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Community Center Class: Gourmet Foods Around the World

"Welcome, everybody," Hannibal said to them. "I hope we all have recovered from our interesting long weekend. Today we will be visiting Tokyo, in Japan. It's part of a series of islands off the coast of Asia, so quite a distance from our last few visits. Japan's cuisine is heavy on seafood, but you'll find it quite different than our first foray into Baltimore seafood."

He led them through the portal and to a street in a large city.

"Tonight we will dine at Ginza Kojyu, one of the city's top restaurants, which practices kaiseki, a traditional form of meal with many courses and meticulous plating. Their current menu includes grilled eel, which is a specialty and one you won't often find outside of Japanese cuisine. Chef Okuda does a wonderful job with local and seasonal ingredients."

He bowed to the maitre d' as they were led to their seats. "You will also get to watch them prepare and plate the food, which can be wonderful to see." If you didn't object to them working with bare hands. Hannibal wasn't apologizing for that. "The local language is Japanese; many will also speak English, but I am fluent should you have any questions."

Because of course he was.

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Adult again (unless you're not)!

Welcome to Tokyo!

It's a lot of steak and fish, including raw, and really yummy. Or just try to figure out the chopsticks.

When he's not talking to the chef.

Now I want sushi.

Seivarden Vendaai

Kanan Jarrus

Tokyo! Kanan remembered some of the Japanese culture from his classes with Hannibal before, and regardless of what the weekend had been like... or who else might be in the class today... he was looking forward to this.

Japan was good. Language barrier aside, Japan made a lot more sense than some of Earth.

Why did people make really delicious-looking food and then have them eat it with bare hands? Seivarden facepalmed, looked away when the chef prepared the food, and tried just focus on the food itself. She struggled with the chopsticks, but found that sushi could easily be eaten with gloved hands, like some Radchaai food. The taste distracted her from the preparation, especially with sake to go with it.

Seivarden glanced at Kanan, feeling more awkward than annoyed.

At least she wasn't the only one who was stuck with some kind of colour from the last few days.

Hey, Kanan knew his way around a pair of grub-sticks, at least. You didn't do as much travel around the galaxy as he did without learning how to eat, after all. So it didn't take much effort at all for him to navigate his meal, and he was trying absolutely everything he possibly could get those sticks on in the process.

Could... could he just move to Japan? It wouldn't turn him into a teenager randomly, for starters.

Kanan glanced back, and then just kind of shrugged his shoulders back at her.

Hey, it had been a long week. He was willing to table the petty tiff between them while they adjusted again to life as normal.

Anyway, Seivarden had actually been a decent kid.

Weird.

Hannibal nodded to Kanan. "And how are you doing today?"

"Like this," Hannibal explained. He showed her how to hold the chopsticks and use them. Sushi was edible with fingers, but steak would probably not be.

After living on Fandom, it might.

"You have cultures that eat this way in your galaxy?" Hannibal asked.

"Much improved from yesterday," Kanan offered. "And yesterday was a work in progress. How've you been?"

"Sure," Kanan agreed with a shrug. "It's an Asogian thing, but I'm sure they aren't the only ones. I picked this one up... somewhere over the years."

He paused.

"It's not that hard, anyway."

Jedi.

"Well enough," Hannibal said. "I was a little startled by it all, but not unduly traumatized."

"There seems to be a fairly even division between one and the other," Kanan noted, nodding. "I guess it doesn't help when half the people on the island are here to get away from something, it seems."

"No," Hannibal agreed. "Asogian?"

Kanan shrugged.

"One of roughly a million alien races where I'm from," he explained. "Vaguely humanoid, but not near-human or anything."

E.T.

They were E.T.

"Is their food similar to Japan's?" Hannibal asked.

Kanan considered the food in front of him.

"... No, they have far more live insects."

Hence the name, 'grub-sticks.'

"Likely not," Hannibal agreed. "Am I right in supposing you are on the other side of that division?"

It wasn't even Hannibal levels of intelligence needed to guess that.

"Mm." Hannibal nodded. "Live food is seldom part of Earth diets. Some insects are, though. Not often in the cuisines we visit, however. Western palates tend to find them...inadvisable."

"Ah, that's easier." Seivarden might still need a little practice, but she picked up how to use the chopsticks well enough to use them and still enjoy the meal.

Which was good.

"As long as I don't look at the people preparing it, this is one of the best meals I've had in a very long time," she said.

"That... wouldn't exactly be a stretch," Kanan admitted, sighing.

"Well, I suppose there's no pleasing everybody. Some people just want already dead food."

Choosy eaters, right?

"I enjoy watching the preparation," Hannibal said, "but so long as you are discreet about it, nobody will mind you not looking. Is this more similar to meals you are used to?"

"For what it may be worth, you were an intriguing and intelligent child," Hannibal said. "How are you faring now?"

"There are many on Earth - and I would hazard a guess in your galaxy as well - that prefer not to think about the fact their food was ever living," Hannibal pointed out. "Having it moving interferes with that."

"Honestly? Tired," Kanan replied, diverting a hand-headed-for-the-hair to the back of his neck instead. "There was a lot of old muddy ground I got to walk over again, and I'm going to need to take some time at some point to process it. That's not something I'm in any hurry to do."

"We've spoken of this before, I think," Hannibal said. "You must take that time eventually."

He gave Kanan a little bow. "And if there should be anything that I can do to help, you know I will listen."

"I know," Kanan agreed, "and I appreciate that. I might keep an eye out for your office hours, especially if I feel it's not working out. I don't intend to keep running from how I feel about it. Not for long, anyway."

"There is that," Kanan allowed, shrugging. "I try not to make a habit out of eating grubs either, but when in... Rome?"

That was the saying, right?

"Any time you like," Hannibal said. "And I'm pleased to hear it."

That was the saying, and Hannibal nodded and smiled. "When in Rome. Perhaps I'll find such a place soon. Although not Rome, I should point out, as Rome is in Italy."

"And we've been to Italy," Kanan replied, amused. And maybe the tiniest bit proud of himself for remembering place names.

He went home every week and wrote notes.

"We have," Hannibal agreed, smiling. "And they also prefer nonliving food, for the most part."

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