Tondemo Skill - 368.1 - Idle Talk: Orphanage Kids, Half a Year Later (Patreon)

“Welcome home!!!”

Maynard and Enzo had just returned after closing their food stall. They were warmly welcomed by their fellow orphans, especially the little kids.

“Ooh, I’m back,”

“I’m home~”

The children flocked around them.

“Meat?”

“Any meat left?”

“Can we have some meat… please?”

“Goodness, you guys,”

Even after the little chiding tone, the two set down the [8] handle of the wheelbarrow that carried their coal, two portable earth grilling stoves with a metal grill over it, the bucket covered bucket of their tomato stew and the sealed bucket of blanched offal. After some experimentation, they find that blanched offal meats spoil less compared to raw ones, therefore, they would blanch the meat just a little longer in boiling water before cutting them into bite-size pieces.

[8] Maynard took out the portable earth grilling stove and began to fan the embers while Enzo expertly threaded the meat onto skewers. While the little kids stared, they began to grill the offal skewers.

After all, though these meats were technically meant for their business, these little children were like their younger brothers and sisters. [6] So, how could they coldly deny them?

Moreover, supplementing these hungry children’s stomachs with their food was also a way of repaying the orphanage as well as the Director who supported all their business.

For an orphanage, the greatest expense was properly feeding these growing children. Something that the Director and the two sisters were always worrying about.

“We still have some offal left, so I’ll be making some grilled skewers for you guys. Please wait for the meat to be properly grilled, okay?”

Since the Offal in Tomato Stew was their signature dish, that had been sold out long ago, leaving only a bit of the skewered meat at the end of the day.

[8] With quick, efficient movements, Maynard and Enzo quickly grilled the offal over the burning embers. The sizzling sound of grilling meat and hiss of fat hitting the fire made nearly everyone around them drool.

“Oh? Looks like I’m right on time today, yeah?”

It was Lewis. Same age as Maynard and Enzo, [8] the Adventurer’s group were seen as the little kids’ idols and role models.

[9]

“Lewis, Lewis, you’re back!” [5] [6] some of the kids flocked over to surround the Adventurers to stare longingly at their bulging bags.

“Heya, kids, our team worked well today, as usual. So we'll have plenty of meat for the next couple of meals.”

“Yeah, we’re pretty lucky today.”

“We managed to take down six Sheep.

“And a Wild Chicken on top of that!”

“Wooaahhh!!!” Admiring voices sounded from the children.

“Hoh? You guys are getting better and better,” remarked Maynard.

“Yeah, I still remember back when you guys are happy to take down one Sheep.”

“Haha, but of course!” Lewis laughed. “I did promise Big Brother that I’d get better. We got to show him some growth when he comes back next year, yeah!”

“Ou!” in sync, all members of the Adventurer team punched the air.

“Hahaha, you guys are lively. Oh, oops, this side is a bit burnt!” Enzo cried out in dismay as he stared at a small slightly darker spot.

Suddenly, all the children perked up.

“Meat!”

“Gimme! Gimme!”

“Meat, please…”

“Alright, boys and girls. Line up first or I’ll just eat these in front of you! Line up! Everyone gets one each, okay?”

[9]

At Maynard’s commanding tone, the children automatically put themselves in a line.

One by one, the skewers were handed out. Children with a skewer in their hands hopped away to slowly savour the meat. [1] Now and then, they could hear a cheerful cry of ‘delicious!’

“Looks like there’s enough for our group too,” remarked Lewis.

“Ah, yes, please help yourself,” said Maynard as he handed out the skewers to Lewis’ group who had deliberately placed themselves at the very back of the line.

“Mu, I think it’s a little bit different from before…” [3] one of Lewis’ party members remarked.

“Is it?”

“You have really great tastes!” Maynard praised.

“Fufufu, those who understand good things will comprehend delicious things,” said Enzo mysteriously.

“Hohoho, indeed,” the team member looked very proud of himself.

“Hey, what’s up with those high and mighty words?” asked Lewis.

“Humph, you guys are not the only ones trying your best, [5]” [7] said Maynard.

“That’s right!” [7] Enzo smiled meaningfully at the party member with the most sensitive tongue.

“Wait, don’t tell me you’ve changed something again?”

[10] “Of course, we study and research to improve the flavours every day.”

“Yup, we started using a different blend of sauce a few days back,”

“Yeah?” [7] Lewis frowned at his skewer.

“Just a bit, we added a new herb into the sauce mixture,”

“There should be a slight difference in acidity that adds a refreshing sourness to the skewer,”

“With the addition of this herb, the greasy offal meat now has a more refreshing and timeless taste that makes you want more at the end!”

[6] The Adventurer’s team paused for a moment before taking a small bite and chewing thoughtfully.

“Hmm, hmm, now that you mention it, I guess it really does taste more refreshing…” said Lewis.

“Oh, indeed,”

“Sure,”

In fact, the differences were so subtle that they hardly tasted any different than the usual offal skewer they had before. However, to keep the morale of his two friends up, Lewis tried his best to give a positive answer. His teammates took his cue and made some comments as well.

“You two are working hard indeed,” said Lewis finally.

“It’s only natural, of course! This is our great chance to improve our lives, if we become lazy or complacent, we won’t be able to look at Master in the eye.”

“Yep, yep, we’re making improvements not just on the skewers but the Offal Tomato Stew as well! [10] We research it every day to look for ways to improve it!”

“Naturally, the basics are basics,”

“The basics belong to Master, but innovations belong to us!”

“We promise to make him moan in delight when eating our food. It might be impossible, but we want to show him how much we’ve improved!”

“That’s why we’re trying so hard!”

“Right!”

“Haha! Good goal!” cried Lewis. “I want to show him how strong our team has gotten too! I really look forward to meeting Big Brother again!”

“Yup! Yup!”

“Until then, let’s all work even harder!”

[Gumihou: Again, don’t worry about Maynard and Enzo speaking. They are basically conjoined twins in terms of personality]

[1] Structural Change: Combine 2 paragraphs

[2] Structural Change: Combine 3 paragraphs

[3] Structural Change: Combine paragraph & dialogue

[4] Structural Change: Change passive sentence to dialogue

[5] Delete Repetitive or Pointless Information.

[6] Additional Information for Aesthetic Purpose

[7] Add Dialogue Tag

[8] Creative Licence Taken – expand on ‘started setting up their stall once again’, like… details, please? Did you push your stall back? Did you carry coals in buckets? Was there a wheelbarrow? Did you pull your stall back like a pair of mules? How did you grill your food? On a sichirin style barbecue? On a rectangular teriyaki skewer style? Gumi has so many questions…

[9] Expand on the dialogue between Lewis and kids/Maynard+Enzo(?)

It was seriously unclear…

Gumi shall make it clear.

[10] When it comes to conceptualising a cooking style or technique, one could realistically keep thinking about it, visualising, tasting and seeing the product in their mind before making it. Gumi once spent three months deconstructing and constructing Buddha Jumps Over the Wall and filled a whole notebook with ingredients list, seasoning, ideas, and even essays of thoughts.

Realistically, you should keep an ‘original blend’ while putting up ‘limited edition special sauce’ to test the customer’s reaction. If the reaction is consistently positive for a long time, you may consider putting it on the permanent menu or incorporating certain elements into the original sauce. If it doesn’t work, you can safely scrap it.

Gumi’s conceptualising skill is good enough to recreate most dishes I’ve never tasted but only seen descriptions and a list of ingredients. However, this is only limited to dishes that use seasoning and ingredients I’m familiar with. If the dish requires Herb de Provence, za’atar or uses say, squirrel meat, uh, sorry. No go.

The text is kept close to the original because, eh, bunch of kids trying to do their best. They can’t know better and the mistakes they are making now are marks of their immaturity. Which, under the circumstances, is perfectly in character.