Posted by Fleet Captain Ghubari Koraia (Captain) in Holosuite Two- A Dinner

Posted by Commander Luka (Executive Officer) in Holosuite Two- A Dinner

Posted by Fleet Captain Ghubari Koraia (Captain) in Holosuite Two- A Dinner

(snip)

Ghubari chuckled. “I’ll live, I’m sure. But it’s up to you. I’m happy cooking, either way, and there are still things you can do to help. But we’re also here to get to know each other, so feel free to drag out all those building questions I’m sure you’ve been gathering throughout the day.” She went back to chopping the last of the very pungent onion. Tossing the onion along with some other aromatics into a deep skillet, it immediately began to sizzle in the hot oil. “Why don’t you see if you can find a beverage you would like. It’s the holodeck, so you can have it replicate whatever you like. For me, I wouldn’t mind a glass of red wine while I cook,” she said. She was relaxed enough to almost wink, but Koraia was focused on her cooking and making sure the items in the pan didn’t stick.

Fl. Captain Koraia, CO

Luka nodded. “I’ll stay back this time. Maybe sometime I can host a meal and make you some food from my world - hair included,” she chuckled lightly. She glanced around, spotted a chair, grabbed the chair, and dragged it over to the nearest spot to the kitchen without actually entering the kitchen. She sat down on the chair and crossed her ankles, then closed her eyes and inhaled the scents of the cooking meal. “Ooh, you sure know how to make a smelly meal,” she commented, then her eyes shot open. “I mean that in a good way!”

The captain chuckled. “I’m glad. It’s going to get better, trust me. This is the quicker version, but I figured three hours to wait for dinner might be pushing it.”

Luka inhaled the scent of the room again. “I’ve got a bigger nose than your kind of people,” she gestured slightly towards Ghubari. “Humanoids. My race have a deeper emphasis on scent than most. In all honesty, our vision is less than perfect. But enough about me,” she grinned. “You gave me permission to ask about you. To start off, I suppose the most obvious question is what are you cooking? After that, what’s this simulation, the setting? I’m assuming that it’s not just a randomly chosen venue.”

Luka, XO

“Indeed,” Ghubari replied with a smile. “I’m making you my one truly infallible recipe- banana beef curry, a staple in my mother’s house growing up. You’ll have to warn me pretty soon if you can’t handle too much heat or else I’m afraid it’ll all be for me.” After she temporarily scraped the aromatics into a bowl, she moved about the kitchen and grabbed a plate of cubed beef, dumping it into the hot pan to brown.

“I can handle spice,” Luka said with a small chuckle. “My Ne’ta’le,” she paused, realizing that Ghubari wouldn’t understand the grammar or language of her last word, then began again with the English word, “My mother’s spicy U’mak meat stew was to die for… I remember coming home from class to the smell of meat and beans cooking in that big pot of hers… and arguing with my older siblings as to who got the last pieces…”

As the beef cooked, she began gathering and measuring spices loosely into a small clear bowl. Red, a muddy yellow, brown, black, the white of salt. A bright mix that would inform the deep flavour of the dish soon enough. “So.. here, well, this house doesn’t actually exist, but the place I put it does. It is the kind of place I’d have if I ever wanted to live back home, which I can’t imagine I ever will.” Ghubari was easily able to talk and work and it wasn’t hard to imagine this scene on a larger scale in her home village. “This program is my Tanzania program. It’s a recreation of the small village high up on the Makonde Plateau in Western Tanzania, which is a region in East Africa on Earth. I won’t assume you memorized the geography, but that’s enough for you to be able to find it should you look it up. This village is where I grew up. It’s called Kitangari. Middle of nowhere, isolated from technology and most everything a modern life affords you. But my mother’s tribe believes that to be a feature,” she said with a slight grin.

Fl. Captain Koraia, CO

She quietly watched the cooking process and listened to Ghubari’s words. “Growing up separated from technology… How old were you when you first encountered the world outside of that village? Was it jarring? Or did you always know that there was more, because of your mixed heritage?” she stopped slightly, then added. “Even spices can’t hide the smell of non-human on you. Sorry if it’s intruding, I can’t help my sense of smell,” she grinned sheepishly.

Luka, XO