NOVEL FROG Chapter 718 – Welcoming a Living Legend
“Contrary to popular belief, preparations for larger orcish feasts done for large festivals and the like were not something that could be done within the same day. In fact, the preparation for a feast done to celebrate their traditional gathering every decade took at least a full week of preparation in order to have everything done as planned.
People often saw the simple manner in which traditional orcish cuisine was prepared and came to the wrong conclusion that it meant the food that resulted would be simple as well. They could not be more wrong, as the orcs of the northern plains are masters in the arts of marination and slow cooking, where food is prepared through long periods of time for truly decadent results.” - Eàgun Godfridsdotter, (self-proclaimed) world-famous Half-Orc bard and lover of fine foods, circa 593 FP.
Aideen naturally welcomed the proffered dish, and scooped up some of the thickened, clotted cream with a shard of the crisped flatbread as she saw some of the others did. The cream was rich and sweet, perhaps even a bit on the heavy side, not the sort of thing to eat too much of, while the smoky flatbread simply shattered under her bite and added a tinge of savoriness and bitterness to cut through the richness.
“Pretty good, isn’t it?” asked Miro while munching on the same. “One of the adoptees from the… I believe it was the third conflict was the one that introduced the dish to the clans after he was adopted into clan Grimclaw, and from there it just spread out all over,” he explained. “It’s a bit of a luxury since it takes quite a bit of milk to get this plate’s worth here, but definitely worth it for celebrations.”
“Yeah, we have a similar dish in the southern continent. They only make it for celebrations due to the same reasons,” noted Aideen. “I think it takes them around a bucket full of milk to get around as much cream as what you have on that plate. Theirs is even thicker and sweeter, so I’m guessing they use up a little more milk than you do, but probably not that far off.”
“About right. Not exactly something we can afford on a daily basis, but perfect for celebrations like these!” replied Miro with a wide grin on his face. Miro’s mixed-blood heritage – his lineage was roughly half orcish, a quarter human, and a quarter elven – gave him a sort of brutish handsomeness, one that his tusks and age marks further accentuated. “Please tell me you would be staying until at least the end of the year? I wouldn’t be able to face the ancestors if I didn’t hold at least one proper feast while you are around!”
“We do have time and plan to stick around a bit, yeah, probably around four to five years or so,” said Aideen, having long slotted some time to spend in the northern plains in her plans for the current trip. The relatively poor conditions the neighboring Clangeddin Empire was in just meant that there was suddenly more time for her group to spend elsewhere.
“Most delightful! We will definitely be happy to host you and yours for however long it pleases you to stay with us!” replied Miro with a wide grin. He made a gesture with his hand and one of the orcish youths came over, holding several jugs of what smelled like alcohol in her hands. The young girl handily deposited one of the jugs by Miro as she walked past without even missing a beat.
“To your health and to the clan’s prosperity!” said Miro as he personally poured some of the alcohol into everyone’s cup and proposed a toast to them. Aideen’s group accepted the gesture and raised their cups, drinking deep of the rather fruity alcohol, something the orcs made by simply allowing crushed fruits foraged from the wilderness to marinate in water.
It was a rather light drink, with more of a fruity taste than anything, just with a bit of a kick at the end. Not something the group would be at risk of getting drunk over. Even Rhys, who was the worst off with alcohol amongst them, enjoyed it quite a bit.
Like with most orcish feasts, bowls of flour – made from various kinds of foraged edible grains and nuts and seeds, whatever the clan could get their hands on – were passed on to each person, and jugs of hot, salted, buttered tea followed. Aideen and Celia were all too familiar with the proceedings and poured a measured amount of the tea into their bowls before kneading the resultant mixture into a dough-like texture, and showed the rest of the group how to do it.
The tea itself had the strong, rich taste they expected, with a hint of saltiness in the aftertaste, which meshed with the smoky, nutty flour – which had such a taste since many of the grains and seeds were roasted prior to grinding – to form a dough that had a pleasant texture and flavor.
Said dough was the staple of orcish cooking, with the crisp flatbreads they had earlier with the appetizer merely another way to have it. The dough had been spread thin and then cooked over the fire until they crisped up in that case. The orcs also made things like dumplings and other foodstuff with it, but it was most commonly eaten as it was, as a freshly made dough that each diner kneaded for themselves.
Shortly afterwards, a large platter – clearly meant for sharing – was brought over with several kinds of stews piled on it in separate sections. Some were heavy on the vegetables, while others were mixed with meats and eggs, depending on the recipe used. The platter easily held enough food to feed at least four people, which might seem a bit little given that there were seven of them in the group, but it was just the first “course” of the feast after all.
Once again, Aideen and Celia showed the others how to make a small pocket with the dough to scoop the stew with before eating them together. The elven siblings got the hang of it quickly with their dexterous fingers and easily shaped the dough as needed, though Kino took a bit longer to get used to it, given that she had claws instead of nails like the rest.
