Private Pormont Specialty Without the Specialties

[Cain Darlite]

While one may presume that an Applesun Village specialty would feature Applesun Apples and be made in Applesun Village, with neither the specific apple nor the specific village in question, one had to reconsider such plots. Apples sweeter than honey could perhaps be temporarily substituted by apples doused in sweetened honey, and a specific village could be substituted with any village, so long as the village had a kitchen.

So if any village would do, why wouldn’t Cain have paid for a carriage to visit the big boys alongside the girls?

Saine Fells in the spring was a beautiful thing, after all, especially when its towering windmills caused the petals of blossoming fruit trees to dance with them, currents guided by the complex interactions of terraced farmland and rolling hillsides. Up close, the boys were certainly a mighty look after all, but more importantly, the flour that they churned out with their equally mighty millstones was perhaps some of the finest that Pormont had to offer. In a world without modern technology, it was amazing to have nearly-modern-quality flour using medieval technology, and Cain was happy to lug up a couple bags of them to the small kitchen that the three Applesun Village Volunteers had appropriated from a farmer for a token fee. Apples, honey, milk, and eggs could all be obtained locally, while the Flagbearer’s own inventory was jammed with a whole bunch of more random affair, from the milt of Half-Dragon Carp to the livers of Crystallized Golems, perfect for adding that mysterious spice to one’s specialty!

“Well well,” he spoke, elegantly avoiding the dust from the ill-kept kitchen, “While it does appear this kitchen may require some work before we begin, I do believe that some discussion will be good too. We’re here, after all, to make a specialty product, one that would be difficult to replicate elsewhere. In such cases then, do either of you have any ideas on what that extra spot of visual spice could be?”

He had his own ideas, of course, but slapping tentacles into an apple pie might be a bit too avant-garde to begin with.

 

[Hanasakura Okami]

During the offline time, Okami had taken the time to think of some apple based recipes for the game. Many items were close to real life, so perhaps similar tasting or familiar items would perhaps end up tasting or even taste better than what she had originally experimented with. The top hat man was certainly enthusiastic about the whole thing.

Wherever they were, it was like a village right out of a fantasy anime, impressive from East to West and it filled the individual with incredible awe, though her poker face hide any sign of such an emotion swelling up inside her. As much as she wanted to explore, the objective remained the most important, and that was the kitchen. While the Applesun Village was still in repair, it meant they had to make do with a different place for now. A makeshift kitchen might not have the accomodation for some ingredients, especially things that spoil a little easier like fresh fruit.

Once their kitchen accomodation was made, all thanks to the charisma of their Applesun leader, Okami would be first to speak up.

"Well, first of all, we need a base, a recipe that can be produced by residents of Applesun Village," Okami points out. "Visual is important in its own way, but we first need to be able to constantly recreate this recipe with little to no disparity between the the products."

Okami would then think for a moment, before continuing.

"On the visual side of things, we can design the apples to look like animals," Okami takes one of the apples that they had procured on the way, and cuts it with a smooth slice. In her hand, a ring of apple slices shaped like rabbits. "It can be incredibly popular with people with a cutesy taste."

Okami would know, she's a big fan of cutesy. She only knows how to make them apple rabbits because she found the concept adorable.

 

[Sylpha Astarte]

If one were to ask Sylpha to come up with an apple recipe on the spot, she would hum and haw for hours on end. Even if you asked for one off the top of her head, she'd likely not give the same answer twice. The problem was that apples were just simply too versatile.

Coming up to Saine Fells, Sylpha simply played dumb with a blank expression despite knowing the place. She had purchased many bags of flour here before, but it's been four years since she last appeared here. Perhaps maybe someone might've remembered the appearance of the blue-haired elf, but if Cain was proactive in procuring the supplies, Sylpha was not going to refuse at all.

Coming to the run-down kitchen, Sylpha immediately turned to procure water in a bucket before getting to work cleaning down the whole place. She would speak as she worked.

"Okay, that answers about a third of the questions I had. The remaining ones left are: Do you intend to consider portability? Like, exporting things off to the next village over? Because if the answer is "no", a whole lot of options start opening up."

She looked up at Okami who produced a few rabbit-shaped apple slices. She knew instantly that they shared a home country, because that was the only place those were popular.

"Like those, for example. It's not impossible to send someone to cut slices like that in another village to sell our own apples, but you might want to think of going as far as brewing your own apple cider if you want something that could make it all the way to Stokbon. If you want something any housewife could do with some preparation, I can think up of a few. Just depends on how much effort you want to spend on building Applesun. Meaning: a communal refrigerator."

Sylpha needed to know very clearly what limits she had to work with.

 

[Cain Darlite]

Oh, apple rabbits! Just like those Chinese cartoons he’s watched as a kid!

While Okami hit him with a sudden sense of childhood nostalgia for that show about a policeman cat shooting the ear off a thief rat with a bullet that curved 180 degrees, Sylpha was the one over there asking the real questions. He set the flour off to one corner of the kitchen, before pulling out a rag and helping out with clearing up the kitchen’s woodfire stove, faint magical vibrations creating a small barrier between his suit and the soot that was wiped off.

“Portability, I do believe, should not be a consideration.” Indeed, while it was important to get something out there to spread the name of Applesun Village, that would do nothing to physically draw people into the village. “Insofar as I am concerned, it would be better if this were to be considered less as a replicable recipe and more as an attraction by itself. Like, what if we made...an impractically-towering apple mountain pie?” He pulled his head out of the oven, wondering for a moment if it might not be better off to just use the taboo power of darkness to clean up this place.

Eh, better not risk it.

“But hey, yeah, that's just my thoughts as someone who only buys cooked food in Terrasphere. Come up with a crazy fantasy recipe first, then with more-easily accessible replicants afterwards to serve as portable samples.” He scratched his chin, then nodded.

“If it’s any sort of particular construction you need though, Sylpha, you could contact the reconstruction team and request it. I’m sure we’ll need a communal storehouse regardless, so why not have it be a walk-in freezer too?”

 

[Hanasakura Okami]

Okami grabs a plate and dishes the apple rabbits. If any of the three were hungry, there would be something a bit cute to eat at least. While Sylpha handled the water and Cain the oven, she went to grab rags to serve as cleaning tools. Thankfully, it was as easy as it comes. With a bit of cleaning underway, Okami made sure to listen to the ideas of her peers. It was a group project, and that meant if worse comes to worse, she might have to carry the idea to fruition. Though, based on Sylpha's dialogue, the blue haired elf will definitely pull her weight.

As for the madman in charge of this project, the fact he just suggested something so outlandish is clearly the one who would only have a good idea 10 percent of the time. Regardless, the proper questions were asked and the gears in her head started to spin. Okami wiped the kitchen table for a while before something clicked for her. They certainly do want to balance uniqueness and feasibility. If the idea is too simple, it can be replicated elsewhere and the novelty of the product would lose touch with tourists. However if the idea is too infeasible, like a stupidly tall apple tie, then it would be hard to replicate it for the consistency a novelty product should have. The cafe she worked at had novelty items, but they were unique in the sense that no one in the prefecture had them or seen them locally.

"A crazy fantasy recipe is a crazy fantasy recipe for a reason, we need to innovate on something that people can make without sacrificing too much time creating it. A tower sized apple pie can be a festival item but the item has to keep people coming back," Okami may not show direct emotion, there was a hint of annoyance towards Cain's suggestion. Okami however realized she was almost going to attack him verbally and calms herself. Perhaps the notion of town restoration was a bit too personal.

"Huff, if we have to make a item unique to Applesun, we need something that makes people come to Applesun. An attraction will only last a few moments, good food lasts a lifetime. The idea will spread and mimics will appear, but people will come to know it as Applesun's invention and want to try the authentic version of the recipe," Okami takes an apple slice and bites down, giving herself a moment to breathe before continuing. "And good food will become the attraction, but it would not be a good idea if no one but us two can make it. Imagine the disappoint of tourists if they come to visit only to see that the thing they came for is unavailable and there's also a massive backlog of people wanting to eat it too."

Okami hope she made her point clear, she was not exactly going to repeat herself on this particular statement, as she bites into another apple slice. Sorry little apple rabbit.

 

[Sylpha Astarte]

As Sylpha cleaned and prepared the kitchen for use, the conversation continued. "Yeah, I am able to make a five-tier apple pie, but that's because making such things is literally my job. We should do something even a housewife can make with some preparation, and I have at least two recipes in mind."

With the workbench finally clean, the blue haired elf took out a bowl and placed it on the bench before heaving a bag of flour on. She poured a portion into the bowl with practiced movements and then retrieved a tightly tied cloth-wrapped package from her inventory. Unwrapping it, she immediately channelled magic for reasons made clear as soon as she undid the tie: water spilled out, then gathered and flowed in a stream from the bench into the sink, ignoring gravity thanks to the use of magic.

As the water receded, another tightly wrapped package was revealed. Undoing that with her hands, a large blob of yellow was revealed; butter, refridgerated in her inventory with the only makeshift method she could think of at the time. Lifting her right hand, she clenched it and soon, a glowing blue knife appeared in her grip. She quickly cut out several parts and placed it into the bowl with the flour.

Dispelling the knife, she wrapped the butter tightly, summoned water again and froze it around the butter. Then, she wrapped that in the larger cloth and shoved it back into her inventory.

All of the above processes took a while to describe, but only needed slightly over a minute, a testament to her familiarity with the process. Then, she dug her fingers into the flour and kneaded the butter into the dough.

"This is rough-puff pastry. Any housewife can make it as long as we got refrigeration. We don't have it here, but I can compensate with magic. With this, I can make a few things. I'll start with a simpler one: Tarte-fine-aux-pommes."

Sylpha spoke French because that's the only name for it she knew, but luckily anyone who heard it would have it translated into "thin apple tart". Much simpler to understand.

 

[Cain Darlite]

Japanese and French, hm?

Though Cain was somewhat disappointed that the absolutely glorious idea of having an impractical fantasy recipe be made in an impractical fantasy world was summarily rejected, perhaps that was just owing to the nature of having two individuals with real-life cooking experience here. Something about the pride of being able to showcase skills honed over years, rather than just waving your hands about and summoning impossible pies? It would be interesting then, in the sort of way that watching cooks on Youtube would be.

“Loud and clear, Okami,” he chimed. His brain fired at doubletime, balancing the pros and cons of making this a discussion rather than a one-and-done exchange. “Though your statements don’t disallow fantastical creations, no? So long as there is a replicable variant more easily made by commonfolk.” So a seven-tier apple pie that rotated in the air through the application of anti-gravity magic and was dusted with unicorn horn shavings to improve one’s skin was still on the table! But while Okami laid out the rules, Sylpha was laying out the dough, already eager to get to work.

“Ah, yes, tarte-fine-aux-pommes. Considering the form that such delicacies take, it does have quite a sun-like form, no?” But did it need to be so two-dimensional? “Go ahead, Sylpha, and let’s see how your baking skills are! After that, considering your skill with knifework, Okami, do you imagine that such thin slices could be placed on a spherical object instead? To really put the apple in the sun?”

Hm. That phrase didn’t work out nearly that well. But surely the thought would get across?

 

[Hanasakura Okami]

Okami watched Sylpha worked. It wasn't often she met someone with great culinary skill and Sylpha is proving an equal with how she worked the ingredients into a dough. Her purple eyes made sure to register everything her blue haired companion did. After all, if they were on the same page, it meant Okami could help deliver the right answers and questions to push the idea into somewhere possible.

Okami then made sure to write down what she saw. A log would help their ideas be catalogued and branch out. She reluctantly included Cain's weird obssession with fantasy food, cause there's always the possibility of something coming out of that odd dump. At least her point got through to the man in the top hat. Now was the actual recipe.

"A fine choice actually... It takes considerable skill with the knife... But otherwise, a feasible task," Okami nods in approval, but more in line with Sylpha's suggestion and not Cain. Really, a sphere?

Grabbing a cutting board, she grabbed an apple and gracefully slices the apples into the slices they need to cover the dough. As she cuts, an idea hits her as she looked at the apple slices still sitting on the plate.

"Perhaps we can add the apple in the sun, or rather the other way around," Okami ponders how to demonstrate, before giving up and using her knife to cut a few sections of the apple in her hand. Small incisions that exposed the rich yellow under the bright red to help create a logo of a sun. Well, it was a pop culture reference to Japan's Sun but the idea can at least be conveyed now.

"We could always imprint the sigil of Applesun onto the... Tarte," Okami never claimed she could pronounce French to begin with. "It can work as a brand logo to help people recognize that this came from Applesun." With explanation done, she bites into the apple. Can't waste any food.

 

[Sylpha Astarte]

Once Sylpha was done mixing the butter into the flour, the next step was to add cold water. That was taken care of with magic, before washing the flour off her hands and wrapping the bowl up. She wanted to stick it into a refridgerator, but there was no refrigeration. Ice bath in an empty cabinet was the next best thing she could come up with.

After that, she got to work preparing the stove as well as placing a saucepan on it. That's when she heard about the idea of placing an Applesun logo onto the tart. She turned to glance at Okami's logo before returning to her task. "That's a great idea." They even had the flagbearer with them, who should know best what to do with those sort of things. "Cain, design a logo for Applesun we can use from now on if it doesn't already exist. Then we can place it on everything."

Once the stove was ready, she got to chopping up apples and requested for some honey to use. "Usually, this recipe calls for brushing butter over the apples to color them, but since we intend to make Applesun products... about the apples, I intend to just make an apple jam with the real thing to form an extra layer of apple, so I'll do it with this sample."

Then, she put them together in the saucepan and took out a wooden spatula to cook them with.

 

[Cain Darlite]

“Applesun, tragically, was a village.”

He would know. You didn’t have that sort of atmosphere from a township or a city, places that would actually have a need for a flag or a crest to connect a disparate community. It had been a cozy place, a place whose name had meaning enough in it, and while Cain was willing to build, was willing to produce and to promote, there was something heavy about designing a logo that would become the ‘face’ of Applesun…without the input of any of the former residents. He had his principles, after all, and he wasn’t going to be living in this village either.

“And,” Cain laughed, “Talented as I am, the art of inscribing imagery onto parchment and pastry is unfortunately a skill that I am less experienced in. It would be difficult too, I’d imagine, to really get people interested in the logo of a delicious dessert, no? Without photography, branding one’s creations seems a tad bit narcissistic. Rather, allow me to come up with a catchy little jingle instead, one that would spread the name of this creation across the four corners of the map!”

But the idea of carving images into apple slices remained interesting, and so…

“Rather than apple jam, Sylpha,” he said, “What are your thoughts on using an apple syrup instead? Of course, I’m uncertain as to whether or not that would manifest as a proper tarte in such case, but if we were to present the image of a sun onto the tart through the alternation of flesh and skin, would it not be better to have a more transparent substance to coat the surface?”

 

[Hanasakura Okami]

Okami pondered to herself quietly, she dealt with the apples skillfully as she did her craft. Perhaps it was the game, but she felt she could not do some of these quick and skillful cuts like she would in real life. They felt better, almost automatic. Regardless, she prepared the apples based on what what suggested.

Firstly, thin slices of paper to layer the dish with. Laid out in neat rows across a tray, it should be easy for Sylpha to pick them and apply them as needed.

Then thicker apple slices, to turn into jam. With the seeds and skin removed, it'll allow the jamming process to happen a little easier, at least in a kitchen setting such as this.

Finally, some cored apples, no slices made but the core removed for safety sake. She made sure to only use as much as they needed.

Regardless, she remained awfully quiet. Deep concentration on her face. What else could they do, she thought to herself as she cleans her work area of fruit skins and juice.

 

[Sylpha Astarte]

Okay, so the logo idea went out the window. Not much of a problem at the current stage, since the pastry was still chilling and all.

The suggestion to turn the jam into a syrup made Sylpha reply quickly: "It wouldn't make much of a difference. What I need is a layer of apple in a thick liquid form to get a sticky layer over the tarte. That's how far I'm going to cook it, so by then" The chef's wooden spatula made dull noises as it collided with the sides of the saucepan. "It would probably look really similar, if a little thicker than a normal syrup."

She thought out loud while the mixture was cooking down. "I could apply the jam unevenly over the apples to draw the rays of the sun and leaving out the apples in the middle. It won't affect the tarte that much as long as I get it over the exposed pastry. And when we get real Applesun stuff, it'll let the apple slices shine by themselves. That way we can make an Applesun without a logo."

"Thoughts?" The blue haired elf glanced over at the two, prompting them for their thoughts before adding more water and honey into the saucepan.