Posted by Civilian Cort Belanger (Executive Assistant to Lt. Gov.) in You Won, But Did You Really?

Posted by Civilian Dorma Fen (Governor’s Assistant) in You Won, But Did You Really?

Posted by Civilian Cort Belanger (Executive Assistant to Lt. Gov.) in You Won, But Did You Really?
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

“Six. Four brothers, two sisters. And three cousins live with my parents.” she said as they entered the kitchen.

“Wow, busy!” Cort remarked, taking in the scene as he followed her in.

The kitchen was eerily quiet compared to the bustle if activity it had been. It was still bright, but now metal shone under the bright lights. On the center table was laid out vegetables, rice, spices, and some of the most beautiful prawns available on Oed. Dorma took a chef’s coat off a hook and looked at Cort. “So I am cooking for you tonight. But I will let you choose… watch me or help me?” she asked with a wicked smile.

Dorma Fen

He chuckled. “This feels like a dangerous question, but I’m not usually one to sit back while others are doing the work. If I can help, I’m happy to,” Cort said as he undid the button on tuxedo jacket he had just done up again after getting up from the table and slipped off the jacket. He hung it gently on the hook Dorma took her coat from. “I’ll take an apron too, if there’s one about. Not used to cooking in formal wear,” he added with a another laugh.

~Cort Belanger

“Cabinet to your left are smocks.” she said and went and retrieved two cutting boards and one knife and one chef’s cleaver. She set knife and board across from her and pushed the vegetables- consisting of peppers, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, bok choy, Japanese eggplant- in front of him. “Start chopping if yiu would. Deseed the bell peppers, first though.” With the cleaver she began to quickly and deftly shell, split, clean, and rinse the prawns; moving with a practice of ease and grave that made the cleaver seem like an extension of her hand. “The cleaver is a Chinese instrument, but my family has always used it. Far, far back in our history someone married a Chinese person. It is unclear who or when, but their influence was felt in the restaurant and found its way I to our food. That influence is very slight now, but it is there. It also sets my family’s recipes apart from the other old restaurants in Japan.”

Dorma Fen

Smock on, Cort began dealing with the vegetables, lifting his eyes to watch her work occasionally, but only for a moment while pausing his own work. It wouldn’t do to cut himself because he wasn’t paying attention. “It’s interesting the bits and pieces that that carry along in a family. Both my parent’s families originated in France and we still have family there, so language is one of those things that we’ve maintained, even though there was never anyone else around growing up on Vega who spoke it.” As he worked it was clear that Cort knew how to handle the knife, though he was obviously slower and more cautious.

~Cort Belanger

Dorma nodded. “My family is the same in a way. Language has always been their first line of tradition. There is no Universal Translator in the restaurant, and my mother and cousins only speak Japanese, not Federation Srandard. Well, they know it… they just refuse. Japanese only. They take pride in their refusal, and I must say the looks on tourist’s faces when they realize they can’t understand what is being said is kind of humorous.” and she chuckled.

“I can imagine their confusion,” Cort said with a grin as he continued to chop, keeping each vegetable separate. He was making decent progress, picking up speed a bit as he went along.

Finished with the prawns, she went to a chiller and took out a large block of tofu. Again using the cleaver, she spuns and sliced and flicked bits of the tofu away until she had sculpted six small lotus blossoms out of the dense curd. She placed them on a tray and walked to a oil fryer and slid them in. She then lifted a large wok off of the rack above the stove and set it down and turned on the fire below it. Sge drizzled an oil around the edge and it ran down the sides and began to heat up.

Dorma Fen

“I wish I was better at languages. I’m fine with the two I grew up with but I only know pieces of others. Not enough to have a conversation though.” Cort shook his head ruefully. “I’m picking up a bit of Haliian from Dasca, but I’m rather envious of the long list of languages a bunch of people around us can speak. It’s a pretty great skill to have, all told.”

~Cort Belanger

Dorma came back and started gathering all the ingredients up. “I look at language as cooking. You get the right ingredients, vocabulary and grammar, and you can create a great dish. It may not be the same as someone else’s, but it will taste similar.” She dropped the prawns in and they started to sizzle and pop, and she expertly tossed the wok and flipped the prawns in the oil for a brief moment before adding the rest of the ingredients.

Dorma Fen