Morcster Chef B3 - Chapter 15 (Patreon)

Malissa nodded, staring up into the darkening sky. “I think I could see myself doing this full time. I wonder what it would be like to work in a full restaurant rather than a cart. One with a bunch of fancy recipes rather than just a single simple one.”

“Maybe we’ll have a chance to find out some day,” Arek said.

Belmont and Ming wandered over, flopping down beside them. The two both looked exhausted.

“How’d you like that?” Ming asked with a smug grin. “I did my job, right?”

“That’s one way to put it,” Arek said with a wry grin.

“You can’t expect them to know without saying more, Ming,” Belmont said, shaking his head. “You just acted normal. Nobody that knows you at all would suspect anything.”

Ming harrumphed and crossed her arms.

“Suspect what?” Malissa asked.

“When I went to find Ming, she was trying to convince people to eat food at our cart,” Belmont said. “Nobody was really listening. They were all busy or already standing in a different line. So she had the idea to cause a giant scene and run over here to drag people’s attention over.”

Arek’s eyebrows rose. “That’s… devious.”

“I am very smart. Tell me I’m smart.”

“What are you, five?” Belmont asked, flicking her in the shoulder. “But it was a clever plan. Well done.”

Ming beamed at them. “And it worked!”

“That it did,” Arek said, shaking his head in awe. “Well done, Ming. It certainly worked very well. I was worried about getting enough customers to sell what we’d bought, and now we need to make sure we don’t accidentally get too popular and run of out food.”

“What are you going to make tomorrow?” Ming asked eagerly. “More shrimp?”

“I think it might be fun to swing by the market and see what they have,” Arek said, rubbing his chin. “Maybe something will inspire me and Malissa.”

“Sure. What’s for dinner, then?”

“We ate less than an hour ago,” Malissa said.

“And?”

“Nobody else can eat as much as you,” Belmont grumbled. “Buy something at the tavern if you really want to. I don’t think Arek and Malissa are going to be making anything else today.”

“Damn right,” Malissa said, hiding a yawn. “I need to sleep before I collapse. That was exhausting.”

The Happy Sunflowers slowly all rose to their feet and, with a final check over their cart to make sure everything was put away, headed over to a nearby tavern to stay the night.

Arek awoke early the next morning, refreshed and excited. He slipped out of the bed – which was a fair bit too small for him – and headed into the hall, where all of the others were already waiting for him.

“Seriously?” Arek said, shaking his head with a grin. “You beat me to getting up again? Did you even sleep?”

“Ming woke us up,” Malissa said, glaring at the mage. “She was too excited for breakfast.”

“It’s basically still dinner at this point,” Belmont said, yawning. “Whatever. We’re going to the market, right?”

“Yeah,” Arek said. “Ming, you want to lead us? I’d love to see what other kind of fresh meat they’ve got.”

Ming gave him a thumbs up and skipped down the stairs. The rest of the Happy Sunflowers followed after her with considerably less energy. There was a difference between being awake and being Ming awake, after all.

The sun had still yet to rise in the sky when they got out of the tavern, and the city was still cloaked in shadows. Faint traces of the blue early morning light were starting to peek out over the buildings, but it was still hours from sunrise.

Ming led the group through the city and toward the docks. Most of the city was still asleep, and almost nobody else was on the roads with them. As they grew closer to the ocean, the temperature dropped slightly.

Unlike the rest of the city, the docks were in full motion. Sailors stood on ship decks, shouting out to each other and carrying crates down. Several large tents had been raised at the far end, and dozens of people milled about under them, selling and buying wares.

“That’s where I got the shrimp,” Ming said, pointing at the tents.

“Fantastic,” Arek said, setting off toward them. He got no shortage of suspicious glances from the vendors as he approached, and a few people pulled their wares closer to themselves.

Arek ignored them and approached a large vendor that had a huge bed of ice on his table. The ice was covered with all sorts of fish varieties.

“No eating,” the vendor said, talking slowly and studying Arek warily.

“What else are fish good for?” Arek asked with an amused grin.

The vendor’s eyes widened. “My apologies. I didn’t expect an orc to speak common.”

“Most don’t, but I haven’t been getting that reaction as much as I used to,” Arek replied. “I suppose I got used to people ignoring it.”

The vendor pursed his lips. “We’re at sea most of the time, so we don’t get as used to the folk that wander through towns as adventurers or the people that stay here full time. If you come around enough times, I’m sure you’ll be fine. What can I help you with?”

“I’m looking for some fish,” Arek replied. “Surprise.”

“I might have gathered,” the merchant said, his lips twitching in a grin. “What kind of fish?”

“I’ll admit that I really don’t know a lot about fish,” Arek said. “We’ve started up a small food wagon in the center square, and we want some ingredients to keep our offerings fresh every day. I know the basics of working with fish, but I wouldn’t know which one would be best.”

“That obviously depends on what you’re using them for,” the vendor replied. “What dish are you thinking to make?”

“Hmm. Malissa, do we have anything left from our ingredients? If we’ve got something left over that’s still workable, we should try to use it.”

“Butter and lemons,” Malissa replied. “We got a lot of those. A fair amount of spices and the like as well, but we probably aren’t going to finish any of that up too soon.”

Arek nodded thoughtfully. “Then, perhaps something pretty simple for the fish? I’d like to pan fry it with a lemon butter sauce. It wouldn’t be all that different in preparation from the shrimp yesterday, but at least we’ll have a theme.”

“Then you’ll probably be wanting a white fish,” the merchant said, indicating several large specimens on the side of his ice bed. “They’re the best for pan frying, in my opinion. Nice and flaky, so they come apart as soon as you touch them with a fork. They also have a mild flavor themselves, so they take in the essence of whatever you cook them in and just really magnify it.”

Arek’s eyebrows rose. “You really like white fish. Are you also a chef?”

“I dabble, I suppose. I love fish. It’s why I’m a fisherman. But I’m nothing compared to a lot of the chefs hanging around in the city. Some of them are really just on another level.”

“Well, we’ll do our best to do your fish proud,” Arek said with a chuckle. “Let’s get some of the white fish. Is there a particular one you recommend?”

“Can’t go wrong with a good halibut,” the man replied. “If you’re taking my recommendation, that’s what I’d suggest. Do you know how to prepare the fish so it can be cooked?”

“You mean seasoning?” Arek asked.

“No. Descaling and removing the bones.”

Arek blinked. He looked down at the fish again, registering for the first time that they weren’t just slabs of meat to begin working with. “Ah, no. I’ve only ever worked with pre-prepared fish, now that I think about it. I was just going to pull the scales off.”