The drinking game went on for a while longer. Tanya displayed a remarkable determination to win, but in the end, Nightfly won the game after a total of fifteen cups of alcoholic drinks... Cups that Blu and Jewel had to collect and clean afterwards, otherwise, Kenny would have probably scolded them on the next day the club would open.
Unfortunately, Nightfly did not come out unharmed of this game. The huge amount of alcohol that he cumulated in his system gave him a violent tummy ache. Blu had to help his teacher back to his and Jewel's hollow while his girlfriend brought a drunk hyacinth macaw back to her home in the city. Apparently, being unfamiliar with the city, it took her quite a while to find the home in question, especially because Tanya was too drunk to think clearly.
Waking up the next morning, the young Spix's macaw couple was shocked to see their guest's tummy ache hadn't passed. Nightfly was still lying in their nest, clutching his poor stomach in pain. "I... must never... drink that much... again...," he groaned, looking ready to vomit at any moment.
Thanks to his many years of reading books on the subject, Blu was able to identify food that could help with the situation and set out with his mate to go find them. He would have preferred Jewel to stay with Nightfly as he didn't like the idea to leave him alone in such a vulnerable state, but he wasn't as familiar with the city and rainforest as she was. If he wanted to get the food as fast as possible, he was going to need Jewel's knowledge.
Taking off to the skies, the blue birds collected the easiest food on the list they were looking for; bananas. Good thing these fruits were very common in Rio's rainforest. The next one revealed itself to be a bit harder to locate; chamomile. This special plant had healing properties that could help with tummy aches if diluted into tea... Meaning Blu would have to go back at Linda's house to make tea.
"Is that it?" Jewel asked, taking a little chunk of brownish root-like item.
"Yes, sweetie. Ginger can also help with stomach problems. Nightfly will be happy," Blu replied, allowing his girlfriend to add the newly found item into the large leaf they used as a bag to carry everything they collected so far.
"Nice! So, did you find everything you were looking for?" Jewel asked, eager to return to her nest and take care of her friend.
"Almost. We still have to pick up a few lemons that I can mix with water and give to Nightfly; it will help a lot too," Blu replied. "Do you know where we can find any, darling?"
Jewel rubbed her chin with a wing, thinking about it. "Well, lemons aren't exactly my favorite fruits, but if I recall correctly, the last ones I saw were on a tree near the beach."
"Alright, let's go there!"
The two Spix's macaws left the rainforest and flew across the city toward the beach, Blu carrying their belongings in his talons throughout the whole flight. Jewel couldn't help but admire how strong her boyfriend became in terms of physical strength. Not too long ago, he struggled to lift a stone on the tip of a vine with her help. Now, he could carry a bag filled with fruits and plants on his own with ease. His training with Nightfly truly made him stronger.
"So it should be somewhere around here?" Blu asked when they arrived at the beach, his eyes scanning their surroundings in search of their target.
"Yeah, it should be, but I'm not sure exactly where," she replied, doing the same as her mate until her eyes took notice of a tree with yellow fruits in its branches. "Blu! Over there!"
Following the direction into which his girlfriend pointed with her wing, Blu saw the tree in question. A smile formed on his black beak when he identified little yellow globes on the branches that were indeed lemons. "Excellent, let's go get them!" he beamed, eager to go back and help Nightfly.
The avian couple landed on the last tree branch to have lemons as all the other ones were empty. Only three of them, but it would be sufficient to help their friend. As he pulled the bag leaf next to him and opened the top, Blu reached his talons to grab the little fruits and add them to the pile...
He did not expect, however, a black and white blur to dash past him and make him lose his balance. Pushing a yelp of surprise, he flapped his wings in a desperate attempt to get back in position as he almost fell off the branch. Once his talons were safely planted into the wooden surface, he made sure that there wasn't any wound on his body. Relieved to not find any, he then widened his eyes in surprise upon seeing the lemons gone.
"Blu! Are you okay?" Jewel asked, wrapping her wings around her boyfriend in worry.
"Yeah, don't worry. What was that? Where are the lemons?" Blu asked, looking everywhere in search of the blur that almost sent him crashing to the ground. He eventually managed to see a black and white spot on top of the hill the lemon tree was standing on. "Hey!" he called, opening his wings to take off and go after the thief.
Once his talons touched the ground, the thief turned around to reveal its appearance... and let's just say it was one of the last avians Blu had expected to see in Rio. An Atlantic puffin with black feathers and a white underbelly. In spite of his clown-like face, Blu could tell from his serious expression that he wasn't there to mess at all. The three lemons were trapped into his funny orange beak and the feathers on the back of his head were held by some sort of twig-like hairband to give them the form of a ponytail.
Brushing his surprise at seeing a cold-weather bird in Brazil, of all places, Blu shook his head and narrowed his eyes. "These lemons are mine! Give them back!"'
"Fogetabouthatdude! Igotherefirstsotheybelongtome!"
Blu blinked his hazel eyes in confusion. "Huh, could you drop the lemons out? I can't understand what you're saying."
Rolling his reddish-orange eyes, the puffin opened his funny beak, letting the three fruits fall down in his black wings. "I told you to forget about that, dude! I found them first; they belong to me!"
"What do you mean, 'they belong to you'?" Blu asked with an irritated expression. "I clearly arrived here first; you stole them from me under my nose... beak!"
"Gotta be faster than that if you want to get what you want, blueberry!" the puffin replied, rubbing his big nose with his wing and a smug expression. "You know what they say: the future belongs to those who wake up early. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go and prepare a little recipe with MY lemons."
Before coming to Rio, Blu would have normally allowed the puffin to leave without saying anything, not wanting to get into any sort of confrontation. Not this time. After facing tens of dangers during his time chained to Jewel and learning how to defend himself with Nightfly, the companion certainly would not be afraid of a little snarky puffin thinking he could steal lemons when he needed them more than he did. HE WOULDN'T LET THIS SLIDE BY!
Opening his wings, Blu took off and went to get in the puffin's way, preventing him from leaving. "Not so fast, shrimp! It's cool that you want to make a recipe or something - even though birds don't usually make food - but I need those lemons more than you! My friend's stomach is hurting him, so I'll get them from you, whether you cooperate or not! Got it?!" Blu got his wing ready to grab his training wooden sword he had brought with him and tied to his back with a vine in case the puffin would react in a hostile way.
He did not expect the Atlantic puffin to completely freeze on the spot, looking like a statue. Not a single one of his muscles moved outside his eyes that twitched a little. Then, after many seconds of silence, he finally opened his beak to talk: "... Did you... just... call me... 'shrimp'...?" he asked in a low, deadly tone.
"Hum... Yes?" Blu replied, instinctively taking a step back as he felt he might have committed a mistake.
"... Nobody - and I mean NOBODY... will mock... MY SIZE!" Opening his little wings, the puffin dashed forward as fast as he did when he caught the lemons earlier. He planted his orange foot into Blu's stomach, knocking the air out of him, and making a lot of saliva come out of his beak. Next thing he knew, the Spix's macaw's back collided violently with the trunk of the lemon tree before his face fell into the dirt.
"BLU!" The young Spix's macaw heard the voice of his girlfriend calling for him before feeling her warm wings touch his shoulders. "Blu, are you alright?"
"I-I guess..." Blu coughed many times, holding his stomach in pain, and then looked up to see the puffin was no longer present. "W-Where is he?"
"He left toward the city right after giving you this kick," Jewel replied, her turquoise eyes narrowed with flare and anger. "If I find him again, I will shove lemons down his throat and make him regret ever lying a foot on you!"
"It's okay, Jewel, I'll survive," Blu assured his girlfriend, getting back on his two feet and dusting himself off. "For now, let's go back to your nest; I'm sure Nightfly would like to get treated as soon as possible."
Following the unexpected encounter with the puffin, Blu and Jewel made a quick stop by Linda's new library in the city to grab the tea equipment Blu would need to help Nightfly. Linda was absent that day, so they entered by a special entrance she made specifically for her companion. Once they got everything they needed, it was time to return to the nest and finally tend to their sick friend.
"There, it should be ready now," Blu announced, pulling the teapot off the small fire he set up outside the nest. Jewel did not want him to set her nest on fire by accident. Taking both the teapot and a cup, he opened his wings and flew back in the nest where his girlfriend watched over Nightfly, holding his wing and stroking his head feathers. It felt so weird to the parrot to see his usually strong teacher in such a vulnerable state.
He proceeded to pour the ginger tea into the cup and held it near his teacher's face. "Here, Nightfly, drink this, it'll make you feel better."
Taking a moment to sniff the pleasant ginger tea smell, Nightfly opened his beak and allowed the warm liquid to slip inside despite his stomach screaming it didn't want to swallow anything. A grumbling noise was heard from his belly and his face frowned a bit, but eased just as quickly.
"How do you feel?" Jewel asked.
"A little better. The pain isn't gone, but it calmed down a little bit. Thank you," the hooded macaw gratefully said with a weak smile. His eyes then landed on the red mark left by the puffin's kick on Blu's tummy. "What's that mark on your belly, Blu? Did you run into trouble?"
Blu stared down and placed a wing on his mark. "It's nothing, don't worry about it. We just met an angry puffin who gave me a violent kick, but I'm okay."
Despite saying this, Blu couldn't shake off some worries from his mind. What was an Atlantic puffin doing in Rio de Janeiro? What was he talking about when he said he wanted to make a recipe with lemons? But most of all, why was the kick he delivered so painful? Having read books on puffins many times in the past, Blu never saw anywhere that these little creatures could hit hard like rhinoceroses. Just the memory of the kick was enough to make him feel pain in his guts.
The young couple took care of Nightfly for the remaining of the day, making sure to treat him as well as they could. This went on all the way to the following day. Blu and Jewel woke up first, staring at the sleeping figure of Nightfly who seemed to be more at peace than the previous day.
"He looks so cute when sleeping," Jewel commented, a charmed smile on her face as she stared the hooded macaw snoring in her nest.
This comment earned her a raised eyebrow from her boyfriend. "Are you saying that you don't find me cute when I'm sleeping?"
"Maaaybe?" the female macaw replied with a roll of her eyes. When her boyfriend gave a pouting look, she chuckled in amusement and playfully nudged his shoulder. "Chill out, Blu. I'm just kidding."
Blu rolled his eyes, but couldn't prevent a smile to crack up on his beak. His girlfriend was free-spirited, sassy, and took a cruel enjoyment out of embarrassing him... And he wouldn't want to have her any other way. "Come here, you." Wrapping one wing around her back, Blu planted his beak onto Jewel's for a big kiss. No matter how many times he would do the gesture, it would always fill his soul with warmth and a sense of purpose. He would do anything for his one and only...
"GUYS! GUYS!"
The moment of comfortable silence between the two Spix's macaws was dryly cut to an end as a blue ball of energy darted inside, not even taking time to announce its arrival. Blu let go of Jewel from his embrace and turned to see a happy and excited Tanya grinning at them, panting and struggling to not jump on the spot.
"Tanya? What are you doing here? What's wrong?" Jewel asked, her face twisted by the surprise of seeing her new friend in her nest. "How did you know this was my nest?"
"Oh, I didn't; I've been searching for you everywhere for at least one hour," the football girl explained. "You guys really should leave a sign or something to help others finding you in such a big forest. Though I must admit that birds living in forests don't usually do that, and I'm used to living in the city; maybe it's my fault then, he, he," she mused.
Blu was about to shush the unexpected guest, not wanting her to wake Nightfly up and make him start the day in a bad mood. But it was already too late. The older macaw groaned and sat up, rubbing his eyes and glaring up at the others. "What's going on here? Why are you screaming?"
"Oh, hi, Nightfly," Tanya greeted him with a wave of her gloved wing. "Still not over our little drink game, are you? Sorry about that."
"Tanya, what are you here for?" Blu asked before they could wander any farther from the main subject.
"Hum... Wait, what was it already?" Tanya mumbled to herself, rubbing her head underneath her headband, trying to remember why she came here in the first place. After many seconds, she snapped her wingtips. "I remember! Guys, you gotta come with me to the city; there's this awesome restaurant designed for birds that opened a few weeks ago! They make the best food ever! You'd be filled with regret dying before getting to eat there at least once! Let's go!"
Tanya grabbed Blu and Jewel's wings, pulling them toward the hollow's exit. "W-Wait, Tanya!" Jewel exclaimed, breaking free of her grasp before they could exit her nest. "First of all, what's a restaurant supposed to be? And second, we can't just leave Nightfly alone; someone's gotta watch over him."
"To answer your first question, a restaurant is a place where you sit down at a table and eat all sorts of foods and drinks that cannot be found in the jungle," Tanya explained. "And second... Well, actually, I don't know how to respond to your second point," she admitted with a sheepish look.
Did Blu heard incorrectly or did she really said a restaurant for birds? First, a dancing club, now, a restaurant? What would it be next? A whole library with bird-sized books? Or a stadium for birds to come and have boxing fights? "Jewel's right, Tanya. We'd like to go with you, but Nightfly needs to be watched after. What if a snake or another predator sneaks in here while he's weak and vulnerable?"
Nightfly let out a little insulted cough at being called weak and vulnerable.
"Then why don't you go with her while I stay here, Blu?" Jewel suggested. "I've never been to a restaurant before, so it's no big deal. Plus, I'm sure you're more than capable of watching after yourself now, right?"
Blu took his girlfriend's wings with his. "Are you sure you're okay with that, sweetie?"
"Of course. You go and have fun," Jewel assured with a smile, kissing her mate's cheek.
"How adorable!" Tanya cooed, not trying to sound mocking or anything. She then grabbed Blu's wing and started pulling him away. "Let's go now; they won't stay open all day long!"
Just as the hyacinth macaw opened her wing and flew away, Blu turned one last time toward the two other Spix's macaws in the hollow. "Be careful, guys. We won't be back too late. See ya later!" And, with that, he stepped out to catch after his blue friend.
"So? What's that restaurant like?" Blu asked Tanya while they were flying above the majestic city.
"You. Will. Adore. IT!" the hyacinth macaw replied with a big grin plastered on her beak. "The guys working there make wonderful meals especially for birds like you and me. Meals that most avians will never ever have a chance to taste. That's pretty sad to think about. Guess Rio's really blessed to have their own trio of cooks."
The last part of her explanations caught Blu's attention. "Wait a minute, did you just say a trio? As in three birds?"
"Yup; the patron told me they were three to run the place," Tanya confirmed.
The male avian blinked his hazel eyes multiple times. He was maybe not an expert in the culinary domain, but even a novice would know that it takes a lot of people to run a restaurant - more than just three. And they were birds! That's what he learned from watching a few cooking shows and movies with Linda back in Minnesota anyway. Either Tanya was messing around with him or these birds were truly masters. He would get his answer soon enough.
"We're here!" Tanya announced just as they both landed on the floor of a little street in the calmer parts of the city. They walked up a set of wooden boards that led up to a little platform inside an alley. This platform itself was connected to the side of a building with a little slit covered by a circular wooden door - similar to the one in Dominic's home. "Come on, let's get inside!" Tanya pressed. "Just the smell is enough to bring water to my beak!"
Now that she mentioned it, Blu realized that there was indeed a particular smell coming out through the little slits in the wooden door. This scent... bitter and pungent - like that of good quality food being cooked over a wooden fire. Also strongly aromatic and somewhat spicy. But there was a less pleasant odor in the mix, like... fish?
Tanya pulled the door open and stepped inside, Blu following behind her. Despite being rather small, the room had a light, pleasant atmosphere. Three lightbulbs connected to the high ceiling were bringing enough light to remove any trace of shadow inside. About fifteen square-shaped tables made of wood were lined by groups of five to form a square formation. Eight of them were busy at the moments with birds sitting down to either eat or wait for their food.
"You think it looks good? Wait 'till you try what they make here!" Tanya beamed, leading Blu across the room and to a counter at the far end.
The Spix's macaw stared at the other birds chewing on very human-looking meals such as pastas or even sushis, using bird-sized utensils with their wings. But if he thought the eating zone was impressive, then the next part amazed him even more. They arrived at the counter just at the moment a scarlet macaw was handed a plate of cooked rice by a great-tailed grackle whom Blu almost took for a crow with brown feathers and darker wings and tail feathers. Looking over her shoulder, he got to see a work space that looked exactly like a kitchen with ovens, cooking equipment, knives, etc.
"Hi, welcome to Lazaro's," the grackle greeted the blue birds with a smile on her beak. "What can we make for you today?"
"Yo, Rosita! Remember me?" Tanya beamed with holding her wing forward in a fist. "I came here yesterday to try everything you had to offer!"
"He, he, I sure do remember you, girl," the grackle named Rosita replied with pressing her own wing against Tanya's for a bump-fist. "It's not hard to recall the girl who ate at least fifty of Lazaro's sushis in the very same day."
"Fifty?!" Blu repeated, blinking his hazel eyes in disbelief, and staring at his hyacinth macaw friend.
"They're very delicious," she explained, trying to conceal a little blush. "Rosita, this is Blu, one of my most recently made friends. Blu, Rosita, the waitress of this restaurant."
"Nice to meet you," Blu politely said after being introduced, shaking wings with Rosita. "So? What do you guys make for food here?"
Rosita rolled her eyes with a smile. "A lot of things... mainly sushis and rice. But our cook chief likes to do all sorts of stuff and surprise customers who doubt him. 'Always pushing himself at his best', as he says." She turned toward the kitchen. "Hey, Lazaro! We have a customer who wants to be surprised!"
Following this call, the cooking chief named Lazaro stopped whatever he was doing in the kitchen and came to hop on the counter. "Really? How's that?" Lazaro was a small bird... with black and white feathers... and an orange beak...
"Y-You?!" Blu exclaimed, pointing a wing at the puffin.
"...?! YOU!" he exclaimed, pointing his black wing back at the Spix's macaw.
While the two birds were glaring at each other, Tanya and Rosita stared alternately at them with curious expressions. "Wait a minute, you guys know each other?" Rosita asked.
"We sure do! That guy stole lemons from me yesterday and left me with this!" Blu designed the still slightly visible red mark on his stomach, causing the girls to frown. "He's a freakin' thief!"
"A thief?!" the puffin whom Blu now knew was called Lazaro exclaimed, glaring even harder than before. "I haven't seen your name written on these lemons, skinny guy! Those fruits are for everyone, so stop being a selfish whiner!"
The insult landed its mark on Blu's poor mind. Skinny guy? He self-consciously looked down at his waist for an inspecting stare. Sure, he wasn't the most fat or muscle-filled bird around, but that didn't make him skinny; just slender! Right? Realizing he was wandering away from the subject, Blu shook his head and glared once again. "Anyways, what are you doing here?"
"Well, this place just so happens to be my restaurant, numb skull, so it's pretty normal that I have to be here to run it!" Lazaro explained, his snarky glare turning into a proud grin as he crossed his little wings and held his head high. "Lazaro's, the best restaurant in all of Rio - and also in all the world of avians and animals! You won't find any restaurant like this anywhere else!"
Jeez, that guy was truly full of himself. Following the insult he placed upon his figure, Blu couldn't help but feel the need to cut his boasting down short. "Well, you'll have to excuse me, but it's a bit hard to believe a puffin who probably can't even reach a shelf without having to jump or fly can run his own restaurant."
Lazaro's wall of pride was immediately destroyed and his eyes snapped open. "W-What did you just say?!"
"You heard me right," Blu replied with a little grin.
The puffin jumped to his face, the hottest fire in the world burning behind his yellow eyes. "This is the second time you've been mocking my size! Now, you dare doubt my cooking skills?! You will take that back right now, skinny guy!"
"Why should I?" Blu asked, crossing his wings with a smug grin. "I never tasted the food you make."
Upon hearing this affirmation, Lazaro blinked his eyes, staring down. He looked up after a few seconds of reflection and pointed at Blu with his little black wing. "Let's make a deal; if I can make you a meal to sends your taste buds to heaven, you will apologize for mocking my size and acknowledge me as the best cook chief in this country!"
Blu rubbed his chin with his wingtip, thinking about the proposition. "Yeah, that does sound like a fair deal. But if I don't like the food you serve me, you'll own me three lemons for my sick friend. Got it?"
Curling his little wings into fists, Lazaro narrowed his eyes that were burning hotter than before (Blu could practically feel the heat emanating from the puffin's body) and rose them in the air. "ALRIGHT! THE COOKING CHALLENGE IS ON!"
Not wasting a second, Lazaro turned on his palmed feet and dashed back in the kitchen, ready to start his work. "Hey, Hernandez! I'm gonna start a new meal! I need eight-hundred grams of potatoes, one pinch of salt with ground black pepper, two hundred grams of salmon and mackerel, a box of parsley, horseradish sauce, six spring onions, two eggs, a bag of flour, and three bottles of oil!"
A tall pelican whose beak was even bigger than Rafael's walked through a door at the back of the restaurant, carrying lots of ingredients in his large wings, and bringing them to the chief. This last one started by filling a bowl with water which he then proceeded to tip salt into and made it boil on the oven. Once it was hot enough, he took the potatoes and dropped them down in it, leaving to go chop the other ingredients while they boiled.
In spite of being a bird, Lazaro was swiftly moving the knife around with his wing, chopping the spring onions and smoke salmon with agility and precision. Just as he finished cutting the onions into tiny pieces, the potatoes were done, so he went to pull the now tender vegetables out and drained them to the point they become smooth.
With the first part being done, the little puffin hopped to another part of the counter and proceeded to place some of the mash inside a bowl. Adding the salmon and flake inside the mackerel, he took a third bowl into which he placed the herbs, horseradish, onion pieces, and oil to garnish. He seasoned the everything with salt and pepper.
As the work went along, a nice smell of cooking and aromas started invading Blu's nostrils. Linda did sometimes cook food in the kitchen which allowed him to smell the work in progress, but she only did little meals for herself and, anyways, he was reading books in the living room most of the time. Getting to smell the ingredients being prepared and mixed was a whole new experience for him... A pleasant one.
Lazaro mixed everything together while making sure not to break the mackerel too much. Once the mixture was to his liking, he shaped it into eight patties and walked to the back of the kitchen with it. Twenty minutes later, he returned with the bowl and started seasoning it with more salt and seasoning.
Just as Lazaro was about to move on with the next part, Tanya suddenly grabbed Blu's wing and started pulling him away from the counter. "Come on, Blu. Let's go sit down and wait for the meal to arrive."
"B-But I want to see what he's gonna cook for me!" Blu protested, wanting to see the rest of the cooking operation.
"Trust me, dude, one of the most magic part of eating here is to NOT know what you'll get. There's nothing like having low expectations for something and then to have this something blow your mind off."
So, the two blue birds went to sit down at one of the tables, Blu waiting impatiently to eat his first human meal adapted for a bird. During the waiting time, he took one of the forks on the table with his wing and twirled it between his feathers. It felt so... alien. You would think that after learning how to swing a sword, he'd get used to manipulate human objects with his wings... but that wasn't the case.
"It's ready!" Rosita suddenly announced about half an hour later. She came to Blu and Tanya's table with a bird-sized plate in her wing which she gracefully placed down before her client. "Bon appétit!"
Blu inspected his food. Two balls of crispy-looking meat were covered in a clear liquid and accompanied by some green leaves on the side. The steam emanating from them indicated they were still warm and the smell was enough for saliva to rise in the macaw's beak. "Go on! Dig in!" Tanya urged him with a smile.
Rising his fork, Blu cut a piece from one of the meatballs, releasing a lot of steam in the process. He couldn't help but hesitate as he never truly ate meat before... But it wasn't bad to try new things, right? Opening his beak, he slid the piece inside, proceeded to munch on it... and then widened his eyes as far as they could go.
That. Was. The. Most. Delicious. Thing. HE EVER GOT TO TASTE! The texture was crispy on the surface, but everything underneath was light and easy to break apart. A surprise he did not expect. Having not eaten a lot of human cuisine before, he couldn't give a very detailed opinion in this domain, but the flavor was rich and flagrant, clearly indicating that Lazaro did a lot to make it a high-quality meal.
"W-What's this?!"
"This is my smoked salmon fishcake!" Lazaro replied with a grin. "One of the first meals I ever learned to make!"
"F-Fishcake?" Blu asked in disbelief. "B-But how did you manage to make it so tender? I saw you using mackerel during preparation and it's supposed to be harder than this."
Lazaro simply pointed at the meal with a wingtip. "Take a good look at it."
Following his lead, Blu looked at the meatballs, giving them an inspecting look. He quickly took notice of the clear liquid on the surface which he had completely forgotten about. "What's this sauce?"
"It's not sauce; it's honey," Lazaro said, revealing the secret ingredient. "Not a lot of people know this, but honey can be used to tenderize meat - pineapple juice too, but I don't feel like adding one fruit to my inventory just for this purpose while I already have honey. This peculiar substance has enzymes called protease, which is known for the breaking down of protein, and it is also present in the body as part of the digestive process. Protein is present in meat. Therefore, when meat is rubbed with honey, the proteins in the meat are broken down and, in turn, tenderizes."
"Wow, that's actually pretty smart," Blu admitted, impressed by the puffin's creativity. He was about to take another bite when the chief cook in question stopped his fork with his foot.
"Ha, ha, ha, not so fast, skinny guy. If you wanna eat any more of this, you first have to tell me if you like it or not."
As much as he wanted to claim he didn't enjoy the food and win their little argument, Blu knew that it would be completely wrong. They had a bet and this guy won it fair and square. Plus, he worked really hard to make him these delicious smoked salmon fishcakes. "Alright, I recognize my defeat; you made me a meal that I enjoyed as promised. You win this."
Lazaro just gave a satisfied nod and walked away. "Enjoy your meal, my dear customer."
###
A few moments later, Blu and Tanya left the restaurant, their stomachs filled with salmon fishcakes and fried rice. "See? I told you that place was heaven for birds who never got to taste cuisine before," the hyacinth macaw told her friend while rubbing her rice-filled stomach with a wing and letting out a burp.
"You were a hundred percent right, Tanya," Blu recognized. "That was a thousand times better than bird crackers. We should come back here with our friends one of these days. I'm sure Jewel would like this place."
"Hey! Skinny guy!" Blu stopped in his tracks and turned around, seeing Lazaro standing in the doorway of his restaurant. He was holding something in his wing. "Catch this!" Blu barely managed to catch the yellow item before it could hit his face, staring down at it. "It's one of yesterday's lemons. Turns out I only needed two for the recipe I wanted to do. So, if your friend is still sick, you can have this one."
Blu blinked his eyes in surprise, having not expected such a kind act from the puffin. "Really? Wow, thanks, Lazaro!"
"Don't mention it." He turned around to go back in his restaurant. "Now get out of here and tell all the birds you know that my restaurant's the best."
As the puffin retreated inside his restaurant, the blue birds took off to the skies, heading back to the jungle.
Author's note: Another character from my deleted Rio story has been introduced in this chapter in the form of Lazaro, the hot-headed cook chief puffin. He was the one playing the 'Sanji' of the Blue Thunder Team back in it.
Now, on this note, Blu and Lazaro are not friends right now; it's more like a frenemy relationship (at least, for the moment!). All we learned about him in this chapter is that he's a great cook, can deliver strong kicks, hates being mocked for his size, and likes challenges.
I learned the trick about using honey and pineapple juice to tenderize meat in a Crunchyroll anime called "Foodwars" or "Shokugeki no Soma" that talks about cooking and living life as a cook. While not as good as Naruto or Bleach, this anime teaches a lot about cooking and I'm using it as a reference for the cooking sections of my stories.
Now, constructive reviews are welcome and, as always, may the gods watch over you all.