Night 55: Manticore & Amiya - Hoary Stock Flower Pedal Biscuit & New Year's Cake
The Late Night Diner is a part of Rhodes Island's canteen. That goes without saying – to whom had anyone ever heard of a diner in the boiler room?
As the name implies, it opens around midnight. There are only a handful of customers at a time.
Operators off their night shift could take an order and bring back to their quarters. Night owls could sit dining-in while leeching off the Diner's wi-fi. The Doctor would come for instant noodles from time to time.
Drinks are in the cooler. Anyone burdened by their own thoughts could take one and chug it down, anytime.
Menu? No such thing exists. What the Chef prepares is what you get. It all depends on his mood of the day.
Welcome to the Rhodes Island Late Night Diner. In here, you might even meet a familiar face or two.
When the Chef rubbed his sore arms and pushed open the kitchen door, Amiya and a few operators had been busy filling piping bags with creams of different colors.
"Good evening, Boss!" The little rabbit waved at him with a piping bag in hand, ears perked up tall and energetic due to her high mood. "It's New Years Eve tonight. Thank you for another year of hard work making us delicious meals every night!"
"Just doing my job. I ought to thank Rhodes Island for renting me this part of canteen for the Diner." The Chef shook his head and grinned. Even though he didn't let on, the lavish Paramony banquet was indeed quite taxing on his constitution. It took him days of bed rest just to recover from the exhaustion. "The cake is almost ready, I take?" He asked.
"Yep! The base had already finished baking. We'll start the icing and decoration right away! Should be able to get it done before midnight." Amiya nodded. "We had also cleaned up the work stations and the oven. You should have no problem keep the Diner open on time tonight."
"You guys..." The Chef smirked and took in the sight of the kitchen. His gaze landed on a pot of flowering plant on a nearby counter. Large, beautiful hoary stock blossomed on green stalks, their magenta petals and emerald leaves formed quite a contrast to the rather drab white and gray. "You even brought flower for me? I can't keep such a delicate thing in here, you know." He said, slightly surprised.
"Eh?" Amiya followed the Chef's gaze and shook her head in confusion. "The pot of hoary stock was here when we arrived. We - I didn't know who left it behind. Could it be a present from miss Perfumer or mister Flamebringer? I heard the greenhouse is hosting a new year's potted plant drive and gifting operators all sorts of flowers."
The Chef picked up the pot. A slip of paper revealed itself from underneath. The hand writing on it was small and delicate.
"Thank you for making delicious meals for everyone, every evening. Although I only had a few chances to sample your cooking throughout the year, they had left me with profound impression. I could always remember your extraordinary culinary feats all year round. This is but a simple gift I present to you. It is far from capable of showing my gratitude and respect in an adequate manner, so if you need any of my help, any help at all, just please tell me!
P.s. If you could still remember me among the guests, I would be very appreciated it. Though if you could not, I don't mind it either."
"Is this...a note from miss Manticore?" Amiya had been standing behind the Chef and reading the note quietly. "Lots of operators had received notes and small gifts from her. Even though her Oripathy symptom was somewhat unusual, she was trying her best to be friends with everyone. It's been another year and we still had not decoded much on Oripathy and the Originium itself, yet if we could make people like miss Manticore making more friends and let it motivate us, drive us forward, I do believe someday...someday we shall achieve what we set out to do from the start."
The Chef turned his head and looked at the young lady beside him. She had been the leader of Rhodes Island, and had always been the first on the job no matter it was combat or any other challenges. Her speech could indeed instill others with a sense of hope and purpose, yet almost everyone had forgotten that she, too, was still a child. Children of her age should have been sitting around the table with their family in this time of the year and making beautiful wishes with brand new toys on their laps.
Should've cooked up something good for the kid, The Chef thought. She had grew thin again in recent days. He sighed quietly, and when he looked back again there had been a large glass jar sitting on top of the same counter. Inside was hoary stock petals soaked in sugar and honey, and he could smell the sweet aroma even with the lid closed. There too was a note taped on the jar, written by Manticore.
"This is the hoary stock jam I made. If you had the time tonight, could you please prepare some flower petal biscuit with it? I'd like everyone to have a taste, and with it I wish to tell everyone how much I loved the company, every moment of it."
The Chef took the jar in one hand and weighed it, then patted Amiya on the head with another. "Don't trouble yourself with such heavy thoughts, you still have a cake to make. Look at this thing...I got my work set out for me too."
With some lard and sugar added, the Chef poured hot water in flour and mixed it into a dough. He then kneaded it till it turned smooth, then cut it into smaller chunks and leave them to loosen for a while. In the mean time, he prepared another small batch of dough made by mixing lard directly with flour. He rolled the smaller chunks into skins, then wrapped one around a chunk of lard flour mix and rolled it into a ball, then rolled the ball into a rod with two pointy ends. Afterwards, he rolled the rod up from one end, rolled it into a skin again, and rolled it up for a second time. Finally he folded it up and pressed it into a round shape - the skin of the flower biscuit was completed.
The filling was made with fried gluten rice flour mixed with the flower jam. The entire kitchen was permeated with the sweet scent of the jam and the thick aroma of hoary stock when the Chef opened the jar. Soaked through with honey and sugar, the flower petals within had already turned a deep shade of magenta. Even though they looked somewhat withered, the fermentation had brought out all the scent the petals could offer. It was as if a sea of hoary stocks had blossomed in the middle of the kitchen.
While he worked, the Chef looked at Amiya working on the large cake beside him. With the help of others, the cake bases were stacked together with multiple flavors of fruit jam filled in-between. A thick layer of cream icing was then covered on and around the stacked bases. Even now, more layers were carefully stacked upon it by others, while Amiya herself was decorating the round edges with a piping bag, fully concentrated on her task. The crowd chatted away free and jolly, talking about the fun happenings throughout the past year. Amiya giggled and laughed heartily. There might be many serious things weighing heavily on her mind, yet when there was a tasty and beautiful cake before her she was bound to smile and laugh from the bottom of her heart. All the troubles were left behind for the time being.
With the biscuit skins filled and stamped with specially made New Year's red stamp of the Rhodes Kitchen, the Chef sent the batch of flower petal biscuit into the oven. As the heat rose, the layers of the skin become more and more clear. Folded yet translucent, they looked like folds of thin silk cloth of Yan of the ancient past. The rich smell of lard wrapped around the heavenly scent of hoary stock was carried out of the oven by the heat, and as the last few seconds of the baking process ticked by, the decorating of the New Year's cake was about to wrap-up as well.
It was already close to midnight, and outside in the canteen, there had been a large crowd gathered there ready to celebrate the coming new year. Amiya and others carried the beautifully decorated layered cake out of the kitchen, and placed it in the center of the dining area in a wave of cheers and exclaims. The Chef followed close behind, setting down plates of carefully arranged flower petal biscuits around the large cake.
"Before Amiya sent out her New Year's greetings, I would like to thank fellow operator Manticore." The Chef cleared his throat and announced atop of a chair. "She might be standing behind one of you at the moment but none would notice her was there. Yet I'd like you all to remember that she spent a long time and prepared some excellent flower petal jam, then asked me to share it with you in the form of flower petal biscuits. She wanted us know that she liked the feeling of staying close with everyone. In the coming new year, I sincerely wish that more among us could become friends with her. Enjoy the biscuits." With that said, the Chef stepped down from the chair, and gestured Amiya to start her speech.
Amiya, standing atop the same chair now, looked nervous with the gaze of the crowd on her. She squeezed her finger and looked at the expecting eyes, started her speech. "I'm glad that all of you could make it here to celebrate the new year. This is the last day of the year, and for many this year had been difficult yet unforgettable. I do not wish to remind everyone the pain and suffering we had endured, but I believe we should hold on to these memories and hold them dear. Only by clutching them close to our hearts, hope and courage would spring forth from within each and everyone of us, and drive us to forge ahead, making the coming year a better, happier experience to all of us. Rhodes Island would too drive forward with all of you in the new year. Please, let's march towards a brighter future! Everyone, let's count down for the new year!"
"Five!"
"Four!"
"Three!"
"Two!"
"One!"
"Happy New Year!"
Fireworks of all colors bloomed above the deck of the land ship. Operators turned and embraced each other, gifting smiles of happiness to the first moments of the new year. The cake and biscuits were shared among the crowd, the sweet scent of cream and hoary stock flowed like wine inside the canteen.
If you spot a plate floating in the air by its own, don't forget to leave a large wedge of cake inside, as well as a few flower petal biscuits.