Time to Stream! And Time to Leave.

Taking out the drone from the locker at the AT center, I checked with Sazzy in secret to confirm we had all the equipment before we headed to join Tim and Josh.

It was currently the day of the planned stream, and we had scheduled a trip to the AT center to pick up several ingredients, as well as retrieve the streaming equipment. After all, both Josh and Tim didn't have a taste analyzer. Since a wood carver and a survival streamer didn't really need to bring along anything to allow the audience to taste food.

Tim and Josh were going over the ingredients they had picked up from the post office with the list of ingredients needed that Tim had made on his personal terminal. After the cooking session with Caroline on that day, we had finally managed to come with a satisfactory hybrid dish by consulting Caroline. With her many years of experience dealing with her own planet's food, her insight into what ingredients we were missing, as well as what steps we needed to take to create the dish, was incredibly helpful. After that day, half of the cooking sessions were spent perfecting the hybrid dish, and the other half were spent practicing how to cook the dishes that were on the stream menu. And before we knew it, two weeks had passed.

Finished double checking, all of us confirmed with each other that we had everything needed, and then we set off back to the camp.

With the help of Caroline, the stream was actually a couple days earlier than I expected. However, when I was worried that I might be disturbing the moving process of the camp, Josh reassured me that he would find a way. And sure enough, I heard from Caroline the very next day that the moving schedule was out, and it had everyone bustling around. They would definitely not be able to make it to the stream.

The day the moving schedule was announced, I had seen several people walking around with sad faces. Being in the same camp, yet not being allowed to see the livestream live would certainly have left a couple of people disheartened. But that didn't stop them from working.

Now on the big day, the three of us walked to the cooking area while going over what I was going to say on stream. Josh had never shown his face clearly on stream except as a guide for some survival streamers, and having Tim be on the stream would be a weird choice since he was a 'streamer who wasn't related to Ferus or the Lupos'. In the end, I was left alone again.

Entering the cooking area, the two of them helped me unload all the ingredients onto the table while I set up the radius of the stream. All these details were discussed with Josh before, so I confidently made sure only the table and one pool was displayed. Behind me was a wall, and the audience would not be able to see the full shape of the cave, or how many pools were there, or where the entrance was. Just me, a wall, a table and a pool.

Looking over at Josh and Tim in the corner, who made sure to stand outside the stream range. I waited for them to signal to me, and then I started the stream.

"Hello and welcome to the Foodie exploration channel. I am Chef, and today we will be taking a peak at the cuisine and cooking methods that the Lupos people on the planet Ferus use. Ferus is infamous for its wilderness, as well as its dangers. But other than that, not much is known about the people living in Ferus. With their permission, the Lupos have allowed me to show several of their dishes, as well as their new local specialty. Of course, today's menu also includes our new special hybrid dish, Fake meat."

While talking, I introduced the system that the Lupos used to cook.

"Their cooking method actually involved taking advantage of their surroundings to steam their food. In front of me is a pool, and that pool is heated naturally by the hot surface at the bottom. But, at the level that I am standing at, the ground is cool and safe to stand on. The Lupos use these special plates, with small belts on the sides to retrieve it from the water. This metal hook is what they use to hook onto the belts."

I held up the plates, the metal hook, as well as introduced the color ribbons. Then, I went to the back of the table and started cutting the fruits on hand.

"First cut the fruit into cubes. This will be used for all of our local dishes. However, if you ever visit Ferus, please be careful and check with your local guide whether the food is in an edible state. These fruits are known as 'selectively edible' by the locals, mostly due to the incredibly limited amount of ways you can eat them. Eating them raw is one of these ways, but in case the fruits aren't as raw or ripe as you think they are, it is always best to listen to the locals."

Cutting the fruits, I separated them into different bowls while explaining the dishes that I was going to cook. I then introduced the sugar syrup, while leaving out its source. Pouring some for the audience to taste raw, I then waited for a couple of minutes before pouring it into the fruit jelly. After that was to mash the fruits with a spoon until they formed a mushy but slightly sticky mixture for the fruit cheese. Finally, I added the nuts to the salad.

I showed the audience each dish separately as I tied the colored ribbons on, explained which timing the color was referring to, then set them to float on the pool.

The next dish while these three were steaming was the sugar candy. Taking the molds from the side of the table, I showed the audience the shapes while I poured the sugar syrup into each mold on the plate. I then didn't set a ribbon but pointed to the hooks at the edges of the pool and hooked the plate there. While explaining the sugar syrup hardening process, I took out the sugar candies. Then I let the audience taste it while I continued talking.

"A dish that I am not making right now but I have on me is their local specialty, Chocolate! With a little bitterness, chocolate is a very addicting product that can only be made on this planet. There are many ways to eat chocolate, like dipping various food items into them."

Taking one of the cut fruits, I dipped it in chocolate and made one sample to place in the taste analyzer.

Checking on the comments, most of the audience were overflowing with love and affection for the chocolate. There were occasionally some people who didn't like chocolate, but most of the chat showed positive responses. Good.

Looking away from the chat, I checked on the dishes floating and noticed it was just nicely finished steaming. Taking out the dishes one by one, I split one portion for the taste analyzer and one portion for the audience to see and taste. And I placed all the three dishes on the table.

Finally, once I got all the local dishes out of the way, it was time to do the Fake meat. Unlike the other dishes, the fake meat used a whole different set of ingredients, so I set aside the previous ingredients and took out the ingredients for Fake meat.

"For the hybrid dish, Fake meat, we need to use a whole new set of ingredients. I am sure most of you recognize these international ingredients. Over here is cherry agar, and right next to that is a mixture of several types of berries that can be found on Ferrus. The berries have already been prepared for us by grinding them and then drying them. And right next to that bowl is the sugar syrup that we have used before. These three ingredients make up the base of the fake meat."

I grabbed the cherry agar and mixed it with the sugar syrup. Then, before I finished mixing, I paused to add in the mixed berries, and then continued stirring again. This time, although the sugar syrup and the cherry agar was homogenous, the mixed berries were not.

Putting them on a plate, I set them out to float for 10 minutes.

"If you can see from my actions, I didn't fully mix in the mixed berries. This is due to the fact that the juices from the mixed berries start reacting with the sugar syrup immediately when we add them. So by only adding it at the end and having such an uneven amount in the mixture, not all of the sugar syrup would have reacted with the berry juices. The moment we steam the fake meat, the berry juices will immediately stop reacting with the sugar syrup due to the heat, but they will start to diffuse throughout the mixture. The same happens with the thoroughly mixed sugar syrup. This gives us a homogenous taste of the Fake meat."

Once the color ribbon changed color, I fished out the Fake meat and placed it on the table. I then used my survival knife, that was properly washed, to cut the Fake meat into half. The Fake meat was a perfect color of pink inside, and slightly dark brown on the outside. Separating one slice to give to the taste analyzer, I plated the other slice of Fake meat with some nuts and a gravy that Caroline had made while we were perfecting the Fake meat.

Waiting for a while for the audience to try the food, I then talked to them a little more, retelling the stories I have heard from the camp members when I talked to them about how some of the ingredients were discovered. Then I closed the stream.

The moment the stream closed, Josh and Tim stepped up and helped me clean up.

Packing while talking, Tim was speaking really excitedly about being able to experience the stream in person. As well as being able to be a part of it. We finished off the food, washed the dishes in the cleaning area, and then returned everything back to where we took it from.

Looking into the preparation rooms, I could see that it was extremely empty. All the stored food had been taken away, and the machines were turned off and wiped clean.

Saying goodbye to the two of them, Sazzy and I entered our house and laid down on the bed immediately. The mental stress of livestreaming in front of the camera had not faded even though I had streamed several times.

Turning off the lights, Sazzy wished me goodnight. I closed my eyes and could feel the tiredness wash over me like a large wave.

Since the stream was over, that meant that this was my last day in Ferus. Tomorrow, Tim and Josh will be sending me off at the AT center.

After this planet, we had to decide where we wanted to go again. Maybe we should go somewhere more 'modern' this time.