Then let’s distract you a bit. A good distraction can do wonders.
What’s your favorite thing to eat? Describe it, as I’ve probably never had it before.
Haha, oh wow this is actually kind of difficult… I have to think back really far, we haven’t had all that many really spectacular things to eat ever. It was probably the one year we could actually afford real red meat, since my father had just gotten a nice raise in his pay. He went out and bought a a few nice cuts of lamb and got some oranges and onions, and we had that for dinner. I remembered watching him cut up the lamb and put the sauce made from the oranges and some other things I can’t quite remember.
Like I said, this was a long, long time ago, back when Circe was just a little baby. I just remember it because of the fact it was the first time I had eaten something other than fish. The food was fantastic, I can’t really describe red meat, there’s something about it that’s so much more heavy than fish. Plus my father didn’t cook it all the way through since he said it made it better, so the middle was slightly raw and juicy and perfect.
It was one of those meals where you sit back after devouring it and wondering how something made from a animal could taste so, so good. I had dreams about it for a few weeks after that, haha.
Other than that single dish I really, really love breads and pastries and things like that. During Christmas (I think other districts call it Solstice or something), the bakers make these rolls of sweet bread with sugar topping on them and sell them for cheap so every family can afford some. Those are the favorites of a lot of people, since they break the mold of our normal customary district bread with the seaweed in it.
So, now that I’ve talked about our cuisine, you have to tell me about yours. I don’t have the slightest clue of what other districts eat, so now you’ve piqued my curiosity.
Bread with seaweed? That’s interesting. What does that taste like? Ours are drop biscuits, usually made from tessera grain, so they’re not that pretty, but they’re certainly filling.
I think my favorite meal of all time is duck. We’re from the merchant’s area, so we’re sort of well off in comparison to many of the rest, and sometimes hunters manage to snag some waterfowl they sell waterfowl around here. There’s a special dish my mother knows how to make involving poaching duck in its own fat. She makes it whenever we have some extra money to spare (it has a long shelf-life once stored in a jar with the fat) and she finishes cooking it for special occasions. I think we have a jar around here somewhere, waiting for its special day. It’s the most delicious thing in the world. It’s tender and salty and mmmmm, I love it. I could eat it forever, even though we usually only get it once or twice a year.
I’ve never had lamb, though, and it sounds as though it would be amazing.
It's tinted from the seaweed, so it gives it a greenish color, almost shiny on top from the baking. It's salty and goes well with pretty much any dish ever which is why it's our traditional bread. And that's good, ours is fairly dense too which is nice. Light fluffy breads don't really do much for anybody aside from taste nice, I prefer heavier breads.
And god that sounds really good. I've never had duck, but from the way it sounds it seems delicious. The dishes you can only eat sparingly are usually the best, since you wait for them for so long and then have to savor them since you get it so infrequently. I'm the same way with any sort of meat we can get, even the cured and dried stuff some of the merchants have for the wealthy families.
And lamb is very good from the one time I've had it. It's tender and tastes a little gamey, like wild animal. I don't know why since it's technically made from a baby animal, but it has that taste to it.
