make"

At the end of things, Jackson and Roach decide that the best of the dishes was the full English breakfast and they invite the boys to make it for them again, though Jackson warns he'll be adding more than salt the next time they make it

Then, Jackson, ever the evil man, suggests that he should share some Cajun food with them next.

Roach, despite knowing it may kill them, doesn't say a word

[scifrey]

Schrodinger’s Queer: Learning Through Imagination

I saw a quote going around the internet recently that I think is extremely powerful and extremely apt in the current political climate:

[Image ID: Tweet by Jennifer Powell username Ace_Librarian7 that reads: I have made it my mission to unteach children that “fiction is fake”. Here are my new definitions I started teaching today: Nonfiction= learning through information. Fiction = Learning through Imagination.]

What Powell is trying to say here is that even if a story is fiction, even if the people, the situations, and the places are made up, all stories are at their core a tale about someone (be they human, animal, elf, alien, or brave little inanimate object) wanting something and going on some kind of journey to get it. Whether emotional, physical, romantic, or personal, this journey then teaches the character something about the world and/or about themselves along the way. And, as a result, teaches the reader as well. Readers learn about themselves and others through fiction.

For example, in the case of The Hunger Games series, the lesson is that Rampant Capitalism is bad, and Empathy and Compassion are good.  Or in Star Wars, the lesson is that treating all people, no matter how unalike you they may look and behave, as people, and fighting for their right to live a life of peace and plenty is how we resist fascist power-hungry dictators with too much money and power (and, ahem, tariff wars.) And what smut reader hasn’t had a happy little kink awakening and learned a new secret about their own desires while reading a love scene?

I distinctly remember being assigned The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver to read in high school, and realizing that the food culture of the Guatemalan characters in the book was wildly different from the one that I enjoyed at home, and even at friend’s houses in my small home town. I grew up in a largely white, largely Presbyterian, largely rural community, where having “diverse” food meant getting sweet-and-sour chicken balls from the Canadian-Chinese place downtown–super tasty, but not exactly an example of authentic cuisine. The novel opened my eyes to cuisine I’d never heard of before, and was eager to try cooking for myself. (Let us not dwell on the success of those dishes.) I didn’t just learn about food while reading the book, either. I learned about the American immigration system, about colonialism, and about the sorts of emotional truths and experiences that I hadn’t yet had the circumstance or opportunity to explore in my own life, like the fierceness of love and found family that goes beyond biology.

And when reading Historical Fiction, one learns about the fashion and lifestyles of those who came before us, but also their prejudices and values, what they thought about the general news and world events of the day, and the political or social sentiments of the economic classes being portrayed.

But it does create an issues that plagues us Historical genre writers especially: how can a writer be sure that what you’re teaching readers of your work is 100% authentic and correct?

Well, that’s the thing with History—you can’t.

Without extant garments to study and the ability to reproduce textile fabrication in the exact same manner using the exact same materials, no costumer can ever be 100% accurate.  Without detailed recipes, access to identical foodstuffs grown in an identical manner and environment, a mathematically precise set of measuring utensils, and the room to cook on an open flame in their back yard, no food historian can ever reproduce an identical dish to one served hundreds of years ago.

This is especially true of aspects of society that were intangible and ephemeral. If everyone is doing the thing, then no one needs to keep record of it.

And this is doubly true if the thing one is doing is illegal, taboo, or frowned on; if you’re not supposed to be doing the thing or thinking the thing, then it’s unlikely that you’ll be writing down the details of whatever it is that you’re up to.  Which means that those of us doing research hundreds of years later are left without evidence or primary resources to cite.

It would be terribly useful if treasonous conspirators left us letters explaining their plans in minute detail, or criminal masterminds kept lists of everything they’d ever stolen, or, in the case of times and places when being anything but openly cisgendered and heterosexual was frowned upon, kept lists of their lovers or explicitly called themselves lesbian or gay in their personal diaries.

And hey, some of them did—or at least, we can assume they did. The problem with trying to label historical figures with modern terminology is that the historical figures would never label themselves with modern terms. Never once did Anne Lister, the sapphic diarist who has been dubbed “The First Modern Lesbian”, write the word lesbian in her pivotal diary. While the word has been floating around since the 1550s, it didn’t enter common usage with the precise meaning we ascribe to it today until a medical text the 1890s, and even then it was to describe what was then considered a form of insanity. It wasn’t until 1925 or thereabouts that ‘Lesbian’ became the female equivalent of ‘Sodomite’, and again it was freighted with negative connotations.

If someone was to travel back in time to interview Anne Lister and ask her if she was a lesbian, she would say no. Not because she was not a woman who formed romantic and sexual relationships with other women, but because she didn’t know what a ‘lesbian’ was. (She was clever, I’m sure she could infer the meaning, but the point stands.)

We cannot know for sure, not until someone invents Time Travel and gives it to academics and investigative journalists, and sends them careening through history to create a Queer Census. And even if we do interview historical subjects about their sexuality and their experiences trying to hide or celebrate it in their current socio-economic climate (assuming they’d even discuss something so deeply private and personal with a complete stranger holding a strange contraption in their faces), then we risk the butterfly-effect knock on of having to explain what a term means and thus embedding it in history inorganically, which is really just confirmation bias at it’s worst. The words we use as gender and sexuality labels today didn’t even mean the same thing — “Queer” was for odd, “gay” was for happy, and a “faggot” was a small bundle of thin-split wood that was used to start a fire as kindling.

So those of us in the 21st Century can only make assumptions. We can guess. We can extrapolate. We can infer. We can deduce. But we cannot know.

So, when I toured Bath and the Jane Austen Museum, I knew the world-famous authoress was not queer.  But I also knew that it’s possible that she was not-not queer.

See, when Jane Austen died at age 41, her older sister Cassandra burned about 3,000 of her letters. The sisters were very close, and when they were away from one another, they wrote to each other constantly. The letters that Cassandra did safeguard paint them as witty, thoughtful, observant, and dedicated correspondents, where the famous authoress gave her opinions as decidedly and freely as her heroine Lizzie.

Before she succumbed to the mysterious illness that killed her, Jane Austen’s fame was already growing despite her dislike of the public and her desire for privacy, and her previously anonymous identity was becoming an open secret among the literary set.  It was inevitable that some one would want to publish her letters, and Cassandra had already seen the way the late author Fanney Burney’s personal letters had been skewered in the press and talked of in scathing language by the public. Many speculate that Cassandra burned the letters to prevent friends and relatives from having hurt feelings over Jane’s complaints, or to spare the Austens the embarrassment of fans reading Jane’s moaning diatribes about their never-ending money problems.

But my speculations turned in a decidedly more bent direction when I learned about Jane Austen’s other best friend, Martha Lloyd. Little is known about Martha, save that she was the neighbour and childhood friend of and the Austen family, she was ten years older than Jane, that she was unwed in Jane’s lifetime, and that she was privy to Jane’s secret identity as a writer. Not long after Jane’s father died in 1805, Martha’s mother also passed. With her younger sister married already, Martha was left alone to fend for herself, and so moved in with the Austen ladies, where they combined their households. They shared chores, finances, and management.

And then she never left.

Not even after Jane passed. Martha remained a beloved second sister to Cassandra, and cherished second daughter to Mrs. Austen. She even married Jane’s youngest brother when became a widower, and stayed in the family.

“Oh my god,” I thought to myself, “And they were roommates!”

What really clinched it for me was learning about Jane’s single marriage proposal. Harris Bigg-Wither, a family friend and son of local landed gentry, was six years younger than Jane and seemed to have rather cornered her with an unexpected marriage proposal while she and Cassandra were visiting his family for a few days. Jane said yes in the evening, went up to bed with Cassandra, and retracted her consent in the morning, causing the Austen girls to flee the house in a cloud of discomfort. Those are the facts we have. As for why Jane changed her mind, we historians cannot say.

Maybe, like her character Jane Bennet later does for Lizzie in Pride and Prejudice, Cassandra urged Jane to “do anything but marry without affection.” Maybe Cassandra pointed out that as the mistress of Manydown Park, Jane would be obliged to set aside her writing pen in favour of a hostess’ calling cards. Maybe Jane was horrified by the idea of children (she loved her nieces and nephews but seemed uninterested in having any herself, going so far as to call her sister-in-law as ‘poor animal’ on the birth of her 11th child). Maybe the surprise of the proposal made her give a knee-jerk ‘yes’, and when she had a second to think about it, she realized she really did not want to marry anyone.

Or maybe dudes gave her the ick. Maybe she already had a girlfriend. Maybe she knew she would not be able to live her own truth and love where her heart pulled her if she married this guy.

Now, all of this is speculation, of course. And very thin speculation at that. And while I’m not the first academic to propose this reading of Jane Austen’s life and work, all I’m really going on is vibes and wishful thinking.

But that afternoon, while enjoying a cream tea at the museum in 2009, the idea that Jane Austen may have been sapphic hooked into my heart and refused to let me go. And because we can never know for sure whether any of my wild imaginings are true, and it was clear that I hadn’t any right to write about them even if they were (Jane certainly wouldn’t want me to), I decided to write a story about a fictionalized sapphic regency-era authoress, and named her Margaret Goodenough.

My novel Time and Tide arose out of the liminal space where the knowing and the not-knowing intersect: Schrodinger’s queer.

And in that novel, I can provide emotional experiences to my readers, I can teach through imagination what it would have been like to have been a white, sapphic, cis-gendered woman of firmly rural professional middle class origins in pre-regency England. I can explore who that person would have been and what she would have faced, how she would have had to mitigate her desires nor what might happen if she followed them, and perhaps even what she would have feared.

I can’t tell my readers with any sort of certainty what one particular historical figure’s life would have actually been like had she been queer, I can’t even promise them or myself that she was, but what I can do is make my best guess, and educate through fiction.

[rabbitcruiser]

National Meatball Day

Juicy round balls of succulent meat, usually served with pasta, mashed potatoes or on their own — perfect for a cozy dinner at home!

Just the word meatball is enough to bring to mind great family meals for most people. These little balls of various meats can be found throughout the world in almost every culture.

Most people may associate them with Italian cuisine, though spaghetti and meatballs is actually an American dish. No matter your background, you can jump in and enjoy National Meatball Day!

How to Celebrate National Meatball Day

National Meatball Day, like other culinary holidays, should be enjoyed with your loved ones gathered around.

The most difficult part of preparing for National Meatball Day is going to be picking what nation’s recipe you will use. Luckily for you, this is a yearly occurrence, so you can pick a new nation to try each year if you like. Or you could be truly adventurous and try more than one at a time!

What is your favorite way to enjoy meatballs? There are so many ways to make them. Have you added them to your pizza or on a sandwich? Do you prefer to stick to the traditions of your family or to try and create something new? This is the time to shine – an entire day devoted to meatball goodness!

And even if you’re not a meat-eater, there are plenty of veggie and vegan alternatives available, for example, chickpea koftas and tempeh, quinoa or black bean meatballs.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a chef or a first-time cook. Making a meal with meatballs is easy but has the wonderful side effect of making you look like the star of your kitchen.

Just do a search with your favorite search engine for meatball recipes and pick the one that sounds yummy (that might be all of them!). And if you’d really like to learn from the best, then why not sign up for a cooking class as well?

Meatballs can be an appetizer, a side dish or the star of the meal. To celebrate, you and your friends who like to cook can have a playful evening by getting each person to bring their own and then selecting a favorite – think of it as a cook-off! With a little craftiness, a prize could even be offered to grace the winner’s mantle.

If you’d rather not cook, then head over to a nearby restaurant that serves meatballs – here you can really put your feet up and enjoy delicacies from the experts! And they may well have special offers and discounts available to celebrate the day.

Once you’ve had your fill, cozy up on the couch and crash out with a meatball-related movie such as Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (a film about an inventor who accidentally causes giant food, including meatballs, to rain from the sky!) or Lady and the Tramp (featuring the famous spaghetti eating scene in which Tramp lovingly gives Lady the last meatball).

However you indulge on National Meatball Day, don’t forget to record your adventure by taking a few pictures and sharing them on social media!

History of National Meatball Day

Meatballs are made by taking ground or minced meat such as beef, pork or lamb, mixing it with spices, breadcrumbs, eggs or other ingredients and then rolling it into a ball to be cooked. Cooking methods vary and include frying, braising or baking.

This delicious invention has been documented in culinary records many times throughout history. There’s a record of a Chinese recipe that may date back to 221 BC, and Ancient Rome can also make a claim on meatballs thanks to a surviving cookbook that holds a variety of recipes with balls of meat!

Meatballs have also long been a staple of Persian cuisine, from which the technique of ‘gilding’ (coating or glazing the meatballs) originated.

Known as kofta, they are consumed across the Middle East and Asia, with vegetarian versions particularly common in India. There is also a very popular version in Turkey called köfte, which has many different variations.

Although meatballs originated in the East and in Europe, they eventually made their way over to the US and are now well-loved there. The Americans also found new and inventive ways to consume their meatballs, including on pizza and in long sandwiches (known as subs).

Nowadays the dish is also commonly associated with Sweden thanks to the popularity of Swedish furniture chain IKEA’s meatballs. In fact, IKEA sells a whopping billion meatballs every year – nothing like tucking into this tasty meal after a hard day’s shopping!

It’s easy to see that people have been enjoying meatballs for a very long time and all around the world.

Top Tips for Cooking Mouth-watering Meatballs

Although there’s a whole range of ways to make this food, it’s worth having a few key tricks up your sleeve.

First off – the ingredients. Meatballs should be well seasoned with salt and other spices, and it’s also a good idea to add in some fresh herbs such as parsley or basil to get some greens in there!

If you’re feeling adventurous, you can even stuff your meatballs with additions such as cheese or form them around other foods, for example, eggs.

Next – constructing the perfect meatball. Meatballs can be whatever size you like, and there are also several flattened versions, so you don’t even need to achieve the classic ball shape!

Whatever you go for, it’s always worth wetting or lightly oiling your hands, as this prevents the ingredients from sticking to you. Also, make sure to give your meatballs a good squeeze to help them bind together.

Finally – cooking. If you’re frying them, then make sure they’ve seared well on one side before turning them as this will prevent them from falling apart. It’s also great to let your meatballs stew as part of the cooking process, allowing them to soak up more delicious flavor.

There are a whole host of possible accompaniments for your meatballs – sauces, gravies, curries, and soups depending on which part of the world your recipe is taken from. Other common meatball pairings include potatoes, pasta, rice and jam.

However you make your meatballs, remember to make a large enough batch so that all your friends and family will get to try them!

National Meatball Day FAQs

Did meatballs really originate in Italy?

Meatballs have a diverse history. Ancient Persian cuisine featured “koofteh,” minced meat mixed with rice and spices.

Later, the dish evolved as it spread to Europe and Asia. Italian “polpette” are a celebrated variety, but their origins lie in a global exchange of culinary ideas.

Are there vegetarian or vegan versions of traditional meatballs?

Yes! Many cultures use lentils, beans, or mushrooms for meatless versions.

Indian cuisine offers “malai kofta,” which uses paneer or mashed vegetables. Swedish cuisine now features plant-based köttbullar.

What’s the most unusual meatball variation in the world?

Icelandic “bollur” incorporate fish and local herbs. In the Philippines, “bola-bola” meatballs are often stuffed with quail eggs. These unique takes reflect regional tastes and ingredients.

Why are Swedish meatballs linked to IKEA?

Swedish meatballs became famous globally thanks to IKEA’s affordable in-store meals. It’s a nod to Sweden’s food heritage, boosting international curiosity about the dish.

What are some myths about meatballs?

One myth is that Italian-Americans created spaghetti and meatballs. However, the dish developed in the U.S., blending Italian and American flavors.

What’s the largest meatball ever made?

The largest meatball, weighing over 1,100 pounds, was made in South Carolina in 2017. It set a Guinness World Record!

How do other countries celebrate National Meatball Day?

In Sweden, people serve köttbullar with lingonberry sauce. In Turkey, “kofte” gatherings are popular. It’s less official but equally delicious worldwide!

Are meatballs always round?

Not always. Some cultures, like in the Middle East, make meatballs more cylindrical or patty-shaped. This shape helps with grilling.

What role do spices play in meatball traditions?

Spices define the meatball’s character. Italian versions use parsley and garlic, while Middle Eastern varieties rely on cinnamon and cumin.

What’s a fun meatball-related competition?

Meatball eating contests are popular. One record-holder ate over 29 meatballs in under a minute! Some include spicy meatball challenges too.

Source

[culinary-vagabond]

What Is This?

Welcome to a Culinary Vagabond's travels through food.

Who Am I

I'm an American who wasn't taught to cook growing up and who's parents didn't have a particular preference for one specific cuisine. I got to college, made friend with a bunch of guys who could all cook really well, and decided that obviously I need to learn to do that too.

Complication: I'm anosmic — completely without a sense of smell — and have a number of food-based migraine triggers. Also, it turns out it probably was a good thing I wasn't taught to cook as a child. The primary cook in the house then is actually quite bad at it. Like my partner feels cheated out of good Jewish food by having them as an in-law.

So, what's a college student with delusions of being able to learn anything and no sense of smell to do?

Try any and every recipe they get their hands on that looks good.

And I haven't stopped for the past 20 years.

Cookbooks to finish or start trying in 2025:

Sous Vide: Better Home Cooking by Hugh Acheson Leftover from 2024 2 recipes left to try

Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking by Fuschia Dunlop Left over from 2024 23 recipes left to try

Bookmarks from the Internet 1 dessert recipe left to try Oh gods if you send me more it'll probably grow again...

Modernist Cuisine at Home Leftover from 2024 (maybe 2023, I'm not sure) 79 recipes left to try This is primarily Partner's responsibility to work through. He's the one interested in this mishegas, he gets primary responsibility

Vegan for Everybody by America's Test Kitchen New for 2025! 25 recipes to try

Foolproof Preserving by America's Test Kitchen New for 2025! 16 recipes to try

Gullah Geechee Home Cooking by Emily Meggett New for 2025! 9 recipes to try (4 of which are desserts—pray for me)

Turkuaz Kitchen by Bëtul Tunç New for 2025 22 recipes to try

What Will be Posted Here

Photos and musings on recipes I try

reblogs of pretty food pictures

funny food memes

[beautybidevastation]

What is one of my passions? Cooking for myself and others. A few of my favorite culinary cultures to create recipes from would be Japanese, Korean, and Chinese cuisines. As well as recipes from other cultures like German, North American, and a few that are not culture specific.

[irithnova]

it’s my headcanon that mongolia may have once conquered china, but china knows that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.

so china begins cooking (let him cook)

and mongolia becomes addicted to chinese cuisine lmaooo (and mb even the cook himself)

Hahah interesting headcanon, I quite like it myself.

Historically, Yuan Dynasty court food was still mainly Mongol/Mongol influenced! Contrary to what some may believe, the Mongols of the Yuan were not sinicized, and this is seen even through the food they ate.

When the Mongols conquered China, they established their own court cuisine as a demonstration of power and authority. This aligns with the long-standing tradition across Chinese and other court societies of using food as a symbol of respect, dominance, hierarchy, and power.

It is reasonable to assume that the Mongols cuisine their pre-imperial ventures were similar to other central Asian trends .

Historical records mention feasts among Central Asian "barbarians" and their use of food in state ceremonies and hospitality. Rather than adopting China's classic cuisine, the Mongols built upon their own traditions, incorporating diverse international influences while also maintaining their steppe eating customs and foods.

This display of cultural preservation, despite the availability of Chinese alternatives, is seen as a testament to their determination!

Further, the Mongols established their capital in North China, which had already been under non-Chinese rule for over a century and had its own distinct cuisine. The Chinese food in the north was already influenced by Central and West Asia since the Han Dynasty.

Even before occupying China, the Mongols had vast imperial ventures and so they had opportunity to absorb culinary traditions from various regions.

Because or this, they didn't feel the need to adopt Chinese cuisine of the time, which was based on ingredients not readily available in the north. The Mongols were influenced by their Turkic officials and the cuisine they encountered in Beijing had already been influenced by previous dynasties.

Mongol feasts became increasingly diverse with the foods as the Mongols conquered more land, thus gaining access to more typed of foods.

The historian George Lane shares what a meal at the Mongol imperial court might have included:

"Appetizers might have included momo shapale with sipen mardur sauce, delicate steamed Tibetan mushroom ravioli smothered in a creamy, spicy yoghurt sauce. A salad of Bhutanese chilli and cheese might have followed. The main course, shabril with dresil, comprised Tibetan meatball curry with nutted saffron rice, honey, and currants. Himalayan steamed bread with turmeric and barley beer with honey would have accompanied the main food, and also as a dessert, Chinese chestnut mound with cream and glazed fruit would have found favour. "

The Yinshan Zhengyao is a 1330 CE book written by Hu Sihui, which served as a guide for the Mongol imperial court. It contains various recipes and cooking techniques. Some of the dishes include:

1) Roast Wolf Soup

2) Mountain oysters

3) Detoxifying Dried Orange Peel Puree (for hangovers)

While the Mongols definitely retained their cuisine (and culture), I do think Mongolia definitely did try traditional Chinese cuisine! There's no way he stayed there for (almost) a century and didn't try it.

He most likely then tried Song Dynasty food! The last Chinese dynasty to the South before the Yuan completely took over.

During the Song dynasty, Chinese cuisine reached new heights in terms of variety and nutritional value.

In fact, in 1998, the American "Life Magazine" listed the top 100 influential events of the past 1,000 years. One of them was the rise of restaurants and snacks during the Song Dynasty, which came at 56!

During the Song, people started eating three meals a day instead of two. This change gave them more time to explore and experiment with different cooking methods and flavours.

In Hangzhou, the capital of the Song Dynasty, cooks tried out a variety of herbs and spices brought from different parts of Asia. The noblemen hosted banquets that would last for days, serving dishes named "Dragon Meets Phoenix" and "Seven Stars Encircle the Moon." Hangzhou impressed Marco Polo so much that he described it as a place of abundant pleasures, akin to paradise!

Some song dynasty foods that China might have prepared for Mongolia (to prove this his cuisine is ~superior~)

1) Orange stuffed with fried crab

2) Plum blossom soup

Here's a website I found which talks more about Song Dynasty food:

The Song popularised foods that are even loved to this day like ham, braised pork, hotpot, fried bread stick, rice dumpling, and popcorn. It was a truly revolutionary period for food.

So I speculate that Mongolia tried Song Dynasty food, and yes, he was very impressed by it!

[docholligay]

Do you have a dish or recipe you're very traditional about? Like "it was good 200 years ago, it's good now, no notes"

OHHHHH man. This question is actually harder to answer than you'd think!

Because CONCEPTUALLY, no. I am a person who believes in, mostly, culinary boundaries being pushed, being fucked around with. I am not one of those people who believes that for something to be adapted is to be inferior or fake--I think American Chinese food, Tex-Mex, and British Indian food are all FUCKING BANGERS, they just happen to be different from what I'm going to call their "source cuisines" (I am not even going to go into how saying they aren't 'real X food' erases the efforts of immigrants in a different country, and also ends up flattening, in the above examples, EXTREMELY fucking diverse countries. Like I am not super up on China or India in a culinary sense, only in a passing one, but I do in fact know quite a bit about Mexico and uh there are absolutely places in Mexico that use dairy jesus fucking christ) but they are heroes in their own right.

I also think that tweaking something comes from a place of interest, usually, and desire to make something interesting, or to make something work, or to push your neighbors and family. So, like, I know everyone lost their minds about GBB's smores incident, but, even as a protector of the idea that American Culinary Traditions are Valuable, I think it's really annoyingly precious to be like "A digestive is nothing like a graham cracker" oh ffs shut up I have told people in the Uk to sub in digestives a zillion fucking times they are like 2% different you are being a fucking weirdo. (In the same way the internet LOSES IT when I say most scones are essentially US cream biscuits, but if I put them both on a plate and said "One of these is a scone recipe and one is a cream biscuit" most people couldn't do better than 50/50 quit being stupid who do you think BROUGHT IT OVER HERE)

So, again: Conceptually I do not necessarily believe in culinary sacred cows.

CONCEPTUALLY.

In the real world, in which I am forced to square with my belief structure and its consequences, I was once served an Old Fashioned in Scotland with SELTZER WATER in it, and despite Glasgow being King of the Scottish Mainland I GASPED AUDIBLY but the woman at my hotel (that I highly recommend to anyone staying in Glasgow, which I actually preferred to Edinburgh) was so kind and sweet and delivered it to my room so I DRANK IT, and I have since discovered that there are some people who actually think this is a correct way to make an Old Fashioned and unless you are using the rotgut they made in the South during prohibition you have no business and no right and I hope you know you are unraveling the fabric of society.

[arborealhivemind]

Improved Market Stalls 1.0

Over time, EA added a variety of regional recipes and market stalls — except they didn't care to integrate any of them.  This mod fixes that.  Initially, this mod was just going to focus on the missing recipes, but as there are multiple market stalls (even non-food ones) that could use improving, this mod was built from ground-up to be expansible.

The first release of this mod focuses on the above problem. Dishes that were added via SDX and updates were added to their respective food stalls, as well as recipes from other packs (looking at you, Weddinhg Stories).

[*] indicates that the recipe module is required

DOWNLOAD

City Living

Wedding Stories provided us with new Chinese and Indian recipes and, while City Living recipes were available at the Tartosa food stalls, Wedding Stories recipes were not. Additionally, the developers seemed to have missed the Vegetarian Butter Chicken recipe and the Lunar New Year SDX recipes were nonexistent.

Snow Escape came with a wide variety of Japanese recipes.  For the sake of brevity, I only added food types that are not already repesented in the menu (Maki, Onigri, Yakisoba) and a vegetarian option for one already represented (Ramen).

The Mexican food stall has some recipes from Jungle Adventures and the Latin American cuisine SDX.  As I am not Mexican, I had to do research to confirm if a recipe was in Mexican cuisine and I welcome feedback from more knowledgable Simmers.

Similarly, the Morrocan food stall has recipes from Discover University and the Arabic cuisine SDX.  I welcome feedback from anyone more knowledgeable on Moroccan cuisine.

Chinese

Chicken Stir-fry*, Minced Pork Noodles*, Rice Cake*, Steamed Fish*

Wedding Stories: Mud Carp, Roast Duck, Sweet Buns, Vegetable Dumplings

Indian

Vegetarian Butter Chicken*

Wedding Stories: Butter Chicken, Dal Makhani, Gulab Jamun, Palak Paneer

Japanese

Snowy Escape: Avacado Maki, Tuna Maki, Onigri, Miso Ramen, Beef Yakisoba, Veggie Yakisoba

Mexican

Chili, Chips and Salsa*, Elote*, Pan de Muerto*, Fish Tacos, Tofu Tacos

Jungle Adventure: Bunuelos, Empanadas Verde, Platanos Fritos

Luxury Party: Ceviche*

Morrocan

Knafeh*, Zaatar Manaeesh*

Get Together: Pita and Hummus Tapas*

Discover University: Fattoush Salad, Tabbouleh Salad, Shish Kebabs, Beef Wrap, Chicken Wrap, Falafel Wrap

Discover University

As the kebab stall seemed to be more of a pan-Arabic cuisine, I did not add the Moroccan dishes from City Living.

Kebabs

Knafeh*, Zaatar Manaeesh*

Get Together: Pita and Hummus Tapas*

Snowy Escape

City Living's selection of Japanese recipes is heavily limited in comparasion with Snowy Escape's, so there weren't many recipes added to the menu.  For consistency's sake, I only added recipes already represented on the menu.

In addition, the Festival of Light has Pufferfish Nigiri.

Traditional

City Living: Dango, Nigiri

Mountain Food

City Living: Dango, Ramen

Festival of Light

City Living: Dango, Nigiri, Pufferfish Nigiri

Festival of Youth

City Living: Dango, Nigiri

Festival of Snow

City Living: Dango, Nigiri, Ramen

Jungle Adventure

The food stall for Jungle Adventure appeared to be pan-South American, so I included all the recipes from the Latin American cuisine update and the Brazilian cuisine update, including drinks.  It did not seem to include Mexican recipes, so only one recipe from City Living (Empanadas) was added.

As Sims tend to waste food when they get the "Overwhelming Flavor" buff, I suggest my Don't Waste Food mod.

Food

Acaraje*, Asado*, Brigadiero*, Chimis*, Chimichurri Skewers*, Chripan*, Churrasco*, Hallacas*, Pinchos*, Pollo a la Brasa*

City Living: Empanadas

Luxury Party: Ceviche

Drinks

Caiprinha*, Coquito*

Wedding Stories

As mentioned above, Wedding Stories stalls already integrated City Living recipes into their menu.  I only needed to add the recipes from the Lunar New Year update and the Vegetarian Butter Chicken.

Chinese

Chicken Stir-fry*, Minced Pork Noodles*, Rice Cake*, Steamed Fish*

Indian

Vegetarian Butter Chicken*

Growing Together

This one was slightly harder to choose for as it's essentially a sampling of multiple cuisines.  I didn't want to flood the menus with every regional recipe available, I decided to go with a recognizable recipe from each of these cuisines: Brazilian, Korean, Middle Eastern, and Polynesian.

I plan to update this stall continuously as EA adds more recipes.

Around the World

Aracaje*, Japchae*

Island Living: Poke Bowl

Discover University: Shish Kebabs

[bookclub4m]

25 Food/Cooking Non-Fiction Books by BIPOC Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

Niqiliurniq: A Cookbook from Igloolik by Micah Arreak, Annie Désilets, Lucy Kappianaq, Glenda Kripanik, and Kanadaise Uyarasuk

New Native Kitchen: Celebrating Modern Recipes of the American Indian by Freddie Bitsoie

Cooking for the Culture: Recipes and Stories from the New Orleans Streets to the Table by Toya Boudy

Cooking from the Spirit: Easy, Delicious, and Joyful Plant-Based Inspirations by Tabitha Brown

tawâw: Progressive Indigenous Cuisine by Shane M. Chartrand with Jennifer Cockrall-King

Start Here: Instructions for Becoming a Better Cook by Sohla El-Waylly

50 Pies, 50 States: An Immigrant's Love Letter to the United States Through Pie by Stacey Mei Yan Fong

Modern Native Feasts by Andrew George Jr.

Cook Korean!: A Comic Book with Recipes by Robin Ha

A Foodie's Guide to Capitalism by Eric Holt-Giménez

Chop Suey Nation: The Legion Cafe and Other Stories from Canada's Chinese Restaurants by Ann Hui

Korean American: Food that Tastes Like Home by Eric Kim

Indian-Ish: Recipes and Antics from a Modern American Family by Priya Krishna with Ritu Krishna

100 Million Years of Food: What Our Ancestors Ate and Why It Matters Today by Stephen Le

A Splash of Soy: Everyday Food from Asia by Lara Lee

Eat, Habibi, Eat!: Fresh Recipes for Modern Egyptian Cooking by Shahir Massoud

The Mexican Home Kitchen: Traditional Home-Style Recipes That Capture the Flavors and Memories of Mexico by Mely Martinez

Mi Cocina: Recipes and Rapture from My Kitchen in México by Rick Martinez

Food-Related Stories by Gaby Melian

Stuffed and Starved: Markets, Power and the Hidden Battle for the World Food System by Raj Patel

Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land by Leah Penniman

Plantcakes: Fancy + Everyday Vegan Cakes for Everyone by Lyndsay Sung

Chef Tee's Caribbean Kitchen by Chef Tee

Vegetable Kingdom: The Abundant World of Vegan Recipes by Bryant Terry

Cooking with the Wolfman: Indigenous Fusion by David Wolfman and Marlene Finn

[ainews]

Recipes are a fundamental part of human culture, passed down from generation to generation and constantly evolving over time. They are an essential way of preserving and sharing culinary knowledge, allowing us to recreate dishes from different cultures and time periods. But did you know that recipes can also be a valuable tool for examining the existence of cryptids, creatures that have been reported but have not been scientifically proven to exist?

Cryptids, also known as “hidden animals,” are the subjects of many legends and sightings around the world. From the infamous Loch Ness Monster to the elusive Bigfoot, these creatures have sparked the imagination and curiosity of people for centuries. However, their existence is often met with skepticism and requires concrete evidence to be accepted by the scientific community.

This is where recipes come into play. Many cryptids are said to inhabit specific regions, such as lakes, forests, or mountains, and are associated with certain foods or ingredients. For example, the Almas, a legendary ape-like creature said to inhabit the mountain ranges of Central Asia, is often described as having a strong preference for wild onions.

By studying traditional recipes from these regions, researchers can gain a better understanding of the local cuisine and the ingredients used. This information can provide valuable insights into the diets and food sources available in these areas, which can then be compared to reported cryptid sightings.

In addition, recipes can also reveal cultural beliefs and practices associated with these creatures. For example, recipes for “dragon soup” in Chinese culture may shed light on the origins of the mythological dragon and its significance in Chinese folklore.

The use of recipes for cryptid research is not a new concept. In fact, the famed American zoologist Ivan T. Sanderson used traditional recipes as a means of gathering evidence for his theories on the possible existence of the Loch Ness Monster. He believed that the creature, if it exists, could be a species of giant eel that was caught and consumed by locals, resulting in the sightings and legends.

Furthermore, recipes can also serve as a way to preserve the cultural heritage and traditions of communities that live in close proximity to areas where cryptids are reported. By documenting and studying their recipes, we gain a deeper understanding of their way of life and how it has been influenced by the presence of these mysterious creatures.

In conclusion, recipes are an invaluable resource for examining the existence of cryptids. They provide information on local cuisines, cultural beliefs, and traditional practices, all of which can contribute to a better understanding of these legendary creatures. So the next time you try a new recipe, remember that it may hold secrets about the hidden animals that continue to capture our imagination.

[u-mspcoll]

Chinese-Japanese Cook Book (1914)

Chinese-Japanese Cook Book (1914) by Sara Bosse and Onoto Watanna, published by Rand McNally & Company.

Guest post by Lisa Ryou

“Cookbooks can reveal so much about the time in which they were written through their recipes and their authors. For instance, many cookbooks were written for a particular audience, most often women because historically they were the ones cooking or keeping up in the kitchen. In the 20th century, more and more cookbooks were published that sought to bring cuisines of the world to American housewives. The Chinese-Japanese cookbook (1914) is an early example of one.” 

Read more!

[jasonbehrs]

🍱 a delicious conspiracy of luck 🍱

by airauralintensity (aka me, jasonbehrs!)

“Hi hi, Sebentous! Welcome back to my channel. If you’re new here: this is Rakki Seben, I’m Nana-chan, and I love food.”

fandom: incurable case of love, koi wa tsuzuku yo doko made mo characters: sakura nanase, tendo kairi, incurable case ensemble cast in supporting roles ship: sakurendo genres: romcom themes: fluff (arguable), food vlogger!sakura, celebrity chef!tendo, sakura focus, canon-typical angst, gratuitous use of japanese in an english-language fanfiction chapters: 1/2 book: 1/2 word count: 7.5k+ rating: T for depictions of attraction

read it on ffnet, aff, wattpad, ao3, or below!

~~~

A/N (7.16.2023): This fic is dedicated to Zayna, who puts up with so much deranged content from me on a daily basis that she deserved something comparatively normal for a change. Find her on instagram or twitter!

I use a lot of Japanese terms which I will define here for the casual enjoyer of Japanese dramas and culture.

Rakki Seben: romaji for 'Lucky Seven'. The 'nana' character in Nanase's name means seven, which is a lucky number in Japan, so I named her YouTube channel Lucky Seven. (Fun fact, the 'se' character of her name means both 'water rapids' and 'chance' which just… has so many character-relevant tie-ins.)

bentou: commonly translated as a 'Japanese boxed lunch', it is generally any single-portion or ready-made meal. The lunch box you bring to school is a bentou. The pre-made meals you buy at a supermarket on the nights you're too lazy to make dinner are bentous. If you're American and you've had Lunchables, that's a bentou. Nanase names the watchers of her vlog Sebentous as a portmanteau of seben and bentou.

-chan, -sensei, -san, -kun: Japanese honourifics. Read more here: living-in-japan/culture/japanese-honorifics/

yakisoba: fried buckwheat noodles. If you've had stir-fried lo mein from your local Chinese restaurant, it's similar. (Some people may disagree with me on this, and that's fine lol.)

LINE: America has Messenger, South Korea has KakaoTalk, Japan has LINE, and everyone else has WhatsApp.

kaiseki: a traditional multi-course Japanese dinner. The term also refers to the collection of skills and techniques that enable the preparation of the full meal, in which case it is analogous to haute cuisine in Western cultures. Traditional cuisine chefs who have Made It™ in Japan probably got famous for their kaiseki restaurants.

心臓 (ハート): the heart as a cardiovascular muscle in Japanese, pronounced shinzou. However, in parentheses, Kairi says it should be pronounced as ha-to, which is the Japanese romaji for the heart as a shape. This is a common phenomenon in written Japanese known as gikun, which basically lets the author assign a new pronunciation to any kanji as they wish, usually to inject new or additional meaning into the text such as significance or humour.

itadakimasu: literally means 'I will receive'. The phrase was historically said aloud before eating to acknowledge the living things (e.g., chef, animals, plants, etc) that led to sustenance. It has since culturally evolved into something akin to the French 'bon appétit' since it's always said before partaking in any meal.

ochazuke: a bowl of rice poured over with tea and topped with whatever you have on hand, historically used as a make-your-pantry-last-longer meal. This simple recipe can be elevated with fancier ingredients.

dorayaki: dessert sandwich of red bean paste between two small pancakes. It is famous for being the favourite meal of Doraemon in the eponymous manga and anime.

senbei: Japanese rice crackers, a common snack.

dogeza: the word for when Japanese people kneel directly on the ground and touch their head to the floor to express deep apology.

With that, let's get started!

~~~

It wasn't a busy shift at the clinic, just a long one. Nevertheless, Nanase is ready to go home, eat dinner, and check for new comments on her latest video upload.

There was a shrine festival near her apartment a few weekends ago, and she had braved the cold to go. The concept of her video was that she went around to different food stalls selling the same thing and tried to figure out how the chefs prepared the meals differently. She wanted to film in the shrine as well, but it was closed for the festivities, so she went back a few days later to learn more about the god it serves and the shrine keepers. It was equal parts a food review and a culture vlog, so she's pretty proud of this one.

When she logs onto the analytics page for her Rakki Seben YouTube channel, she's excited to see three new comments since she last checked yesterday.

@tamagotamako 1 day ago it all looks so delicious! the shrine near me is having a festival next weekend. i'll order yakisoba when i'm there thanks to you www

@CBYTK 13 hours ago Thank you for showing us the delicious food and introducing us to your local shrine's customs. Great video as always.

@yakini-kun 4 hours ago which looks better, nana-chan or the food? discuss.

Her Sebentous are the best part of her day and the best part of running a vlog. They're so funny and complimentary, and some of them have really cute usernames. She would love nothing more than to host a meetup and get to meet them in person, but she doesn't think she's big enough for something like that yet. Maybe one day!

She likes and replies to everyone with a happy heart, then she does a cursory check of her business LINE account. There are some admiration messages, some hate mails (which she promptly deletes), and some recommendations for restaurants or meals to try (which she bookmarks for later), all of which are pretty typical.

What isn't typical is the message with a preview that reads 'INVITATION, ONE NIGHT ONLY: Tendo Kairi Pop-Up Kaiseki'.

Nanase rubs her eyes to make sure she isn't misreading the characters on screen because no way is this what she thinks it is.

[< cuisinebytendokairi

INVITATION, ONE NIGHT ONLY: Tendo Kairi Pop-Up Kaiseki

Nana-chan-san,

Tendo Kairi-sensei of Peninsula Tokyo's Kyoto Tsuruya will be the host and chef for 心臓(ハート), a pop-up, kaiseki-style dining event this weekend. We humbly invite you to attend as a media correspondent from Rakki Seben. In exchange for a free ticket, we ask for coverage on the evening in your next upload. Please see the attached image for details on the time and location, and please use the form linked below to RSVP and inform us of any dietary restrictions.

Your attendance is highly appreciated.]

It totally is what she thinks she is, and she cannot control her squeals.

Japan doesn't have celebrity chefs the way England has Gordan Ramsey-san and South Korea has Baik Jongwon-san, but Tendo Kairi is still making a name for himself in the culinary world despite not having his own restaurant. He is currently the sous chef at the Kyoto Tsuruya, a famous restaurant in the Peninsula Tokyo hotel. On the night of a prestigious economic conference, the head chef could not provide the highly-anticipated, personalised, five-course dinner for last-minute reasons, and the evening would have been in jeopardy if it weren't for Tendo's command of the kitchen and delicious yet improvised new menu.

For reasons starting with 'any chef who can pull that together on such short notice must be really skilled and respected by their staff' and ending with 'she saw a picture of him in one of the interviews he gave after the event, and he's pretty handsome', Nanase became his fan. He's still working as the sous chef at the Peninsula Tokyo as far as she knows, but she has been waiting for him to open up his own restaurant or get promoted to head chef so that she can try meals that he designed.

To learn that he's hosting his own limited-engagement dining experience is already a huge deal, but to be invited? It's too good to be true.

She doesn't believe it even as she gets her brother to double-check that the link isn't malicious ("Good news! It's just a Google Form."), even as she RSVPs and receives her QR code ticket via LINE, even as she's dolled up in the new dress she bought for the evening and standing in front of the event hall where the dinner is being hosted.

The marquee above the front entrance is lit up with the name of the event in both Japanese and English,

心臓(ハート) CUISINE BY TENDO KAIRI

and it takes her an embarrassingly long time of staring in breathless amazement before she thinks to record any of this as B-roll for her vlog.

"Perhaps, are you Nana-chan-san?"

She's startled out of her focus by a handsome young man in a casual suit with the unfortunate air of a new hire who desperately wants to do a good job, and she cannot help but relate. "Hi! Yes, that's me. 'Nana-chan' is fine," she greets as she hastily turns off her camera.

The man sighs with relief. "It's nice to meet you. My name is Nishi Ryusei, and I'm an event staff for Ha-to. Allow me to escort you inside. From this moment until the time you leave, please rely on me for any questions or concerns as they relate to your dining and reporting experience," he narrates as he guides her and her filming apparatus through the security check.

Guests get a personal assistant? These exclusive events are no joke. "Thank you for working hard today, Nishi-san!" she chirps, following him into the small but tastefully decorated lobby.

"If I can call you Nana-chan, you can call me Nishi-kun," he shares warmly. "Would you be interested in checking in your coat as well, or would you like to head into the cocktail reception?"

"Actually," she declines with a sheepish shrug to her shoulders, "may I go around filming a little bit? I will stop if I inconvenience or intrude on other guests!"

Nishi-kun slaps his forehead with major self-recrimination. "Ah, of course! The media correspondent must collect media to correspond! My apologies for not addressing that sooner. Do you need assistance with your camera stand? Do you have special equipment to set up? Do you need to charge anything?" he asks in rapid-fire.

Nanase had commuted to the event hall with mounting anxiety about how she'll conduct herself in such a high-profile setting (and still doubting that she was actually meant to be invited in the first place). Even now, she is acutely aware of how much space she's taking up, the way that her hair is combed but not styled, the fact that this dress is the most expensive article of clothing she owns yet likely costs a fraction of other outfits she'll see tonight… and that hypersensitivity was feeding an additional worry that she won't be able to enjoy the evening to the fullest due to all her worries.

Somehow, though, Nishi-kun's nerves about assisting her does a lot to settle her own nerves about the night. One of them has to be composed, after all. "Would you want to help me?" she offers affably. "If you work here, you'd know the prettiest and most interesting spots to film, right?"

The surprised-yet-pleased lightness to his face makes her smile, and she thinks she and Nishi-kun will end the night as good friends.

As he hangs out with her to film B-roll, Nanase can't help but notice she has a lot less equipment than some of the other camera operators scattered across the venue, which confirms her privately-held belief that she is the most amateur attendant invited to Ha-to. All she has is her little Nikon and a table-tripod to help stabilise her grip, but she can spy camera setups taller than her brother in some corners (along with the local media outlet logos on the bags by their feet).

They intimidate her, but they also reaffirm her resolve. If she was the smallest scale 'media correspondent' in attendance, then that means someone in the event planning process took a gamble on her to provide good coverage of the evening.

She won't let herself down, she won't let her viewers down, and she won't let her anonymous benefactor down either.

~~~

When she finishes taking some atmospheric shots, Nishi-kun offers to take her to her table.

The dinner tables circle an empty space in the centre of the main dining room, presumably where Tendo-sensei will stand to address the crowd. Nishi-kun leads her to a table not too far from the centre, where there is already someone seated. She and Nishi-kun reach an unspoken agreement that they will part ways here, and she braces herself to make another good first impression.

"Ah, I was waiting for someone to come rescue me from my loneliness!" the older gentleman opens with exuberance.

She matches his humour—"Good thing I was looking for someone to rescue."—and it pays off. The well-kept man exuding a kind and paternal air smiles widely at her. "I'm Koishikawa. Tendo and I work together," he introduces.

Nanase's reach for a handshake turns into a pointed finger in her shock. "You're the head chef at Kyoto Tsuruya!" she can't help but exclaim. She's sitting in front of the very man whose personal emergency served as the impetus to Tendo-sensei's rise to fame!

Koishikawa-sensei is mildly taken aback to be recognised, but he recovers easily. "I see that my reputation precedes me," he comments genially. "Have I had the pleasure of your patronage before?"

She blushes. "Not yet."

Nanase would have certainly info-dumped on this poor man about how she's actually a receptionist at a urgent-care clinic near her apartment who definitely could not afford a table at Kyoto Tsuruya without some sort of divine intervention if not for the arrival of two boisterously laughing women holding half-empty champagne flutes.

"Where's your drink?" one of them asks Nanase before they even sit down.

"Do you want me to get you one?" the other follows up.

"Ladies," Koishikawa-sensei admonishes, but he immediately falters then turns to Nanase. "I'm sorry, but I didn't quite catch your name."

Oh god, she didn't even introduce herself. She is so embarrassing. "Sakura! Sakura Nanase. It's a pleasure to meet you all," she says quickly.

"Nanako-chan, where's your drink?" the first woman demands again.

"Do you want me to get you one?" Both of their words are noticeably slurred together now that Nanase is paying a little more attention.

"Sakura-chan doesn't need to catch up to you two in order to have a good time," Koishikawa-sensei banters.

"But if she did, she'd have a better time," the first woman rebuts in with a duh in her tone.

The second woman leans across the first one to reach for a handshake with Nanase. "I'm Yuki Sayoko. I'm a friend of the family."

"And I'm Ryuko, the family!" the first one pipes up with a loose, open-palm salute.

Yuki-san leans a palm on Ryuko-san's shoulder, a gesture of familiarity as well as leverage to lean towards Nanase. "How do you know Kairi, Nanase-chan?"

Unfortunately, Nanase cannot answer her because she does not actually know 'Kairi'. If she thought she was in over her head before, she's floundering in the deep end now.

She is currently seated at a table with Tendo-sensei's senior at work, someone she has a sneaking suspicion is either Tendo-sensei's really cool sister or really cool cousin, and a close family friend who understandably presumes that everyone at the table has a similarly personal relationship with Tendo-sensei. And there's still one guest left to meet!

How did little old her end up here?

She frantically looks around—for some water, for Nishi-kun, for a pile of bricks to fall on her and wake her up from this dream—when she meets eyes with one of the most attractive men in the entire archipelago from across the room.

A man who happens to be beelining straight for their table.

Koishikawa-sensei stands up to greet who must surely be Japan's version of Brad Pitt. "Kisugi-kun, you made it!"

"You know how it is when you're running the pass," Kisugi-san says as he returns the one-sided hug. "I'm just glad I didn't miss the introduction to the first course, or else I might as well skip the entire night completely."

"Tendo would have never let you live that down!" Koishikawa-sensei laughs as they settle into their seats.

"He's such a stickler for the 'holistic dining experience'," Ryuko-san snarks as she blows bubbles into her champagne flute, which somehow became full despite no server coming around to top off her glass. "If he didn't seriously know his way around a kitchen, he'd be the most pretentious man in all of Japan."

"But do we expect anything less from the Devil himself?" Yuki-san comments with affection.

"'Devil'?"

All eyes turn to Nanase, who has ruined her ruse of pretending she deserves a spot at this table with one single word.

"You've never heard anyone call my brother 'the Devil'?" Ryuko-san asks with incredulity.

"How did you know Kairi, again?"

Maybe they'll have the grace to wait until she's out of earshot before they start laughing at her. "Actually, I don't…" she confesses to the confusion of every party. She bows her head again, a final introduction now that the whole table is seated. "I'm Sakura Nanase. I was invited tonight as a media correspondent. Please keep me in your favour."

Polite interest is a better response than she could have hoped for from the group. "Media correspondent, hm? Who are you affiliated with?"

"None of the big broadcasting stations. I run a food vlog on YouTube. A small one, really. I'm wondering as much as you are why I'm sitting here," she awkwardly says in an attempt to preempt the elephant at the table.

Surprisingly, Yuki-san perks up. "You're a YouTuber? What's your channel called? How many followers do you have? How many public watch hours have you accrued in the last 90 days?"

"Eh?"

"Sayoko-san works in public relations and media management, and it seems she just found her next client," Koishikawa-sensei observes with amusement.

"Or her next pet project, depending on how you look at it," Ryuko-san jokes.

Nanase is saved from having to react to Yuki-san's enthusiasm by the lights dimming once, twice. Chairs scrape the marble flooring as the lively atmosphere of the room settles in anticipation.

"Email me," Yuki-san stage whispers as she slides her business card across the table to Nanase's clammy hands. She accepts the card with a bow of her head, and that's all she has time for before a man in a fashionable long coat emerges from the sea of tables and stands in the centre of the room.

"Welcome, everyone. My name is Tendo Kairi, and I will be your chef for this evening."

Tendo-sensei spins in an unhurried circle to receive the audience's applause, and Nanase isn't ready at all.

She knew he was attractive, but this is just unreal. From his ear to his cheek to his entire profile, his face is revealed to her slowly like the moon waxing to fullness, and the impact is just as dazzling. Striking, even. Everything about him seems cut into precise angles for the express purpose of carving this moment into her memory forever.

By the time he fully faces her, she has stopped clapping entirely.

His eyes, like everything else about him, have a piercing quality that does not allow her to move, to think, to breathe—a state of suspension she can only experience because he is looking straight at her.

There is a flash of surprise before his expression settles back into a neutral smile of appreciation, and the moon wanes to new once again.

Just in time for her ears to recognise sound, the applause settles in anticipation of Tendo-sensei's next words.

"Thank you for joining me tonight for the first kaiseki dinner plan that I designed and cooked myself. For the experienced, I encourage you to wash away your expectations with your first cup of sake. This will not be your typical evening of seasonal acknowledgements and ceremonial formality. Instead, I chose to honour a different kind of nature tonight: human nature. The multisensory, once-in-a-lifetime aspect of a traditional kaiseki dinner will instead be provided by you all as the recipients of the meal. Every individual will have different reactions to each plate, and every table will have different discussions as a result. I look forward to hearing about them during the after-party, which will be held in the lobby following the final course."

Tendo-sensei speaks with candor and conciseness that somehow completely suits the image of him she didn't mean to build in her mind but has now anyway. There are no unnecessary inflections to his speech. Every intention is plainly stated. Neither breath nor word is wasted.

"Now, I will introduce you to the ha-to as I know it with our appetiser, a bean salad with orange vinaigrette. The beans were harvested in Chiba, and the oranges were farmed from Egypt. I hope you will enjoy it."

Tendo-sensei bows in the direction he happens to be facing, and that's the cue for waitstaff to surge into the room carrying trays of the first plate. By the time everyone has one, he is gone from the centre.

Koishikawa-sensei takes one look at his food and chuckles, only loud enough for their table to hear. Kisugi-san joins him not long later.

"What? What is it?" Ryuko-san asks eagerly, always ready to laugh at a good joke.

"The beans he chose are known for being high in soluble fiber," Kisugi-san explains. "In other words, it's good for the heart."

"Eh? I didn't know that! That's considerate," Nanase can't help but effuse.

"It helps to have two chefs at the table, doesn't it? We'll have the secrets to all of Kairi's dishes revealed by the end of each course. You should do an exposé on your vlog, Nanase-chan."

With Yuki-san's well-meaning tease, Nanase remembers she has a job to do. She really has to get herself together. She can't be distracted by attractive men and imposter syndrome. She's here for one thing and one thing only: good food.

"Ah, would anyone mind if I started filming? I'll keep the camera pointed at me and my food, and I can mute the microphone if it would make you more comfortable."

Ryuko-san leans over to look into the lens of the camera Nanase places on the table, tripod legs set low so that no one's vision is obstructed. "So you put your videos on the internet and then people watch them? If I'm in it, will I get famous?"

"Heh, not really. Only a few hundred people watch my vlogs regularly."

"That's a few hundred more people than who know me now! Please let me be in your video, Nanako-chan. Please, please, please." Ryuko-san bounces in her seat to underscore her insistence.

"I also don't mind being recorded. I trust you to edit out anything personal or unprofessional. Make me look good, okay?" Koishikawa-sensei says affably.

The rest of the table chimes in with their consent, and Nanase doesn't bother hiding the stars in her eyes. Tendo-sensei's friends and family are some of the most kind, easy-going people on earth.

She bows with appreciation then presses record on her camera.

"Itadakimasu!"

(When she reviews the night's footage later, the smile on her face at this moment is the happiest she's ever seen herself.)

~~~

As Yuki-san predicted, it is incredibly helpful to have two chefs around to explain the likely significance behind each course. After the appetiser, there are deep-fried brie wheels drizzled in honey ("high in cholesterol and certainly bad for your heart when eaten in excess"), steaming bowls of ochazuke with tuna roe and chunks of sun-dried pickled plum ("traditional comfort food in Kyoto—one bite and you'll see why"), and a shot of cod liver oil in between courses four and five ("high in omega-3's, but golly, low on taste"). There even is a serving of cow heart in what everyone hopes will be the only literal interpretation of the night's theme.

Nanase falls in love with every dish she tries—except the heart, admittedly, but she has always wanted to try animal heart, so she still loves that she got the opportunity. The magic of the menu is not just in their flavour profiles, but also in their mouthfeel.

Almost everyone has flavour preferences, but she didn't discover she had texture preferences until she started Rakkk Seben and wanted to describe the experience of eating to her viewers. She loves when food is so crispy that it reminds her of the first leaves of autumn; she loves surprise chewiness in an otherwise melt-in-your-mouth dish; she loves when there are beady foods like beans or tapioca because she likes organising them in between her teeth for an even bite.

The Ha-to menu manages to capture all of that and more in a delightful manifestation of everything she'd want to taste or experience in a gourmet dish. Each recipe has a way of bringing out the essence of each ingredient, so even the simplest of dishes are layered with complexity. It's the most decadent meal of her entire life, in more ways than one.

Every course is introduced by Tendo-sensei in his same straightforward, succinct tone. He usually describes the ingredients and sometimes an anecdote about the preparation, and Nanae revels in his appearances as much as she does in his food.

The company is equally as compelling. Koishikawa-sensei has been a warm presence ever since their first interaction. Kisugi-sensei—as she has started calling him in her mind ever since she learned he is a sous-chef at another fine dining establishment she is too poor to try—doesn't say much, but she learns a lot whenever he does. Ryuko-san and Yuki-san are the ones keeping the conversation lively, and they're good about including others in their banter. (By others, she does mainly mean herself.)

Throughout the evening, Ryuko-san is definitely the one Nanase ends up interacting with the most. The older woman keeps popping into the frame to wave at the camera and speaking to viewers like a natural vlogger, and it gives Nanase an idea.

After the cod liver oil, Ryuko-san—who works as a sake sommelier but considers herself proficient in all alcohols—wishes aloud that it were a shot of Cognac instead, and Nanase uses the opportunity to tentatively invite her as a guest in a future video where she recommends alcohol pairs for street foods and they try it together.

The evening proceeds exactly like that: Tendo-sensei introduces his next course, Nanase becomes a little bit more enamoured with him via his food, and the conversation at the table rarely stops. She is so glad she has a camera recording all of this; otherwise, she'd be worried that she dreamed everything.

The next time Tendo-sensei steps out, he announces, "This will be our final course for the night. For dessert, I present dorayaki made out of store-bought pancake mix and canned red bean paste."

The entire hall titters with confusion. After several plates of high quality ingredients and sophisticated cooking techniques, he's serving something a college student or perhaps a very independent four-year-old would make for a late-night snack?

Nanase sneaks glances at her seatmates with the hopes that one of Tendo-sensei's closest friends and family would have an innate understanding of logic behind this choice, but the table seems as surprised as the rest of the hall. In fact, Ryuko-san is full-on pouting with the loss of a delectable confection.

She looks back to Tendo-sensei, who hasn't bowed yet to end his speech. He isn't reveling in the confusion either, as she suspected he might. Someone like him wouldn't end the night so anticlimactically without a very good reason, and she has the passing thought that the reason is simple shock value.

Instead, he is just standing still, head hung low and microphone clutched in his hand like he is searching for the will, or the courage, to do something.

He is facing her side of the room. When he finally raises his head, there is melancholy shadowing his angled features. Nanase tries to remember if she could have recognised it before, if it was perhaps there the whole night, but her memories of his face are only cast in dazzlement.

"I do not like sweets, but dorayaki is my favourite dessert. Maybe it is only my favourite because it was what my wife used to make whenever she wanted to celebrate something. The thing is, anything was cause for celebration: doing the dishes she let pile up for a day too long, finishing a book I've been meaning to read, small things like that. It's a taste that I've personally come to associate with a warm smile and a happy home. A full heart, as it were… I probably would have had dorayaki later this evening if not for the fact that my wife passed away eight years ago."

The hall is silent. Even the distant clamour of metal against metal that has been intermittently slipping out from the kitchen has ceased. It is so quiet that Nanase fears her raging heartbeat will upset the solemnity of the moment.

"Of course, I had other ideas for tonight's dessert; but no matter what I planned, I kept thinking to myself, 'I still don't get to eat Minori's dorayaki by the end of the day…' But I can try."

He extends one arm outwards, and the waitstaff flood into the room with their giant trays balanced on their shoulders as they have done for every course. "This is her dorayaki, replicated as close as possible to how she used to make it," Tendo-sensei narrates as the diners receive their plates. "As you eat, I encourage you to think about your heart: who lives in it, where it is telling you to go, and how you will get there."

At the end of his speech, a waitstaff places his own plate on the palm of his outstretched hand. Tendo-sensei pockets his microphone and picks up the dessert. With an inaudible prayer, he takes a bite of the dorayaki. It is the first time he partook in his own menu all evening.

He is still facing her direction, but Nanase cannot clearly see his tears.

"Sakura-san, are you crying?"

"Is there anyone in this world who wouldn't cry upon seeing that?!" she defends while being a sniveling mess.

"Now, now," Koishikawa-sensei cuts in. "It's a moving story, no doubt. Here, clean yourself up, Sakura-chan,"—he offers her a handkerchief from his pocket—"and let's all enjoy the special dessert Tendo-kun prepared for us."

"Is this special? I could buy the same thing at the FamilyMart across the street, and it would probably taste better than this," Ryuko-laments even as she rips a bite out of her dorayaki.

"I will say, though, isn't it rather nostalgic?" Yuki-san muses with a slightly full mouth. "My parents made dorayaki for me when I was little, and it tasted a lot like this, clumpy batter and all."

"This was actually the first thing I ever learned to make," Kisugi-sensei says. "I was 5, and the Showa brand pancake mix had easy-to-follow instructions… Honestly, if I think about it, it's probably the moment that set me on a path towards culinary school."

"Maybe that's why dorayaki is my favourite dessert," Nanase murmurs. She doesn't really expect her tablemates to hear her; but when everyone's heads turn towards her, she is prepared to expand on her thought. "It's really easy to make, right? Simple, too. No one can mess it up. It would probably be more difficult to make it taste bad."

"You say that, Nanase-chan, but you also haven't seen me in the kitchen."

"There's a reason Sayako-san is the only one at the table unaffiliated with food," Koishikawa-sensei jokes.

"One time, she…"

Ryuko-san trails off from her story at the gradual hush that overcomes the event hall. Without prompting, the five of them turn towards the centre, where Tendo-sensei has since finished his dessert and has begun silently bowing to the guests. Once he finishes his round, he straightens and heads out to the lobby.

The table slowly turns to each other in confirmation before gathering their things.

The after-party has begun.

~~~

The good food doesn't stop at the after party. The finger foods, just sugar cookies and senbei, are refreshingly simple after the complex flavours from the kaiseki. Plus, they're cut into heart shapes! Nanase loves commitment to a gimmick.

The people at her table naturally split up after the dinner to catch up with other colleagues or people they happened to know, so Nanase was left to herself for the after party. She doesn't mind. She just takes some snacks to a spot out of people's way and enjoys the ambiance. When is she going to have a chance to attend something like this ever again?

"How was the dinner?" someone asks from her side.

"Nishi-kun! Did you not have any?!"

He laughs. "No, I did, but you're the food reviewer between the two of us. I wanted to hear from you."

"Well, it was amazing, of course," she effuses, hand demurely covering her mouth as she finishes chewing her cookie. "I have a lot I want to say, but all the words are just floating around in my head. I think I'm gonna be up all night just trying to make sense of my emotions."

"That good, huh?"

"The best."

"I'm really glad to hear it. Between you and me, I think Tendo-sensei was pretty nervous about how you'd react to the food."

Good thing she finished with her cookie or else she would have probably choked. "What do you mean by that?"

"It's hard to explain," Nishi-kun says as he crosses his arms, "but I was keeping my eye on you throughout the dinner—in case you needed something, you know—and he was always around. And he was always looking at your table."

Nanase lets out a relieved laugh. "Oh, you've got it all wrong. His sister and his mentor were at the table, too. He was probably checking for their reactions. Everyone at my table was actually really close to him. I'm pretty sure I ended up there as a mistake, or at the very least not on purpose."

He tilts his head to the side. "Tendo-sensei seems like the kind of guy who does everything on purpose, doesn't he?"

"Sure, but was he the one in charge of seating?" she retorts with raised eyebrows.

Nishi-kun scratches at his chin. "Now that, I don't know…"

She pats him on the arm, absolving him of the responsibility to continue the topic and indicating that she wants his attention for something else. "Speaking of Tendo-sensei, do you know if he's allowing interviews during the after party?"

Nishi-kun considers her request. "The after-party would be your best bet, but I can't say for sure he'll be able to do an interview."

They both turn to look at the small group praising Tendo-sensei for the evening and then to the line that's pseudo-forming behind them. The after-party wasn't supposed to be a meet and greet, but it's turning out that way. Nanase and Nishi-kun slowly meander to the ill-defined line, not really intending to join it but moving forward anyway as the queued guests finish their interactions with Tendo-sensei.

When they're a few turns away, someone breezes past the line and straight to the man of the hour.

"When can we go home, Kairi?"

"You can go home whenever you want. I'm still busy," he says with a gesture towards the next guest he meant to meet before Ryuko-san interrupted.

She looks over at the line with pout, which immediately brightens as soon as she sees Nanase in it. "Nanko-chan! What are you doing over there? Come here and meet my brother!"

"Eh?" Nanase casts a worried glance to the other people in line, who look at her with disdain or judgement. She is prepared to reject the older woman's well-meaning offer, but her hand pulling on Nanase's wrist won't let her. All she can do is grab Nishi-kun's wrist and drag him along too.

"Kairi, this is Nanako-chan! Thanks for putting her at our table; we got along great."

"Eh?" "It wasn't like that!"

Nanase had planned to avoid looking directly at Tendo-sensei's face, but this is the second time the seating arrangement has been brought up since the end of the dinner. She can't help but look up in verification of Ryuko-san's statement. (They may have just met, but she's proven herself to be a very authentic person. Nanase is inclined to take her word over Tendo-sensei's.)

Tendo-sensei, for his part, looks very agitated. "Listen," he says. "You were a party of four, and these tables seated five. We did that a lot, putting solo attendants wherever there was space. If you guys got along, it was pure luck."

Nanase nods to herself. That makes a lot of sense.

"Rakki Seben kind of luck?" Ryuko-san quips.

"Huh?"

"That's the name of her vlog! 'Rakki Seben'. Nanako-chan invited me on it, and Yuki's gonna be her manager."

Tendo-sensei whirls on her, and Nanase feels strangely chastised even though she didn't do anything wrong. "I don't know about the Yuki-san thing, but the rest of it is true. I run a YouTube channel. It's actually why I was invited tonight," she explains weakly in the face of his intense stare.

"Say, you should be in it, too, Kairi! Give her an interview or something she can use in her video."

That happens to be exactly what she wanted, but to receive it without her asking is rather overwhelming in the moment. "Only if you have the time! I don't even mind waiting until later in the night, if you're willing and not still busy," she hedges, but Ryuko-san speaks over her.

"You."

Nishi-kun looks around to make sure the finger pointing at him isn't meant to be pointing at someone very near him. "Me?"

"Can you drink alcohol?"

"I'm, um, I'm 25."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"Y-Yes, I can drink alcohol."

"Let's go get some, then!"

Ryuko-san wraps her arm around his and leads him towards the open bar. Nishi-kun looks back at Nanase with equal parts fear and apology in his eyes, and she can do nothing but send him pitying looks in return.

"I have a bad feeling about that," Tendo-sensei comments lowly from beside her.

She hasn't known Nishi-kun for long, but she still confidently defends, "Don't worry. Nishi-kun is an absolute gentleman and won't do a single thing to Ryuko-san."

"He's not the one who gives me bad feelings." Before Nanase could unpack that, he turns to her with a raised eyebrow. "So, what's this about an interview?"

There is something on the tip of Nanase's tongue about pretending an interview was never mentioned and apologising for wasting his time, but her resolution from earlier in the evening makes a convenient reappearance in her mind. She won't let herself down, she won't let her viewers down, and she won't let her anonymous benefactor down either.

She bows ninety-degrees in a desperate attempt at professionalism. "Yes! I am Sakura Nanase, and I have a YouTube channel called Rakki Seben! I humbly request to interview you as part of the video review I will give about tonight's event!"

"'Nanase'?"

Hearing her first name said so admonishingly snaps her upright. "I only need five—no, three—minutes of your time!"

He spends a long moment staring at her, silent and discerning, and the state of suspension from earlier in the night is back. She almost can't feel the legs she's standing on.

"Let's get on with it, then."

He offers a polite bow to the guests who hadn't yet given up on the meet and greet line then heads for a door on the opposite side of the room. Nanase starts after him, backtracks to give the people in line a deeper bow because it felt wrong to leave without doing that, then hurries to make up for the lost seconds. When she bursts through the door she saw Tendo-sensei heading towards, she finds that she entered a quiet service hallway.

Quiet because there is no one else there but her and Tendo-sensei. She gulps. "Right, well. Just, um, you can stand over there—or really, wherever you want—and um, I'll stand over… Here. I'll stand over here." She adjusts her camera on its tripod with shaky fingers, and it takes her three tries to turn it on. "Okay, start whenever you're ready… End whenever you're ready, too," she hastily adds.

Tendo-sensei leans against the wall behind him and crosses his arms. "And what would you like to know?"

Why was I invited? is the first question that pops into her head, but she physically shakes it out of her mind. She does have a real question she wanted to ask him, and she only has one shot at this. "Could you talk about the inspiration behind your courses? Except for the dessert, you mostly talked about the ingredients or the recipes. The guests at my table made guesses about why you made what you made—like, it's good for the heart, or it's bad for the heart—but why did you choose to make those recipes over other recipes that would have maybe expressed a similar statement?"

He quirks one eyebrow at her. "Sounds like you'll need more than three minutes of my time, Sakura-san."

Crap, he's right. She should have thought of that. She's so embarrassing. "No, I won't!" she maintains. "I have other questions! Like, uh… Which was your favourite course to work on and why?"

She grimaces. It's a really basic question, not at all on par with the kind of journalism that some of the other media correspondents would have pulled off if they were in her position. In fact, she can even hazard a guess at what his response would be… but it can be answered in three minutes or less, which is all that matters.

He turns his head to face down the hallway, his handsome face impassive yet undeniably radiating annoyance. She tries to ignore the silly worry that she has somehow disappointed him in favour of coming up with a better three-minute question, but then he says, "The dessert, of course, but you already knew that."

Agreeing with him is probably the right answer, but it also makes the fact that she asked the question at all look rather foolish, so she doesn't say anything.

He sighs then faces her again. "I'll start with the appetiser, then."

She wince. "Thanks for keeping me in your favour," she says with self-recrimination.

He offers her a hum of acknowledgement but nothing more on the topic of his time. "Beans are a natural choice to suit the Ha-to theme, but they're a versatile ingredient that could have appeared in any course. Rather than saying they best suited the appetiser, it was more like no other ingredient I wanted would…"

As he expounds upon his thought process and menu development, Nanase feels her superficial crush on the man developing into something a lot more substantial. He's so diligent and intelligent and magnificent.

Nothing like her, who was so nervous about filming the interview that she forgot to set the white balance before it was too late.

Everytime she glances down at her camera view to make sure her shaky hands haven't moved Tendo-sensei out of frame, she could perceive slight differences in colour temperature on the screen. She had hopes that the lighting of the hallway would help keep it more-or-less consistent, but that was evidently too optimistic.

She's pretty bad about adjusting levels in her video editing software, but she can probably just put some apologetic text on screen asking Sebentous for their understanding. It's not like asking him to start over is an option.

"Is my explanation not what you wanted to hear?" Tendo-sensei's harsh voice cuts through her internal monologue.

Her head snaps up. "What? Of course not! I'm so grateful for your insights! Cow hearts over fish was an inspired choice!"

"Then what's with that face? You look… dissatisfied."

Great. On top of incompetent, he must also think she's ungrateful. "I'm very sorry about that. I can… I can wear a mask?"

He looks at her with so much exasperation that she thinks that a bow may not be enough. A full on dogeza in this dress would be awkward, but not undoable.

"Forget it. If you're going to say stupid things, I'm just going to go." With a dramatic flutter of his coat, he stalks towards the lobby.

"It's the white balance!" she blurts out before he could reach the door. The truth is unfortunately another stupid thing, but hopefully explaining herself will at least prevent his opinion of her from getting worse.

It works, for the most part. He stops abruptly and whirls to face her with an unimpressed "Huh?"

She hesitates for just a second before scuttling over to him, camera outstretched so he could see what she's talking about. "I don't know how much you know about videography, but there's this thing called white balance, and…" Whether it's his stare or her hypersensitivity, she could sense that her rambling is losing more favour than it's gaining, so she switches priorities. "Basically, the footage we just shot is usable, but bad."

"Can you fix it?"

"Yeah, it's really easy! All I have do is—"

"Do it. I don't have time to repeat everything I was saying, so I'm just going to answer your dessert question."

That is so okay with her. She's lucky he's even giving her a second chance. "Thank you so much!" She stops the current recording, diligently checks the white balance and aperture and other settings she neglected the first time around, and starts a new file. "Alright, we're rolling," she says as lifts the camera up. "So, sensei, what was your favourite course to work on and—why…?"

She looks quizzically up at Tendo-sensei, who has gotten close enough and lowered the camera enough to indicate that he isn't quite ready to record.

"I've done a lot of talking tonight. I think it's your turn, Sakura-san."

Too bad Tendo-sensei looks so mind-numbingly attractive right now that it makes her forget she knows Japanese.

"Did you enjoy the dinner?"

She nods incessantly.

"Which was your favourite course?"

"All of them." It's not even a question.

His upper lip curls a little in distaste. Her self-preservation isn't strong enough to ignore the flash of white teeth that's revealed. "Why?"

She loves each of them for their own reasons, of course, but one thing they undeniably have in common is that, "They were all things that I like eating."

Tendo-sensei tsks, steps away. "Aren't you a food vlogger? Can't you do better than that?"

Between his reprimanding words and lack of proximity, the daze she was stumbling through clears enough to give her back access to her pride. "Of course! I just… needed to collect my thoughts."

He walks backwards and leans on the wall again, and pieces of the voiceover script she was writing in her mind the whole night helpfully organise themselves into something intelligible.

"I often highlight the mouthfeel of the foods I eat to my viewers, and I really enjoyed the textures of your dishes. Even though each course was consumed individually, I think they would have also worked really well together if they came out all at once like they do in Korean restaurants because of the diversity. Coupled with the different flavour profiles that you created, it was a complete fulfilment of the senses, and I am very grateful that I was invited to experience it."

She punctuates her spiel with a decisive nod, feeling confident and articulate and insightful… but the way Tendo-sensei is only looking at her is slowly making her question that self-assessment. He hasn't reacted, positively or negatively. Maybe he regrets asking for her opinion at all.

"Right, well—"

"—Anything special to say about the dorayaki?"

"Hm?"

He crosses his arms and looks away for a moment, tapping his shoe mindlessly against the linoleum floor. "One of your vlogs said that it's your favourite," he gets out after a few more beats. "The Odaiba one."

She knows what he's talking about, sort of. She does have a vlog where she went out to Odaiba to enjoy lunch on the bay on a nice late-winter day, but she doesn't particularly remember talking about dorayaki in that one. Nor does she know why Tendo-sensei, of all people, would know that, unless…

"You watched my videos?"

"Video. Single," he scoffs as he straightens out from his not-quite-insecure hunch. If she didn't witness him crying nearly thirty minutes ago, she would think that Tendo-sensei's face only has two settings: neutral and unimpressed. "And of course, I did. You're a nobody YouTuber, and this is the biggest professional achievement of my life. You weren't going to be invited without being personally vetted by me."

Now would be the perfect time to ask him why she was invited at all, but an event staff bursts through the hallway door at that moment. "There you are, Tendo-sensei! We've been looking all over for you. You're needed back out in the lobby."

He nods in acknowledgement. "I'll be there in a few minutes. I need to finish my interview first."

Nanase is still facing the staff member, prepared to apologise for keeping Tendo-sensei from his responsibilities, which is how she can see the confused look on their face before they bow and retreat.

She turns back to Tendo-sensei to give him one last chance to back out of having to give her any more of his time, but he's standing up straight and fixing the collar on his coat to prepare for the take. Whatever opportunity to react to anything that happened in the last ninety seconds is long gone.

Indeed, she's here for an interview with Tendo-sensei. She should just get this over with. She's been on edge all night, and this is the last thing she needs to do before she can go home and still be satisfied with how she handled the evening.

Ordinarily, she'd give herself a quick slap on both cheeks to fortify her resolve, but she's made enough of a fool of herself tonight in front of the no-nonsense chef. She has to settle for checking the settings on her camera one more time.

Okay, she can do this. "So, sensei, what was your favourite course to work on, and why?"

~~~

A/N (7.16.2023): Second chapter is the last one! It's already complete, I'll upload it in another week. :)