Training as a Slime (40)

"I've got this," Jamie reassured herself, confident of her ability to replicate dishes from foreign lands. However, as Cori delved into the details, Jamie faced the harsh reality- many of the herbs and spices he mentioned were entirely unfamiliar to her. Although she sympathised Cori's life story, her mind was racing through her archives of recipes, hoping to see a glimmer of semblance to Cori's list of ingredients. To her disappointment, she could not remember any.

After Cori wrapped up his experience, he casually asked, "Any burning questions before I dive into the next part?" Jamie, tapping her notes, inquired, "The herbs and spices seemed quite exotic, do you know where I can find them?"

Cori, perplexed, tilted his head (which constituted his entire body) and wondered, "Aren't these herbs and spices common in this world too? Or was the book I read a compendium of all the herbs and spices the owner encountered?" Suddenly struck with an idea, Cori requested, "Aspery, can I have my bag for a moment?" The stout dwarf remained silent, engrossed in memorising the intricate craftsmanship of the bag. Cori bounced to his bag and pulled out all the spices and herbs needed for both recipes. "Guess what? It's all in here too, just like I thought!" Jamie erupted in silent squeals of sheer delight, propelling her into exuberant jumps that seemed to synchronize with her bouncy pink curls. The dwarf was surprised to discover that the bag had a storage space that seemed almost infinite and resistant to all elements.

The slightly golden mochi laid the exotic arrays of herbs and spices in front of eager Jamie. He then pointed to a dirt brown succulent root, "This, right here is a tapioca. A core component for one of the ingredients - tapioca flour. Unfortunately, I do not know how to derive the tapioca flour from this. So, I'm afraid you have to figure a method to do it."

Jamie scratching her head with the pen, quirkily remarked, "Isn't this man-i-hot?" Cori replied with a quizzical expression, "You are hot?" Jamie's light and clear laughter was shortly silenced by her clarifications , "No, no, man-i-hot," emphasizing with her pen pointing at the root.Cori chuckled awkwardly at his own ignorance, "Ah... haha.. yes yes." Jamie giggled and comforted Cori, "Don't worry, I had the same reaction when I knew its name too. We have man-i-hot flour here, don't worry."

Just the thought of drinking his favorite drink again, warmed the cockles of his heart. Afterall, this was the drink that his grandma bought for him during moments of sadness, rewards, and encouragements. It was a drink that held an emotional value that money could not buy. 

"So how do you make bobba milk tea?" Jamie asked. "To be honest, I only know that the process of making Boba pearls typically involves combining tapioca flour and sugar, shaping them into small balls, and then cooking them. These pearls are then added to cold tea with milk. The sweetness can be customized by adjusting the amount of sugar syrup." Cori answered as truthful as he could. "Hmmm interesting..." Jamie scribbled away, jotting down the details and already planning to introduce the dishes at the next dinner.

Once Jamie compiled the notes, she started to experiment with the ingredients. Meanwhile, Aspery's complexion was one of perplexity. Whereas, Ivy had long retired back to the lairs of her laboratory. As an avid collector of finely crafted luxurious branded backpack, Aspery had never seen one quite like Cori's. Even when it was the same brand. In fact, the Liberty backpack was one of the most coveted bags in the entire world. Its craftsmanship, timeless design and customisation options were exclusively limited and even the wealthies and powerful had to wait for years for its availability. Having collected dozens of these backpacks, Aspery had never encountered a Liberty backpack as fine as Cori's. It was as if it was made for the gods.