Ivan’s Journal, Feasts should always include food

Today Sesi we arrived in in the city of Ordu-Aganhei, for some strange reason there ruler the prince wanted us to go to his palace. It is one of those places that can be nice to look at but no one should have to live there. The prince was way too happy to have us visit and I suppose at some point he is going to either try to kill us or he has some almost impossible task for us. The constant smile on his face is very creepy.

Tonight we attended the first of five nights of feasts. Tonight was the feast of three. I think you would have like the spicy ducks heads as I think the cooks got then just right. The ox forehead was a little over done for my taste, although my mother always used to make soup out of these parts of the ox. They had a turtle casserole that I guess was ok but it just seemed like it was missing something. Pigeon brains was a new and interesting food, not my favorite but not horrible. The fired chicken feet appetizer brought back found memories. The most disappointing item on the menu was the tiger, dragon and phoenix soup. Right off the bat the flavor gave away the fact that there was absolutely no dragon meat in the soup, I suspect there likely wasn’t any tiger or phoenix meat either. I thought about complaining but the serious look on Kali’s face was a clue that maybe I should just keep it to myself. I realized at the moment that it is likely that I am the only one in the room that knows what dragon meat tastes like.

The entertainment for the evening involved the royal guard performing mounted archery, wrestling and then bareback riding. The prince asked us to perform the same challenges. Sparna in that gruff voice of his intimated the heck out the other wrestler and own the match. I got up on a horse galloped toward the target while trying to get my bow ready. There were a couple of times when I thought for sure that I was going to fall of the horse but somehow I managed to keep myself on the horse. I fire at the target and was lucky enough to hit the target with two arrows and not fall off the horse. If we were asked to do it again I likely would just have Olmas do his riding thing. So Olmas and Kasimir took on the challenge of bareback riding. They didn’t have a good evening so I feel back for Olmas and Kasimir.

 

Today is the Feast of the Ancients. The Steamed hongali stone frags were very delicious, they almost melted in your mouth. They had goose stomach but at least for me they got the spices wrong and so it wasn’t as good as I expected. Fish lips with celery was I guess interesting. Solidified duck blood was ok but not really my favorite. The goat’s feet tendons in wheat noodles is something that would make a really nice meal, this would be perfect food to share with the one you love. Dunking live shrimp into alcohol was not for everyone in the party. Hey it’s just shrimp and alcohol how can that not be good.

For the entertainment portion of the even Ameiko played a lovely tune while telling the story of the battle with the white dragon. I provided the images of our battle with the white dragon while Kali did what she called interpretive dance. The prince took a notice of Kali as he invited her to breakfast.

The day of feast of fire!!! Kali with Sparna as escort had breakfast with the prince. Kali seems to have an admirer.

And onto the feast. It started with Thousand-year-old eggs which I found out was a lie, they are just 100 days old. Next I tried the Cow’s lung soaked in chili sauce but I really didn’t care for their version of chili sauce and at least the lung that I had was a little over cooked. The pig’s face was passible. The snake venom soup sounded and looked interesting but for all I know these people have eaten the venom from childhood. The deep fired bee larvae was a twist on all of the years eating larvae and I can see this being a good snack food. Lastly we get to the duck’s feet marinated in blood. These were good but I still prefer crunchy chicken feet.

For the evening quest fire. I pretty much let the others handle this one! Yea I really didn’t think you would believe that I was not evolved with fire. There was dancing on the coals, a flaming sword and urgosh display and finally a wall of fire with me standing in the middle.

Tomorrow is the feast of Honored visitors. Kali, Ameiko, and Qatana are putting together a dinner plan. Kali and the others are trying to figure the entertainment should be. My guess is the prince really wants something that evolves Kali dancing.