Personal Stream on the Sea

Setting up a pot of water to boil, I peeked over to look at the net. Currently, thrashing around and trying to escape, was a different fish we had from yesterday. It was shiny, constantly reflecting light from the sun into my eyes as if it was trying to blind me.

[Is this fish part of your big breakfast preparation?]

Sazzy grabbed the fish out of the net and headed over to the box to cut it.

"It's a side dish. Since I can't exactly count on a random fish to appear everyday. Last evening we didn't even get anything. Today, I have something better in mind. "

It was currently just after the crack of dawn. Oliver was still deep asleep, curled up over one of his bags as Ava read something on her personal terminal beside her.

On the seat nearby was the drone camera and taste analyzer.

[Are you planning on streaming the breakfast?]

When she had seen those two items out, Sazzy had asked that while glancing at the sleeping Oliver.

"Yeah I am going to stream it. I'll make sure Oliver isn't going to be in the livestream area. "

Slicing the middle of the fish and hooking it up to the side of the car, Sazzy then headed towards the livestreaming equipment and opened her personal terminal to help me prepare for the personal stream.

[Tell me when you want to start.]

Grabbing the containers of ingredients and seasonings, I placed them neatly on the washer that was beside the stove and gave her the signal.

"Hello and welcome to the Foodie exploration channel. I am Chef, and today we will be trying a breakfast special of three dishes. The main dish will be a thick soup that you can dip bread into. Although I don't have bread here since, as you can see, we are on the sea. The two side dishes will be made to wake your brain up with a little jolt of flavor as well as energy."

As I spoke, I saw the water was boiling and turned down the fire to a simmer.

"We will be cooking the soup first. So, take a couple of ingredients such as clam powder, sun dust, and musk rat meat, and place them into boiling water."

I threw the three ingredients inside and turned up the heat a slight bit.

"We will simmer them there for at least half an hour. Preferably more if we can. We can then move on to the other two side dishes. One of them is an easy dish made up of only two ingredients. The other is slightly more complicated, made of five ingredients, but doesn't require any cooking."

I brought out musk rat meat and a little bottle of juice.

"This juice is from the honey plant. From what I read, the honey plant juice is sour until it is boiled, where it then turns sweet and viscous. For the first side dish, the two ingredient one, we add just enough juice to cover the musk rat meat in. What I would recommend would be to dilute the juice, so technically it is a three ingredient dish but the water is optional. It's only if you want to use less juice."

I took a bowl and placed the musk rat meat into it. I then poured all the juice we had and then topped it up with water until the whole meat was submerged.

"Now we can just leave it to soak until a small golden layer can be seen on the surface. Next, we can start with the second dish. This dish requires clam powder, sun dust, dirt star, fairy wings and a little bit of sour leaf."

For the clam powder, sun dust and dirt star, I immediately threw them into a bowl of water. But for the larger items like the fairy wings and the sour leaf, which turns out was the leaf that would become sour and brittle when sun dried and tasted like citric acid powder, I crushed them before mixing them together.

"From what I read, mixing them all together is fine. But after this the methods get slightly more complicated."

I took a spoon and started stirring the mixture together.

"Mix them together until they form this sort of sticky dough-like texture. Then, slowly add more water until the dough-like consistency suddenly comes apart and it becomes a sort of semi-solid. Be careful at this point, as too much water will make it too watery and we can't move to the next step."

Once the semi-solid state was reached, I took the spoon and dripped them onto a bowl and spread them into different shapes.

"You can make them into whatever shape you like, and when after we leave them to dry for around half an hour, they will harden to form this sort of cookie-like texture when you bite into them"

After using all the mixture, I placed the bowls aside and went back to check on the musk rat meat. Seeing the shiny gold layer on the surface reflect the sun, I then poured away the water. Making sure the meat didn't fall out from the bowl, I then brought another pot and set it to boil.

"The honey plant juice can also dissolve the rock bones in the meat, so we don't have to worry about that. The next step is to boil the meat in water until it floats and the dish will be finished."

Once the water started boiling, I placed the meat inside and it was time to look at the chat.

WhatToEat : I think I've seen these recipes before? Where did the livestreamer get them from?

"Thank you WhatToEat for the questions. These recipes are from the site WonderFood. I've been reading their blog posts recently since they always seem to have such interesting dishes!"

AllOfYouStayBack : Chef! Is Brother not going to be here today? Where is he?

"My brother is sleeping right now, so you won't be able to see him."

Turning around, I glanced at where Oliver was sleeping and froze.

Sitting up, Oliver yawned as he crawled across the seats and entered the livestream area.

"Sister, what are you cooking?"

In a very intimate way, he hugged my arm as he got close and sniffed the air.

Behind him was Ava, hovering worryingly just in case he was too groggy and accidently tripped.

"You are on stream right now. Also, this is the breakfast special. There are also two more dishes for you to eat."

Rubbing his eyes, I could practically see him slowly digesting my words in his brain before he froze in realization. Then, with a little embarrassment, he excused himself back to outside the livestreaming area with the help of Sazzy.

NeverTooPoorToEat : Brother is soooo cute! His just awake face is too precious!

ThinkOfMyStomach : Chef's brother really knows how to choose his timing. Just as we spoke of him, he showed up.

Laughing at this small accident, I continued chatting as I turned down the fire for both the soup and the meat. The meat had started floating so I scooped it up and cut it into three pieces. Then I grabbed one of the little cookies and placed them in the taste analyzer.

Making two more bowls, I put my share on the washer and passed Oliver his share.

Finally, I grabbed the bowls for the soup and did the same.

NeverTooPoorToEat : Chef! Can let us see Oliver eat! I bet he would look so cute! Please!

Seeing that comment, I looked over to where Oliver was closing his eyes in bliss as he ate.

"Sorry NeverTooPoorToEat, but that's up to him and not me. Either way, that's it for today's stream! After about five minutes, the stream will close."

Inciting a wave of frenzied no's and stuffing imaginary food into their mouths, I watched the time and closed the stream mercilessly. Then grabbing my own breakfast I headed over to Oliver.

"Not realizing I was on stream is too embarrassing."

Sulking a little, Oliver leaned his weight onto me as I sat down. At this point, he had gobbled up all his food and was patting his stomach in content.

Meanwhile Sazzy was keeping the drone camera and taste analyzer.

Then, once she was done tidying up, she reminded us.

[Tomorrow we should keep our eyes out for the statue that Margret told us about. We should be reaching the Media Luna soon!]

Once we were done with food, Sazzy pulled out a game that she had found on Chick and the four of us played together. After a couple of days on the sea, as beautiful as it is, I was missing the freedom that came with solid ground.

The Media Luna...I wonder how they would have known about the preservative considering it didn't even originate in Mors. The only way I could think of was the Colonizer that was assassinated. But if she was dead, how would news that would have been practically exclusive to her and the original owner of the house have reached Media Luna and Fluvius. Or rather, why these two tribes in particular?