Solo [The Tidepool Bar]Of Life and Blades II

[Moritz Craven]

73 Summer 521 Continued

Having finished with the garlic, onions, and tomato, all that was left of the four he had begun with was the spicy peppers. Having finished his other work for the moment Stu came over to inspect Moritz work. After a moment he gave a non-commital shrug which Moritz took to mean - good enough- before continuing his instruction.

"Okay Moritz, remember the onions? How if you cut them it burns your eyes, makes them water? Well you have to be careful with the spicy peppers, as they can be even worse. If you get any in your eyes... Well, just don't get any in your eyes, all right?"

Moritz nodded, staring at the odd little plant, so much smaller than the others but apparently more dangerous.

Plants could have spines. They could be poisonous. But being spicy as an attack? That seemed odd to Moritz. But then, diversity was life, and different method of doing similar things made sense when it came to attempting diversity. Otherwise if all plants used the same thing then a plant eater might develop a thorn proof mouth or such thing and be protected from all. But if it only protected from one... Well it made sense to Moritz, the logic of plants and such things and why they differed.

Even more so it made sense that humans and people had one by one taken to mastering these various things and using them for sustenance.

Watching Stu work Moritz did his best to follow along so that he could do it later.

First he began with a knife, cutting off the top where the stem was. Then using the the knife with the pepper laid long ways he cut it in half. After that he used a small spoon and began scooping the innards out into a separate smaller bowl.

"Okay Moritz, bear in mind I make different salsas. The extra spicy one will get the innards of the spicy pepper, since a lot of the heat is there. The outer part is spicy as well, but not as much as the innards. So both will go into the extra spicy, while only the outside will go into the less spicy one. Alright? Good. So keep them separate, so I can mix them as needed once I make the actual salsa."

Having finished scooping out the insides Stu returned to his cutting, chopping up the small pepper into small strips. Once he was done with this he pushed in all of the cut peppers into the bowl, along with the juices from cutting it similar to how the juices from the cut tomato had been put in the bowl.

Once all of that was in the bowl Moritz was about ready to take his turn, only to see Stu had more things for him to take out front. Grabbing a tray he loaded two plates, two cups, and a bowl, and hefted the entire thing. This time he tried to pay attention to his elbow, where it was and how it lifted. From the days back and forth his arms were beginning to grow tired, and so he had begun switching back and forth on each load, but still from the repeated effort on new muscles the strain was growing. With a sigh he headed out, dropping off the items at the tables one by one.

WC: 560

[Moritz Craven]

Watching Stu work was always instructive, at least compared to Moritz own current low level of skill. He supposed that one day he might be as skilled as him, at which point he might consider his level only decent, but compared to Moritz who was a rank beginner most anything looked amazing.

After dropping off a few items at one table Moritz moved about the remaining ones to re-balance them, before dropping off the rest at the next table. And then once more he was back, dashing off to the kitchen to continue his work. While no individual task was overly difficult over the many bells it was quite draining, with various odd muscles being strained or sore after his days work. He also tended to keep busy somewhat consistently which helped to further drain him.

Moritz assumed that once he got better at such things, learned the various tricks and short cuts and correct methods of doing things he would get his things done much quicker and thus end up much less drained. But that was still a far ways off based on his current ability.

Back in the kitchen Moritz cleaned his hands once more and then returned to his cutting board, inspecting the pepper. He had cut a pepper before, but it had been a larger green one and more mild. This one seemed to be smaller but also much stronger. Moritz was left to ponder this for a moment, why size did not relate to intensity, but he found he did not have enough information to even begin considering such things. Surely though there must be a correlation, just not one he understood.

As he had seen Stu do Moritz began by cutting off the stem. Then turning blade he cut the pepper down the middle at the point of the stem. Grabbing up the small spoon from before Moritz began scooping out the seeds and innards, placing them in the designated bowl. He did this carefully as Stu had said, avoiding getting anything into his eyes for fear of what might happen. He could feel oil on his fingers, surely from the pepper, which he needed to make sure to clean off before touching anything else- such as his eyes.

As he was finishing this task Moritz had a stray thought, that of the smaller pepper having about the same amount of seeds and innards as the bigger one he had cut before. Suddenly several statements and facts he had experienced coalesced into one which resulted in a hypothesis or the start of one.

The bigger pepper and smaller pepper had about the same amount of innards. Stu had said the heat was mainly in the innards, the seeds and things, rather than the shell. If by proportion of overall pepper... More of the pepper by volume was innards and those hot things... Then said spiciness and hotness would be concentrated in the smaller pepper... And spread out in the bigger pepper thus being less spicy per bite in the big pepper compared to the smaller one.

Kind of like... Moritz thought on an example... Watering down something, in the case of peppers spreading it out.

Happy at his new hypothesis Moritz smiled and returned to his work.

WC: 543

[Moritz Craven]

Having finished up with scooping out the middle parts, spicy seeds and things, Moritz turned to the final step of cutting up the pepper. Using the cut half as a flat surface Moritz turned and began cutting, using his hand to guide the edge as he had seen Stu do. One, two, three, Moritz cut along the line, trying to slowly increase his speed but still much slower than Stu had been. Seeing that was not quite yet possible Moritz instead focused on keeping the speed the same while focusing on width of cuts. How far apart each cut was, so as to keep it uniform.

Once the first half was done Moritz turned to the other half, repeating the process of chopping up the pepper. While it was not much Moritz did feel his last half was a bit neater than his first, perhaps an indicator he was improving.

Carefully Moritz made sure all of the refuse parts like the stem were gone, before dumping the cut outer shell into the big bowl along with the juices.

With that done Moritiz knew the next step was clean up.

First he cleaned his hands, drying them on a clean rag to make sure he had all of the oils from the pepper off. Then he took the cutting board back to the sink for cleaning dishes, and dunked the board into the large receptacle of soapy water. Using a scrub he worked on the surface, making sure to get all of the oils and bits off, to avoid contaminating the next item with it. He kept at this for a bit before he felt it was properly clean, before rinsing and then drying off the cutting board.

Setting those aside he continued with his other tools, the knife and the spoon, dunking them in the soapy water. These took much less scrubbing due to their smaller surface area, though he had to be more careful with the knife due to its cutting edge.

Like with the cutting board once they were cleaned Moritz rinsed them off with some clean non soapy water and then dried them before returning them to their places.

By then Stu had returned and was finishing up another dish. This one seemed to be a platter of various vegetables with some kind of sauce on the side, not a true meal but a small side bite of sorts.

Taking a moment to rest Moritz watched as Stu finished, rearranging a few items before deciding it was done.

"Moritz, table two. And when your done I've got another thing to show you."

With a nod the kelvic took the indicated platter and moved swiftly out to the tables. Dropping off the foot Moritz returned in short order to find Stu holding up a large odd looking thing Moritz had not seen before. It was oddly brown and spiky, with a green leafy tuft at the top, which left Moritz puzzling until Stu clarified.

"This is a pineapple Moritz. You'll be cutting this next."

WC: 506

[Moritz Craven]

Racing off once more Moritz dropped off another tray full before returning to the kitchen. There he found Stu ready with a clean cutting board and the pineapple thing Moritz had not seen before.

"Alright Moritz, watch closely."

Turning the fruit on its side Stu cut off the top, only lopping off a half finger length portion including the green tufts. He then turn it so that the other side was close to him, and with a similar motion pressing down and holding the fruit in place cut off a similar length at the bottom.

With that done Stu turned it once more, now using the flat surface of his earlier cut to work on. At that point he began cutting on the sides, the edges which ringed the remaining mid section. However this was more akin to cutting a potato or such, as he cut in thin strips while turning the pineapple to new spots. Bit by bit he exposed the yellow innards, until all of the siding was gone.

He then continued by cutting the pineapple in half, and then those halves in half with another series of slices. At that point he began working on the fruit one quarter at a time, cutting the inner part.

"So I cut off the top, the bottom, and the sides. Now I'm cutting out the core. Since I quartered it the core will be the inner side of each of the quarters. So I'll need to cut those off."

Standing up the quarters one by one Stu sliced, cutting off the core of each piece which Moritz could tell apart by looking closely. It did, he could see, look different on that middle bit, as compared to the other bits. All were yellow, but that yellow was... Different. His eyes understood though he was unable to properly put it into words.

After that Stu was left with four segments, which he then proceeded to chop in the traditional fashion he had used for most of the other ingredients Moritz had prepared. In this case though the pineapple slices were a bit thicker as compared to the thin slices of tomato or pepper, instead a good size he felt for a single full bite to consume it.

With a nod Moritz watched as Stu finished, slicing at speed across each of the quarters in turn until all had been cut to chunks.

"Alright, now you give it a try."

Moritz nodded, heading closer while Stu threw aside the refuse and then dumped the remaining contents into a new bowl. This was a different one from the salsa ingredients, a clear indicator that this was not being used for that. Instead it seem to be its own dish, or perhaps a component in a different one.

Concentrating on his task Moritz picked up a fresh pineapple and set it on the cutting board, before grabbing a long cutting knife and beginning. Like making an incision Moritz began, laying the fruit on its side and beginning to cut a slice off the top where the tufts laid.

WC: 514

[Moritz Craven]

Pushing into the pineapple with the blade, Moritz found it more strenuous to cut then some of the other fruit such as the tomato or even the garlic. However once his knife pierced the outer layer he found the insides to be similarly soft, easing the pressure required to cut. He did his best to cut cleanly through the top part, though he felt there were a few zigs and zags in spot, but overall it was straight. Or at least on average...

With that done Moritz turned the fruit and worked to repeat the process on the other side. Cutting along the base of the pineapple Moritz inserted the blade with force, lessening pressure as he pierced through only to finally meet the other side of the rind and have to apply more pressure to finish the cut.

With the top and bottom removed Moritz turned the fruit to the flatter side, the base in this case, and began to trim along the edges. Picking a spot he tried to cut a thin chunk, a specific spread of the outer layer, trying to shave off only the hard skin with his blade while leaving as much of the "meat" of the fruit as he could. The first one was tricky, finding a seem where the two met and then gliding it down and along the contours of the fruit. For it was not just a box of a fruit, but had curves and arcs.

Once he glided the blade down to the base and met the cutting board Moritz used his free hand to turn the pineapple slightly, before using it to hold the fruit in place while he cut the next strip. This was a bit easier and he had a free rind free spot on one side, and he was able to get in beneath the skin and cut less meat than before. He kept at this for awhile, slowly turning and cutting off more skin, until finally he had cut the entire things skin off.

With that task done Moritz returned the blade to the top of the fruit, cut it in half, and then holding those halves together cut it in half again to form quarters.

Cutting downwards long ways Moritz then tried to cleanly remove the core from each, though found this much more difficult than taking off the skin. The somewhat unclear boarder where core ended and meat began made things difficult, as did the similar touch, texture, and color, of the parts. Where the rind was clearly demarcated, it was much trickier to only cut the core and not any other parts.

Being as careful as he could he sliced the core bits off, once, twice, three times, and then four, though he managed to do so while cutting a good bit more meat than Stu had.

With his task almost done Moritz turned one quarter on its side, and began to slice in the traditional fashion. Using his hand to guide he pressed down and cut, then moved a bit and cut again, then moved and cut, over and over till the entire quarter was chopped. He repeated this again on the second quarter, the third, and the fourth, before letting out a sigh with his completion.

Tossing aside the refuse bits as Stu had Moritz let the good pieces fall off the board and into the ready bowl, smiling at his work. It was still not as good as Stu's, but decent all the same.

WC: 585

[Alric Lysane]

Your Grades

Moritz Craven

Skills

Cooking – 5
Endurance – 2
Housekeeping – 2
Observation – 3


Lores

Cooking: Dicing & Preparing a Pineapple
Cooking: Salsa Types & Ingredients
Cooking: Stripping A Spicy Pepper
Cooking: Variety of Peppers
Pepper Oil: Do Not Rub Anywhere On Person