As the conversation continued among the growling and grumbling of stomachs, the first dish was finally brought to the table. Before the servers even set down the pot and the wooden trays, Fury and Jodenia had already pounced on the food.
Not only were there even more meat skewers courtesy of Fury, there was also a multiple pieces of chopped steak. It was a sumptuous and heavy meal.
“Mmmmm, meat skewers with just the right amount of fat. Ooooh, roasted garlic skewers combined with cumin seeds and some chilli! Mmmmm, forms the ultimate bite.” Fury was already on her third or fourth bite by the time the food rested on the table.
While Mwana and Kia were taking their first bites, Fury and Jodenia were already bolting through the meal.
Fury focused on her favorite skewered foods and Jodenia attacked the steak and chopped meat frenziedly while giving commentary here and there, “This is all good however the strong part is still the lamb chops which are just legendary.”
“Noooo, it has to be this Marble Steak, not only does it have more fat but it is also served with greens which neutralize some of the excessive meatiness. It feels almost like eating glass-like meat, a food for the gods.” This time, Mwana had finally gotten his hands on a different type of meat, the Marble Steak, a famous meal that originated from Pepeo the Butterfly Country.
However, while everyone else was busy devouring the various meat dishes like voracious wolves, Vitali just sat there eating her greens peacefully.
‘Scrunch, scrunch, scruuuuuunch.’
Although she was eating slowly, the crunch of the vegetables was still audible across the entire table as the greens were basically huge crunchy leaves.
“Meeeheheee!” The sound came out of nowhere almost making everyone spit out their food in shock and laughter. Naturally, it was Jodenia who would make such a crude joke.
As for Vitali, she continued eating her greens while looking around innocently when she noticed everyone’s attention on her. Clearly she enjoyed her food so much that she did not even register that someone had made a ‘goat joke’ at her expense.
For his crimes, Kia gave Jodenia a strong bomp to the head while berating him. “Don’t make fun of other people’s cultures.”
After coming to Toro and the Jua village, Vitali and Maisha were two of the girls who had befriended Kia. Although they had only known each other for a short while, they quickly felt connected to one another.
The group continued eating and laughing while making merry until their next dish arrived. This time it was a Fish dish.
The first taste almost killed Mwana, “Hsssssssssss!” His mouth was boiling like a furnace and his tongue was out like a snake. However, while he was in pain, he still praised this first bite for its exceptionality:
“One thing I love about Thuo food is that when they say spicy, they are not kidding around! The texture is amazing too, like ‘silk running through your tongue’ as they say.” The last sentence was said in the Thuo people’s language as fishing and fish food was their area of expertise.
As previously mentioned, Milele was a melting pot of different peoples and ethnicities. This was one of the reasons why the food was also so diverse. In the same manner, the entire Toro Kingdom was also a mixed porridge of different ethnicities each with their own culture and language. In the days before the fall of Muwawa, there had been even more tribal diversity in this region. For that reason, the ancient rulers chose the Ssunamani language as the national and official language of the nation.
Apart from this language, there were many other major languages such as the Dari language spoken by Mwana’s Jemedari tribe, Jinjiri language spoken in Eastern Jin, Desert Peoples Mwamba language, Oyo people language, Thuo-lu language spoken by Thuo fishermen, and Eastern Province’s Mwaki language among others.
To the south, the Southern Barbarians spoke the Uungo language – a unification language for their people’s numerous dialects. Further to the north, the North Eastern Nomadic tribes spoke the Rokoiyan language groups which contained a mixture of dialects from all over the continent due to the mobility of those living the nomadic pastoralist lifestyle. As for the western regions of Toro, the main language used was the Western Abamuntu language spoken by tribes of the former Wanga kingdom which existed over half a millennium ago.
Naturally, with over 50 tribes in the nation, dozens of unique languages, and hundreds of dialects, it was necessary to find a common language to unify everyone. For that purpose, Ssunamani was chosen. The Ssunamani language (named after the Capital of Toro) which was also simplified to the Suna language was the unifier to all the different people of Toro.
For children like Mwana, the languages he could speak started with his mother tongue – the Dari language, then the official or national language – Suna language; as for everything after that, it was all up to the individual on what languages to learn.
As the children continued fawning over the Thuo people’s fish dishes, they witnessed something that made them feel almost ashamed.
“What did I just witness?!!” Unlike her usual calm nature, Kia reacted loudly in shock. The sight in front of her would shock anyone.
While it just seemed as if someone had ordered a huge meat dish, that clearly was not all there was to it.
“That is insane. I'm fully convinced that Milele people are on a completely different level when it comes to food and the eating experience.”
Everyone watching the scene could only nod and agree with her words especially those who were visiting the town for the first time. Everyone had just witnessed a family order a huge crispy fish that was so large that it covered the entire table! This was not a small table, but one that was over 2 meters in length and width!
The restaurant was suddenly filled with exclaims, “Is that really fish? It's gotta be over 2 meters!”
Even the waiters were grunting and heaving when taking the fish to the table. That’s just how heavy it was. Before it was uncovered, some people even thought that someone had ordered a full cow but it was actually a fish?!
When everyone, especially Mwana’s group, compared the fish to their own orders, they could only feel shock and some shame resulting in silent sighs everywhere, ‘We really are not as good as them.’
What most people did not know was that the family ordering the fish was the famous ‘Talisman’ family whose members lived in both Milele and Uhai town. By their family name, it was obvious that they specialized in talisman making. Today the family was having a feast to celebrate the return of one of their younger generations from the Capital. This was not just an ordinary kid, but someone in the official nation rankings, Jura Hirizi “Talisman” also known as Jura Talisman.
In addition to the giant fish, an additional egg dressing was added making the meal something that Mwana did not understand.
“I can’t even understand how those two go together.” In his mind, Mwana could only see the two different foods clashing in terms of taste especially as the egg was still in a state between liquid and solid.
“Fish with egg dressing is a common food in Eastern Jin. It is really good especially when ‘water-retaining’ fish is served with Volcanic Bird eggs.” According to Kia, the volcanic bird eggs in question had a molten lava-like look when cooked which balanced the water retained within that particular fish species.
“I'm so craving an egg dish right now; something spicy.” Seeing the Talisman family’s meal, Kia’s craving for eggs was stoked.
“You could get the egg lake; it is simply heaven.” The egg lake that Mwana mentioned was just a huge bowl filled with eggs. While Mwana and Kia were still conversing, they heard Fury exclaim from the side as clearly something else had shocked her.
“There are no jokers in this place!”
This time it was single person who seemed to have ordered a ‘meal for 6 people’ before devouring it all by themselves!
“Waiter, bring us the boiling egg lake!”
Seeing other people in the restaurant ‘get to work’ on food quantities the kids didn’t dare imagine, they all got pumped up and made more orders. Anyway, it was not their money they were spending. They were just spending the adults’ money given to them.
This time the adults travelled to Milele town for a mission, an escort mission to be precise. They had received some money for at least the basics including food before the journey even began. Some of that money was allocated to the kids as allowance which the children later pooled together to cover the food cost. As a result, they would be able to eat very well although who knew if the money would even last 2 days at the rate they were wolfing things down. With this thought in mind, Mwana instantly started formulating plans to make money in Milele town.
‘I could try selling artwork or some of my cloth designs. I still don’t know if we will be able to close the deal with mother (in this case - Mwana’s aunt) to promote the clothes we make in Milele. Or maybe I could try doing some smith-work, but this does not seem feasible.’
