video/action

[gastronomics]

video around noon
I know it's not much, but any victims of the recent tragedy can make a reservation at Nakiba and we'll feed you a meal on the house. I don't like people like that, but I'm a chef so there's not really anything else to do except be very clear about one thing:

[ She points at the screen with a pout on her lips. ]

You're definitely not allowed in Nakiba, red-headed jerkface. I hate you.

[ Stickin' it to the man by Alice Nakiri. ]

Also, I've been working on two new cocktails to add to our menu, so anyone can come in and try it if they'd like. They're called Miracle Cocktails, so if anyone's interested in trying new alcohol experiences or flavor tripping, come on by. We'll have a special non-reservation tasting tonight after the restaurant closes.

Bye!

action for anyone who wants to get buzzed/flavor trip
[ After hours, as stated, Alice has a table set up with a load of empty glasses. She's serving three different cocktails and making them upon request: A gin and tonic on the rock, a hot toddy, and a margarita. In each of the drinks, drinkers may notice that there's an ice cube that looks like its full of pink crystals. Don't worry- it's no drug, it's a crystallized and frozen berry. Alice warns drinkers not to drink too fast, to take their time, or it'll be a waste. After about ten minutes, the berry ice melts enough and begins its work- turning off sour and bitterness receptors in the tastebuds using a chemical that naturally occurs in it called miraculin- the substance for which the name "Miracle Berry" comes from. The drinks that started off sour, bitter, and salty taste entirely different despite no changing ingredients. The gin and tonic tastes like a Sloe Gin Screw, the Hot Toddy seems to have miraculously changed into an Arnold Palmer, and the margarita suddenly seems more like a Tequila Sunrise. ]

It lasts somewhere between thirty minutes and two hours, but if you have something else to taste, we have hot tea being served to-go as a palate cleanser.

[ Alice assures someone as she hands them their drink. The berry is pretty strong though- if they wanted to have a laugh with their friends by drinking apple cider vinegar, it's just taste like apple juice while the berry's effects were in play. ]

{ OOC NOTE: More info on flavor tripping if anyone wants to know. }

Comments

Action OTA

[youfool]

Drinking as recreation was something Ted greatly admired, but could never really get into. What with his pure soul and all.

But it was hard to imagine a more appropriate time for it, with everything that's been going on. Besides, Alice used his favorite words: "new experience." Why not?

The name pleased him, with all its holy connotations: "Miracle Berry". Very flattering. He walked in the establishment, dressed as brightly as he didn't feel, and asked for a gin and tonic. He vaguely remembered his father ordering the same drink. Something ancestral and noble about that.

He definitely took his time, as the flavor of alcohol was not at all pleasing to him, lips curled in revulsion. People drank for pleasure? He'd never have guessed. It tasted like medicine. But then, alcohol was a kind of medicine, wasn't it? Flavor tripping was probably the best known method in the world to get him to drink.

He wanted to make pleasant conversation, but all he could think of were banalities. "Thanks for setting this up...Alice. Funny, you're the second one I've met. Is that a common name in Japan?" He just assumes 'Nakiri' comes from there.

[gastronomics]

Alice smiled as she started to prepare another few berries. The first step was to freeze them with liquid nitrogen, then crush them up and freeze them again into a spherical ice cube with juice appropriate to the drink. The ice she made gave it the appearance of the sparkling crystals within the liquid, since the ice was essentially the same color as the alcohol that surrounded it and only enhanced the flavor instead of detracting from it, as water would have.

"My mother is from Denmark. I've traveled a lot, though Japan was the last place I was so I could go through Totsuki Culinary Academy."

She noticed his expression in regards to the drink though. Alice leaned forward, putting her hands behind her back so that she didn't knock anything on the table over.

"Make sure to keep sipping slowly, even if you're not used to it now."

Though it was certainly high quality alcohol- Nakiba spared no expense when it came to quality ingredients.

[Action]

[aurabble]

[Yelling at Battler doesn't make Nakiba any safer of a haven. But he'll take your alcohol, Alice. Even though he got himself out here, he's not exactly...accustomed to alcohol, let alone Miracle Cocktails. The shift in flavor startles him, and he almost drops his drink.]

I'm going crazy. [It's mumbled more to himself. Not that it stops him from drinking.]

[Action]

[guardsdogs]

[Anubis wants to try all the drinks! He's been scared of leaving the apartment, but the idea of new drinks help coax him. Sniffing the liquid, he doesn't listen to Alice's instructions, and also kind of hides next to the table as he starts sipping it down quickly.]

Bara! It's really good!!!

[youfool]

He appreciates her sympathies for his unmanly distastes, smiling wearily at her "I'm sure I'll grow accustomed. I recall a red-haired gentleman at the carnival who was also very intent about the culinary arts. Perhaps he went there too, if it's as prestigious as you say."

So long as Ted's indulging new experiences, he might as well go for another: the unspoken duty of bartenders to listen to the ramblings of their patrons. That's a thing that works across all countries, right?

"Why do you think dentists have one of the highest suicide rates of all professions? Some say it's propinquity with their many chemicals."

[Action]

[gastronomics]

You're not.

[ Alice is somehow in hearing range at all times. She moves up next to him. ]

It's a molecular cocktail. The flavor change comes from a berry that temporarily numbs receptors in your tongue, making the flavor profile of the alcohol change. It's good, isn't it?

[ She holds out a dish that has spoons with little spheres on them. ]

You don't have any allergies, do you?

[ The red one is apple cider vinegar, which should taste like apple juice under the berry's influence. The green is straight lime juice, which will taste more like key lime pie. And the blue is grapefruit with the tiniest hint of blueberry and almond, which will end up tasting more like a tart blueberry pie. She'll tell him what they are after. ]

[Action]

[gastronomics]

[ It takes her a moment, but she's keenly aware of most of her customers. She knows how to keep track of everyone in an area to see what the atmosphere is like. Even if she doesn't often act like it.

She's going to go pout at Anubis and kneels down next to him. ]

I'm glad you like it, but if you down it all like that you're not going to have as much fun.

[gastronomics]

"Everything is made of chemicals. People who think otherwise are just deluding themselves. Besides, it's way more likely it's because they cause people pain for a living even if they're just trying to help so everyone hates them."

That was, after all, her specialty- knowing food well enough from a molecular and scientific standpoint to be able to pinpoint exactly what makes the food taste and act like itself, then degrading and recombining the food to create something magnificent, and always trying to create something new with it. Regardless of dentists or bartenders, Alice said and did as she pleased. That included making sure that people knew not to blame problems on science when they didn't know what they were talking about. Especially since she had no idea about dentists besides that she sees one occasionally.

Alice backtracks after a moment, the seriousness of the comment aside now. "The redhead sounds like Yukihira. If it is, he was there."

[Action]

[guardsdogs]

[Anubis jumps, glancing down at his empty glass sadly.]

Kabara ka. But I had a lot of fun before and it tastes good. Is it because it will be all gone?

[No he wants more pretty alcohol.]

[Action]

[aurabble]

It is good. [He ducks his head, not really understanding what she means, but basically understanding that some magic berry is making his tongue think differently and now things taste better than they did. His own response is more delayed.]

Uh. Red sap. You don't have it here.

[Appearance wise, the spheres kind of remind him of gummies, but they taste more like actual desserts.]

There's no way pie and juice looks like this.

[youfool]

Ted felt the atmosphere turn somewhat sinister. Not too surprising, when you bring up death for an ice breaker. Oh well, he never did like escapism very much, like trying to pretend that dark times were not so dark. And then there's the curious berry, which was making bitter things taste better. A microcosm for this conversation, perhaps. Much ado has been made about the spiritual implications of eyes. Hers were red, and Ted was wary.

Ted would find it very curious to say that everything was chemicals, and yet they could be held accountable for nothing. In that case, why not blame them for everything?

"I agree; not with materialism, but with the cause. It must be difficult, being good enough to love something yet hard enough to hurt it, and for the same reason. A living that turns to dying...

It's funny. Well, not exactly funny, but remarkable, how everyone's instinct to defend their loved ones, noble and just, has been thwarted. I take no pleasure in that; having added my own wail to the dirge. And yet...it's such a simple thing. Defending. No one, not even a villain, will really impugn you for that. Few are low enough to spit upon a shield. One writer whom I admire said, 'the only defensible war is a war of defense.' Paraphrasing.

But suppose one were like a dentist? One who beheld cavity and rot nesting within their beloved?" Another sip. He liked the drink the more miraculous it became. "So much for simplicity. People are rather less fond of swords then."

[gastronomics]

Alice just stared at him for a moment or two after that. There was nothing actually even remotely sinister so much as Alice got far too serious about science sometimes, even if her red eyes made it seem that way. In reality, she was just a pale spoiled brat, which is something Ted would come to find as she seems to tune him out until he's done talking.

"I don't know, this kind of sounds like you're just prattling whatever pops into your head whether it makes sense or not."

A bartender, Alice was not. Otherwise Nakiba would be a bar instead of a restaurant that serves molecular cocktails. She doesn't really care to listen to weird people talk about weird nothings. She smiles and looks at the clock, then back to Ted.

"Take another sip now." It should be working by then.

[gastronomics]

No, but if you drink it too quickly you'll miss the "miracle" that will happen after a few minutes.

[ He can have as much alcohol as he once after he gets the berry properly ingested, Alice doesn't mind. ]

[Action]

[gastronomics]

[ It's not magic, bro, it's science. ]

Well, I can make those look like this, but this is different. In fact, it's very low sugar or no sugar at all. Want to take a guess what the primary ingredients are?

[youfool]

Ted did as he as told, and pondered whether it was better to be ignored or taken seriously. The former seemed cleaner. Maybe he should be grateful she's not a bartender; most would've said he'd had enough after that spiel. There was one weird nothing that he was still interested in.

"What does 'Nakiba' mean?" Asian etymology was all pretty new to him.

[gastronomics]

To Alice, however, that wasn't a nothing. Her world was full of things she cared about and things she didn't remotely care about. Nakiba fell into the first category, even down to the name.

"Nakiri plus Kurokiba becomes Nakiba. He suggested Kurokiri when we were deciding, but I wanted to be first. He's my aide after all, it'd be weird if he was first."

Mostly Alice was just, as usual, spoiled rotten by Ryo.

[youfool]

The first shall be last and the last shall be first. "Weird? Yes. And blessed. In that case, what do Nakiri and Kurokiri mean?"

[gastronomics]

"Nakiri is my family name, Kurokiba is Ryo's family name. We're the owners. Though if you want to know the meaning of the words our names are from, Nakiri is a type of knife and Kurokiba means 'black fang.' Then if we took the kanji from both names for just those parts, together they would mean something along the lines of 'calm place.'"

It was a little ironic, considering neither of them were really considered calm people when they could- Ryo especially, but Alice likes it. And technically that was fudging the translation a little bit, since that was only when the kanji was read as "Nagi" instead of "Naki"- but Naki is already read differently because of the kanji it's next to when in Nakiri, so reading it as "nagi" is fine.. at least as far as Alice is concerned. This is the definition she wants, so it's what they will have. They're totally calming, duh.

"Though we wrote it in English so really it's just our names."

[youfool]

Interesting. A blade refined by man and another wholly bestial. Wasn't all cooking part artificial, part visceral? If he had to guess, this would mean that this Ryo fellow was more natural where she was mechanical.

"I see. Two sharp chefs who become sheathed when together. Have you two considered marriage?" Loss of inhibitions through alcohol, or everyday foot-in-mouth? The mystery continues.

[gastronomics]

"Huh? He's not my boyfriend, he's my aide. He carries my bags and cooks with me and scares away perverts and looks intimidating for me."

She says it as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. It really isn't, and anyone who's spent 5 minutes with them would definitely assume that they had something.. unique. Alice quickly makes a couple more drinks for people, handing them out while she talks to Ted.

"Taste it again." The taste should've changed by now, into something sweet and delicious- not the bitter, burning alcohol taste that the drinks had before.

[youfool]

Ted obeyed again, expression turning positively surprised. More than tolerable, it was actually good. He'd strongly consider taking up drinking at this rate, if the price isn't too dear.

Pervert repellent, eh? Were there a lot of those here? If she'd shown him a picture of Ryo, he'd recognize him as the unflappable man at the pet adoption event who valiantly tried to satisfy Gengar, the pickiest poltergeist pokemon.

"It's worth considering. He's a talent for names; putting his first is virtually holy. The alliteration is undeniably appealing."

[Action]

[aurabble]

[Like the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell science?]

How? [He frowns, it's the first time in days he's tried to think critically about anything like this.] Ketchup is the red, the green is grass juice, and the blue is...I don't know, a food that's blue.

[Action]

[gastronomics]

Apple cider vinegar, lime juice, and a mixture of grapefruit juice, almond oils, and blueberry juice for red, green, and blue respectively. [ All of which she had to alter quite a bit to lower their acidity so that she could manage to get the spherification process to take place, but they taste fantastic as long as you've got the berry in your mouth. ] The berry contained in that melted ice cube contains a substance called miraculin, which numbs receptors to certain flavors within your tastebuds, like bitter and sour. By manipulating the tastebuds with the berry, your tongue interprets the taste very differently than it normally would. It's a process called flavor tripping.

[Action]

[aurabble]

...No way. I don't understand it but I just drank lime juice. [That's a strong berry.]

video;

[truesmiles]

Can I ask what is in the cocktails?

[Because he is honestly, extremely curious about it.]