This story uses characters and locations based on the Gunslinger Girl manga written by Yu Aida and published in monthly shōnen magazine Dengeki Daioh. The characters of Kara and Michele are original to myself.
Chapter Eleven – The Thrilla Fillla from Manilla
With special guest stars Brian and Allison McDonald!
(Courtesy of author MP5)
The low rumble of the Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder echoed off the rows of cars parked in front of the local Esselunga supermarket.
"There's one!" Allison McDonnell noted, pointing with her arm at the open spot where a Fiat Stilo hatchback was pulling out. Kara maneuvered into position and claimed the spot in the name of the Rampant Bull.
Kara raised the convertible roof and the two cyborgs exited the car and started for the supermarket. Kara dressed the part of a Lamborghini owner in a Prada tank top of black ribbed silk tucked into a Prada wrap miniskirt of black cotton burette secured with two metal and tortoise shell lockets, matched with black patent leather riding boots from Yves Saint Laurent.
Allison chose comfort over style, though the tight denim jeans and dark blue polo with the current Mazda "owl" logo emblazoned on the chest highlighted her form and garnered more than a few admiring stares from the young men milling out front of the store, sodas in hand.
"Thank you for helping me make this," Allison said as they retrieved a shopping cart. "I'm a decent cook, but mostly with British cuisine."
Kara bit back the comment that the British didn't have a cuisine, instead using the joke the comedian Denis Leary said about Irish cuisine consisting of "food boiled for 18 hours straight until it reaches the consistency where you can drink it through a straw". Allison stifled a laugh, putting up a token defense for the cooking prowess of her handler's peers.
"I'm always interested in trying something new, though Filipino is really new," Kara admitted.
"These recipes make it look pretty easy," Allison commented. "Though that's probably because they're from people who make it all the time," she added a bit sheepishly.
"Yes, I've been bit by that a number of times. The recipe give 10 or 15 minutes for the prep time and three-quarters of an hour later I'm still slaving over the sink peeling vegetables or mixing batter," Kara noted with a smile.
The two girls trolled the aisles, selecting the ingredients and checking them off a list they made. In a few cases they had to make "ingenious substitutes" or go with powdered as opposed to fresh, but they were successful in securing everything they needed and proceeded towards the checkout area striking victorious poses.
After returning to the Compound, they parked near the cafeteria and hauled their booty inside and into the kitchen area. It was Wednesday, which meant "Team Fusion" was working the kitchen. The previous week they'd crossed Mongolian with Swedish and only Claes dared go back for seconds, resulting in many growling bellies in the Cyborg Warehouse that evening. They'd therefore chosen the time between the lunch and dinner service to try to replicate a meal Allison and her handler Brian had sampled in the United States.
Their fratello had been on a mission to gather intelligence on a trans-Atlantic criminal trade where North American cars that had been written off by insurers after severe accidents were being slapped up and shipped to Eastern Europe and Northern Africa to be resold to unsuspecting consumers. Normally the Agency would not care about such a trade, except that Padania groups based in Genoa and Venice were offering their services as a transfer shipper and taking a nice cut of the revenues.
Because it needed to chill after preparation, the girls started on the desert course first. While Kara was familiar with the Spanish dessert flan, Allison wished to make the Filipino version, which was heavier and made with more egg yolks. Kara mixed a cup of sugar and three-quarters of a cup of water in a saucepan and brought it to a boil to allow it to caramelize. She then took the caramelized sugar and poured it into oval aluminum molds, ensuring that it evenly coated the bottom of each.
Allison separated the yolk of ten eggs and then blended them together with a can each of evaporated and condensed milk and a teaspoon of vanilla. She then poured the warm mixture into the molds on top of the caramelized sugar and covered each mold with aluminum foil and placed the leche flan molds into the steamer.
With desert done, Kara started on the appetizer, Pork Adobo, by placing a large pot on the flame and adding a cup of cider vinegar, a third of a cup of soy sauce, eight cloves of garlic and a fistful of freshly ground pepper. Allison opened a pack of boneless pork ribs and, after trimming away the excess fat, cut the ribs into small cubes, adding half of them to Kara's pot and stirring the boiling mixture for a moment before reducing the heat and allowing the contents to simmer.
"Do you mind if I play a little music?" Allison asked, holding up her portable music player.
"Have at it," Kara replied and Allison connected it to the portable stereo sitting on a shelf. She hit play and a high energy techno song in Japanese started to play, Allison following along as best she could, though Kara found her pronunciation leaving a bit to be desired.
honjitsu ha minna ni watashi no totteoki nokoi BANA wo kiikasete agechau yo
totsuzen kokurarechattazo! do-shiyo! (do-shiro to?)BASU orite aruitetara ushiro kara IKINARI!
totsuzen na TSUCHUE-SHON do-shiyo! (DOSHIROUTO!?) are ha minna ga akogare no PURINSU ja~n!
"What's this from?" Kara asked, finding it a bit catchy.
"It's from The Idolmster: Live for You video game," Allison replied.
"I've seen the anime, but I don't recall this song," Kara noted.
"It's part of a content update for the game. Now shush."
As she sang along, Allison began work on the main course, Sinigang na Baboy, which consisted of pork in a sour broth. She added the other half of cubed pork to another pot along with five cups of water and Tamarind powder, setting it to boil, followed by sliced Bok Choy and onion. She let it boil for a few minutes and then set the mixture to simmer. Kara rinsed a bowl of white rice in the sink and started the electric rice cooker. She then checked the leche flan and found it done, so she removed them from the steamer to cool before transferring them to the Cold Room to set.
After a time the pork for the appetizer was cooked through and Allison removed it from the pot and placed it on a baking sheet, putting it under the broiler to brown. When the meat had taken on a nice brown sheen, she poured them back into the pot and allowed them to simmer for a few more minutes and then started plating. Allison checked the pork in the other pot and found it tender, as well. She removed it from the heat and added Water Spinach, allowing the ambient heat of the mixture to cook it as she let the meal stand. The rice cooker chimed its completion of the task of cooking rice and Kara scooped it out into a serving dish, followed by the main course.
The cooking staff arrived shortly thereafter and they commented on the pleasant smell. As Allison piled everything onto two trays, Kara explained each dish. The head chef nodded his head sagely and Kara imagined that they'd see Filipino cuisine make an appearance on the menu in the weeks ahead. She grabbed one of the trays and followed Allison out onto the terrace where Michele and Brian sipped Birra Moretti pilsners.
"How close is that to San Miguel?" Allison asked as she placed the Pork Abodo on the table.
"Not bad," Brian replied. "Close enough to work for the dish."
The four of them dug in, Brian and Allison both declaring it a decent facsimile of the meal they'd enjoyed in the United States. Brian commented on the flavorful sourness of the Sinigang na Baboy, which pleased Allison as she'd prepared that entire dish herself.
Allison felt that with additional preparations, they could fine-tune the seasoning to match. When they were finished with the main meal, Kara and Allison took everything back to the kitchen and cleaned up. As Allison removed and plated the leche flan, Kara prepared a sterling silver coffee set with creamer and sugar, transferring the fresh-brewed coffee into an urn.
"Any idea what's on the menu for this evening?" Michele asked as he tried the flan, finding it very tasty.
"They didn't say and I was afraid to ask," Kara noted, spooning another scoop into her mouth.
The End