Chapter 12: Cultural cooking for the Castle

Troy was astonished by how BIG the kitchen was. There were some smaller tables, but even so, it was almost as big as the moat chamber control system. Troy looked around some more and could see people wearing blue and yellow clothes for cooking, and even their chef hats were blue and yellow striped.

"You ready?" Priscilla questioned Troy.

"Of course!" Troy said.

"*Pointing to a door* that's where the food supply storage is." Priscilla explained to Troy.

"Thanks!" Troy said.

Priscilla walked over to who looked like to be the head chef of the kitchen, and Troy heard her say a few things to him. Finally, Priscilla walked back to Troy smiling.

"Chad said that you can make a few dishes, and he will cancel some of the other dishes as well so your dishes can come into place!" Priscilla said to Troy.

"Great! Time to put my skills to the test!" Troy said confidently, and walked inside the storage. The storage was rather, super long, but was wide as two of the castle's grand staircases. Troy concentrated super hard and thought about his favorite dishes. He finally could picture them in his mind. "Let's get to work!" He said enthusiastically and made his way towards the flour.

When he finally arrived back outside, he was carrying two large bags and set them down at an empty table. He then walked over to a nearby cupboard and took out a giant glass bowl. He poured some flour in it, and then put on some banana cream on it. Then he started adding some salt and pepper in and started mixing them.

"This is going to be good!" Troy said to himself.

He added a few more extra supplies in the mix, and it started smelling good, that it attracted seven cooks to come see what he was making. All seven cooks were amazed by that, and now, even Priscilla was getting attracted. She quickly finished up cutting the carrots and ran over to see what was going on.

"WHOA!" She shouted.

That was very appropriate to say that, because Troy was just about to carry the bowl and pour the mixture onto a tray. When he did, he put it inside the oven, and waited for a few minutes. In the meantime, he quickly reached into one of the two bags and took out some coconuts and milk. He took a medium sized bowl and then grinded the coconuts up until there were just flakes. He poured some milk in the coconuts and mixed them for a bit.

"This is gonna be good!" Troy muttered to himself, and then grabbed eight bananas, cut them up, removed the skin and then put them in a frying pan. Then he turned the heat on, and waited for them to fry. He also grabbed some noodle mix, and then quickly mixed them up with some spices, but the strange thing was that the spices weren't really used a lot in the kitchen. "Why are there so many spices? I guess they weren't really used a lot."

Priscilla finished cutting up the carrots, and then moved on to the celery stalks, and once she finished with those, she washed up her hands to go see how Troy was doing. The bananas were now fully cooked, so Troy rushed over there and quickly put them in a giant plate before they began too hot. He then turned down the heat a little bit and got out his coconut mix. Then the coconut mix was the one now added to the heat.

"What are you doing now Troy?" Priscilla asked.

"Well, did you get the appetizers ready?" Troy countered back with the question.

"Yeah, its boiled celery and carrots mixed in with some royal peanut butter." Priscilla said, smirking.

"I am making a *Sees the flour mixture finished baking from the oven* okay, wait I have to get something." Troy quickly said, and then rushed over to the oven. Then he quickly took the tray out with his hands, and then put it out on the table. The smell was one of the best fragrances ever that Priscilla experienced.

"What do I do with this really good looking dish?" Priscilla asked.

"It's banana bread topped up with some cream and pepper stuffed in the bread." Troy explained. "Cut it up into twenty eight pieces."

"Sure thing!" Priscilla smiled and then got out a large knife.

Troy quickly dumped the coconut mixture into a drizzlier container. He then took the drizzlier and drizzled the cream on top of the forty bananas he had sliced, and all of the chefs just stood there glaring at the bananas.

"Whoa ho! You sure do know how to make impressive food!" Chad complemented Troy.

"Thanks. This was one of the foods that my home place makes! Cultural, to be exact!" Troy said, and laughed a bit.

Troy grabbed his noodle mix and dumped them all in a pot, then got some green and red herbs. He sprinkled them on top of the boiling noodles, and smirked.

"This is going to be one heck of a ramen that will impress everyone!" Troy said to himself.

Soon Priscilla finished up the cutting, and Troy told her that the dish is now finished. Troy also said to her that the fried banana is also complete as well. Priscilla nodded and then started to carry the drinks to the royal dining room table.

"All right! Now all I have to do is wait for the ramen to be finished and that'll be it!" Troy said, really happy of the work he had done.

He decided to go see how his favorite cranberries were doing. He found almost about eighty of them washing up in a super large giant container, with no cooks around. The container was filled with water, and Troy assumed that the cranberries were getting washed up.

"That sure looks tasty doesn't it?" Troy heard a voice behind him. When Troy looked behind, it was Perry, picking up the celery and carrots appetizer and ready to serve it.

"Yeah!" Troy said smiling. "It just makes me want to eat all of them."

"Well make sure you don't it all of them! After all, they take time to grow!"

"Yeah, but I would probably take already one fourth of them."

"Anyways, I have to go serve this, and I think whatever you're cooking in the pot around here is finished."

"Thanks for the heads-up!" Troy thanked Perry, and went to pour his ramen into a large ceramic bowl. Perry glanced at the ramen, smiled and then left the kitchen.

"All right! Now it's time!" Troy said excitedly.

Troy signaled for two cooks including Chad to come help him. Troy carried the ramen, one of the cooks carried the banana cream pepper bread, and Chad carried the coconut fried banana. As soon as Troy and the two of them arrived in the dining room, everyone was shocked.

"Well, well! Looks like our adventurer friend knows some cooking skills!" Konah congratulated Troy, with his voice booming across the room with no problem.

"Yeah, thanks!" Troy said, smiling big.

Troy set the ramen down, and then helped with his other foods; finally he took his empty seat and waited.

"I can see Qanah!" Perry said excitedly.

"Yep…" Troy said. It kind of seemed weird to him that Perry is really enthusiastic to see his mom, even though he had seen her entire life so far. But still, there were a lot of things Perry was grateful that his mom did, but what he did do was at least to honor her! Troy could remember his own mom, back home up near the coast.

"I always forgot what it's like to have a mother." Troy thought to himself. Troy sighed, but then could hear more trumpets sounding. After everyone greeted Qanah, and Qanah greeted them, she could see Troy's dishes not far from her.

"My, My! That's some really good food! Who cooked them?"

"I did." Troy said, with a little bit of a smile.

"You are one extraordinary cook! You are very creative I can see here!" Qanah beamed at Troy.

"Thanks!" Troy said.

Troy's dishes were the first to reach for, but of course, Troy helped himself to other dishes. On his plate were some Ramen noodles, cornbread, mountain top beef, celery, carrots and peanut butter mix, cranberries, fried banana, and his favorite berry drink. Troy was the last to start eating, he watched as everyone began eating the foods he cooked. Perry put some banana bread with pepper in his mouth and chewed. Troy waited anxiously.

"Delicious! The inside is really good Troy!" Perry said, and he knew that was one of the tastiest dishes he had ever tasted. "The pepper amount was the right quality, and you had enough salt and cream inside!"

"Thanks!" Troy said again.

Then Troy watched as Konah ate some of ramen that Troy cooked. Troy hoped the spices were enough to do it.

"Whoa ho! This is exquisite, wonderful!" Konah praised. "I have never tasted such spices and herbs in a long time! Now, I wanted these to be used more often!"

Everyone in the room clapped, and Troy smiled to himself.

"Now let's see Priscilla's view!" Troy smirked, he saw Priscilla try some of the banana and coconut cream. Priscilla chewed for a few minutes and made a face.

"Uh oh. I don't think she likes it." Troy thought to himself.

Just then, Priscilla's faced turned into a great smile.

"Wow Troy! That was the tastiest banana I had ever tasted in my life!" Priscilla gushed, which made Troy nearly jump out of his seat in surprise.

"Really? You like it?" Troy said. He knew she liked it, but he wanted to hear her say it again.

"Of course silly!" Priscilla said. "Honestly, you really need to give me that recipe!"

"I guess so!" Troy smiled.

Though Troy was the last person to eat, he actually was the first person to finish eating his food, which seemed like a pure coincidence! Troy kept on thinking why he finished first, but still, when everyone was finished, Konah walked over to Troy, who was about to exit the dining room.

"That was some mighty good food Troy! How would you like to cook for dinner tonight as well?" Konah said, smiling at Troy.

"Thanks for the offer Konah! I'd be honored to cook for dinner as well!" Troy said. Then hesitated a bit. "What can I do now?"

"Everyone has some activities going on in the back of the castle! Maybe you can try some!" Konah suggested.

"Thanks! I'll go see what I can do over there!" Troy excitedly say, and then rushed over to the back of the castle.

When Troy opened the door, he could see a lot of things going on, just as Konah said.

There were some princes riding on ponies and making them jump over hurdles, there were princesses shooting arrows at some nearby targets, and there were some balloons flying around, the skeletons inside relaxing and wearing some shades.

"This is awesome!" Troy exclaimed. "Now what should I do?"

Troy walked around until he could see a referee watching as some barbarians took some swords and shields, some wizards taking magic orbs, and a few other people taking weapons. They all lined up in 2 groups that the referee assigned them, so Troy walked up to him.

"Hey, what are they doing?" Troy questioned the referee.

"We are playing this game called Royal Forest Flags." The referee said. "If you want to play, you can go over to the blue team."

"Thanks, I guess I'll play!" Troy said.

"Make sure to arm yourself with some armor, shields and swords!" The referee warned Troy.

"How do we even play this game?" Troy asked.

"To teams will find hiding spots in the nearby forest and then hide and guard their flag there. After that, a few of their teammates will search off and try to get through the other team's defense and take their flag to their flag. They have to attach it on top of the flag, but there is no way you can die. It's very rare in this game, and you're mostly likely just to knockout." The referee explained.

"That's seems safe enough." Troy said, as he equipped himself with his armor and a sword.

"Are we all ready?" The referee shouted to everyone.

"YES!" Everyone shouted, and started running off to the forest. Some nearby balloons flew over them watching them just in case anyone was cheating. Soon, as everyone arrived in the forest, Troy kept up with the person who was carrying the blue team's flag, which was a wizard.

"Where do you think we should hide it?" Troy asked.

"I don't know, but can you stay by me and guard me?" The wizard questioned.

"Sure thing!" Troy said. "Now let's go find a place to hide the flag!"