Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Aaron Williams (Chief Science Officer) in Mess Kitchen - Cadet Dawes Is Hungry on USS Challenger

Posted by Cadet P’Mala Dawes (Doctor) in Mess Kitchen - Cadet Dawes Is Hungry on USS Challenger

Posted by Cadet P’Mala Dawes (Doctor) in Mess Kitchen - Cadet Dawes Is Hungry on USS Challenger
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Though she was thankful that the NC let her into the mess kitchen, P’Mala Dawes felt somewhat out of place in the space. It was pin-clean and gleaming stainless, everything in its place as though it was rarely used. She brushed one hand through her short hair. Hopefully nobody would mind.

P’Mala laid the brown paper bag she’d brought on one spotless surface. She’d stowed the bag with her personal items, and was surprised it hadn’t been jostled into mush in the cargo bay–the bag contained several plomeek. She quickly located a too-big stockpot, a cutting board, and a knife, and began chopping the flowering Vulcan plant into chunks.

Though most Starfleet ship replicators carried a passable plomeek soup, P’Mala preferred the taste of grown-in-the-ground vegetables to replicated ones, though, she supposed, atom for atom, they were the same. She poured enough water in the pot to cover the plomeek and began to root around for an onion. A leek. A shallot? A human ship must have an allium somewhere…

Aha! She found a little bin meant for storing root vegetables underneath one of the counters. A couple loose beets, a load of Peruvian, Idaho, and Andorian potatoes, some withered-looking gourd… and a blessed bulb of garlic.

She threw the bulb, skin and all, into the pot. By now, the mixture was barely simmering, just as it should be. P’Mala stirred it, briefly watched the plomeek swirl around the pan, becoming broth.

Cadet P’Mala Dawes

While the broth simmered in its stockpot, P’Mala read and responded to some messages on her PADD: one from an old colleague at the hospital she’d briefly worked at in Kentucky and a longer update from her mother.

P’Mala’s parents were currently interviewing a sect of Vulcan apostates who worshipped an ancient water God in a compound on the shores of Lake Yuron–the subject of their next book. She let them know that she was settling in somewhat–that she’d send another message soon.

By this point, the broth was almost done. The plomeek broth had a delicate, almost floral smell. She decided to strain the garlic bulb and chopped plomeek, and began looking for a colander.

Cadet P’Mala Dawes

On Vulcan, the cuisine had several kinds of plomeek soup or broth. It’s as regional as noodle dishes on Earth. P’Mala’s favorite plomeek soup was not this recipe at all, actually–just one she’d learned to throw together. Instead, her favorite was almost as clear and delicate as water, made in one stall at one market in one corner of San Francisco.

Unsuccessful with finding the colander, P’Mala Dawes walked back to the stove and turned off the heating element–didn’t want to the whole thing to boil into nothing but burnt bits of plomeek after all the trouble she’d gone to make it.

Cadet P’Mala Dawes
The doors opened, followed by a sniffing sound and a voice : “Who is cooking a flower soup ?” Aaron walked out of the small kitchen corridor to reveal himself. His face goes from a frowned-intrigued expression to a brightened one. “Oh, it’s you Dawes ! Seems like you found the kitchen already”, he says with a smile. “Don’t mind me, I’m making gnocchi.”

At the sound of a door opening, Dawes jumped a little–but then relaxed when she turned and saw it was the CSO.

“Lieutenant Williams, my apologies,” she said, “I was making soup. Every time I move, it’s one of the first things I need to do.”

The lieutenant started to roam around the kitchen, taking a pot and a bag with a small squishy ball of potatoes inside. He filled the pot with water and put it on a ring. Waiting for it to boil, he turned around to face P’Mala : “So, how are you feeling aboard the ship ? No problems so far ?

Lieutenant JG Aaron Williams - CSO

P’Mala took a bowl from its shelf and ladled a couple spoonfuls of the plomeek soup into it, used the back of the ladle to squash a garlic clove into the broth.

“To be honest, I am still getting used to the ship. I do feel positively, though.” She paused for a moment. “It is nice to officially meet you, by the way! I believe I remember reading one of your xenobiology reports at the Starfleet Medical Academy.”

Cadet P’Mala Dawes