“No, thank you, it all smells so delicious,” Dakota chimed in.
“I’ll let the cook know. He’ll appreciate it. I also told him about your request for recipes and he wants to know why you want them.”
“I’m the cook for a pack and I’m always looking for new recipes I think everyone will enjoy.”
“I’ll tell him, and see what he says.”
“Thanks,” Dakota said. “I really appreciate your help.”
“No problem, enjoy your meal,” the waiter said before heading for another booth.
Eyeing the food in front of them, Slate asked, “What do you want to try first?”
“Deep Fried Moon Falcon,” Dakota said.
“Ha, only because you want to taste the Lunar Beets,” Slate laughed.
“Lucky guess,” giggled Dakota.
Slate divided the dish in half and placed half on his mate’s plate before giving himself the rest. “Bon appétit.”
Dakota took his first forkful of Lunar Beets, moaning as his taste buds were overwhelmed by the flavor, mentally noting everything he’d read about them could never prepare him for what he was savoring. Digging into his Deep Fried Moon Falcon, he was surprised at the taste; it reminded him of wild turkey. Concentrating on identifying the spices used in the dish, he missed Slate’s question. “I’m sorry, what did you say?”
“I won’t ask if you like Deep Fried Moon Falcon because you’ve been moaning ever since your first bite. But how did you get interested in traditional food?”
“When I was ten, my grandmother gave me an old cookbook which had recipes for a few traditional dishes shifters used to make. I so was fascinated by them, I searched for more and collected a number of them. I wondered why they weren’t used anymore, so I dug deeper and found they took a lot of time to make and everyone now seemed to want quick meals.
“That bothered me because I believe food plays an important part of everyone’s history. Recipes passed down from generation to generation gives the newest generation a sense of their past and helps them understand where they came from. Face it, no matter what kind of shifter you are, everyone needs to eat so if you can sit down to a meal that your ancestors also ate, it bonds them to you in a spiritual way.”
“So this is what you wanted to serve in your restaurant?” asked Slate.
“Yes,” Dakota said. “But first I wanted to write a cookbook with the old recipes, tweaking them so they’dbe faster to fix: I’d also include substitutes if something was no longer available. You know, my Deep Fried Moon Falcon tastes just like wild turkey so that’d be okay to use instead, without ruining the taste of the dish.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to open a restaurant?” asked Slate.
“I am. Did you see how excited Theo was today when he talked about what he’d eaten in Scotland?”
“That he was. I saw a big difference in Theo compared to the last time I saw him.”
“Part of it is due to him learning how to cook. It was always a secret dream of his and when Cody assigned him to me, all his dreams came true at once. Theo is a born chef and I like teaching him a lot. When you came into my life, everything fell into place, and teaching Cody’s boys how to cook will make me the happiest.”
“What about the traditional recipes you collected?”
“I still want to do that, but it needs more research…like what we’re doing tonight. Figuring out what can be substituted can only be done by tasting the original dish.”
Slate chuckled. “I see a lot of dinners out for our future. Did you enjoy the three dishes we picked?”
Dakota looked down at the empty serving platters, smiling because they’d finished all three entrées while they’d been talking. “Wow! I guess I did enjoy them very much.”
“Good, when we come back, I can see we’ll be dining here regularly,” Slate chuckled. “Ready for dessert?”
“Yup, can’t wait to taste the Fire Honey & Thyme Pastry.”
Slate raised his hand and nodded when their waiter looked at him. “Do you want a refill on your lemonade?”
“Sure, but I need to take a leak,” said Dakota. “Do you know where the men’s room is?”
“See that door over on the far wall? Go through it and down the hallway, and it’s the first door on your right.”
