Ash carefully tended to the hearth as he waited for the various foods he was in charge of to cook. This week, he was part of the kitchen staff. Fern had the job of taking orders and delivering food. From what he could tell, though, he seemed to be struggling with the job quite a bit. However, he had already gotten to cook in the kitchen the last four weeks in a row. It was more than overdue for him to take his turn.
For the most part, Ash couldn't complain about Fern spending more time in the kitchen, perfecting his skills, than he could. Even Birk, who was in charge of watching the cubs, didn't complain about the way their responsibilities were divided. After all, most of the time, Fern was the one who did the cooking in their household. If they wanted their mate, the young cubs, and themselves to enjoy good food, Fern needed to have the necessary time to learn new dishes.
Still, Ash couldn't deny that he was thoroughly enjoying himself the last few months. It was almost a shame that the rainy season was about to draw to a close in just a few short weeks. He almost wished that he could continue to learn more dishes. It wasn't necessarily that he cared about cooking specifically, but it was something new that he normally didn't get the chance to learn much about. Yet, in the last two months, he had learned how to cook so many new dishes as well as heard so much about Iris's previous world that he couldn't help but be interested.
Perhaps it was the fact that he had grown up with the privilege of learning far more than his peers. Any knowledge that he had wanted had been taught to him by his tutor. Of course, he had to earn that privilege by continuing to grow stronger and surviving day after day as his brothers slowly died off one by one. Still, this had turned him into the person he was today.
He found that Basil was very similar in his enthusiasm for learning new things while Ember was like an unpleasant mirror being held up due to his bad attitude and desire to forever grow stronger. Now that he was mated to Iris, he could enjoy both aspects of life. Thanks to his mate's power, several of them had gained levels in the past year. Only Fern and Basil, the youngest of their group, had refrained from training, ensuring they wouldn't grow too strong too quickly. That was something that Ash could only feel bittersweet about. He was glad their mate wouldn't be saddened by their deaths, but their family needed the strength.
Sighing, Ash grabbed an animal fur and pulled several dishes out of the hearth, setting them on a nearby counter, before putting several new dishes in. This week's theme was Scottish food. Apparently, the country was a neighboring one to the one the Irish food had come from. Yet, the traditional food items they had been taught were very distinctly different from one another, only occasionally overlapping.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
They had scotch pies made with ground lamb meat and looked quite similar to pot pies. Basil was in charge of helping Iris prepare most of the dishes during the restaurant's open hours. However, he had helped to prepare several of them ahead of time. It had been quite interesting to learn that Irish and Scottish cuisines were some of the few ones that traditionally used things like lamb instead of something called beef, which was supposed to be related to auroch meat.
They then had a side dish called neeps and tatties, which were essentially just root vegetables like potatoes or something called "turnips" turned into mashed side dishes. They didn't have "turnips", but Iris had described it as a round red and white vegetable that could easily fill her entire hand.
Of course, she had also mentioned that the dish was traditionally served with something called "haggis", but she had chosen not to teach them that dish. Apparently, it involved the innards of a sheep mixed with onions, stock, herbs, and cereals. In particular, it required oats, which they had recently gained access to, but that didn't change anything. His mate was not a fan of the smell of haggis, apparently, nor was she willing to serve a dish she wouldn't personally eat. Fern had explained that a similar case had happened when they first moved to this land. At that time, they had given the innards of any beasts to anyone who wanted them for free just to be rid of them.
For an appetizer, they had gone with a soup called "cock-a-leekie". That was taking up an entire hearth by itself and was currently bubbling away. Ash had to regularly stir it to ensure it wouldn't burn, but it was otherwise just a matter of ensuring the fire burned steadily, not letting it go out nor burn too hot.
The soup was made with jungle fowl, stock, carrots, celery, wild onion grass, garlic, rice, and raisins. Apparently, the rice would usually be a different kind of cereal called "pearled barley" while the raisins would usually be "prunes". However, much like the wild onion grass was replacing something called "leeks", they had to make substitutions for the closest alternative they had available.
Ash wasn't sure what to think about the addition of dried fruit to a soup that was rather close to being chicken noodle soup. He had tried quite a few different foods that Iris had introduced to this world now, so he had a lot of experience to compare new dishes to. It was certainly interesting to have so much of a shift in mindset from thinking that even the idea of cooked food was unusual to being able to tell the difference between different cooking techniques and cuisines.
Still, Ash couldn't help but feel excited to spend the rest of his life with Iris. The fact that she had so much knowledge to share, both in regards to cooking and otherwise, was incredible. It made every day feel like an exciting new opportunity as his worldview continued to expand.