Today was another interesting day. Starting out with a very early morning adventure where Radella was secretly searching our rooms looking for peepholes and doors the servants use. She also did some other looking around the rest of the house. I rearranged my room and covered the peepholes that Radella found in my room. I simply shifted most of the furniture counter clockwise and then also rehung pictures. Once I was done I said out loud “now this is a room Sasi would agree like” in case someone was listening.
By the time Kali called us boys to her room so that the group could discuss planning for the feast of honored visitors my redecorating was complete. Of course we had to do it again in her room as well. Things then got a little strange when Kali started telling us about results from a divination. I was more than a little confused to hear that she had to do a divination to confirm that the prince was smitten with her, isn’t that obvious. I know dear that is like the kettle calling the pot black. So with the menu planned and the decision to use part of the play from the crazy playwright. Leave it to Sparna to come up with this one.
The day of the feast of honored visitors Kali is invited to have lunch with the prince. She was so flustered that she forgot to ask about the actors for the play so she had to run after the guy. Kali says she is not interested in the prince but I was not interested in getting married when I met you so this mystery has yet to unfold the real truth. My opinion is that she is not even slightly interested as it has always seems that Kali has no interest in men and possibly any kind of intimate relationship. It is not really any of my business how she lives her life, although she is kind of like an older sister.
Today while shopping for some magical equipment for Kali I learn a valuable lesson. When the shopkeeper says “We have more magical enchanted gear in the back and we can most likely arrange some unique item if required. What are you looking for?” one should have a simple answer for those times. I found myself in the position of completely forgetting magic items that would be interesting and instead I asked about deathblade poison. By the time you are able to read this the time to get angry will have passed. Luckily no one else was with me so I was able to avoid a lecture.
DINNER!
The soup course consisted of Eel eye soup. The soup was fine but it would have been better with freshly killed Eel’s. It is winter so maybe getting fresh Eel’s is difficult and the spices they used just did not mask the lack of freshness. The deep fried seaweed was tasty and adding some to the soup made the soup more flavorful. Olmas review was something like “Oh great more of this food”. Olmas was not interested in the soup and I think Dessert was the only thing that he tried.
Next was the seared sea scallops on the half shell with squid ink butter served alongside some sturgeon and salmon eggs, Qatana called this caviar. On first impression this had the look of a signature dish but my scallops lacked the flavor that I was expecting. Olmas appeared to pass on this dish.
Broiled sea bass and Octopus tentacles provided the complementary flavors of sea bass and octopus. The presentation showed what looked to be two creatures caught in battle. This dish clearly shows that there are people in the world that have so much that they can afford to make their food look pretty. I found both the sea bass and Octopus to be flavorful and tasty. I observed Olmas poking at the sea bass but he still had the look of someone waiting for the real food to arrive.
We finally got to what Qatana called the meat course. The sweet smell danced in my nose as they cracked open the piglet brain case. Just the piglet brain itself would have been a wonderful meal on its own. Pieces of piglet brain on their roasted skin provided an outstandingly delicious combination and topping with the gravy made this the best dish of all of the feasts. To make this dish even better the sides of thin sliced potatoes, Asparagus, and poached apples simply added to the overall enjoyment of this meal. I almost wanted to just keep eating at the brain but there was still frenched ribs and loins to try. The ribs melted in your mouth and the flavor was good but not spectacular. I found the loins just a slight less flavorful than the ribs. Overall the hit of this dish has to be the piglet brains and piglet skin, with the side dishes greatly adding to the enjoyment of the brains. If I had to leave something off it would have been the ribs and loins.
The meal wrapped up with what Qatana called Yin and Yang Chocolate. Even though they were forced to use something other than fresh berries because of winter the dessert turned out ok. The real highlight of the meal was the pig and this had the look of elegance but just wasn’t the right dessert after the pig. With the wide variety flavors presented during this meal maybe a simple dessert would have been best.
Overall the food was good. I would agree with Olmas’s comment that it would have been nice to treat the prince to actual Varisian food but the goal was to impress the prince and not serve Varisian food.
On the lighter side Kali earlier today semi-accepted an engagement from the prince. The politics is very confusing but she says that she does not want to marry the prince but told the prince that she does want to marry him but needs her parent’s approval. I still don’t understand business people.