Poem: "Bring Soul to the Recipe"
Sep. 28th, 2022 08:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis poem is spillover from the August 2, 2022 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from janetmiles and fuzzyred. It also fills the "Experimental" square in my 8-1-22 card for the Reel Time Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with ng_moonmoth. It belongs to the Shiv thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.
"Bring Soul to the Recipe"
[Morning of Tuesday, April 5, 2016]
Pain's Gray had come to visit,
which inevitably led to him and Shiv
puttering around in Shiv's kitchen
experimenting with new things.
"Ever notice how everybody's got
a red rice dish?" Shiv mused. "Just
last week Zipper introduced me to
his mother, and she mixed up
this Egyptian version with fish
and a ton of caramelized onions."
"Well now I'm hungry," said Gray.
"Do you remember enough of that
to make it, or do you need a recipe?"
"I dunno," Shiv said. "I got to thinking,
all the recipes use a lot of the same stuff.
Rice, tomato, onion -- it's the spices that
change, and the stuff mixed in like veggies."
"Not always onion," said Gray. "There's
also garlic, and some use leeks or shallots.
Other aromatics too, like carrots or celery."
"So yeah, that's one group," said Shiv.
"I think it'd be keen if we could make
like a mix-and-match red rice. You
know, use whatever you've got."
"Especially for leftovers, yes,
that would be nice," said Gray.
"Hmm, or make your own box mix,"
said Shiv. "Complicated, though."
Gray shook his head. "Start with
a scratch-made recipe," he said.
"Then create variations from there,
like leftovers or homemade box mix."
"Yeah, that makes sense," said Shiv.
"So, do we start by listing the options
from a bunch of different recipes, or by
looking at what I have in the kitchen?"
"List the options," said Gray. "Then
we'll figure out what we can make
based on what you already have."
Shiv knew how to make soul food,
and he was learning a bit about
Asian cooking from Luci, plus
the Egyptian from Zipper's mom.
Gray cooked mostly French, but he'd
picked up some Italian from Ricasso,
a little Irish from Thriver, he and Shiv
played with Indian, plus other bits.
So they sat down at the table
to explore different possibilities.
Shiv used his tablet computer
to search for red rice recipes,
along with a paper notebook
to jot down ingredients and
different ways to cook the rice.
Gray started out making notes
from memory, then switched to
his smartphone for research.
"This is ... adding up to
a lot more options than
I expected," said Gray.
"Yyyyyeah," Shiv said.
"I seen all different kinds of
mix-and-match recipes, but
I'm not sure how to make one."
Then he brightened. "We
can ask Cook for help!"
Shiv bounded to his feet,
beckoning to Gray. "Come on,
this is going to be so awesome."
Gray followed him downstairs
to the restaurant kitchen, where
Cook was setting up several of
the long-cooking things for supper.
It was between breakfast and lunch,
so the kitchen was mostly empty,
which made it a good time to ask.
"Hey Cook, can you help us out?"
Shiv said. "We're trying to make
a mix-and-match recipe for red rice,
but there's too many choices for us
to figure out by ourselves. I know
how to use one where you pick this,
pick that, but not how to create one."
Cook's eyebrows went up. "Okay,
algorithmic recipes," he said. "I
know a lot of those, so I think that
I can figure out how to invent one."
"Algorithms, yeah-yeah, that's what
the Finns called them," Shiv said,
bouncing on the toes. "So you can
make it using whatever you got."
"Show me your notes," Cook said,
beckoning to them. "I'll take a look."
Shiv put his tablet computer and
paper notebook on the table.
Gray added his smartphone.
Cook looked them over, then
shook his head. "What a mess,"
he said. "First thing, we need
to sort out ingredients by type
or how they're used. You can't
make a recipe when they're
all mixed together like this."
"That makes sense," said Gray.
"So ... type of rice, cooking liquid,
cooking fat, and aromatics ..."
"Tomatoes," said Shiv. "I want
to set this up so you can use
just about any kind of tomatoes,
like fresh or canned or paste."
"Don't forget dried," said Cook.
"Tomato powder and dry bits are
standard in homemade box mixes,
as well as emergency supplies."
"Oh yeah, like for camping,"
said Shiv. "Tolli and Simon
showed me how you can bag
stuff that just needs water to cook."
"Exactly," said Cook. "Tomatoes
can be a category of their own.
Other vegetables, protein if you
want beans or meat in your rice,
and any kind of fancy toppings."
"Seasonings," Gray said, catching on.
"Maybe divide them by wet and dry."
"You definitely need dry spices,
but that can be a bottle blend or
something you whip up on the spot,"
said Cook. "Wet stuff like hot sauce,
some folks want and others don't."
"Maybe ..." Shiv struggled to put
his idea into words. "... a set of stuff
you can put if you want but you don't
have to? 'Cause the recipes differ,
they don't all got chunks in 'em."
"Optional ingredients," Cook said,
nodding. "Vegetables other than
tomatoes, protein, wet seasonings,
and toppings can all be optional."
"French cuisine has dishes with
optional ingredients, and ones like
ratatouille where you need an amount
of mixed things," Gray mused. "It'll work."
"Remember allergies and other kinds of
special dietary needs," Cook warned.
"We should make sure there are plenty
of choices per category, so anyone who
can't use some things can find others
that will do the same job in the recipe."
"So like, go down the Top 8 list and
make sure every category has something
allergy-friendly?" Shiv said. "I can do that,
once we've got the categories sorted."
"Top 8, gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan,
plus religious stuff like kosher or halal,"
Cook said. "Healthy choices too."
"Hmm," said Gray. "We have
a couple of categories that only
offer one ingredient in various forms,
the rice and the tomatoes. Is that
likely to cause dietary issues?"
"Could be, if someone has
special needs," said Cook.
"Didn't we get access to
some places for looking up
stuff like that, when we joined
Eat Healthy Omaha?" said Shiv.
"Oh yeah, a searchable database
and a bunch of specific articles,"
said Cook. "Let me check those."
He pulled out a tablet computer
used for recipes and calculations.
"Okay, here's a list of substitutions
for tomato," said Cook. "Anything here
look familiar from your recipes earlier?"
"Tamarind," said Gray. "We've used
that in some of the Indian recipes."
"This plum stuff," said Shiv. "I know
some Asian things that Luci likes.
It's salty and sour, so really good
for punching up sauces and such."
"Come to think of it, red pepper
is another option," said Cook.
"Some folks can't have tomato,
pepper, or potato but others
only have a reaction to one."
"I've seen sweet potato or
pumpkin puree as a substitute
for tomato puree," said Gray.
"Dried sour cranberries," said Shiv.
"I've had those in campfire soup, and
a few times in holiday recipes. They're
surprisingly good, especially with chicken."
"All right, you write down those and
then list the types of tomato you
want to include," said Cook. "Gray,
you pick some other category."
Gray tapped the table beside
his smartphone. "We already
listed types of rice, including
whole and processed ones."
"That'll help," said Cook. "Rice
is mostly healthy unless you load it
with too much salt, fat, or other junk."
Shiv had gotten a lot more fond of
rice once he discovered that it could
be more interesting that what came out
of a minute box with tomato sauce added.
Chewy brown rice, fluffy yellow rice,
mixed rice medleys with different flavors,
and a world's worth of nifty tomato rice
had really made a big difference to him.
"What about riced cauliflower?" said Shiv.
"Not everyone wants all those carbs."
"No, that'll change too much of
the preparation," said Cook.
"Ingredients need to be
similar enough to handle
more or less the same way."
"Leftovers, though?" said Gray.
"We talked about creating a range
of ways to make this, including
leftovers and box mix. Starting
with all precooked ingredients,
riced cauliflower should work."
"Yeah, that'll do," said Cook.
"Make a note of that for leftovers."
"I'll get right on that," said Gray.
Cook helped them sort out
the rest of the ingredients
based on preparation (like
aromatics for sautéing) or
function (like seasonings),
and how much of each.
Shiv checked to make sure
they had enough variety in
each category so that folks
with special needs could
find something suitable,
and everyone could try
plenty of different flavors.
"Now for preparation, look
at your inspirational recipes
and see how to make them,"
said Cook. "Pick a way that
you like. Check to see whether
your ingredients will work with it.
Cross off anything that won't fit."
"How about a one-pot dish?"
Shiv said. "You can make rice
in a saucepan or in a skillet."
"That's a good choice, keeps
everything simpler," said Cook.
He leaned over the tablet computer,
carefully working out the steps.
"Okay, what do you boys think?"
"It looks good to me," Gray said,
and Shiv nodded his agreement.
"Let's start with a family size recipe,
so one cup of raw rice, then base
the other amounts on that,"
Cook said. "Make sense?"
"That won't go very far in
the restaurant," Shiv said.
"We're testing, not serving
a crowd yet," said Cook.
"Once we know what folks
like best, then I can scale up
the recipe to restaurant size."
"So do we make one batch,
or one each?" Gray asked.
"Do three, then we can compare
and contrast them," Shiv said.
"One cup of rice fluffs up to
three cups cooked, or four if it's
brown rice. Plus whatever mix-ins
we add," said Cook. "Serving size is
half a cup for a side dish or one cup
for a main dish. So a batch should
give us six or eight side servings,
which is enough for samples."
Shiv was familiar with that from
shopping at the farmer's market.
If he found a bargain on something
unusual, Cook would make up a bunch
of different recipes and offer them to
diners as cheap or even free samples,
then see which people liked most.
"Shiv, this was your idea, you pick
what you want to try first," said Gray.
"I wanna see if I can make something
like the Egyptian stuff Zipper's mom made,"
said Shiv. "It had a big mess of onions,
fish, and tomato paste in basmati rice."
"Yeah, we got that," said Cook. "You can
use the flaked cod that goes on salads."
"That'll work," said Shiv. "I don't
remember all the spices, though."
Cook opened the spice pantry.
"Here, we got a bottle of baharat,"
he said. "I bought it for making
some North African recipes."
"And Egypt is in North Africa,
good thinking," said Gray.
"I think I'll try French."
"That leaves me on
Southern," said Cook.
Shiv took the spice bottle
and went to hunt down
the rest of his ingredients.
Most of his preparation time
went to chopping and caramelizing
the onions. After that, he just mixed
things together, brought the skillet
to a boil, then left it to cook on low.
"Need any help?" he asked Gray,
who was stirring and stirring his risotto.
"Yeah, if you could dice a couple of
tomatoes and shred some basil,
that would be great," said Gray.
Shiv found the tomatoes and
the basil, then set to work.
When he finished them, he
passed the bowls to Gray,
who added them to his lineup.
Shiv wandered over to see
what Cook was doing.
Cook's skillet was already
set to steam, giving off
a cloud smelling of bacon.
"That smells so good," Shiv said,
waving a hand through the steam.
Then his timer went off, so he
hustled back to his own station.
Shiv fluffed the rice, and then
carefully folded in the cod flakes.
He topped it with caramelized onions.
"My red rice is finished," he called.
"I'm putting the toppings on
mine right now," said Gray.
"Same here," said Cook.
"All right, everyone scoop out
a bit of yours so we can taste 'em."
All three plates went on the table,
then everyone sat down to sample.
"Shiv, does yours taste the way
you wanted it to?" Gray asked.
"Pretty much," said Shiv. "It's
not exactly like what Zinat made,
but it's the same dish, and it's good."
"Yeah, I like it too," said Gray.
"This would go well with fish
or seafood," Cook observed.
"They call it fish rice or
seafood rice," Shiv said.
"Here, try mine," said Gray.
"I like the way it turned out."
Shiv tried it. The flavor was
light, delicate, almost floral.
"This is good," he said. "It's
different than what I usually eat,
but it's really good." He took
another bite. "Dunno if it'd
fit with the restaurant, though."
"Well now, there's a lot of
overlap between French and
black culture in some parts,"
said Cook. "New Orleans,
Senegal, places like that."
Gray nodded. "That's
one reason I picked this.
I figured you could put it with
some other black French foods."
"Can do," said Cook. "You boys
wanna try the Southern rice?"
"Oh hell yes," said Shiv,
even though he'd had plenty
of Cook's rice recipes before.
This one was different, spicier,
with a smoky note from the bacon.
"Mmm, this is so damn good,"
Shiv said, scraping up the last of it.
"He's right, and if you used duck
or turkey bacon, you could pick up
folks who don't eat pork," said Gray.
"True, though we don't get a lot of
Muslim customers," said Cook.
"We still bring in plates for them
from a halal restaurant nearby."
"Good stuff, too, I like nabbing
the leftover plates," said Shiv.
Well, he liked most free food.
"Okay, let's divide this into
sample bowls and put them
in the fridge for later," said Cook.
"You think this'll work as soul food?"
Shiv said. "Does it have enough soul?"
"A recipe has no soul," said Cook. "You
as the cook must bring soul to the recipe."
Grinning, Gray clapped Shiv on the back.
"Well, he sure managed that," said Gray.
* * *
Notes:
This poem is long, so its notes appear elsewhere, and they include the complete algorithm for red rice.
janetmiles and fuzzyred. It also fills the "Experimental" square in my 8-1-22 card for the Reel Time Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with ng_moonmoth. It belongs to the Shiv thread of the Polychrome Heroics series."Bring Soul to the Recipe"
[Morning of Tuesday, April 5, 2016]
Pain's Gray had come to visit,
which inevitably led to him and Shiv
puttering around in Shiv's kitchen
experimenting with new things.
"Ever notice how everybody's got
a red rice dish?" Shiv mused. "Just
last week Zipper introduced me to
his mother, and she mixed up
this Egyptian version with fish
and a ton of caramelized onions."
"Well now I'm hungry," said Gray.
"Do you remember enough of that
to make it, or do you need a recipe?"
"I dunno," Shiv said. "I got to thinking,
all the recipes use a lot of the same stuff.
Rice, tomato, onion -- it's the spices that
change, and the stuff mixed in like veggies."
"Not always onion," said Gray. "There's
also garlic, and some use leeks or shallots.
Other aromatics too, like carrots or celery."
"So yeah, that's one group," said Shiv.
"I think it'd be keen if we could make
like a mix-and-match red rice. You
know, use whatever you've got."
"Especially for leftovers, yes,
that would be nice," said Gray.
"Hmm, or make your own box mix,"
said Shiv. "Complicated, though."
Gray shook his head. "Start with
a scratch-made recipe," he said.
"Then create variations from there,
like leftovers or homemade box mix."
"Yeah, that makes sense," said Shiv.
"So, do we start by listing the options
from a bunch of different recipes, or by
looking at what I have in the kitchen?"
"List the options," said Gray. "Then
we'll figure out what we can make
based on what you already have."
Shiv knew how to make soul food,
and he was learning a bit about
Asian cooking from Luci, plus
the Egyptian from Zipper's mom.
Gray cooked mostly French, but he'd
picked up some Italian from Ricasso,
a little Irish from Thriver, he and Shiv
played with Indian, plus other bits.
So they sat down at the table
to explore different possibilities.
Shiv used his tablet computer
to search for red rice recipes,
along with a paper notebook
to jot down ingredients and
different ways to cook the rice.
Gray started out making notes
from memory, then switched to
his smartphone for research.
"This is ... adding up to
a lot more options than
I expected," said Gray.
"Yyyyyeah," Shiv said.
"I seen all different kinds of
mix-and-match recipes, but
I'm not sure how to make one."
Then he brightened. "We
can ask Cook for help!"
Shiv bounded to his feet,
beckoning to Gray. "Come on,
this is going to be so awesome."
Gray followed him downstairs
to the restaurant kitchen, where
Cook was setting up several of
the long-cooking things for supper.
It was between breakfast and lunch,
so the kitchen was mostly empty,
which made it a good time to ask.
"Hey Cook, can you help us out?"
Shiv said. "We're trying to make
a mix-and-match recipe for red rice,
but there's too many choices for us
to figure out by ourselves. I know
how to use one where you pick this,
pick that, but not how to create one."
Cook's eyebrows went up. "Okay,
algorithmic recipes," he said. "I
know a lot of those, so I think that
I can figure out how to invent one."
"Algorithms, yeah-yeah, that's what
the Finns called them," Shiv said,
bouncing on the toes. "So you can
make it using whatever you got."
"Show me your notes," Cook said,
beckoning to them. "I'll take a look."
Shiv put his tablet computer and
paper notebook on the table.
Gray added his smartphone.
Cook looked them over, then
shook his head. "What a mess,"
he said. "First thing, we need
to sort out ingredients by type
or how they're used. You can't
make a recipe when they're
all mixed together like this."
"That makes sense," said Gray.
"So ... type of rice, cooking liquid,
cooking fat, and aromatics ..."
"Tomatoes," said Shiv. "I want
to set this up so you can use
just about any kind of tomatoes,
like fresh or canned or paste."
"Don't forget dried," said Cook.
"Tomato powder and dry bits are
standard in homemade box mixes,
as well as emergency supplies."
"Oh yeah, like for camping,"
said Shiv. "Tolli and Simon
showed me how you can bag
stuff that just needs water to cook."
"Exactly," said Cook. "Tomatoes
can be a category of their own.
Other vegetables, protein if you
want beans or meat in your rice,
and any kind of fancy toppings."
"Seasonings," Gray said, catching on.
"Maybe divide them by wet and dry."
"You definitely need dry spices,
but that can be a bottle blend or
something you whip up on the spot,"
said Cook. "Wet stuff like hot sauce,
some folks want and others don't."
"Maybe ..." Shiv struggled to put
his idea into words. "... a set of stuff
you can put if you want but you don't
have to? 'Cause the recipes differ,
they don't all got chunks in 'em."
"Optional ingredients," Cook said,
nodding. "Vegetables other than
tomatoes, protein, wet seasonings,
and toppings can all be optional."
"French cuisine has dishes with
optional ingredients, and ones like
ratatouille where you need an amount
of mixed things," Gray mused. "It'll work."
"Remember allergies and other kinds of
special dietary needs," Cook warned.
"We should make sure there are plenty
of choices per category, so anyone who
can't use some things can find others
that will do the same job in the recipe."
"So like, go down the Top 8 list and
make sure every category has something
allergy-friendly?" Shiv said. "I can do that,
once we've got the categories sorted."
"Top 8, gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan,
plus religious stuff like kosher or halal,"
Cook said. "Healthy choices too."
"Hmm," said Gray. "We have
a couple of categories that only
offer one ingredient in various forms,
the rice and the tomatoes. Is that
likely to cause dietary issues?"
"Could be, if someone has
special needs," said Cook.
"Didn't we get access to
some places for looking up
stuff like that, when we joined
Eat Healthy Omaha?" said Shiv.
"Oh yeah, a searchable database
and a bunch of specific articles,"
said Cook. "Let me check those."
He pulled out a tablet computer
used for recipes and calculations.
"Okay, here's a list of substitutions
for tomato," said Cook. "Anything here
look familiar from your recipes earlier?"
"Tamarind," said Gray. "We've used
that in some of the Indian recipes."
"This plum stuff," said Shiv. "I know
some Asian things that Luci likes.
It's salty and sour, so really good
for punching up sauces and such."
"Come to think of it, red pepper
is another option," said Cook.
"Some folks can't have tomato,
pepper, or potato but others
only have a reaction to one."
"I've seen sweet potato or
pumpkin puree as a substitute
for tomato puree," said Gray.
"Dried sour cranberries," said Shiv.
"I've had those in campfire soup, and
a few times in holiday recipes. They're
surprisingly good, especially with chicken."
"All right, you write down those and
then list the types of tomato you
want to include," said Cook. "Gray,
you pick some other category."
Gray tapped the table beside
his smartphone. "We already
listed types of rice, including
whole and processed ones."
"That'll help," said Cook. "Rice
is mostly healthy unless you load it
with too much salt, fat, or other junk."
Shiv had gotten a lot more fond of
rice once he discovered that it could
be more interesting that what came out
of a minute box with tomato sauce added.
Chewy brown rice, fluffy yellow rice,
mixed rice medleys with different flavors,
and a world's worth of nifty tomato rice
had really made a big difference to him.
"What about riced cauliflower?" said Shiv.
"Not everyone wants all those carbs."
"No, that'll change too much of
the preparation," said Cook.
"Ingredients need to be
similar enough to handle
more or less the same way."
"Leftovers, though?" said Gray.
"We talked about creating a range
of ways to make this, including
leftovers and box mix. Starting
with all precooked ingredients,
riced cauliflower should work."
"Yeah, that'll do," said Cook.
"Make a note of that for leftovers."
"I'll get right on that," said Gray.
Cook helped them sort out
the rest of the ingredients
based on preparation (like
aromatics for sautéing) or
function (like seasonings),
and how much of each.
Shiv checked to make sure
they had enough variety in
each category so that folks
with special needs could
find something suitable,
and everyone could try
plenty of different flavors.
"Now for preparation, look
at your inspirational recipes
and see how to make them,"
said Cook. "Pick a way that
you like. Check to see whether
your ingredients will work with it.
Cross off anything that won't fit."
"How about a one-pot dish?"
Shiv said. "You can make rice
in a saucepan or in a skillet."
"That's a good choice, keeps
everything simpler," said Cook.
He leaned over the tablet computer,
carefully working out the steps.
"Okay, what do you boys think?"
"It looks good to me," Gray said,
and Shiv nodded his agreement.
"Let's start with a family size recipe,
so one cup of raw rice, then base
the other amounts on that,"
Cook said. "Make sense?"
"That won't go very far in
the restaurant," Shiv said.
"We're testing, not serving
a crowd yet," said Cook.
"Once we know what folks
like best, then I can scale up
the recipe to restaurant size."
"So do we make one batch,
or one each?" Gray asked.
"Do three, then we can compare
and contrast them," Shiv said.
"One cup of rice fluffs up to
three cups cooked, or four if it's
brown rice. Plus whatever mix-ins
we add," said Cook. "Serving size is
half a cup for a side dish or one cup
for a main dish. So a batch should
give us six or eight side servings,
which is enough for samples."
Shiv was familiar with that from
shopping at the farmer's market.
If he found a bargain on something
unusual, Cook would make up a bunch
of different recipes and offer them to
diners as cheap or even free samples,
then see which people liked most.
"Shiv, this was your idea, you pick
what you want to try first," said Gray.
"I wanna see if I can make something
like the Egyptian stuff Zipper's mom made,"
said Shiv. "It had a big mess of onions,
fish, and tomato paste in basmati rice."
"Yeah, we got that," said Cook. "You can
use the flaked cod that goes on salads."
"That'll work," said Shiv. "I don't
remember all the spices, though."
Cook opened the spice pantry.
"Here, we got a bottle of baharat,"
he said. "I bought it for making
some North African recipes."
"And Egypt is in North Africa,
good thinking," said Gray.
"I think I'll try French."
"That leaves me on
Southern," said Cook.
Shiv took the spice bottle
and went to hunt down
the rest of his ingredients.
Most of his preparation time
went to chopping and caramelizing
the onions. After that, he just mixed
things together, brought the skillet
to a boil, then left it to cook on low.
"Need any help?" he asked Gray,
who was stirring and stirring his risotto.
"Yeah, if you could dice a couple of
tomatoes and shred some basil,
that would be great," said Gray.
Shiv found the tomatoes and
the basil, then set to work.
When he finished them, he
passed the bowls to Gray,
who added them to his lineup.
Shiv wandered over to see
what Cook was doing.
Cook's skillet was already
set to steam, giving off
a cloud smelling of bacon.
"That smells so good," Shiv said,
waving a hand through the steam.
Then his timer went off, so he
hustled back to his own station.
Shiv fluffed the rice, and then
carefully folded in the cod flakes.
He topped it with caramelized onions.
"My red rice is finished," he called.
"I'm putting the toppings on
mine right now," said Gray.
"Same here," said Cook.
"All right, everyone scoop out
a bit of yours so we can taste 'em."
All three plates went on the table,
then everyone sat down to sample.
"Shiv, does yours taste the way
you wanted it to?" Gray asked.
"Pretty much," said Shiv. "It's
not exactly like what Zinat made,
but it's the same dish, and it's good."
"Yeah, I like it too," said Gray.
"This would go well with fish
or seafood," Cook observed.
"They call it fish rice or
seafood rice," Shiv said.
"Here, try mine," said Gray.
"I like the way it turned out."
Shiv tried it. The flavor was
light, delicate, almost floral.
"This is good," he said. "It's
different than what I usually eat,
but it's really good." He took
another bite. "Dunno if it'd
fit with the restaurant, though."
"Well now, there's a lot of
overlap between French and
black culture in some parts,"
said Cook. "New Orleans,
Senegal, places like that."
Gray nodded. "That's
one reason I picked this.
I figured you could put it with
some other black French foods."
"Can do," said Cook. "You boys
wanna try the Southern rice?"
"Oh hell yes," said Shiv,
even though he'd had plenty
of Cook's rice recipes before.
This one was different, spicier,
with a smoky note from the bacon.
"Mmm, this is so damn good,"
Shiv said, scraping up the last of it.
"He's right, and if you used duck
or turkey bacon, you could pick up
folks who don't eat pork," said Gray.
"True, though we don't get a lot of
Muslim customers," said Cook.
"We still bring in plates for them
from a halal restaurant nearby."
"Good stuff, too, I like nabbing
the leftover plates," said Shiv.
Well, he liked most free food.
"Okay, let's divide this into
sample bowls and put them
in the fridge for later," said Cook.
"You think this'll work as soul food?"
Shiv said. "Does it have enough soul?"
"A recipe has no soul," said Cook. "You
as the cook must bring soul to the recipe."
Grinning, Gray clapped Shiv on the back.
"Well, he sure managed that," said Gray.
* * *
Notes:
This poem is long, so its notes appear elsewhere, and they include the complete algorithm for red rice.
