Happy Hour

[cottoncandypink]

Wilford comes in today wearing an abused old hat and looking a little sunburnt. He goes straight from the door to the kitchen without a word, carrying a folder with him.

He's back there for about an hour before he returns to write on the board.

Summer Menu Candidates

Main Dishes
Comes with your choice of two sides

물냉면
Cold Noodles
Buckwheat noodles in cold apple cider broth, with cucumber, pear, and boiled egg

동치미국수
Spicy Cold Noodles
Wheat noodles in cold raddish kimchi broth, with cucumber and boiled egg

장어구이
Grilled Eel
Grilled eel with hot peppers and onions

닭강정
Crunchy Fried Chicken
Chicken with red pepper batter, fried in peanut oil

알밥
Fish Roe Rice Bowl
Rice, fried kimchi, cucumber, radish, egg, seaweed, and flying fish roe

Sides

굴무침
Seasoned Fresh Oysters
Raw oysters with hot pepper sauce

연근조림
Braised Lotus Root
Lotus root braised with rice syrup and garlic

조개탕
Clam Stew
Stewed clams with radish, anchovy, green pepper, and onions

오이냉국
Cold Cucumber Soup
Cucumbers with garlic, onion, and chilli peppers in a soy broth

겨자냉채
Cold Salad with Spicy Mustard Sauce
Crab, cucumbers, and pear with pine nuts and mustard sauce

Desserts

곶감쌈
Walnuts Wrapped in Persimmons
Dried persimmons and roasted walnuts

오미자화채
Pear and Berry Punch
Omija punch with honey, pear, and pine nuts

찐빵
Red Bean Steamed Buns
Steamed buns filled with red bean paste

마탕
Candied Sweet Potato
Sweet potato caramelised with sugar and honey

While he waits, he parks himself behind the bar with his laptop to work on his next script.

Comments

[cottoncandypink]

That’s even worse! At least if she was running away, she’d have chosen to be here.

“What happened at home before you got stuck here?” he asks.

The rat brings out Sinthia’s bowl. It’s full of bright greens, yellows, and oranges arranged in tidy sections, separating the colours, with the egg yolk right in the centre. The roe is a pile of small, orange beads, which Sinthia will find mostly flavourless. It’s there for the bright colour, but it also adds a sturdy pop to each bite.

Wilford slides a fork and napkin across the bar.

“If you want the egg cooked, just mix it in,” he says. “It’s pretty hot.”

[abyssum_invocat]

Sinthia looks up at Wilford balefully. "Immediately, nothing in particular," she says. "Longer term...we're in a war." She shrugs: it's a fact of life, she has no particular feelings on the matter.

The egg yolk, which looks (and is) raw, gets a very unsubtly strange look, as Sinthia immediately breaks it to let it cook. "I don't know why I would want an uncooked egg. I'm not refusing to eat." Three guesses how she would know that raw eggs are generally force-fed to those soldiers who refuse to eat. None of the options are pretty. After the yolk seeps into the rice, she spares the bowl a scrutinizing look for artistry: they are pretty colors.

"What kind of food is this?"

[cottoncandypink]

That’s something to tuck away in his back pocket. But for now, he lets it be. If they’re at war, it’s likely she’s being kept here for a reason.

“Protein,” Wilford says. “You drop an egg into rice or soup to give it a different texture. It cooks when you mix it.”

It’s never really something he’s put a whole lot of thought into. It’s just a thing you do sometimes.

“It’s called al-bap,” he says. “It’s Korean.”

[abyssum_invocat]

It's very likely that the powers that be are keeping her here for a reason, yes. To avoid war is not it, because whether or not Sinthia is fully aware of it she must go back. And the war will not be over.

"Oh. I don't know much about Korea. Or the food." She's willing to try it: in theory it's not very different from spaetzle, where you can mix just about anything into it. In practice remains to be seen.

[cottoncandypink]

“I can’t tell you too much about it, unfortuantely,” Wilford says. “I haven’t been there since I was probably your age.”

He’s quite a bit older now. But the idea of going back has been getting more and more appealing recently.

“Where are you from?”

Children wandering around dangerous places unattended make him a little itchy. It’s probably none of his business, but he’s made a career out of making it his business, and that’s a hard switch to turn off.

[abyssum_invocat]

"Berlin," she answers, steadily eating (though she makes sure there's enough rice left, once guaranteeing it tastes good enough, to cleanse away anything she doesn't like). The food is strange. She'll have to decide whether she truly likes it or not, but it's currently not bad.

"I live in Austria now. Or what was Austria."

One hopes the itch isn't getting too much worse for Wilford.

[cottoncandypink]

Berlin, and Austria, during a war. This is not the first time he’s heard similar around here.

“Nineteen-forties?” he asks, wondering what it is about this place that seems to like to collect people from certain times and places.

He’ll deal with the itch. Ignore it as long as the girl’s nearby, and do something about it later. He doesn’t get paid to work here, but he’s made exceptions before.

[abyssum_invocat]

"Yes."

It's a reply presented without much in the way of emotion: he is correct, and she's hardly surprised. She knows her clothing marks her vague time period, her accented voice more so. "Why did you put food on the board? Most people only do alcohol."

[cottoncandypink]

Wilford isn’t even a little surprised to hear her confirmation. One more little thing he files away to deal with later.

“Market research,” he says, pointing to the pad where he’s written down and tallied every item that’s been ordered. “It’s summer, so we’re changing the menu at my restaurant. And people here make good guinea pigs.”

[abyssum_invocat]

Had Sinthia had more experience with the people in the bar and their ways of speaking, she might have interpreted that differently. As it is, she hears 'guinea pig', and knowing what that means, sets the bowl down abruptly.

"What's in it," she says, barely making it a question.

[cottoncandypink]

Wilford quickly realises his misstep.

"Nothing that's not on the board," he says. "I'm only interested in knowing what people want to order. There's no point in putting something on the menu if nobody wants it."

The fact that she instantly goes to the worst case scenario says something. Wilford isn't sure what, but it can't be good.

[abyssum_invocat]

Her dubious look is, if anything, obvious. Hiding her dislike of something is not a practiced skill yet.

"Why not just ask the people who will be eating there?"