March 7th did her best to describe it:
"It was kind of like... um, very high-end sea salt caramel mixed with fragrant roasted crushed nuts. The aftertaste was a little cool, like mint but not mint—more of a mineral sort of coolness? It's hard to explain, but Mydei's cooking is seriously incredible!"
"That pie was made with Ore Crab roe and tomalley mixed with some kind of mashed root powder. It took a ton of work!"
Dan Heng looked at the sincere recommendation in March 7th's eyes, then at the satisfied and astonished expressions on the many villagers and elders nearby after tasting the food. The last of his misgivings faded somewhat.
He set down his chopsticks and nodded.
"...All right. I'll try some later."
"That's more like it!" March 7th smiled in satisfaction, then seemed to remember something. Lowering her voice, she asked with a hint of gossiping curiosity, "But seriously, did you secretly eat something else earlier? You were standing over there the whole time, and your eyes kept wandering around. Very suspicious."
Dan Heng sighed and explained helplessly:
"...I was merely observing the overall atmosphere of the banquet, the villagers' reactions, and Mydei's methods of handling different ingredients."
He took a palm-sized notebook with a rather exquisite leather cover from his robes and waved it before March 7th.
"I made occasional records. It is also part of Datank's information gathering—an investigation into the food culture of celebrations in different civilizations."
"?" March 7th was startled and nearly choked on her soup.
"No, you brought a notebook with you?"
"Didn't you used to write things down in your phone's notes or just record them directly? Since when did you get so retro?"
"On a whim." Dan Heng calmly tucked the notebook back into his robes.
"Perhaps, at certain