Intergalactic Summit

Though I find the mechanisms of eating for nourishment rather grotesque, the sensory experience is beyond worth it.

I'm especially fond of sweets, and one of the best is a traditional dessert called Wedding Moon. Five layers of light sponge cake separated by four layers of sweet bean paste spiced with ground kaffak kernels and hints of vanilla and brandy, then altogether wrapped in a layer of whipped heavy cream and dusted with confectioner's sugar.

If you don't want to make it yourself, many traditional bakers throughout Ysiette have built their reputations on it.

concrete

I grew up in a coastal part of a temperate planet that tends to warm, and on the ocean side of a coastal mountain range to boot. Rivers, lakes, rich growth and beautiful bright plants, and the salty ocean close enough to give us all sort of things. It was a blessed place. It still is!

But it hurts me to see Amarr disrespecting their own food traditions so. Proper Amarr cuisine is subtle. SUBTLE. The art involved in refining and balancing the experience of a dish over thousands of years is as much an inspiration as a cathedral, and people say it's BLAND? You all probably put sugar on your rice, like children do.

I'm a little tempted not to tell you about iminu. I think you may not deserve it.





...fine. You definitely don't, but I will anyway.

It's impossible to make iminu properly anywhere other than Jachanu V. And not even everywhere on the planet; you need a place very like where I grew up, and where cities and industry haven't spoiled the water. The water is critical.

The first thing you need is a freshwater fish. Any fish with a mild flavor will do, but the flesh MUST be firm and perfectly white when cooked. NO SLIMY BITS. The texture is what's important. Head and gut it and fillet it for the best, thickest flesh. Also save the eyes.

The broth is why the water is so critical. You need fresh, living seawater with the right salinity. It can't be frozen, stale, cooked, or preserved. Don't strain it! Take half of it and make the takha, the seasoning part, by simmering with bay lemon leaves and a few whole peppercorns. Just a few. You don't want the spice so much as a gentle taste of earth and the perfume of the pepper. Simmer it over the lowest heat for about half an hour to concentrate the flavors without changing them, and a few minutes before the end of that, add the pieces of fish to the takha. Let them cook ALMOST all the way through. The takha should be a little cloudy.

Once it's done, take bowls and put a piece of fish in the bottom. Curl it a bit so it looks like a swimming fish. Then fill the bowl halfway with warm takha, and the rest full with unheated seawater. The temperature when you're done should be almost exactly the temperature of someone's mouth, so the only sensations are the flavor and texture of the broth and the fish.

Then, float a few leaves on it. Most people use heimi, because it's succulent and a little bitter and crunchy for contrast, but you can use chamfha for a more inland spice flavor or khennaba with a bud, for the sweet scent. DO NOT PUT A WHOLE GARDEN ON TOP. JUST A FEW LEAVES. Ignore the stupid EXOTIC KHANID FUSION cooking holos. Three leaves at the MOST. And put the fish eyes on the leaves so they look like little frogs sitting there.

If it looks like a peaceful lagoon (iminu) with a huge white fish swimming under the leaves and frogs and smells like a sea breeze brushing an inland garden, you've done it right.

And then if you've ever said Amarr food is bland or boring, God himself will reach out and knock your iminu over. It'll serve you right.

Take flour, water, salt, pepper and chilli powder, mix them into dough. Roll dough flat, fire it up in a khari oven.

A Brutor flatbread. Just like that.

It's simple enough but has a waiting time of about an hour, give or take.

Oh, and lazy coffee. Boil water in kettle and toss in a handful of coarse-ground beans (fine-ness level 7 or 8 depending on your grinder). Wait about five minutes. Pour into cup. Filter or strainer advised to capture grounds. One cup of coffee. Tastes bitter as all heck though. Might even taste burnt.

There's also the Engineer's Coffee, which I learnt from my father.

You need a standing clamp, a funnel, filter paper, two beakers or any fireproof and waterproof containers and a heat source. Also, a bur grinder. No, you cannot improvise the burr grinder. Make sure it is good quality burr grinder.

Fold filter paper into a cone and place it inside the funnel. Use standing clamp to hold funnel with the filter paper. Fill one beaker (or any container) with about 200ml of water and bring to boil on heat source. Set burr grinder to coarse (fine-ness level 7 or 8) and grind your coffee beans. Coffee beans preferably lightly roasted. Put grounds into funnel with filter paper and level grounds.

Place another breaker at bottom of funnel.

Once water boils, pour onto grounds. Start at middle, swirl outwards until grounds are soaked. Let the grounds stand for 30 seconds before pouring rest of water in. Wait for all the water to drip into the bottom beaker.

Drink.

Just don't. Trying Federal food is a hedonism.

No.

I prefer DRX235298-G8945K7 ones. They are the relatively new product, designed for capsule pilots. They contain all the necessary vitamins, microelements and aminoacids a cloned capsuleer body requires on daily basis. Thanks to splendid minds of Cladari scientists and engineers, they are even healthier and better optimized than the capsule feeding system itself, which already can sustain your body alive for tens if not hundreds of years alone without decanting.

You should try them too, it is the best food money can buy! (if you are a capsuleer, there are different versions for baseliners)

Kim, my favorite nickname for you is "Small Humor Nosferatu II"

I grew up on a space station out in the middle of BFE nowhere Gallente fringe space. The food was.... edible. On occation even palitable. The pie was always good though, topped with Ice cream. Hard to get fresh produce of a station designed for fueling and suppling ships for deepspace exploration. It all goes away when the ships leave

Most of our hydorponics were dedicated to restocking ships before they shoved off for deepspace and Null. It was a small station. We had enough for the crew of course, but growing spices would take up more space then our resources alloted, and importing it was an expence we couldn't always afford as independent station operators. And food without spice is well.... bland.