Itadakimasu~! [OPEN PARTY]

[starlightace]

If the Mess Hall normally smelled like anything, it was the bland, flavorless glop that the crew was accustomed to eating. But if you were to pass by the room today, you might notice a different smell. A good smell - the smell of actual food.

Nanoha Takamachi and Miku Hinasaki have been hard at work cooking up a feast of authentic homemade Japanese cuisine, and the entire ship is invited. Have at it!

(ooc: Thread amongst yourselves; Nanoha and Miku will be tagging around and making sure everyone's having a good time, but it's a party!

There's pretty much every type of Japanese cuisine here that they thought non-Japanese would enjoy/be familiar with: Hand-rolled sushi, some gyoza potstickers, udon bowls, agedashi tofu, and a variety of other dishes. If you're familiar with it, they probably made some.)

Comments

[capture-worlds.livejournal.com]

Tsukasa, still somewhat bruised from his "duel" with Nanoha, wandered in and took a breath. He looked at what was available. He saw a pot of Nikujaga, and grabbed himself a bowl. Taking a seat with his back to a wall, he bowed a bit and muttered, "I humbly receive" to himself before beginning to eat the simple beef stew he had selected.

He did keep his eyes up, to allow him to see if someone interesting stopped by, though.

[starlightace]

"That's a great choice, Tsukasa-kun," Nanoha smiled. "How are you feeling?"

The Front Lines!

[ghost-bait.livejournal.com]

The agedashi was carefully being tended to by Miku. It was just that combination of oil, cornstarch and tofu that she was just this side of concerned with. Cornstarch coated her fingers and the tofu, positively covered the chest of her plantsuit.

Still, the particularly gleeful smile she seemed to have plastered to her face was more than enough to reflect her mood. She tilted her head forward to the party guests as they came through, grating white ginger atop the hot, dashi-soaked tofu chunks.

[starlightace]

"You're a really good cook, Miku-chan," Nanoha beamed at her as she stirred the gyudon to keep it heated evenly. "That smells great!"

Re: The Front Lines!

[demon-alessa.livejournal.com]

She had eaten food by Nanoha before, and had liked it enough that she was here now, willing to try whatever else the girl could cook. She was NOT expecting to see Miku here, nor was she expecting to see that she had cooked as well. So while Miku was alone a moment before, now the little girl apperaed behind her, looking at the dish she hadn't ever seen.

"Well you obviously worked long enough on this dish," Alessa commented with the expressionless look on her face. "What is it?"

[saint-sami.livejournal.com]

For once, Sasami felt a bit out of place as a cook. Though, she volunteered her services for the party, it seemed that she was pretty much out done by both Miku and Nanoha.

Nonetheless, Sasami kept up the work, tending to the various foods and helping those who needed it.

[neverwastenaya.livejournal.com]

Tenaya had more or less invited herself, mostly out of a need to do something before she got completely bored.

The food, however, was completely new to her. The few human foods she'd tried (that weren't the slop served on the ship, at any rate) were mostly cake, fruit, smoothies, and popcorn--the kind of things that were typically around the Garage. Japanese food was completely new to her.

Spearing a gyoza with a chopstick, she gave it a skeptical look.

[demon-alessa.livejournal.com]

And a moment later, a girl who wasn't there would appear out of thin air, although it would technically be incorrect to call her a girl. In any case there was Alessa, watching as her new friend was doing her best to assist the other girls. Alessa had planned to come here anyway as she secretly liked Nanoha's cooking, but seeing Sasami here was a bit of a bonus.

"Did you need help?" she asked her friend, looking bemused as always.

[notadamnangel.livejournal.com]

FOOD, holy crap. Real food.

Dean's nose was already on full alert as he walked into the mess. Ok, so it was a bit more exotic than his typical fare, but he wasn't going to turn down the chance to eat something better than slop. And those potstickers looked really tasty. He loaded up with those, some udon, also some teriyaki skewers. (One of which he happily munched on his way to a table.)

[enter-aeneas.livejournal.com]

Among the visitors was a large, blue-striped alien, a quadruped with a long body and thick fur and hungry mandibles. A formidable creature, silent, powerful, unfathomably odd in comparison to the apes studying him—

—delicately sampling a slice of salmon sashimi at his place by the table. His tail twitched complacently as the subtle flavors of this mysterious Earth meat formed upon his sensitive palate, savoring the texture and reveling in the sudden kick of wasabi as the bit of food melted away. Each ingredient seemed to provide a completely different element to the experience—which, of course, Aeneas found absolutely fascinating. Who knew humans could be so particular about taste? This creature was beginning to think he was the only one.

He was curious, however, and didn’t want to disturb the hosts from making all these wonderful dishes; thus Aeneas decided to inquire to a male that was not only approaching but also heavily enjoying his sustenance, and therefore probably knew something about what he had acquired. Or so he hoped.

“Excuse me,” came the delayed purr, mouth unmoving apart from the occasional grinding of his lower jaw, “Would you…happen to know what animal this comes from?”

[starlightace]

Nanoha smiled at Dean as she walked by on her way to re-arrange some of the food so that she could remove the empty plates. "I hope you're enjoying it!"

[craaazyisland]

If Miku was cooking, then it was a guarantee Steve was going to be there. He had already filled up a plate and was sitting at a table close to the kitchen so he could talk to Miku... when she wasn't busy.

In the meantime he was just desperately happy to have real food.

[ghost-bait.livejournal.com]

Miku wiped her hands off and turned to Steve, finally finished with all the darned agedashi. There was a streak of cornstarch on her cheek where she'd rubbed it unthinkingly as she worked. "Do you like it?" she asked as she leaned over the counter, inspecting the food he'd taken. Meat, meat, gyoza... so, meat. Typical Steve. "Did you try the agedashi? I promise it's good!"

And it wasn't meat.

[rescuing.livejournal.com]

If people were going to serve food that wasn't the goop they usually got, Chris was definitely there. With his stomach about half full, he was just on his way back to get more Udon noodles when he saw a ghost... or just Steve. Walking on over, he held his bowl with one hand and pat Steve's shoulder with the other.

"Not eating too much, are you?"

[thirdeyesighted.livejournal.com]

There comes a point where one must balance fashionable lateness with not having eaten real food in months. Between these two motivations, Satori arrived fairly early.

"This is certainly a welcome change of pace." Satori gravitated towards the udon, serving herself before sitting somewhere around the outer fringes of a table. She handled the chopsticks gracefully, taking a small amount of comfort from the familiar ritual of a proper meal. "My compliments to the chef."

[starlightace]

"I'll tell Miku-chan you said that," Nanoha said with a polite smile. Okay, so she wasn't completely comfortable around Satori yet; that didn't mean she couldn't make the effort.

[hero-sting.livejournal.com]

After hearing that there was actual food in the mess hall, Chris was a little curious and ventured into the area. He sampled what food he knew he liked, the udon bowls as well as a few potstickers. He didn't want to eat them all, as it would be rude.

"Good food." He murmured.

[starlightace]

"I'm happy you think so!"

[chosenlightchld.livejournal.com]

This was certainly a lot better than the slop that she had been eating for the last month, that was for sure.

Of course, between eating her own food (and she was trying a little of everything, all the food reminded her of home) she was making sure that Tailmon didn't eat too much. She was acting more like V-mon around food than herself.

"Hey, I told them to count you as three people, not six," Hikari said.

Tailmon frowned. "But food! Real food!"

Hikari just shook her head. "Yeah, but everyone else needs to eat too."

[starlightace]

"Ah... that's right, if you could remember to leave some for the others, it'd be great! After we resupply, we can make some more, so it's not like this will be the last time, right?"

[kaya-waterwave.livejournal.com]

Katara had heard of the types of food that was commonly made in Japan: when she had the time to visit the Media library, one of the things she liked looking through were different types of cuisine, and due to where she lived, she had a preference for fish: naturally, sushi jumped out at her, and she wondered what it would be like to have prepared that way. Now that Nanoha and Miku had finally gotten their cooking in the mess hall underway, she had to give it a try: it beat the usual stuff any day.

She made a beeline for the Udon bowls first: they reminded her of the five flavored soup she had in her world, though she was pleasantly surprised as she was still getting used to friend foods, and the tempura was definitely new to her. After she was done with the bowl, she moved to the sushi, pleased in how it was prepared, and started to eat, dipping it in soy sauce and sighing. It wasn't quite from her world and yet it was: it had been awhile since she'd had regular food.

She looked over at Nanoha and Miku, smiling. "This is great! My compliments to the chefs!"

[starlightace]

Nanoha beamed back at her. "Aw, I'm glad you like it, Katara! It was fun to make - hopefully we'll get the chance to do this again."

[hisfathersstaff.livejournal.com]

"I missed this cooking," sighed Negi in delight as he picked up some tempura and dipped it in the sauce provided. Taking a bite, his eyes shone. "Just as good as Konoka-san!"

"I think it's better," added Chamo, chewing thoughtfully. "Not that Konoka-neesan isn't a good cook, but this is the work of an experienced pair of chefs."

"Still though, it's been a while since we've had traditional Japanese cooking. I missed it." Nibbling on some sashimi, Negi licked his lips free of sauce. "Wow that is really good."

[starlightace]

"Mm, I'm not quite as good as my mother was," Nanoha admitted. "I used to help her out all the time with my family's cafe, so I learned a lot from her."

[nothawkingbird.livejournal.com]

Being from New York, and the plethora of culture and restaurants available there, the cuisine wasn't that strange to the young woman who beamed at the spread. Kate made sure to sample some of the sushi and tempura, and even the edamame for snacking.

[starlightace]

"Please, help yourself. I really recommend the yakitori if you're looking for something a bit more snack-worthy."

[fierce-diplomat.livejournal.com]

While there were several dishes that Reyna found to be quite delicious her favorite one so far had to be the potsickers. There was just something about them that tickled her taste buds and she couldn't seem to get enough of them. She was having a bit of trouble eating them however, as Reyna wanted her first experience with Japanese cuisine to be as authentic as possible and was therefore trying to eat them using chopsticks. She couldn't quite seem to get the hang of it and often ended up dropping her dumpling or her chopsticks or both. It did nothing to dampen her enthusiasm however, and she merely laughed quietly at her more spectacular fumbles.

"Whoops!" This time Reyna managed to drop her dumpling into her dipping sauce and splash some of it across the top of her plantsuit. Thankfully the thing quickly absorbed it while she focused on fishing her potsticker out of the little bowl of sauce.

[starlightace]

Nanoha fought the urge to giggle politely. "They can be a bit tricky to get the hang of at first. You can just spear it if you're having too much trouble."

[tobiasf.livejournal.com]

Tobias perched on a table, searching for whatever was meat-like on his plate. Fish was more an osprey thing, but it was still better than the Goo of the Day. He'd prefer something beefy or maybe some pork, but he wasn't going to complain about it.

[ghost-bait.livejournal.com]

"Bird-san?" Miku had finally released herself from the kitchen, the bulk of her work done. "Is there something wrong with the food?"

[tweedywatcher.livejournal.com]

Giles was pleased to see the change of pace.

"I'd like to extend my compliments," he told the two who had prepared it when he got the opportunity. He was not fluent in Japanese, but he was passable, so he added a polite "Domo arigato" and could add the right honorifics after the names. It made him recall a few phone conversations with a Japanese colleague during his time in Sunnydale, which was the last time he'd employed a few Japanese words, actually.

[starlightace]

"Dou itashimashite," Nanoha responded with a smile. "I'm glad you like it! We'll have to stock up on supplies next time we can so we can do this more often!"

[sexygman.livejournal.com]

Booth picked over the treats with his chopsticks. It wasn't Thai food, but it was close enough that it made him wish Bones was here to share with. He just hoped she was in a pod somewhere and not dead with the rest of his world. If it was dead, which he wasn't sure if he believed or not.

[starlightace]

Nanoha, meanwhile, was busy flitting around and seeing if anyone needed anything like a good hostess, and flashed Booth a smile as she passed. "I hope you're enjoying it," she nodded. "Let me know if you need anything, all right?"

[maguspuparum.livejournal.com]

Evangeline, a binary creature if ever there was one, had taken one look at the milling array of unknown faces and decided she wasn't going to socialize today. She was here only to get a look at the Nanoha woman who claimed to lead the mages on the ship, and keep an eye on the boy.

And... the prospect of drinking proper tea again might have come into things somewhere. Where the hell was Chachamaru when she needed her?

[greennotgold]

Japanese food was new to Fletcher, but it looked rather good. He'd gotten a little of everything, and was now going to sit down and eat.

He found an empty seat, but he didn't realize until he'd sat down that it was across from Evangeline. "Ah... hi," he said.