Herald of Steel

The kitchen that Alexander designed was pretty basic.

The centerpiece of it was a huge fireplace where meat like boars and deer, and even large oxen, could be roasted on spits.

Left of it was a pantry which Mean introduced to Alexander as, "This is where we store the smoked meat." while the guard opened the large door.

Inside Alexander found numerous birds and beasts such as chickens, swans, blackbirds, and ducks hung on hooks, while the room could also house other beasts such as pigeons, rabbits, mutton, venison, and wild boar.

These cuts of meat would be generally stored for winter after smoking and salting them and would last the lord and his staff for many months.

Alexander did not enter inside because he found the smell a bit overpowering as he then moved on to the next pantry.

This was situated underground, lined with straw and other insulating material, for it was the ice room.

Mean had the guards open the door, and as it was being done, she informed, "As you asked, we made the door of wooden planks with a filling of sawdust between the layers for better insulation."

And then led Alexander into the dark room where a guard followed them with a torch.

"This is where we store the fruits, vegetables, fish and naturally the ice," Mean showed Alexander the storeroom filled with various fresh produce, as well the tall stacks of ice blocks."

The ice room was not an invention of Alexander and was known to most of the world as well as how it worked.

There was even a thriving trade where merchants would fully encase a block of ice with sawdust, keeping it solid for literally months, and then transport them to areas where snow did not fall.

For the nobles there would pay astronomical prices for having the access to cold, soothing drinks in the blistering heat.

The air around inside was very cold, so cold that Alexander found it hard to breathe, and so after a little look around, and finding no glaring irregularities, quickly exited the cold hellscape.

And as he ran back, he off-handedly thought, 'I wonder which unlucky soul gets to retrieve all the ingredients every day? And if he has an eternal cold?'

These two pantries were the main storage facilities dedicated for Alexander and his immediate family and guests.

Mean then took him to another side of the open ground, and said pointing, "Here are the barbecue facilities you asked for. Hope it's okay."

Alexander was a great enthusiast of all things smoked and grilled, with his particular favorite being the Texas-style BBQ.

In his previous life, he had the whole barbeque kit and would sometimes spend more than twelve hours slow-cooking a rib to perfection, just to get that feeling of immense satisfaction when seeing the steak just fall apart and disintegrate when tugged by a fork.

And eager to get that same feeling soon, he quickly hopped to check his new toys.

There was the all-important grill- large and cylindrical with a body made of bronze and as he lifted up the lid, he inspected the grill mesh to find that it was made of thin strips of iron, along with some of the utensils needed to do the bbq there, such as skewers, tongs, brushes, and spatulas.

Alexander then out of excitement picked this mesh to peer into the belly of the grill where the coal would go, and was satisfied with the volume of coal it would be able to hold.

He could cook a lot of meat with it.

"It's good. And I will soon teach you how to use them," Alexander informed Mean after being satisfied with the facilities, and then looked around to see there were four such similar cooking points.

Alexander had built this many with the plan to hold an outdoor bbq party sometime in the future.

And as the image of the slow-cooked, Texas-style bbq steak, dressed with simple salt and pepper and marinated with his specialty beef bone butter surfaced inside his mind, Alexander could not help but salivate.

He even thought of putting the dish on his wedding menu.

Though quickly relinquished that thought after understanding that that kind of meat was not designed for formal occasions, but for close, informal parties.

"By the way, have you decided what to serve at why wedding?" Alexander asked Mean offhandedly as the thought of the menu came to his mind.

"Ummm, yes…I have a rough list," Mean nodded affirmatively and then gave her thoughts.

"I asked the cooks about the customs of Adhania and they told me that royal or such weddings have three stages to them."

"There would be the appetizers- made up mainly of fruit and nuts. Some of the popular items according to them are melon drizzled with honey, pear soufflé made with eggs, seafood cooked with leeks in white wine, and white fish cooked with raisins."

Alexander had a weird feeling hearing this mishmash of items.

Some of them were okay for appetizers, such as the melons with honey.

But fish with leeks sounded like a main course and all his life he thought souffles were deserts.

Alexander did not doubt these cooks as unqualified because he had bought some of these cooks from Adhan and they used to work in the palace or in other noble houses.

So, it seemed that it was Adhania's eating habits that were a bit sketchy, and Alexander would have to choose the appetizers that went with his taste.

After Mean finished listing the appetizers, she told about the next course, "The next course- the main is the most varied. Peasants and poor folks have good cuts of pork, goat, chicken, grouse, and rabbit in their weddings."

"Minor nobles would have beef as the center of their dish, and sometimes entire split roasted calves would be presented in a huge bronze tub."

"While some nobles liked to go the opposite route in terms of size and provide their guests with dormice, here considered a supreme delicacy."

Hearing the word dormice, Alexander would help but interject with a pitched squeak, "Dormice? You mean the rats!"

The disgust and revulsion that conjured inside of him at the thought of eating rat meat was very apparent on his face.

Who knew where that rat had been and what it had eaten?

He had never eaten rat, and would never want to either, not at least willingly.

"Dormouse are not rats Alex." Mean corrected Alexnader with hands on her hips, a bit astonished by Alexander's lack of this common knowledge.

And she then introduced this species to him, "Doemouse live in the wild and are primarily herbivorous, mainly snacking on, berries, apples, and nuts."

"And in Adhania, they are caught from the wild in autumn when they were fattest and kept in large pits, who are then slowly eaten throughout the winter by either roasting and dipping them in honey, or stuffing them with a mixture of pork, pine nuts, and other flavorings."

"It's said they taste quite nice, almost like squirrels," Mean finished the introduction.

This description softened Alexander's reception to the new dish, as he thought he could eat squirrels and those alike.

Though he was still a little apprehensive about it.

But what Alexander did not know was that in Adhania, dormouse was one of the staple dishes to entertain guests, and so it was inevitable that he would have to eat the dish at some point, either as the host or the guest.

In fact, the dormice was one of the rare delicacies enjoyed by both the nobility and peasantry, and catching dormouse was a favorite past time of children,

These children would build rudimentary traps such as the hollow-tree trapping method and the flat-stone trapping method to feast on these welcome protein supplements, while there were even experienced seasonal hunters who would use different types of baits such as fruit and bacon soaked in wine to catch between 200 and 400 dormice a day and sell them as a side income.

And it was not like the dormice were not caught only for their meat.

But their fat was also used as an ointment.

Alexander listened to Mean's introduction to this yet unknown to him species, and then asked,

"Okay, what else do the nobles eat besides rats?"

"Dormice!' Mean instinctively corrected, and then continued,

"Real high nobility like the pashas and kings, do not usually serve these items. But they entertain their guests with fowls and most popularly, the expensive peacock."

"And I asked the cooks how much peacocks cost. It's around two thousand (2,000) ropals a kilogram. Fuck!" Mean could not help but let out a low cuss, a crime Alexander was too guilty of committing in his heart.

Alexander never ate peacock but did read about its taste when he learned about the shah of Iran's lavish party which served the bird.

And according to that article, peacocks tasted to some like a turkey when brined, or like guinea pigs, with most finding it tasting like pheasant or turkey.

"There is no way I'm spending that much on a stupid bird. The guests can curse me all they want," Alexander categorically rejected the peacock off the list.

He was not that much of a wastrel to spend so much on food that did not even taste that good.

And besides he was already hemorrhaging money, and every penny saved was a blessing.

A sentiment that Mean too seemed to share as she answered back with a nod,

"Mmm. Then we will make something out of fowls I guess."