sharp_as_knives | Hannibal's house (where Jono probably despairs of the flower arrangements), Wednesday evening

Hooboy. Kanan was going to be vibrating before this mad hunt for caf was through.

"I appreciate it." He gave a little nod of his head. "I mean, this is going above and beyond the call. I'd only intended to ask if you were familiar with it."

Hannibal grinned. "I consider all foods I am unfamiliar with to be a challenge." If he couldn't figure it out with Earth beans, he would simply have to ask Sparkle to bring him some from Atton's world.

"Speaking of which, while that brews, what shall I make for dinner?"

"Uhh... something... Earth," Kanan replied, a little bit helplessly, before he broke into a laugh. "Sorry, I'm still getting familiarized with a lot of things that this place has to offer. I understand broad strokes, like sandwiches, soups, cakes... But specifics are still going to take me some time to figure out, I think."

There had been an incident with strawberries and mustard. It hadn't been pretty.

If Jono knew, he would be so sad for the strawberries!

"All you can do is take your time and try whatever comes your way," Hannibal said. "What sort of meats do you enjoy?" He got out a tablet to show pictures of the animals involved. "I currently have cow, pig, lamb, rabbit, several fish, chicken, and quail to begin with." Or human; did Kanan want to try that?

Kanan would probably pass on the human. He'd had a salad at Milliways instead of eating the talking cow, after all.

"Good question," he mused, looking through the pictures that Hannibal was showing him. "I've had salmon... a couple of times, actually. And hamburgers and steaks come from the cow, right? The rabbit looks similar to a creature with the same name on Sullust, but I've never actually eaten it before. Maybe something different from the salmon or the cow, though. I'm trying to expand my horizons, here."

But sentients tasted so good!

Still, Hannibal approved of expanding food horizons.

He got out his recipe box and thumbed through it. "What are your feelings on spicier foods?"

Meat was meat. Sentients couldn't possibly taste much different from creatures that lacked a certain level of basic self-awareness, Hannibal.

"I have nothing against a bit of spiciness," Kanan replied with a shrug. "I've had a little bit of almost anything, back where I'm from. Just so long as it won't kill a human, if it's considered food, I've probably eaten it."

Beggars couldn't be choosers. Except in the case of that previous 'sentients' argument.

Which Hannibal was smirking about, just a little. And Sentients tasted wonderful because they were seasoned with superiority and schadenfreude.

He nodded and pulled out a recipe for spicy honey and garlic quail. Then he paused to pull Kanan a cup of coffee. "What do you think of this?"

Kanan accepted the coffee, pausing to just breathe it in before taking a sip.

He closed his eyes.

He needed this moment, just him and the coffee, to just hang in there a little longer so that he could commit it to memory for always and never let it go.

"Still not quite caf," he reported, "but closer. I could probably crawl into this mug and drown in it, and I'd die happy."

Hannibal chuckled. "Please try not to; I hate to think of the mess and the paperwork. I'll try to get more types of beans in, for comparison."

He glanced at the recipe once more. "I'll be one moment; that meat is in the freezer downstairs. Please make yourself at home. Mind Beethoven; he's rather put out at the moment."

Not because Hannibal had brushed him, but because he'd stopped.

"Oh, I don't mind Beethoven at all," Kanan chuckled, and almost immediately started looking around for the old cat. Look, they'd made friends the last time he'd been over. Even if he had been pretty damn hung over.

Just watch, Hannibal. The old cat would be in Kanan's lap by the time you got back.

In which case, Kanan could be the one petting him until his arm fell off; that suited Hannibal fine.

Hannibal just smiled as he went downstairs to get the quail.

And Kanan was quite content to work through his coffee, keeping an eye out for the cats, should they wander into the room. Beethoven was cranky at Hannibal, perhaps, but he had no such compunctions about Kanan.

So, yeah. Cat in lap. Kanan's arms were perfectly suited to sustained bouts of petting.

Hannibal shook his head as he set the quail to defrost. "At this rate, he may attempt to go home with you. So long as you can keep him in the food to which he's accustomed."

Kanan couldn't.

Kanan most certainly could.

He just wouldn't.

"Heh, I'd be tempted, but it's probably for the best if I leave him with you," he decided. "As it stands, I can barely feed myself. And I'm usually on the move too much to really be able to take proper care of a pet."

Semantics.

"Very likely," Hannibal agreed. "Besides, it would break Joni's heart if she didn't have his tail to pounce upon."

"And we really wouldn't want that to happen, would we?" Kanan continued petting the cat with one hand, while lifting his coffee to his mouth with the other. "So, probably for the best I settle for these occasional visits, instead."

"And meanwhile he will end up incredibly spoiled." As if he weren't already. As witness the fact that Hannibal was getting down the dried meat cat treats to put near Kanan.

He got down a large bowl and filled it with cold water to defrost the bird. "Quail is a form of bird, as you could probably have deduced from the feathers." Not that that was a guarantee. "It's used in several cuisines throughout the world. The bones are generally eaten along with the rest, since they are fairly small and chewable, but it's also acceptable to eat around them if you would rather."

Yeah, feathers didn't guarantee much. Plenty of reptile and reptavian species had feathers back home, too, after all.

"I'll give them a try," Kanan decided, nodding thoughtfully as he watched Hannibal work. "It can't hurt anything, really." A pause. "Only birds have feathers around here, huh?"

Mind: blown.

"Correct," Hannibal said, giving him a curious look. "Although there is some debate as to whether ancient dinosaurs - a sort of reptile - may have had them as well. I take it that's not the case in some places you're used to?"

"Definitely not the case," Kanan agreed. "There are a few reptiles that have feathered crests, and reptavians, as well. I mean, not all reptiles, obviously. Some have scales or fur..."

Tauntauns, anyone?

"Our reptiles have skin or scales nearly exclusively," Hannibal said. He smiled at Kanan. "I find the differences fascinating."

He got down the first of the ingredients. "This is a paste called sambal ulek - it's a mixture of chiles, lime, salt, and some other spices." He took out a serving tile and put a little on there, setting it in front of Kanan. "This is where most of the dish's heat comes from."

Well... Kanan had no idea what to do with paste on a tile, really. He tilted his head at it in consideration, and then set down his coffee. He wasn't about to stop petting the cat, after all.

And then, at something of a loss, he stuck his finger into the paste experimentally and then sniffed at it. Yeah, it had a bit of a bite to it. That wasn't going to stop him from then putting it into his mouth.

"Oh, that has a bite to it," he said, nodding his approval. And then... casually reaching for his coffee again. Because it was still hot, thank you. "I'm looking forward to seeing how it interacts with the rest of it."

Hannibal smiled and took out the garlic, letting Kanan see how he opened it up and took out several cloves. He took the tile back and smashed one on it before passing it back.

"Garlic. The bulb of a plant. Used widely in any number of cuisines." And it was possible he was particularly enjoying it this week. "It also has a bit of heat, although not so much as the chiles. When cooked, it can get quite sweet."

Kanan was absolutely using the coffee as something of a palette cleanser before making a reach for the garlic, taking a piece of the smashed clove between his fingers and smelling that, too.

"It has a much more pleasant consistency than Anzati snot garlic," he intoned, with a faint grin. "I'll definitely give it that."

Going by the name, that wasn't hard to do. He popped the garlic into his mouth, too. Basically dooming himself to coffee and garlic breath for the rest of the evening.

"Huh. Not sure what I was expecting, but I can see why you'd cook with it."

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