Road to Ba Sing Se | Zuko

31

❃ Moon Peach Cakes Part I ❃

A few days passed in the blink of an eye. Iroh and Keya had moved all of their possessions to their new apartment in the upper ring. All the while, Zuko sluggishly slept on and only woke up briefly to eat or drink something. The Prince's fever had definitely lessened in intensity by now, but the illness had left him weak and tired.

He was still sleeping off that tiredness when Iroh decided to work on a new recipe that he had heard about from one of his customers, called 'jook'. The dish was traditionally from the Earth Kingdom and was often served as breakfast, especially when someone was recovering from an illness. The old uncle had wanted to make something for his recovering nephew that was healthy and easy to digest. Jook fit that description perfectly.

According to the recipe that Keya had explained to him (he had asked her the night before how to make it), the rice porridge needed to be boiled long enough to become a large, wet paste. After that, one could serve it with side dishes like vegetables or meat. According to the girl, her brothers always enjoyed their jook with whatever she had managed to forage from the forest that day. However, most Earth Kingdom folks had specific preferences regarding their added ingredients. Some people even liked to eat it plain!

Iroh was quite certain that it wouldn't matter to his nephew what he added to the jook. This kind of food usually wasn't up to the Prince's standards, anyway. Nevertheless, he wanted to make it for the boy. A hearty, home cooked meal could help the healing process of even the most stubborn people.

Perhaps he should have asked Keya to help him make it. She had a special way with food, after all. Her poor upbringing had forced the girl to become creative with the limited options she had. But more importantly, Iroh believed that she cooked with the most important ingredient of all: love (lots of it!). The fact that she had been cooking for her entire family for the past years helped as well, of course.

Still, Iroh had kindly decided to let the girl sleep in for once. Her worries regarding her brothers' trip were starting to wear on her mentally. Just the night before, he had caught her just before she could chop her fingers off while she cut some vegetables for dinner- she had been too distracted to notice that she had reached the end of the cucumber! After that, he had immediately sent her off to bed early. Iroh wanted her to rest up and take it easy. Taking care of one sick teenager was more than enough trouble for the old man. Besides, if he was to live in the Earth Kingdom for the rest of his life under the guise of being a 'refugee', it would do him well to know a little bit about its cultures and traditional dishes.

The retired General let his thoughts drift by as they wished. In the meantime his jook was coming along nicely. Iroh stirred it and hummed softly, his mood bright and cheerful as the morning sun shined through the windows.

Suddenly, the door to the hallway slid open. Zuko walked out of his room calmly. His hand rubbed his neck as he yawned and strolled over to his uncle.

"What's that smell?" The sleepy Prince asked.

His uncle stirred the pot and showed it to him. "It's jook," he answered, "I'm sure you wouldn't like it. Keya gave me the recipe."

Zuko's sharp brow raised curiously. The teen hovered over the jook and lifted the pot's heavy lid. With a big sniff, he analysed its contents while his uncle observed his reaction carefully.

"Actually, it smells delicious." Zuko said and grabbed an empty bowl from the cupboard. "I'd love a bowl, uncle."

With a sceptic frown, Iroh poured some jook in his nephew's bowl. "Now that your fever is gone, you seem different somehow..."