goneawayworld | 🟆002🟆

Entry tags:

🟆002🟆

Who: Catra, Dave, and Tenten
What: Late night kitchen shenanigans!
Where: The Rig's cafeteria
When: Weh
Warnings/Notes: I mean, Dave's involved, so there oughta be something here.

Tenten had meant to do a bit of recon. She really had. But her free time had been eaten up by extra chores, a result of an unfortunate incident where she'd managed to throw a rather swollen Stuff-body into a group of middle-managers having a smoke break. They didn't appreciate the splatter zone, so she'd been stuck out there for the past two days, doing more grunt work than anything else. Really, she just wants to sleep.

But she'd told Catra "One or two nights" and there they were.

She'd mentioned to Catra to be ready beforehand, she didn't want to wake up Setsuna by accident, and now they were wandering the dark halls at night. Tenten couldn't see, the light levels were just too low even if she used chakra, but she'd already memorized the way there. Just about two more turns and then they could worry about finding a way from the cafeteria into the kitchen.

...Wait, was that the glow of the mess lights on 'low' there?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Catra went still as she followed close behind Tenten, her silent tread pausing as she eyed the glow of lights from underneath the kitchen door. Her eyes narrow and she reached out to give Tenten's shoulder a little nudge.

"I thought you said no one would be here," she hissed. Not that she was worried about punishment but complications were going to get in the way of food.

"They shouldn't be," she hisses right back. "I told you I couldn't get a lot done!" She huffs, then crouches and leans against the wall, face screwed up in thought. "I can go in and scope everything out. You want to stay here while I do that?"

She wasn't sure just how good Catra was at stealth, but... Well, she hadn't heard the girl behind her on the way up. Maybe she had some tricks up her sleeve.

"Why would I just sit here while you do all the interesting stuff?" Catra retorts.

"We'll both go. That way if they chase us they have to choose which one." AKA so I can shove you at them and run, but she wouldn't say that out loud.

"Because I can transform and you can't?" Seemed reasonable to her, but if Catra wants to come along, well. She won't stop her.

Tenten's relatively certain she can outrun Catra, but it probably wouldn't end up coming down to that. She crouches and sneaks forward with cat-like tread (though... probably not quite like Catra herself.) As they grow closer to the mess hall, they can hear voices. With the smiling door held open by a block, it's easy to peer in and see about a dozen people sitting in the cafeteria, all wearing the food service uniforms. The way into the kitchen requires them to sneak by the group. Fortunately, there's plenty of tables and chairs, but at the same time...

Well. It's a dozen people.

"Yeah, so what?" Catra seems unbothered by the contradiction. She follows after Tenten as quiet as can be and peeks round the door frame briefly before she sits back.

"Well, we can either give up..." She says. "Or we can just act like we belong here." When in doubt, bluff!

Tenten pauses and glances pointedly at Catra's kitty ears. "Blending in might be a tad difficult." They're kind of cute, but they definitely stick out. In more ways than one. (Then again, so did Catra's hair. Had she ever heard of a hair brush?)

She could make it without being spotted. She knows she could. Catra, possibly. If she had any of her tools with her-but no. Work with what they have. So she sighs and pushes herself up, taking a step back. "Casual it is, then."

She walks through the door, meanders in like she owns the place and-

"Oh, hey. You're one of the New Hires, right?" Crap. Immediately spotted. She flinches and plasters on a little smile, turning to the speaker. "Relax, we don't give a shit. Teenagers gotta eat, right? Make yourself something and just don't make a mess."

Tenten pauses and turns to Catra with a slightly confused frown. She'd heard that too, right? It wasn't just her going insane?

Catra's reply is to give Tenten a shrug. Then she shoulders past her and strolls further into the kitchen, like she owns the place. Confidence is key, Tenten!

"Yeah, we were just looking around," she says breezily. "Tenten said she wanted to cook something for me--or show me how to cook, anyway."

"Oh yeah, cool. All the stuff you need is here--though you probably want to put on gloves and stuff before you handle anything. Perishable stuff is in the walk-in." Catra gives Tenten a little smirk. Easy!

She sticks her tongue out at Catra^Nyeh!, then follows her into the kitchen. "That was... easy." She's actually kind of disappointed. Here she was, spending two days planning a daring break-in with minimal intel.

And then they just get waved in.

What a letdown.

Though some of that disappointment vanishes once she actually starts to take a look around. The kitchen is... big. Industrial. Drains in the floor, steam kettles, mixers, blenders, mirror grills, gas ranges, rows of ovens and steamers... "I don't know what half of this stuff is. But I can work an oven and the stove, so we should be good. Um." Okay. So. First step. "You're probably gonna need some gloves. Try to find some. And snag some cutting boards and knives, I'm going to go see what we've got to work with in terms of ingredients. Sound good?"

"Uh, yeah! I'll... get on that." She glances around for a moment--this kitchen is beyond her experience and one of the staff helpfully points her towards what she needs. A few minutes of poking and prodding and Catra has been helpfully provided with a hair net (and face net), gloves, and a pair of cutting boards along with a set of knives which she lays out on one of the counters.

"Does this work?"

Tenten, meanwhile, is delighted. She'd expected some awful little ingredients.

But no. This kitchen also supplies the executives.

When she comes out, it's with a carton of eggs, a whole chicken, some peppers, onions, mushrooms, some ginger, and a few bottles of soy sauce, chicken stock, beer-wasn't this supposed to be just a simple thing?

"Right, so, they had better stuff than I thought." Also she might get yelled at for overstepping later. settles everything onto a table and looks over Catra, hiding a smirk behind her hand. Okay, no. Don't laugh at her. Don't laughdon'tlaughdon'tlaughdon'tlaugh-

Right. She clears her throat and focuses on the knives instead, picking one up and running her thumb over the edge. Not the best, but at least it wasn't dull. "Yeah, this'll work. We're gonna start simple, I think."

Catra squints at the array of ingredients that Tenten hauls over. Eggs. Chicken. Veggies. She doesn't recognize most (any?) of them and she shakes her head.

"I thought you said simple. That's a lot for something simple, isn't it?" Her voice is juuuust a bit unsure. She doesn't actually know a damn thing about cooking so she's going to follow Tenten's lead.

"But what do we do first?"

"Trust me. We're gonna do two dishes, both of them are gonna be real simple. First things first, a safety thing." She takes a knife and arches her fingers, taking a mushroom and doing a few slices with it. Slow, so Catra can get a good look at how she's doing it. "This is your claw grip. You want to cut things when you're holding it onto the cutting board like this, while keeping your knife straight." She demonstrates how the blade should slide along her fingers, without risking getting cut. "We're going to just slice all of these vegetables up first. There's nothing really tricky to cut, you just want some thin slices. For the onions, you'll want to cut them in half like this so they don't roll when you cut them."

She lines them up in order. First the mushrooms, then the onions. She'll handle the peppers on her own, this time.

Catra watches with some mild performative disinterest. She knows how to use a knife! Just... not for this. When she's finally given the knife and charge of the mushrooms and onions, she sets to work. Interestingly, despite that disinterest, she takes a lot of care with the assigned task. When she starts, she's verrrry slow and careful, trying to make sure that everything is close to the same size and constantly eyeing the results she gets. If she keeps at that pace, this might take a while.

Tenten slices the peppers open, peels out the seeds, then gives them a few rough cuts. She pauses there, eyeing Catra's progress. "The cuts don't need to be too exact. As long as there's no huge size differences, it'll all cook evenly." She grabs another onion to demonstrate. She doesn't go too fast, no need to make Catra feel inadequate. "If you feel like it's roughly right, that's probably good enough. You'll want a little speed with the onions, too, they can be a bit brutal."

...Yeah, no, Catra can figure out what she means by that. She sets everything down and lets her have at it at her own pace. Then it's time for Tenten to grab a cleaver and go at the chicken. She doesn't just break it down, she cuts the entire thing into chunks, bone and all. The only part that goes unused is the spine, she just sets that aside.

Catra nods attentively at Tenten's instruction. Yes, she's difficult and a jerk and inclined to just push back anytime that someone tries to tell her what to do--but food is good. And Tenten is being exceedingly kind in showing her how it works. So she finishes the rest of the mushrooms and pushes them off to one side. Next come the onions.

"How can a plant be brutal?" She asks as she starts to slice into the thing. A few moments later, she gets her answer as her eyes start to water.

"Agh--!" She recoils for a moment, then leans forward, desperately trying to chop the onion as fast as possible--as fast as safely possible, anyway. "Ahg. Ew!"

Tenten bites the insides of her cheeks to keep from laughing, but she can't stop a little giggle. "Like that. Sorry, only thing to do is tough it out. Onions get to just about everyone." It's a good thing they were so tasty, or she'd have nothing to do with them.

"Let's see... Broth, eggs... Oh, let me-" she sets about measuring out the various powders into different piles on a paper towel. When it looks like Catra's coming close to being finished, she starts pointing an explaining. "Salt. Makes food kinda... salty. Also helps you keep in water. Black pepper here's a bit sharp. Basically you want these two for almost anything. White pepper's a bit sharper, but it also brings out the flavors in everything else. Turmeric's a little bitter, but adds a nice yellow color. Sugar makes things sweet. Corn starch, you add a bit of water to it and mix it in, it thickens up any liquids you add it to."

She pauses, then picks up a ginger root. "Ginger's sweet, but hot, and it smells really good." She quickly peels it and cuts it, then slides it over to Catra. "Don't eat it, but take a sniff."

"And now we're at the last bit of prep we really need to do!" In less than fifteen minutes, even! "Cracking these eggs into a bowl." That's right, more demonstration time. "You want to crack them one at a time into a different bowl first to make sure there's no blood or anything. Out in the field, it probably doesn't matter that much, but we don't need to eat bad eggs while we're here, right?" She cracks one and uses both hands to pull it open. "You can use one hand, but if you use two, it's easier to keep stray eggshells out."

"If they do this, why do you cook with them?" Catra gripes, but she keeps on cutting onions with a grim determination, despite the tears that pricking at her eyes. Ow. Misery, true misery. As soon as the last of the onion is finished she shoves the board away and sighs in relief, though her attention soon turns onto the spices that Tenten is showing off. She nods attentively each time one is explained, then reaches out to take the ginger. Sniffs.

"Oh, that one is nice!" She says brightly. The eggs she takes and handles with a cool ease, though it's the first time she's done anything with them. Each one is cracked and put into the first bowl and then into the second. She only accidentally smashes one when she tries to smack it against the rim of the bowl a little too hard, too!

"Because after they're cooked, they taste great." Her tone is chipper. It was probably a rhetorical, but there wasn't a reason not to answer anyway.

She reaches out and snags a whisk, starting to mix the eggs together. "You did great on these, by the way. When I was starting, I was always picking out eggshell. Anyway, the clear bits are the egg whites, they turn white when they cook. The yellow bits are yolk, they're mostly protein and stuff. We're going to make egg drop soup, so getting them nice and mixed without adding too much air by going too hard is kind of important."

Once that's done, she sets it aside and gestures over to the stove. "Right. So, I usually have to use coals or an open flame when I'm out in the field, but stoves are so much nicer. For one thing, it's easier to control the heat. Something to remember when cooking is that you can always cook things a little more, but you can't uncook things, so don't put your heat too high to burn things." She takes down a pan, sets it down on a burner, and clicks it on to a good setting. Then she snags a bottle of oil and holds it up. "Cooking oil. Not all are equal, but if you're interested we can go into differences later. This keeps food from sticking to the pan, basically. Here, grab the ginger, onions, and garlic." Tenten squirts in the oil and steps back, holding out wooden spoon for Catra. "Toss them in and stir them up a bit with this. Once you can really start smelling them, toss in the chicken I chopped up and cook it until parts of it start looking a nice golden brown color. You're going to want to keep that moving too, so it doesn't stick to the pan or burn."

Catra stands back to watch Tenten mix the eggs, her tail flicking and eyes wide. Watching food come together almost feels like magic. Not that she'd let on that she feels so strongly about the subject. Cooking oil. Right. She nods.

"Okay," she takes the spoon in one hand and the aromatics in the other and dumps them into the hot pan. She begins to stir the sizzling contents around the pan. It's clumsy at first but when she has a feel for how little force she really needs, Catra seems to be getting the hang of it.

"Do I add it now?" She asks as the scent of garlic, ginger, and onions fills the room. "Um--" She reaches out and grabs the plate of chicken and dumps it into the pan all at once and hurriedly stirs them as well. It's awkward and clumsy and she's feeling a little pressed now. There's a LOT going on in the pan.

"How do I know what color to look for?"

Food is magic. Moreso than friendship.

"Relax, it doesn't need to be a constant movement. Just enough that nothing's sticking. Slow down, like, maybe fifty percent. You're doing fine!" It's not a lie. She's not hurling chicken out of the pan. That's a great start compared to, say, Lee. She leans in and points at one of the pieces. "See this? When it's maybe two shades darker, and that color's covering more of the chicken, we're going to move to our next step."

She sets down the beer, a small bowl of soy sauce, the black pepper, and the sugar so that Catra can reach them. "In maybe three more minutes, whenever you think it's done about right, sprinkle on the black pepper," that should've been done earlier, but Tenten had honestly forgotten, "the beer, the sugar, and then the soy sauce. The soy sauce will make everything slightly saltier, the sugar will balance out the bitterness, and the beer will just make it taste better. When you've done that, make sure everything looks even, reduce, then cover it with this top and reduce the temperature a little." She waggles it, then sets it down within reach. "We'll be just letting that simmer while we work on the soup."

There's a slight pause. "How do you feel about this so far?" While she waits for Catra's response, Tenten's setting up everything for the soup. Pot of water, flame on, all of the ingredients nearby... there. Yeah, that'd work.

"Slow down. Right." Catra grimaces a little behind her face mask. She's not sure quite what she's doing but hey... she's managing, she thinks? As the minutes tick past she hurriedly reaches over to add the ingredients at Tenten's cue, then steps back to watch as everything starts to simmer.

"Um. I'm okay? It's a lot..."

She waves her hands to dismiss those worries. "You're doing great. All we're going to do now is just cover it with the lid," which she does, "...and let that sit for fifteen minutes. Now we're going to work on the eggdrop soup. By the time this is done, that'll be ready for the other ingredients and we'll be all finished."

She moves over to the pot. The flame's on, but it's not quite boiling yet. "Soup is really easy. You've got water. You've got stock, we're using chicken. It's basically all the stuff that they boiled out of bones to add a lot of flavor." She pours it in, then some ginger, soy sauce, white pepper, salt, and some of the mushrooms and onions Catra cut up. "Now, all of these are going to come up to a boil. That's getting all of the flavor and nutrients out of everything you've cut up and letting it soak into the water, turning it into a good broth."

While that's working, she gets the corn starch nice and slurried up with some water and pours that in, stirring everything up while watches the other pan, just in case. She slows down as the soup reaches a boil, then reduces the heat. "So you see how slowly I'm stirring now?" She steps back, then holds the spoon out to Catra. "Give it a go. While you're doing that, take the bowl of eggs with one hand and slowly pour it in. You want a stream a little thinner than a pencil, okay? Just pour and stir slowly. And once you've emptied the bowl, give it maybe thirty seconds, then turn the heat off and that's going to be done and ready to eat. I'm going to be right back."

...She'd forgotten the tomatoes for the chicken. Whoops. Tenten dashes over to grab some and hurriedly dices them, keeping an eye on Catra to make sure she's still feeling fine about all of this. It was sounding like she was getting overwhelmed, but they were so close to being finished. Hopefully the realization that they were there would be enough. She lifts the lid on the chicken, then dumps in the tomatoes, the sliced peppers, and the mushrooms, and starts folding that on in, turning up the heat just a tad so that everything ought to be finished at the same time.

Catra seems a little intimidated by a whole new barrage of information and her biggest response is a muted noted as she watches Tenten do, well. Everything. She does her best with the eggs, but her impatience wins the day as she accidentally dumps most of the bowl in her first go. Oops. Maybe Tenten won't notice.

Too late. That little 'glump' noise is missable, but not when you're listening for any problems. She reaches out, waving her hand urgently while not moving away from her pot. "Ah! Stir! Fastfastfast! Don't let it cook into one big clump!"

...Also don't spill most of the soup!

"Agh--!" Tenten is attentive. Catra hurriedly stirs the pot as quickly as she can--which means that a glop of soup splatters on the counter and the stove, setting the burner to hissing and spitting. Catra yelps.

"It's making noise!"

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

sorry for slow

No rush.

Re: No rush.

no subject

no subject