Nightshift 39: Kitchen

[31st-of-china.livejournal.com]

[With mod permission]

Sanzo jerked awake, cheek pressed against the floor. The monk immediately went for the gun. He hadn't gone to sleep that last shift, not while he hadn't made a decision about Takasugi. What the fuck? Had they drugged the food? He was curled on the floor - and he definitely wasn't in that cell any longer - his fingers around the Smith & Wesson. Sanzo pushed himself up.

He flicked the flashlight on, and looked around. An island in the middle, pots and pans above, a familiar metal door. What the hell was he doing in the kitchen?

Sanzo rose, the gun scraping against the floor with the movement. Something was going on here. He'd only woken up like this once, and that'd been that time in the morgue.

What was going on here?



[To here

Comments

[host-club-honey.livejournal.com]

It was kind of worrying that the other group hadn't stormed in yet, but Takashi was watching the door and if anything dangerous happened, he'd be sure to let them know; Honey trusted him more than anyone else.

He was glad for the distraction Willy Wonka gave him though, and even though Haruhi had explained some of this to him before, he tried his best to pay attention. It wasn't hard, given how just the thought of cake was enough to make his mouth water. "Hnnn," he puzzled for a second, "Haru-chan always uses a wire spoon thing and whips them up when she makes the omelettes. They're really fluffy, so... so we use one of those tools, right?"

[chocomancer.livejournal.com]

"Exactly right!" Wonka cried. "But we don't stop there, my boy! We don't stop there! In fact, we only whisk part of the egg - the egg white, the lightest part. Ah, I think the sugar's done now." He turned off the food processor, and took one of the eggs from the carton, cracking it open on the side of a small bowl. "There are a few ways to separate the white and the yolk, but I find the easiest one to be the pouring method. Once you have your egg cracked down the middle, like this, you pull it apart into two halves, over the bowl. Then, you carefully pour the yolk back and forth between the halves, letting the white that comes with it run over the side of the egg and into the bowl beneath." After about five or six passes back and forth, he set the egg down and poured the small bowl into a larger one. "Of course, it's always possible to accidentally break the yolk, so it's important to pour off the egg white as soon as you've gotten it!"

Pushing the bowl over to where Honey was, he offered him an egg, and asked, "Would you like to try it?"

[host-club-honey.livejournal.com]

Honey clapped when he got the answer right and smiled brightly up at his teacher. Willy Wonka had always seemed a lot stranger in the movies, but he was actually really nice! It was probably one of those things where they just got altered a lot by Hollywood. He was glad the man was so friendly either way.

He watched the demonstration Wonka gave on the eggs, but was somewhat hesitant to try it himself. It was kind of strange that they weren't going to use the bright yellow part of the egg too! It was the best color and the white part, he thought, always looked kind of boring in comparison. But if it would make a good cake, he'd be glad to follow the rules.

Honey set Usa-chan at his feet and reached up for one of the eggs. At his diminutive height it was hard to reach over the counter to the bowl, but he could just barely do it if he stood on tiptoe. Small fingers fumbled with the task, but despite his looks, he was fairly dexterous. The egg cracked a little too far on the first tap though and was already oozing out clearish goo when he held it over the bowl and tried to pull it apart. Instead of two neat pieces, however, it was a struggle just to keep one of the half from falling apart. Honey ended up with probably more egg white on his hands than in the bowl, but he was devout in his efforts to keep the little round yolk from falling in.

[chocomancer.livejournal.com]

Wonka gave an embarassed giggle when he realized his mistake. It seemed so obvious in retrospect... it was a miracle that Honey could even reach the bowl given the height of the counter. "Er, let me see if there's a chair or stool or something around here." A quick check of the room revealed nothing, however - most industrial kitchens weren't really designed with children or Oompa-Loompas in mind, he guessed - so he just watched Honey's efforts carefully, ready to move in if something slipped.

Nothing did. He had gotten his hands a bit messy, but that was a given if you stayed in the kitchen long enough. He quickly switched the bowl with the whites in it for the one in which he'd dumped the first yolk, and said, "Well done! It can get a bit messy, but you didn't break the yolk, and that's the important part." Wetting a washcloth and handed it to Honey, he added, "You should probably wash up, though." With that, he began to separate the other eggs, one by one, until a dozen had gone into the large bowl. "Now, since it was your idea to whisk the eggs up, would you mind doing the honors? Actually, wait a tic." And, with nothing more than a nod to Mori as he passed, he dashed out the door to the cafeteria.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/585347.html?thread=49115267#t49115267)]

[chocomancer.livejournal.com]

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/585347.html?thread=49115267#t49115267)]

Wonka re-entered the room, giving another nod to Mori and carrying a chair from the cafeteria. He set it down next to Honey and the bowl of eggs, and said, "There, that should make things a little easier."

[host-club-honey.livejournal.com]

Honey wiped the goo from his hands, glad he'd managed to get at least some of the egg into the bowl without making a huge mess. Wonka then asked him to whisk the eggs, but he wasn't really sure what all that meant and before he could ask, the man ran off to the other room!

"Ah-" Honey started, but he was already gone, leaving Honey to try to remember which tool was the whisk. That much he could recognize without much trouble and he picked it up and placed it in the bowl. Luckily, before he could do any damage, Wonka returned with a chair for him to stand on. He jumped up, though it was kind of weird to be at an almost average height now, it did make it easier to reach the things on the counter.

"So..." Honey picked up the bowl and whisk and looked somewhat intimidated. "I just stir it? Or um... is there a trick to it?"

[chocomancer.livejournal.com]

"That's all!" Wonka said. "You just stir as fast as you can with the whisk, and in a couple minutes the egg whites will be all frothy and bubbly. We'll be adding some cream of tartar then, to make sure the bubbles don't pop." He took out a pan and began filling it with water as he talked. "By the way, the egg whites, tartar and a bit of sugar are all you need to make meringues, which are delightful treat all their own. But they're also an important ingredient in other desserts - including this one."

The saucepan came out of the sink and onto a waiting burner, and Wonka looked back at Honey, smiling happily. It was so nice to have someone to help out like this, someone he could teach about the ins and outs of cooking. It made him wonder where Charlie was right now, until he remembered that "right now" didn't mean much when one was from thirty years ago in another world. In any case, it was probably best that the boy hadn't been caught by Landel's net... and a shame that Honey had been, even if it was giving them a good time for the moment.

[host-club-honey.livejournal.com]

Honey took mental notes on how to bake the cake, but telling Honey to stir as fast as he could probably wasn't the best idea. He took to the task with great energy, sending splashes of egg white over a good portion of his shirt and parts of the floor. It probably wasn't supposed to do that...

"Oops," he said, making a worried expression. "I think I did it too fast."

[chocomancer.livejournal.com]

"Oh dear," Wonka said. "You really put your heart into this, don't you?" He let himself giggle a bit, but was already reaching for a washcloth to clean up the spill. "Don't worry, I've made the same mistake myself before." And he had the marks to prove it, although he didn't regret it one bit; that was the risk you took when you whipped cream the proper way, after all.

And so it continued. Wonka would do the harder things on the side, explaning as he went, and giving Honey a chance to try the simple and fun parts after demonstrating. While the cake was baking, they switched to the syrup that would serve as its filling and topping, and while that was bubbling away Wonka was darting between pots, watching his other projects - mostly hard candy for the mysterious sweet tooth on the bulletin board, plus one or two items for the apple afficionado. And in what seemed like no time at all (and after more than one little accident) the cake was ready: light, fluffy, and accented with sweet, sticky strawberry. Wonka cut the cake in thirds - one for himself, one for Honey, and one for their silent guard - and took a bite of his own piece with a waiting fork, with a glowing smile that, had it been any wider, would have gone off the sides of his face. Another triumph.

[host-club-honey.livejournal.com]

Wonka was a really nice teacher, Honey decided, though he still cast worried glances over to the entrance, hoping he'd see the others come through. It shouldn't be taking them this long, but then Anise said she was strong, and Wolfram too. Maybe they just got distracted, or maybe the fight in the cafeteria was too dangerous so they were staying back? That one made the most sense.

But when he could smell the cake baking, it was easier to forget his troubles, and when Wonka presented him with a big piece of cake, it was really hard to think of anything else. He took one bite and gave a sigh of contentment. He hadn't had real cake in days! It was like heaven! Wonka really was magic when it came to making sweets.