LtJG Gila Sadar - Can Cooking be Performative? Ask the Swedes.
Gila Sadar
((Holodeck 2 - Deck 2, USS Artemis-A))
Sadar: Well then, in the interest of making a three-course meal, I could make a desert?
Silveira: I was thinking we worked on different dishes, but why not? That way we certainly have an original meal. What do you think, Nan?
Jovenan: So that we each make a part of the meal and eat them together? Sounds perfect to me!
Was the suggestion purely based on the fact that the only dishes that Gila had found passable, when crafted by herself, were desserts? Absolutely. She was able to make the simplest of meals from her homeworld - and some choice ones that she’d been taught at the Academy by dormmates - but not in any way that she thought did them justice. And definitely not in any way that she thought would satisfy the foreign palates of the two Lieutenants.
It hadn’t taken her long since leaving Mizabet to realize that aliens’ culinary competence went far beyond what she knew of her own homeworld’s variance in flavor profiles. Where Mizarian foods usually belonged to one of two categories - melhan (a flavor profile best described as salty or bitter) and sakharn (sweet, sometimes to an excessive extent) - alien flavor profiles were so extremely varied. While it had initially been a daunting experience to decide what to eat - how could she know for sure whether she’d even be able to digest these peculiar ingredients!? - now, she’d gained an appreciation for the awesome scope of foods that her life among the stars permitted her.
So subjecting the two Lieutenants to the comparatively bland food of her home? Safe to say, she wasn’t looking forward to the scalding critique that would no doubt be going through their minds, though they were far too polite to ever word them in her presence.
Silveira: That’s the replicator we can use to get the ingredients. ::He smiled and winked at them.:: And so we won’t cheat, it isn't programmed to give us anything cooked. I searched the ship’s computer for Edo and Mizarian food. I hope I haven’t missed anything.
Jovenan: You don’t trust us not to cheat? ::mischievous smile:: Only the fresh and unprocessed ingredients, got it!
Sadar: U-Understood, Sir.
Lieutenant Jovenan moved to the replicator to peruse the variety of ingredients that Lieutenant Silveira had managed to program into the holographic machine, while Gila located a ‘cooking station’ - a section of the kitchen clearly designed to provide any cooking instrument and utensil conceivable to its user - and put down her PADD. She began looking through Eyla’s recipe list, searching for the recipe for athae ykatīr - a clear pudding made from an underwater plant, glazed with an infusion made from the batrey of the Velarian susoon and honey - as she heard the two Lieutenants discuss their considerations.
Silveira: OK, so Sada is in charge of dessert, then what are we having before that. Two course meals of fish and meat for example? Maybe a salad and then either one of them? Tell me my Buddy Chefs?
Jovenan: Hmm… Well, um, I don’t have any meat or fish recipes, those aren’t a thing in my region. I could make something from vegetarian, either something lighter or more filling, depending on what you’d like.
Sadar: ::considers:: W-Well, so long as there’s no fruits in the dishes, I don’t have any other concerns. I consider myself an, uhm… Well, not picky, at least. Though, if you want fish, Lieut- uhh, Sil-net, I can do that instead of a dessert?
Silveira: Don’t worry about me, I can … ::Suddenly he got an inspiration. Considering their location and Zie’s favorite dish he smiled, snapped his fingers and opened his arms in triumph:: I know what I am cooking. It’s been a while but I made this Hasperat that even the Captain approved.
Hasperat. Spicy.
Not her favorite of the exotic flavor profiles, but Gila had ways to work around it, and while she’d attempted a few spicy dishes in the past - largely because of dares from Madi-net (apparently Gila’s face when tasting spicy food was hilarious) - she’d never tried Hasperat before.
It did not surprise her in the slightest to hear that the Captain favored it though.
Jovenan: Sounds amazing, I’ve actually never had hasperat before! They’re pretty spicy, aren’t they, so maybe I’ll make something lighter and cool.
Sadar: Th-That sounds reasonable...
Approaching the replicator, Gila perused the Mizabetan ingredients list, and she was frankly shocked by the amount of ingredients Lieutenant Silveira had managed to program into it. The Lieutenant had seemed like he barely knew anything about her culture when they talked, and yet, he clearly had done a great deal of research to make these ingredients available. There were, of course, holes - that was inevitable - but a better cook than she would likely have been able to make a 5-course dinner from the ingredients contained in the replicator.
Maybe in a thousand years. For now, she’d try and not mess up a simple dessert - and her anti-spice condiment.
First she replicated the plant base for the pudding. The long muted orange tendrils appeared in the replicator - to Lieutenant Silveira they probably most resembled dyed seaweed - before being joined by the remaining pre-existing recipes. In Gila’s experience, the infusion actually benefited a lot from using Earthen honey, but in the interest of doing a ‘traditional’ Mizabetan desert, she chose to go with honey from her homeworld instead. As much as possible, she might as well use ingredients available on her homeworld, but there was one thing she wasn't able to get around.
The susoon ybatrey. It wasn’t available in the ingredients list…
Gila luckily knew of a viable stand-in from Earth already, so that was easily procured. It did mean an extra step to her preparations though, as the roe from Earthen seahorses wasn’t as inherently sweet as the liquid batrey from their similar, if far more majestic cousins on her homeworld.
Jovenan: ::to Sadar:: Have you relocated to new quarters yet? How’ve you liked it?
Sadar: ::looking up:: Oh, uhh… Y-Yes, I did. Though I, uhh, haven’t exactly ‘unpacked’ yet?
Silveira: I admit I prefer bigger quarters. I miss the Excalibur dearly, but I have a good amount of History with it. Compared to what I had before, mine are very Spartan now.
Jovenan: I’m still in the process of furnishing my quarters, so don’t be too stressed about it. ::pause:: Hmm, I should probably have started with the dressing. Since it needs to be cooled down.
Silveira: There’s a fridge there, it depends on how cool it needs to be.
Gila couldn’t quite bring herself to mention that the reason she hadn’t finished unpacking was because, until quite recently, she’d still been doubting whether to stay on the Artemis after this shore leave, so instead, she sought for a way to change the topic.
Sadar: I think I’m still getting accustomed to the idea of having my own quarters after nine years. The trip to Earth meant that I had to discard basically all furniture that wasn’t considered ‘hands-on luggage’.
Jovenan: Vitor, could you give some advice. I’d need to get this vegetable into a paste. ::looks around, then to Silveira:: Which appliance should I use?
Silveira: There’s a small blender there to your right.
The human Lieutenant indicated the appliance he meant, while Gila moved on to the actual pudding. The roe & honey infusion was coming along nicely, though the color was slightly off due to the ingredient alteration, but it would service, so it was time for her to cut, boil and strain the plant itself, so it could gelatinize in time.
Silveira: That white thing, turn the top to the left and it opens up. ::He turned to Sada, raising his eyebrow inquisitively:: What are you doing?
Looking up from the plant, just as she started hearing loud POP! POP! sounds from the infusion, Gila realized that her entire workstation was filling up with the pungent smell of the infusion - a mixture of salt and sweet that was so intense you could almost taste it just from the aroma - and she felt slightly guilty for not having warned her two co-cooks ahead of time.
Sadar: I-It’s, uhh, it’s an infusion of sugared roe and honey.
Silveira: I have to say it doesn’t look too pretty, but it's smelling nicely.
Jovenan: Response?
Gila breathed out in relief for not being told off about how her meal was single-handedly drowning the entirety of the kitchen - or so it felt from her vantage point - and instead added the finely cut strips of plant matter to a rapidly boiling water bath.
Sadar: I-I’m relieved to hear that. Th-The smell is pretty intense right now, but the taste isn’t as overpowering.
The three of them worked for a few moments more, in companionable silence (probably caused by the fact that two of them were very much amateur cooks doing their hardest to not cause any food poisoning today), until Lieutenant Silveira broke the silence once more.
Silveira: See why I like a big kitchen. This way the three of us can work and not be on the other's way.
Jovenan: Response
Sadar: I-I agree… It’s certainly, uhh, less stressful than I’d figured it would be.
The pan Lieutenant Silveira wielded started sizzling, joining the culinary symphony of sounds reverberating through the holodeck. Oddly enough, it was a rather comforting backdrop to a conversation that - thus far - was far more relaxing than any conversation she otherwise recalled having with Lieutenant Silveira.
Lieutenant Jovenan’s positive influence, no doubt.
Silveira: Have any of you visited Bajor?
Jovenan: Response
Sadar: N-No, I haven’t. I passed through DS9 on my way from my home system, but I wasn’t here long enough to go planetside.
Silveira: Last time I was here… Damn… It was almost three years ago… Time flies…
Jovenan: Response
Gila saw an unexpected moment of quiet in the exuberant Human Lieutenant, as he seemed to enter into a mental soliloquy, quite unlike anything she’d seen from him before. There was nothing more unnerving than a usually outgoing person suddenly growing silent, so in an attempt to distract her from the strange mood the Lieutenant had been trapped in, she took extra care while kneading the steamed plant matter, working out any distinguishable separations between strands.
Silveira: You know, next time we have to see this Chef from Earth that I know. I have a feeling you are both going to like him. He’s Swedish.
Sadar: ‘See’? ::confused expression:: Wh-Why would you ‘see’ a chef? For tutoring?
Jovenan/Silveira: Response
Sadar: ::surprised expression:: Huh… I never considered that. I-In that case, I’d be interested to see it as well.
Jovenan/Silveira: Response
TAGS/TBC
LtJG Gila Sadar
Medical Officer
USS Artemis-A
A240006GS1