Hunk vs. Cooking in Space
I wanted to write a whole fic for this but never got around to it. So here are some headcanons instead!
As soon as Hunk got any downtime on the Castle, his first thing was to head to the kitchen to try to bake something.
They had only been launched into space a few days ago, and he was definitely feeling the homesickness set in, not to mention the anxiety.
Baking always helps him feel calmer. Besides, everyone would really be comforted by tasting food from home.
So he makes he rounds to the other Paladins and takes a survey: which comfort foods from Earth would they most like him to recreate?
Once he acquires his data, he begins making a comprehensive list of ingredients he will need to make each thing and begins keeping a look out for these ingredients whenever they stop for supplies
He thinks it will be easy, but hoo boy is he ever wrong
It’s nearly impossible to find anything even remotely familiar. Or it’s close, but there’s always something wrong with it.
Like he finds a fruit that looks and feels exactly like a plantain but tastes like raw ground hamburger meat. Or a type of flour that tastes…. kind of like chocolate? But there’s this weird, unidentifiable aftertaste that all the rest of the Paladins agree is not chocolate-like at all and shouldn’t be counted. It takes him forever to find a rising agent but when he does it tastes strongly of lime and taints everything he puts it in with a bitter citrus flavor
As time goes on he gets more frustrated and discouraged. All he wanted was to cook something nice, take the edge off his nerves and give everyone a taste of home.
Until one day he’s making a last attempt to produce a red bean flavored something for Shiro when he realizes that citrusy rising agent tastes works really well with this…. other fruit he found. The flavors actually complement each other a little bit.
Until then it had been so hard to say anything in space tasted good. Before everything they had tasted fell into the category: might have been tasty if it wasn’t so damn weird
But he can’t deny this is a good flavor combo.
So after a few hours of Science, he winds up with a finished product: a loaf of bread.
The texture isn’t quite like any kind of Earth bread he’s had before, but not bad at all.
Once he stops trying to compare the flavor to something from Earth it’s actually really nice: fresh and a little tangy with a sweet finish.
Completely unidentifiable, but undoubtedly good.
He calls the others in for a taste test
He’s so excited by this victory he throws himself back into baking something else, fooling around with different flavors and textures. This time, he’s not aiming for an exact replica of Earth food. Trying to identify the flavors he’s working with is, frankly, impossible. They’re in a whole other galaxy, there’s no way he’s going to be able to recreate anything from Earth.
But he can make something that taste’s good. Something new.
And that’s what cooking is all about, he realizes.
Tradition and comfort are all well and good, but when those traditions are out of reach, you make new ones. If you only bake familiar things, you will never become a better baker. Reaching beyond your comfort zone is what makes you improve your skills.
And Hunk’s so far out of his comfort zone already he thinks it would be a shame to waste the opportunity.
So, with apologies to his friends, he discards the list of Earth foods he’s trying to make
From now on, he’s only looking forward.
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