A Tasteful Explosion || Peridot

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The cadence of bubbling water and squid floated in the air like notes on sheet music, the aroma of mixed spices with the squids natural salty stench wafting up to Allan's nose and tantalizing his senses. This was going to be a good soup. He looked at the collection of spices he had set to the side, imagining a series of combinations he could do next time, all the while keeping his attention on the pot as it boiled. The fork in his mouth still hung, bouncing up and down as his jaw shifted back and forth. The taste of the squid juice caviar experiment still lingered in his mouth, but he refused to cleanse it from his taste buds. He needed to understand the taste, and see where it went truly wrong.

"I should get a book on Molecular Gastronomy from the library. Maybe call up an expert on the matter. Man, I haven't had this much fun since I started learning french cuisine." Allan had a big smirk on his face, completely distracted from everything that wasn't involved in his cooking. This of course included the obnoxious entrance of a wild looking Junior. Her colorful appearance and explosive countenance would have been enough to bring the attention of any down to earth student. Allan was anything but down to earth. The air in his head was so much that gravity yearned to pull him down in futility. The young boy only managed to notice the girl near the end of her initial interaction with him.

"Eh? Oh. I mean cooking is technically chemistry, and I needed the equipment to practice a certain technique I'm learning." Allan spoke plainly, only glancing at her briefly before looking back into his pot and smiling as the broth came into full circle. It'd make a damn fine soup to go with rice. The chef pointed to the leftovers of his other experiment, the squid dashi made into caviar on top of improperly seasoned rice. "The product is over there if you'd like to see. It needs work but I think I'm getting the concept down." He quickly rummaged through his bag near the station and procured tightly sealed bags of vegetables. Radishes, Leaks, Onions, Garlic, and a pinch of ginger for spice.

"Figured I'd use the parts I wasn't using for a meal while I was at it. This is called Ojingeo-guk. It's a korean recipe." He dropped all the ingredients into the pot one after another, stirring as he went and allowing the aroma to trail out into the room. A scent that would seduce the senses of any in the room.

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Time passed with Allan fixating only on his pot for a while. While most of it was already prepared before the girl had stepped in, the recipe usually took about forty minutes to make. While in the process of boiling it all together, the young chef figured he'd experiment with some cayenne and coriander. The latter was a commonly used spice in chinese recipes. He'd never tried mixing chinese and korean cuisine together. The mixture of the spices wafting throughout the kitchen was enough encouragement to continue on though. "Cooking isn't chemistry" she said. Sure it wasn't nearly as explosive but there was more science to the art than she gave it credit for. To understand your ingredients, your methodology, and the reactions that resulted from them was the highest form of learning via scientific process. If only people knew how many notebooks he had back home jammed full of recipes both beautiful in their delicacy and/or horror.

The sun was starting to make it's downward course, the sky taking a tint of honeydew orange that signified the near end of the day and the start of the nightly crawl. About as close to dinner as you could get without being dinner time, Allan surmised. He took a ladle he had appropriated from the home ec room and sipped of the now completed soup. To describe the feeling... ah, like sitting on a fisherman's boat without a sail and watching the sun set. The local squid whisking your boat back to shore with their gentle tentacles. The octopus had become the subtle hint in the broth which put it all together. The spices and vegetables had made an otherwise fishy broth into something entirely different. You'd have to know beforehand that this was an octopus soup, and yet the trained tongue would recognize its subtle beauty. Definitely a successful course.

"Heh. Not bad, not bad." Allan smirked to himself, setting the hot plate to keep the soup warm while he ladled the soup on top of rice into Tupperware bowls. He turned his shoulder to look briefly at the girl. Still there, looking at her notes. A perfect test subject. He stepped over to her with two bowls in his hands, letting the scent of food slowly sink in before setting one down across from her on the table. "Care to try some? You won't find better food on campus." He said, smiling confidently at his work while sitting directly in front of her. "You can consider it a special treat from a future master chef."