As she walked down the shopping street, the only route to the palace square, Padmé felt as though she had stepped into another lifetime. It seemed like only days since she had last seen these people and places.
But she knew that, even though she still looked like a woman in her twenties, another twenty-odd years had passed. Much had changed.
Even so, she stopped in front of a shop by the road. It was a fast-food restaurant.
"Come on in! Shurra fruit juice and fried swamp fish strips!" A vendor stood outside the little shop, waving his arms to drum up business. Quite a few customers were taking him up on it.
Padmé smiled with relief. At least Nabu still had something familiar. Fast food had been her idea, a way to give the people convenient meals and a little enjoyment. The Unity Combo Meal had been her invention, too.
Shurra fruit was native to Nabu and Padmé's favorite fruit. It looked like a pear, tasted a little like mango and peach, and had no pit.
"Swamp fish" was a collective name for hundreds of species of small fish. They lived throughout the waterways and, apart from aquatic plants, had once been a staple of the Gungan diet.
When the two peoples came together, the Naboo People gained access to fish from the deep underwater caves, while the Gungans gained fruit from far inland. That was one of the simplest benefits of their union.
To promote that spirit of unity, Padmé had paired her favorite fruit with the little fish Jar Jar Binks said all Gungans loved, creating the Unity Combo Meal.
Seeing that the policy she had established was still being carried out and that the people of Nabu lived in peace and comfort put her much more