The Avengers' Cooking Contest
Disclaimer: Characters are under copyright by Marvel Comics unless Stark Industries bought them. Not mine, no money.
Music: „Carbonara" by Spliff
The Avengers' Thanksgiving dinner had been a huge success, a pleasant affair of friendship and team bonding. Even the trickster god on probation had skipped his usual moping and tucked in heartily. Thor's human friends, who were already awed by his own appetite, could not believe such a slender body was able to ingest heaps of sweet potatoes, beans, peas and corn in butter sauce after finishing off an entire turkey, only to proceed with apple and pumpkin pies. Truth was, however, Loki had always been Asgard's hungriest eater, regularling beating Volstagg's record of three boars, twelve pheasants and a cauldron of stew. Magic consumed that much energy. His appetite was actually much diminished now, due to the binding of his powers.
So successful had Thanksgiving been („And on a thursday, like all good feasts should be", as Thor had proudly proclaimed) that Lady Pepper had suggested they should have a series of joint dinners, cooking in turn, sharing favourites and family recipes.
Thor was all for it, of course. „My friends, you will taste the treats of Asgard! What a joyous day that will be! I thank the fair lady Pepper; my brother and I shall prepare with haste."
Surprisingly, the second most enthusiastic Avenger was Dr Banner. He had not had a good curry for weeks and claimed to be really disgusted by the fastfood which Stark usually ordered for the team. That aside, he reasoned Thor would need some more time for preparations, as he needed to work out where to purchase ingerients, and how to handle the kitchen appliances.
It was therefore decided that Thor's Asgardian feast should come last, close to Christmas (or Midwinter, or Yule as they said in Asgard), the point of culmination; all the other Avengers' efforts preceding his.
Banner cooked some curry indeed. Red lentils in coconut milk, burning hot and fragrant with garlic. The Asgardian brothers coughed and sputtered; they had never eaten chili spiced food before. Neither had Steve, and his eyes watered, but he ate up as anyone would who had grown up during the great depression. Pepper had to decline because of the garlic as she had a business meeting to attend the other day. Thoughtful person that he was, Bruce had prepared some other dishes for the not so curryly inclined, ranging from peas&paneer through spiced potatoes to cucumber-cilantro raita, so nobody went hungry. The almond-semolina dessert was a highlight even, only Thor complaining there had not been any meat in the whole menu.
The following week was Pepper's turn, and she provided a splendid steak dinner, though not entirely on her own but assisted by hired hands, as befitted a manager. Nobody complained, though, since one person could only handle so many pans at a time, and the food was gorgeous.
Next came burnt blini „Romanoff", proving that there is only so much a woman can learn in a lifetime, cooking ranging way behind martial arts for some.
Clint was not a chef de cuisine either, but initially scored some points with „Barton's baked beans". His mood soured the following day, upon discovering that somebody had retrieved all the empty Heinz cans from the trash, cleaned and carefully arranged them into a pyramid for target practice in the training hall. Clint wished he could shoot an explosive arrow into the trickster god's smirking face.
Steve Rogers hailed from a time when housewives cooked and men did not. He had, however, taken a stint in cooking before the super-serum, in the hopes the army would admit him at least for kitchen duty. His flying kitchen pork and beans was bland, but edible.
Tony Stark, inventor, genius and billionaire, naturally assumed his means and talents could create the greatest food on earth. He also assumed cooking to be easy, since everybody did it. As it turned out, he had to concede some skill was required after all, and that microwaved truffled lobster lasagne would not make the menu of many an upper class restaurant, unless he'd buy the place. That day, they ate shawarma from the takeaway.