Taste Testing Extravaganza!
Oct. 24th, 2021 01:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsThe long awaited, oft-delayed taste testing trip into District X begins and ends as one might expect -- with copious amounts of food.
The drive into the city from the mansion had been uneventful for their caravan of cars, for which Terry was grateful. As she sat down at one of the picnic tables near the Yjo to Go food trunk –– their first stop on their long food journey today –– she smiled at the plates of food set out. There were small portions of everything from lamb gyros, pasta salad, saffron rice, tzatziki sauce, and dolmas as well as a frankly ridiculous plate of baklava. Yjo to Go’s owner had been thrilled when she’d gotten in touch with her and the spread laid out before the group was impressive.
“What d’you lot think?” She asked, already reaching for the stuffed grape leaves. “Personally, I like that there’s vegetarian as well as meat options for almost everything on the table… not that that’s surprising, mind.”
Jean leaned back in her chair, grabbing a small piece of baklava. “It’s fantastic. The house made tzatziki sauce did it for me.” she said. She sighed. “I want to try it all but I want to save room for the others.”
“This is the best saffron rice I’ve ever put in my mouth,” Darcy added. “And the lamb! It’s great for the waistline and the budget that I’m not here every day.”
"Right?" Kyle had done severe damage to a gyro and was picking olives out of his salad, and eating them one by one. "Like my food budget's ridic enough, but I could probably eat here like four times a week and not hate myself."
“I think I’ll just live off o’ this baklava for the rest o’ my life,” Terry murmured, reaching for another piece. Everything was delicious, but she could not get over the baklava.
Natasha had demolished two servings of the grilled veggies already and along with pieces of the gyro meat. The tzatziki sauce was absolutely divine too and she’d stuffed entirely too many pieces of pita bread into her face already. “I’m going to need so many sessions in the DR to work some of these calories off.”
She eyed the plate stacked high of baklava and reached for a piece herself. “I want an infinite supply of these in my fridge. They’re the perfect blend of sweetness without overdoing it.”
“I just want it all,” Matt burped quietly, covering his mouth, then reached for more lamb and rice. “I could live off this lamb and rice and be very happy. I don’t even care about the rest of the places since this one is so good.”
“Well there’s plenty more restaurants on the docket today, Mister Murdock. So try an’ save some room,” Terry half-laughed, reaching for some of the lamb dish he seemed to be enjoying.
There’d been several other food trucks between Yjo to Go and Cafe Delish, the first of the sit-down restaurants on their itinerary, and they’d all been very tasty. Terry was looking forward to sitting in a real chair, though, not something plastic or backless, bless all the food truck owners. Still, as she’d sat down at the large, round table, she inhaled and wondered if they might need to take an hour break at some point, just to let the food they’d eaten so far settle.
The tucked away little restaurant was everything Natasha expected from a place that specialized in Ethiopian: ethnic artwork on the walls, bright colors, the smell of Ethiopian coffee brewing, and a rustic almost fast casual atmosphere. It wasn’t about being fancy. You ate the dishes with your hands after all. It was about how good the food was and the experience with whoever you came with.
She’d cautioned the others not to fill up on the injera since its appearance was deceptive. She herself loved the sour tanginess of it and would definitely be asking to take any leftovers home with her. Finding out about this place was mutant friendly and en route to places she normally haunted made her life immensely brighter. She used a piece of injera to pick up some doro wat followed by some cooked greens and veggies, licking the tasty spices and juices from her fingers.
“It’s just about as close to actually being in Ethiopia as I’ve been in a long time.”
Darcy’s eyes widened as the spices hit her tongue. “Ooh hot, we’ll have to warn some of the others,” she replied after taking a long drink of water. “It’s delicious though. Ugh, these greens, HOW? I could eat them every day.”
“I swear if they cooked greens more like this I think we’d have less people hating vegetables.” Natasha wrapped some more veggies and made a satisfied sound at the taste. If they didn’t have so many other places to visit, she’d sit and enjoy a round of the Ethiopian coffee they offered.
“We’ll probably need to make sure spiciness levels are labeled. It’s inherent to the style of cooking so they don’t think twice about it.”
“Yeah, I can smell the spice and uh....I’ll pass,” Matt liked spice, but this was way too much for him. Laugh and make all the white boy comments, it was the truth and he wasn’t ashamed of it.
"Trust me?" Darcy asked, tearing a piece of injera and scooping it around the shiro wat. She held the bite up to Matt's mouth. "Promise it's mostly spiced, not spicy. It's chickpea based."
Terry waited with almost bated breath to see whether or not the lawyer would try the bite, but before he went one way or the other, she was distracted by Kyle’s antics –– seemed the poor man had really gone all-in on his bet with Alex about finding out who could eat the most food. She hoped he wasn’t at too much of a disadvantage in this particular restaurant, given his aversion to spicy hot foods.
They did wind up taking a bit of a siesta, as it were, all resting at a park around an unlit fire pit drinking nothing but water. They were right back at it after that break, though, heading for another food truck. Terry found herself glad because the portion sizes at Mac X Cheese were a bit easier to divvy up. She was also far less likely to eat more than she should at a place accustomed to allotting individual servings.
It helped that she’d called ahead and requested actual samples at the next few places, as well. Cafe Delish had been brilliant and she’d loved the pop of spices in her mouth, but if she ate like that at all the restaurants, Darcy was going to have to roll her back to the cars for the drive home.
“Dom, my main man, what wild delights do you have for us today?” Darcy asked as she stepped up to the Mac X Cheese truck. She sniffed the air. “Is that brisket? Did you make that brisket mac you were doing test runs of last month?” She grabbed one of the small cups and a fork, stuffing a bite into her mouth, then grabbed the sleeve of the person next to her.
“This is AMAZING, try it.”
Terry automatically reached for a small cup and a fork. She shoved the sample into her mouth and was actually shocked when the noise that left her throat was… less than PG. “Mother o’ Christ,” she swore, wondering if she could have another one of those instead of –– well, no. Everything on show looked brilliant, she just. That brisket was melt-in-your-mouth tender and the mac and cheese was just the right level of creamy-tangy.
Alex already had a mouthful of mac and cheese, which didn’t stop him from looking at the brisket and making a “Mmmph?” noise of interest while he tried to swallow his current sample and grab another.
“Oooooooh, this looks great,” he said as soon as he could talk again, and stuffed yet another bite in his mouth, then gave the man running the truck two thumbs up. The fact that this was the eighth sample Alex had eaten probably already spoke volumes of his approval, but hey, the guy worked hard, he deserved to know how awesome he was.
Natasha half tensed in preparation to do the Heimlich maneuver, but when there were no imminent signs of choking she reached for some mac and cheese and brisket. She hoped the mac and cheese was fresh off the stove because there was something about the texture after it cooled that got to her. She shouldn’t have worried. Both bites were delicious. “Terry, I know we needed to get the taste testing done in only a span of a few days but I, seriously, I just want to sit down and eat a full on meal at every place we’ve been.”
Her phone buzzed from her pocket and she pulled it out with a quizzical frown. Most of her contacts had distinct vibration tones, but this contact was unassociated. The screen showed several long lines of haphazard text. “Another one of these weird texts,” she muttered to herself.
Terry nodded her agreement with the sentiment about wanting all the food from the places they’d been, but raised a brow at the ‘weird text.’ She wondered what that meant, ‘another’ one, but knew it wasn’t any of her business what the other redhead was up to. She was one of the shady sorts, after all, Terry had no real desire to get into any of their shenanigans.
Still, she reached for another sample of mac and cheese, this one full of something that looked like bacon and spinach, and wondered if they were going to make it all the way through the next few places. At least they were mostly drinks and it was still earlier enough that the clubs would be closed to the general public.
Some bar snacks and several very colorful drinks later, Jubilee slipped into the wooden chair around a red and white checkered table, eager to try the delicacies on offer. She’d often eaten from Mama Lupe’s, it being a favourite takeaway of most of X-force but she’d never had the pleasure of actually sitting down in the restaurant before.
Natasha’d had plenty of food from Mama Lupe’s but somehow hadn’t known there was an actual storefront. The take out had never disappointed no matter how many days it’d been in the fridge. She couldn’t imagine how much better the food was going to be fresh from the kitchen. “I feel like we really need to come in person more often,” Natasha said as she slipped into another chair at the table.
The atmosphere felt warm and welcoming with the hostess and wait staff interacting with a long air of familiarity and comfort. The sight made her relax incrementally more and turn down some of her constant alertness.
“Mm, the smells in here remind me of New Mexico. Spicy, little earthy. Is this the place we get the good tamales from for lunch sometimes?” Darcy’s eyes were closed as she took in the smells around her. “If so, I’ll try any of the chicken dishes on the menu.”
“This is like, totally the place where we get the good tamales. Everything is good here, even the stuff that doesn’t look like it would be good is amazing.”
Jubilee grinned as the food started to come out, leaning back to allow the servers to place the dishes down on the table.
“Negra Modelo, por favor,” she asked before turning to the others. “What drinks do you guys want?”
“Guava lime agua fresca for me.” Darcy replied. “Maybe something to roll me out of here too, because I’m already half full and have no intention of leaving food on my plate.”
“Horchata with a bit of dark rum,” Jean added. “It’s been awhile since I’ve had any..”
Plucking a chip from the bowl, she drowned it in queso, taking a bite.
“That does it. I’m eating the rest of this. Everyone else can get their own.”
“Rude.” Jubilee noted but it was with a cheeky grin as she waved to their server to bring more chips and queso. “But valid. Mama Lupe’s has never disappointed, not ever.”
“I would actually consider throwing hands over the queso, but I will console myself with this excellent salsa instead.” Darcy dunked a chip into the salsa before cramming it into her mouth with a wink.
“Well,” Arthur, newly arrived on this taste test tour, sat looking forlornly at the waiters as if plotting, “I imagine I could pull some strings. I do know Mama Lupe’s second cousin from a few episodes we did back out back out in Gila. Talk about a place making you want a drink.”
He stretched idly, grabbing a chip for himself.
Darcy slid one of the chip baskets and a bowl of salsa closer to Arthur with a warm smile. “Glad you were able to drop in for this part, dude.”
“Me too! The underground’s been in a bit of a tizzy due to the cold and all. Lots of calling the right people over from the DX offices to move donations and goods to the right people.”
“Aye,” Terry agreed, stealing a chip from the basket now in front of Arthur. “Glad t’be movin’ things around at all, t’be honest.” She spoke from behind a margarita the size of her head –– she’d felt she deserved it, given all the organising that’d gone into the day. “You just let me know if y’need more monetary donations or more goods?”
For this she got a bright smile as Arthur helped himself to some queso. “That’s a tough one! Everyone always needs more help. I just help smooth the edges with the regional folks.” He winked, good-naturedly. “You’ll be very popular with offers like that. I’ll have to keep your number on speedial.”
Humming her agreement, Terry scratched her phone number down on a napkin with a pen she pulled from her purse. She handed it over to Arthur, returning his smile with one of her own, and then reached for her margarita. “Lookin’ forward t’doin’ business with you, boyo.”
The drive into the city from the mansion had been uneventful for their caravan of cars, for which Terry was grateful. As she sat down at one of the picnic tables near the Yjo to Go food trunk –– their first stop on their long food journey today –– she smiled at the plates of food set out. There were small portions of everything from lamb gyros, pasta salad, saffron rice, tzatziki sauce, and dolmas as well as a frankly ridiculous plate of baklava. Yjo to Go’s owner had been thrilled when she’d gotten in touch with her and the spread laid out before the group was impressive.
“What d’you lot think?” She asked, already reaching for the stuffed grape leaves. “Personally, I like that there’s vegetarian as well as meat options for almost everything on the table… not that that’s surprising, mind.”
Jean leaned back in her chair, grabbing a small piece of baklava. “It’s fantastic. The house made tzatziki sauce did it for me.” she said. She sighed. “I want to try it all but I want to save room for the others.”
“This is the best saffron rice I’ve ever put in my mouth,” Darcy added. “And the lamb! It’s great for the waistline and the budget that I’m not here every day.”
"Right?" Kyle had done severe damage to a gyro and was picking olives out of his salad, and eating them one by one. "Like my food budget's ridic enough, but I could probably eat here like four times a week and not hate myself."
“I think I’ll just live off o’ this baklava for the rest o’ my life,” Terry murmured, reaching for another piece. Everything was delicious, but she could not get over the baklava.
Natasha had demolished two servings of the grilled veggies already and along with pieces of the gyro meat. The tzatziki sauce was absolutely divine too and she’d stuffed entirely too many pieces of pita bread into her face already. “I’m going to need so many sessions in the DR to work some of these calories off.”
She eyed the plate stacked high of baklava and reached for a piece herself. “I want an infinite supply of these in my fridge. They’re the perfect blend of sweetness without overdoing it.”
“I just want it all,” Matt burped quietly, covering his mouth, then reached for more lamb and rice. “I could live off this lamb and rice and be very happy. I don’t even care about the rest of the places since this one is so good.”
“Well there’s plenty more restaurants on the docket today, Mister Murdock. So try an’ save some room,” Terry half-laughed, reaching for some of the lamb dish he seemed to be enjoying.
There’d been several other food trucks between Yjo to Go and Cafe Delish, the first of the sit-down restaurants on their itinerary, and they’d all been very tasty. Terry was looking forward to sitting in a real chair, though, not something plastic or backless, bless all the food truck owners. Still, as she’d sat down at the large, round table, she inhaled and wondered if they might need to take an hour break at some point, just to let the food they’d eaten so far settle.
The tucked away little restaurant was everything Natasha expected from a place that specialized in Ethiopian: ethnic artwork on the walls, bright colors, the smell of Ethiopian coffee brewing, and a rustic almost fast casual atmosphere. It wasn’t about being fancy. You ate the dishes with your hands after all. It was about how good the food was and the experience with whoever you came with.
She’d cautioned the others not to fill up on the injera since its appearance was deceptive. She herself loved the sour tanginess of it and would definitely be asking to take any leftovers home with her. Finding out about this place was mutant friendly and en route to places she normally haunted made her life immensely brighter. She used a piece of injera to pick up some doro wat followed by some cooked greens and veggies, licking the tasty spices and juices from her fingers.
“It’s just about as close to actually being in Ethiopia as I’ve been in a long time.”
Darcy’s eyes widened as the spices hit her tongue. “Ooh hot, we’ll have to warn some of the others,” she replied after taking a long drink of water. “It’s delicious though. Ugh, these greens, HOW? I could eat them every day.”
“I swear if they cooked greens more like this I think we’d have less people hating vegetables.” Natasha wrapped some more veggies and made a satisfied sound at the taste. If they didn’t have so many other places to visit, she’d sit and enjoy a round of the Ethiopian coffee they offered.
“We’ll probably need to make sure spiciness levels are labeled. It’s inherent to the style of cooking so they don’t think twice about it.”
“Yeah, I can smell the spice and uh....I’ll pass,” Matt liked spice, but this was way too much for him. Laugh and make all the white boy comments, it was the truth and he wasn’t ashamed of it.
"Trust me?" Darcy asked, tearing a piece of injera and scooping it around the shiro wat. She held the bite up to Matt's mouth. "Promise it's mostly spiced, not spicy. It's chickpea based."
Terry waited with almost bated breath to see whether or not the lawyer would try the bite, but before he went one way or the other, she was distracted by Kyle’s antics –– seemed the poor man had really gone all-in on his bet with Alex about finding out who could eat the most food. She hoped he wasn’t at too much of a disadvantage in this particular restaurant, given his aversion to spicy hot foods.
They did wind up taking a bit of a siesta, as it were, all resting at a park around an unlit fire pit drinking nothing but water. They were right back at it after that break, though, heading for another food truck. Terry found herself glad because the portion sizes at Mac X Cheese were a bit easier to divvy up. She was also far less likely to eat more than she should at a place accustomed to allotting individual servings.
It helped that she’d called ahead and requested actual samples at the next few places, as well. Cafe Delish had been brilliant and she’d loved the pop of spices in her mouth, but if she ate like that at all the restaurants, Darcy was going to have to roll her back to the cars for the drive home.
“Dom, my main man, what wild delights do you have for us today?” Darcy asked as she stepped up to the Mac X Cheese truck. She sniffed the air. “Is that brisket? Did you make that brisket mac you were doing test runs of last month?” She grabbed one of the small cups and a fork, stuffing a bite into her mouth, then grabbed the sleeve of the person next to her.
“This is AMAZING, try it.”
Terry automatically reached for a small cup and a fork. She shoved the sample into her mouth and was actually shocked when the noise that left her throat was… less than PG. “Mother o’ Christ,” she swore, wondering if she could have another one of those instead of –– well, no. Everything on show looked brilliant, she just. That brisket was melt-in-your-mouth tender and the mac and cheese was just the right level of creamy-tangy.
Alex already had a mouthful of mac and cheese, which didn’t stop him from looking at the brisket and making a “Mmmph?” noise of interest while he tried to swallow his current sample and grab another.
“Oooooooh, this looks great,” he said as soon as he could talk again, and stuffed yet another bite in his mouth, then gave the man running the truck two thumbs up. The fact that this was the eighth sample Alex had eaten probably already spoke volumes of his approval, but hey, the guy worked hard, he deserved to know how awesome he was.
Natasha half tensed in preparation to do the Heimlich maneuver, but when there were no imminent signs of choking she reached for some mac and cheese and brisket. She hoped the mac and cheese was fresh off the stove because there was something about the texture after it cooled that got to her. She shouldn’t have worried. Both bites were delicious. “Terry, I know we needed to get the taste testing done in only a span of a few days but I, seriously, I just want to sit down and eat a full on meal at every place we’ve been.”
Her phone buzzed from her pocket and she pulled it out with a quizzical frown. Most of her contacts had distinct vibration tones, but this contact was unassociated. The screen showed several long lines of haphazard text. “Another one of these weird texts,” she muttered to herself.
Terry nodded her agreement with the sentiment about wanting all the food from the places they’d been, but raised a brow at the ‘weird text.’ She wondered what that meant, ‘another’ one, but knew it wasn’t any of her business what the other redhead was up to. She was one of the shady sorts, after all, Terry had no real desire to get into any of their shenanigans.
Still, she reached for another sample of mac and cheese, this one full of something that looked like bacon and spinach, and wondered if they were going to make it all the way through the next few places. At least they were mostly drinks and it was still earlier enough that the clubs would be closed to the general public.
Some bar snacks and several very colorful drinks later, Jubilee slipped into the wooden chair around a red and white checkered table, eager to try the delicacies on offer. She’d often eaten from Mama Lupe’s, it being a favourite takeaway of most of X-force but she’d never had the pleasure of actually sitting down in the restaurant before.
Natasha’d had plenty of food from Mama Lupe’s but somehow hadn’t known there was an actual storefront. The take out had never disappointed no matter how many days it’d been in the fridge. She couldn’t imagine how much better the food was going to be fresh from the kitchen. “I feel like we really need to come in person more often,” Natasha said as she slipped into another chair at the table.
The atmosphere felt warm and welcoming with the hostess and wait staff interacting with a long air of familiarity and comfort. The sight made her relax incrementally more and turn down some of her constant alertness.
“Mm, the smells in here remind me of New Mexico. Spicy, little earthy. Is this the place we get the good tamales from for lunch sometimes?” Darcy’s eyes were closed as she took in the smells around her. “If so, I’ll try any of the chicken dishes on the menu.”
“This is like, totally the place where we get the good tamales. Everything is good here, even the stuff that doesn’t look like it would be good is amazing.”
Jubilee grinned as the food started to come out, leaning back to allow the servers to place the dishes down on the table.
“Negra Modelo, por favor,” she asked before turning to the others. “What drinks do you guys want?”
“Guava lime agua fresca for me.” Darcy replied. “Maybe something to roll me out of here too, because I’m already half full and have no intention of leaving food on my plate.”
“Horchata with a bit of dark rum,” Jean added. “It’s been awhile since I’ve had any..”
Plucking a chip from the bowl, she drowned it in queso, taking a bite.
“That does it. I’m eating the rest of this. Everyone else can get their own.”
“Rude.” Jubilee noted but it was with a cheeky grin as she waved to their server to bring more chips and queso. “But valid. Mama Lupe’s has never disappointed, not ever.”
“I would actually consider throwing hands over the queso, but I will console myself with this excellent salsa instead.” Darcy dunked a chip into the salsa before cramming it into her mouth with a wink.
“Well,” Arthur, newly arrived on this taste test tour, sat looking forlornly at the waiters as if plotting, “I imagine I could pull some strings. I do know Mama Lupe’s second cousin from a few episodes we did back out back out in Gila. Talk about a place making you want a drink.”
He stretched idly, grabbing a chip for himself.
Darcy slid one of the chip baskets and a bowl of salsa closer to Arthur with a warm smile. “Glad you were able to drop in for this part, dude.”
“Me too! The underground’s been in a bit of a tizzy due to the cold and all. Lots of calling the right people over from the DX offices to move donations and goods to the right people.”
“Aye,” Terry agreed, stealing a chip from the basket now in front of Arthur. “Glad t’be movin’ things around at all, t’be honest.” She spoke from behind a margarita the size of her head –– she’d felt she deserved it, given all the organising that’d gone into the day. “You just let me know if y’need more monetary donations or more goods?”
For this she got a bright smile as Arthur helped himself to some queso. “That’s a tough one! Everyone always needs more help. I just help smooth the edges with the regional folks.” He winked, good-naturedly. “You’ll be very popular with offers like that. I’ll have to keep your number on speedial.”
Humming her agreement, Terry scratched her phone number down on a napkin with a pen she pulled from her purse. She handed it over to Arthur, returning his smile with one of her own, and then reached for her margarita. “Lookin’ forward t’doin’ business with you, boyo.”
