Chapter 1: Los Angeles Al Dente
Food.
Whether it's eaten out of mere survival, or ate for the simple pleasure of it, food has always been at the forefront of the human race.
Wars have been fought over it, people's lives have been ruined and enhanced by it in an untold number of ways. And for some people, food was simply their lives: be it gourmands who thrived off of eating and critiquing food in the hopes of enhancing others experience, farmers who toiled away at their crops, ranchers who fed and cared for the livestock, or chefs, the lunatics that traveled the vast wasteland known as the culinary world, discovering flavors unimaginable to those that were unable, or unwilling, to explore past their comfort zone and reach out for the endless possibilities that the culinary arts possessed.
One of those lunatics was named Santiago Kareem Salah Águila, and he loved every second of it.
XxX
"Santi!" A tall and muscular African American boy with a buzz cut, and piercing amber eyes hissed at his table mate… who was currently snoring way too loudly while in the middle of a lecture in their history class.
"No… the flavor will go south if you use that herb…" Santi, as his tablemate called him, is a fairly average 15 year old young man, around 172cm (5ft 8in), fairly muscular in the same way that a swimmer, or runner is, he's got medium length brown hair styled into an undercut, already fairly dark copper like skin that's further tanned from hours under the sun, and currently chocolate brown eyes that always seem to be radiating an inviting warmth that matches his permanent goofy grin. His current attire consists of dark, navy-blue jeans, dark brown, nearly black non-slip combat boots, a burgundy red polo shirt, and a brown double layered leather jacket, with the inside layer looking like a gray hoodie.
"I swear, is food all that this idiot thinks about?" The African American boy said with exasperation as he shook his friend in an effort to wake them up. "Santi! Dude, you're snoring, get up!"
The tactic seemed to work as Santi opened his eyes and immediately started to look at his surroundings, noticing that he was in his history classroom he grew frantic trying to search for his teacher, catching her glare, and confirming that he was indeed caught sleeping through class.
"Um, I can explain?" He offered weakly, intensifying the teacher's glare, and making him gulp at the ferocity behind it. "On second thought I'll just take the detention."
XxX
"I can't believe you didn't wake me up King!" Santi said in outrage before getting socked in the arm. "Hey! What was that for Kingston?!"
"That was for getting me into trouble with Mrs. Dime." Kingston responded while taking his fist back and cocking another punch that he sent towards his friend's arm. "And that, was for not waking up the first five times I tried to get you to do so."
"Man, I didn't think I was so sleep deprived." The teen yawned before frowning at his actions, he'd gotten lucky as Kingston covered for him today in their history class, he couldn't go and fall asleep in any other class today, or he'd never hear the end of it from his parents when he got to the truck.
"Up testing recipes again?" King asked his friend with a fond smirk, already knowing the answer that his food obsessed friend would provide.
"You bet!" Santi said all of the exhaustion gone from his face as he started to recall the events of last night. "I found this super cool Fusion place in Florida that mixes sushi and Peruvian food, and I just had to make some arepas and try to combine them myself!"
"Sushi? Again?" Kingston asked with a grin "You've been really into Japanese food for a while, huh?"
"I mean, yeah, I guess" Santi said while scratching the back of his neck in embarrassment "It just, makes me feel cool to make it, since neither of my parents can do it as well as me yet, it's… a skill that I think can contribute to the business if I hone it enough, my own wa to stand out, step out of their shadows, and all that."
To say that Kingston was taken aback would be an understatement, Santiago wasn't a reserved guy per say, but the level of vulnerability that he had just shown must've taken a lot of courage for the guy… too bad he was about to make a joke about it to lighten the mood.
"And you're sure it has nothing to do with the fact that you're a massive weeb?" He teased, getting his friend to glare at him, though both knew that there was no heat behind it.
"I am so kicking your ass later for that Kingston."
"Whatever you say Santiago."
XxX
As soon as school let out Santiago was off and away on his skateboard, a backpack slung over his shoulders as he skated down the street of Los Angeles, racing towards Grand Central Market where his parents' truck would be stationed today as advertised on their Instagram and other social media platforms.
As he skated around the city where he'd been born and grew up all of his life, he couldn't think of a better place to hone his culinary skills. Much like New York City, Los Angeles is a melting pot of cultures and flavors, from Chinatown, to Olvera Street, Little Tokyo, Ethiopia, and Armenia, even Pico-Robertson was really cool to go and visit. Truly, if cooking was a never-ending wasteland of flavor waiting to be discovered, then LA was a hurricane, you were either up to snuff and your dishes sold well, or you'd go out of business, there was simply too much competition for any one single restaurant to dominate and let things get stale and boring.
It was as he turned a corner on his board that he saw it, the long line of waiting customers as well as the lucky few that were eating from his parents pride and joy, the Golden Eagle, a seemingly standard food truck run by an immigrant couple and their kid, a regular old 8.5 feet by 30 feet, colored in the same burgundy red that Santiago's shirt was and with a large golden eagle on it as a logo. To Santi and his parents, it meant so much more than that. It was their hope, their bond, their pride, their joy, their struggles, their love. It was everything, and someday, he'd take it off of its wheels and turn it into the biggest restaurant in LA, he'd do the impossible and dominate a market that no one has been able to claim before. But before that he needed to see what all of the commotion at the front of the line was about.
XxX
"See, I need you folks to understand something!" A woman with poorly bleached hair, and even worse spray tan yelled as she held up one of the Golden Eagle's arepas, from the look of it being a perfectly untouched Reina Pepiada who's filling consisted of chicken, avocado, and traditional mayonnaise all mixed into one for all to see. "This thing who's name I can't even pronounce looks disgusting! And I demand a refund!"
"Ma'am, please, read the sign." Miranda, Santiago's mother, and a beautiful Venezuelan woman in her early 40's with long black hair tied back into a ponytail, and dark skin that was covered by a white sundress pleaded with a heavy accent, pointing to the sign that was right next to the register and said that no refunds would be made during the rush hours for purchases under $15.
"Well, I would hardly call this a rush hour." The woman said, turning to face the crowd before looking at Miranda as what Santiago could only assume to be her kid, took one of the establishments drink cups, and went to go fill it up with lemonade without paying for it.
"Hold it right there kiddo," A tall, muscular and tanned Egyptian man in his mid 40's said with an accent as he took the kids cup away before he could fill it up, this was Majid, Santi's dad, and the head chef of the Golden Eagle, or as their regulars liked to call him, The Pharaoh. "Your mom hasn't paid for this yet."
"You!" Said mother said, rounding onto the man. "How dare you take away my child's cup?! My little angel was simply thirsty, the poor thing." She cooed at her son.
"Ma'am, with all due respect, I am going to need to ask you to leave, it is currently the start of the dinner rush hour, and you are being a disturbance." Majid stated calmly as he gave the child the cup again. "I apologize for any inconvenience, so please, take this drink, on the house, and leave."
"No! Not until I get a refund of what you folks scammed me for!" The woman whined.
Santiago was so sick of this shit, so were the customers eating, and the ones waiting in line were as well, still, knowing his parents, he knew that they'd never back down, and the woman didn't seem like she was going to do so either, so they were at a standstill. It was a mere coincidence that he saw it when he did, someone was filming the woman flip out on her parents, going on and on about how the food was disgusting, and overpriced, her words alone would have been enough to cause Santiago to tell her off, but the fact that it was going to go onto the internet, and possibly ruin the weeks of good publicity that they had been having was the straw that broke the camel's back.
So, without a word Santi climbed into the food truck, leaving his skateboard outside, and taking off both his jacket and leaving it on the driver's seat, revealing that he was in fact wearing the Golden Eagles uniform as his shirt had the embroidery of the food truck's logo on it. He then went over to the service area and tapped his mother on the side a couple of times, so she'd move and let him deal with the customer.
"Hello ma'am," Santi said with a plastered smile "I understand that you didn't find the appearance of our food to your liking?"
"Yes! Thank you! Finally, an employee that speaks proper English!" She said seemingly exasperated not noticing the teens eyebrows twitch in annoyance. "Now then, you will give me my refund, right young man?"
"No, not to a bitch like you." He said with a cold tone of voice and a glare that fixed her in place. "I'm willing to stand the fact that you won't even try our food because it looks unappetizing to you, I'm willing to let it slide that your son tried to steal from my family when food trucks like this have a very slight profit margin and need all of the business that we can get, I'm even will to stand the fact that you have refused to be even the slightest amount of cooperative, and that we should, whiting our rights of service, be allowed to call the cops to take you away for being a disturbance."
"But no one, and I mean absolutely no one!" Santiago said, reading his voice higher and higher until he was yelling by the end. "Gets to slander my parents hard work into acclimating to this beautiful country that is filled with ugly people like you in it!"
Everyone was shell shocked as the seemingly calm and friendly boy all but snapped on the woman after her comment.
"You! How dare you speak to your elders like that?!" The woman sputtered, having been the first to recover from the verbal lashing. "You brat!"
"I'll give you a choice ma'am." Santiago said evenly but no less pissed off. "You may either leave my family's establishment, sullying nothing but our reputation as a video of you being an outright racist gets released to the masses."
The woman gulped at his sentence, and that is when Santiago knew that he had her, she was going to pick his second choice, her type always did, hoping for an easy out they would instead seal their grave even further, and become another steppingstone on his path to conquer LA.
"Or, you can prove that you were right, I'll make you another arepa, free of charge, and if it's not up your standards then we will not only give you your desired refund, but ask anyone filming to please erase their videos, a good deal, isn't it? All you need to do is lie, and we all know you're quite good at that."
"Why you…" The woman grounded out. "Fine! I accept your challenge!"
The crowd roared, and the food challenge was on!
XxX
After washing his hands and putting on an apron he grabs his phone, and turns on some music, before starting to cook.
(Play: RESIDENTE || BZRP Music Sessions #49)
Santiago first opens the ice box and takes out some of the mullet fish filets that were bought that morning at the market, cleaning them thoroughly before placing them onto a blue cutting board, he cuts away the darker parts of the meat, placing them into a separate bowl for later use. Santi then starts to cut the fish into various two-centimeter squares, placing them into a bowl, and then placing it in the freezer before washing his hands, and getting ready to move onto the next step of his dish.
He places roughly a cup and a quarter of water into a bowl before grabbing a pinch of salt and putting it into the water. His previous frown was replaced by a sadistic smile as he tapped his foot and bobbed his head to the rap song. Hands moving smoothly as he masterfully mixed in the harina pan, a special flour made from corn, making sure that no unwanted balls of dough were formed. A few minutes of this passed and then after some kneading, he had the perfect dough for arepas, not too sticky, not too hard, and not too fluffy. Santiago then put a clean rag over it to let it finish resting.
As his arepa dough was resting, Santi went ahead and started cutting some jalapeños, bell peppers, chili peppers, red onions and cilantro, throwing all the ingredients into a bowl, he squeezed some fresh key lime juice into it. Then, he lit one of the stoves placing a bit of water into a pot, and letting it warm up a bit before placing the darker cuts of mullet fish, celery, a bit of ginger, a clove of garlic, and some more onions, letting it cook as he continued to make his dish.
His dough finally ready, he made little disks out of it, and then put them over the griddle that his parents had installed into their food truck in order to let them cook on their own. He then took out the fish from the freezer and placed it in the bowl where he had chopped and drizzled his other ingredients with key lime, peppering the fish with salt as he moved it around with the other ingredients, letting their flavors and scents intermingle.
The small crowd in the meantime was in awe as the young chef masterfully moved around the kitchen, paying nary a thought to what they were doing, seeming to be going on auto-pilot, yet still making the aroma coming from the food truck smell delicious. The woman who had insulted Santiago's parents became nervous as her stomach growled in protest at not having been fed yet, all the while smelling such delicious food.
Finally, to finish off the dish Santi flipped his arepas onto their other side, letting them finalize cooking all the while he went to grab a plastic basket and some paper to serve the woman and her son. He grabbed two of the arepas and smacked them, knowing that they were ready from the hollow, drum-like sound that he received after the smack. He cut them open, and stuffed them full of the mullet fish ceviche, placing a bit of extra cut chili peppers, onions and cilantro into them.
Then, once ready the teenager slammed down the food in front of the woman with a savage grin as the song finally ended. "Enjoy!" Santi said with a twinkle in his eyes.
(Song End)
XxX
Danger!
That was the only word that could run through Karen's mind as she took a bite of the arepa that had been made at the Golden Eagle. In her mind it was as if she were a fish, simply swimming along, coasting through life, and then, in one fell swoop all of that was taken away as the dangerous raptor that the establishment was named after came down from the heavens to strike her down. Snatching her in its claws she was taken away to a land unknown to her, beautiful rainforests, crystal clear beaches, massive waterfalls, it was beautiful as it was deadly as various spices and other flavors competed for dominance whiting her mouth. Making for a lovely taste of a world that she'd never known.
XxX
To outside observers, as soon as Karen reluctantly took a bite of the arepa she went still as a small moan of pleasure escaped her, and she continued to eat the food presented to her. Rambling about how delicious it was, she couldn't deny it, however once she was about to reach for the second arepa that was on the basket placed in front of her. Santiago snatched it up, holding it just out of her reach and safely within the confines of the truck.
"You! Boy! Give me that!" She cried in outrage.
"No, I won't, now leave and never come back to our truck again." He said coldly, a silent rage still very much present in his eyes.
"What, but I-" Santiago cut her off before she could finish.
"Insulted my family, our food, and the way that we live? Yeah, you did." He rebuked with little mercy. "Now leave!"
It was then that Karen started to sob "Please, I-I'll do anything, this is the best food that I've ever had!"
"Anything?" Santi said with a dark chuckle that scared the audience.
"Yes! Anything! Please!" She pleaded.
"Alright." a smug Santiago said. "Apologize."
Karen was about to give her apologies to him when she was once again cut off. "Not to me, apologize to my parents for insulting their efforts, apologize to my customers for wasting their time, apologize to your son for being a bad role model."
Karen flinched as it felt as if the Golden Eagle's talons were crushing her again with every word that Santiago spoke, still, that melding of flavors… she just couldn't let it go. "I'm sorry!" She said turning around to face the crowd which now included Santi's parents, and her own son as mascara ran down her face. "I am so, so sorry everyone, I'm sorry for having wasted your time, I'm sorry that I said the food was disgusting, I deeply, humbly apologize."
"Good." Santi said with a content smile as he placed the dish on top of the counter, letting Karen be able to reach for it again and eat it with wild abandon.
XxX
After the… incident, things went back to normal, Karen and her son left, and business continued as usual. It was then on the ride back home that Majid and Miranda brought up a topic that made Santiago a bit uncomfortable.
"Santi," his mother started. "I really do think you should go to a culinary school; you know?"
"Mami, we've been over this, even if I wanted to, we can't" He said solemnly "I know that the truck isn't doing the greatest right now."
"Then we sell it." Majid said simply shocking Santiago half to death. "Your mother and I have been selfish, we didn't want to constantly be traveling to make a living, nor did we want to be tied down to one place, unable to live freely."
"This was our answer," the father explains "but that answer is now compromising the brilliant future that you have ahead of you, today was a clear example of that, you may very well surpass both of us in due time, Santiago, but only if you let yourself do so."
"I, but, where would I even go if both of you are going to be constantly traveling all over the world just to make ends meet?" Santi asked with worry.
"Tōtsuki." Both his parents said in unison, he'd heard of the place, dreamed and fantasized of going there once or twice… okay, a lot more than once or twice, it was a school for the truly elite prospects of the culinary world, nearly every graduate was successful in their chosen specialty of food, but that was the thing, it was for the elite, not someone like him.
The sentiment must have shown on his face, because before he could argue further, his father interrupted him. "Kareem," he called his son by his middle name, usually a sign that things were going to get serious "please, trust in us."
Miranda followed up after her husband "Santi, you're a kid, it's okay to be selfish, it's your time to spread your wings and see what you are made of."
Santiago Kareem Salah Águila, the boy who only wanted to help his parents, for not the first, and certainly not the last, but perhaps the most important time, made a request of them, tears streaming down his face as he, in his mind became more of a burden than ever before. "I want to go."
"Tōtsuki," the boy said as he cleaned up his face with a tissue, his eyes showing that he was resolute. " I want to go to Tōtsuki!"
XxX
AN: Hey, what's up you guys, long time no see. No, I'm not dead, thankfully, life just got busy for… Jesus, two years already? Anyways, I just wanted to say thank you to all of the people who have followed and favorited me and my other stories, it means a lot to me that people still like my stuff even though I haven't updated in a while. Now onto a few announcements for those said stories, feel free to skip that part if Naruto isn't your thing.
Announcement: I have not abandoned any of my Fics, however, all of them need a heavy re-work, especially when it comes to grammar, and the flow of narration. So, I will be re-working them at my own pace, and in the meantime making this story as well.
PS: As always thank you all so much for your continued support, please leave a review, any and all criticism is accepted (so long as it is constructive criticism, please don't just insult my existence) and I'd be more than happy to answer any questions that you may have during the AN of the next chapter.