Heath pursed his lips. He really wanted to ask Officer Jenny Aya whether the "driving big rigs" she had mentioned was anything respectable, but with Sister Feng standing nearby, he held his tongue.
After the people from the TV station and Silph Co. left, the Officer Jennys dragged Heath onto the food truck, then cheerfully set up tables and chairs around him and brought over all the ingredients from the cafeteria.
"Here we go again. Farfetch'd, come out and help!" Heath smiled at the laughing Officer Jennys. He was already very used to this scene.
"Trainer, what are you all doing?" Zorua, who had transformed into a Caterpie and was curiously watching what was happening outside, turned to ask.
"Having a barbecue party. The kind where they have fun and I suffer," Heath summed up succinctly. What could he do? He was the best cook here, after all.
Whenever the Officer Jennys held a barbecue party to celebrate something, Heath was always the one who worked the hardest.
He had to cut the ingredients, grill the food, and keep track of what everyone wanted to eat. After every barbecue party, Heath wanted to lie right down on the ground and sleep. It was exhausting.
Now, though, Heath felt things had become a little easier. After all, he had partners of his own: Farfetch'd and Zorua.
The right combination of ingredients was crucial to good barbecue. Many people thought grilling was a very simple cooking method, but it actually had its challenges.
"Farfetch'd, look. This is a piece of pork. What you need to do now is cut it into slices, making sure to separate the fat from the lean meat. Can you do that?" Heath asked Farfetch'd.
There still wasn't much Farfetch'd could help with, but at the very least, Farfetch'd's knife skills could take a great deal of work off Heath's hands.
"Far!" Farfetch'd nodded confidently. Heath glanced at the leek Farfetch'd was holding and handed over a kitchen knife. Meat cut with a leek could pick up its flavor.
Meanwhile, Heath busied himself preparing various seasonings. Seasoning was the soul of barbecue, and good seasoning could make grilled food even more delicious.
Every ingredient had its own ideal pairing, and everyone had different tastes and preferences. That was why Heath usually set all the seasonings on the table and let the Officer Jennys mix their own.
Of course, if an Officer Jenny asked Heath to make a dipping sauce, he would mix one up himself and bring it over.
"Far~" Farfetch'd proudly poked Heath in the waist. Heath turned to look. The pork had been perfectly separated into fat and lean meat, and the slices were very even.
Heath nodded in satisfaction. Back when he had been working alone, cutting the ingredients had taken ages.
"Here, cut the lamb the same way." Heath pointed to the lamb, then picked up a handful of metal skewers he had made himself.
The Pokémon world naturally had barbecue too, but Heath was the one who had introduced barbecue parties to the Officer Jennys. Whenever he thought about it, he felt as though he had shot himself in the foot.
Still, thinking of the money he would earn after the party lifted his spirits considerably.
"Trainer, why are you putting them on like that?" Zorua had returned to her original form and stood nearby, watching Heath curiously.
Heath looked down at the metal skewer in his hand. He had alternated pieces of lean meat and fat along its length.
"Because this way, I don't need to add oil. Pork also tastes better grilled in its own fat. You just need to sprinkle on things like cumin and chili powder when you grill it this way," Heath explained to Zorua as he rapidly threaded the skewers.
Oil was enormously useful to a cook. Heath had once watched a foreign show where chefs from China competed against foreign chefs.
In one episode, a foreign chef had taken away a Chinese chef's oil, thinking that would cause serious trouble. Instead, the Chinese chef had immediately started performing alchemy.
No, wait-he had taken out some fatty pork and started rendering lard. The foreign chef had been left utterly dumbfounded, protesting that it was cheating.
Though both were cooking fats, lard and vegetable oil tasted different. Egg Fried Rice made with lard tasted better and was more fragrant.
Once he had finished skewering the pork, Heath took it over to the grill on the food truck. He had already put burning charcoal inside, so he placed the fattier pork skewers straight onto the grate.
There was an art to barbecue. In Heath's opinion, fruitwood charcoal was better than ordinary charcoal, charcoal was better than coal, and coal was better than a smokeless grill.
Although healthy eating was all the rage now, with smokeless, charcoal-free electric grills, food cooked that way often tasted a little worse than food grilled over charcoal.
Heath felt it lacked that smoky, fire-kissed flavor.
Under the heat of the charcoal, the pork slowly changed color. Droplets of oil emerged from the fat like tiny bubbles, then burst, coating the lean meat beside them in a glossy sheen.
The rich aroma of pork slowly spread through the air.
Watching the skewers in front of him, Heath quickly flipped them with both hands, then picked up the barbecue seasoning he had mixed and sprinkled it over them.
As the seasoning landed on the pork skewers, a rich burst of spice filled the air, making Zorua and Farfetch'd swallow involuntarily.
Heath looked at the barbecue seasoning in his hand and smiled. It was his own special blend, something you really couldn't buy elsewhere. However, it only worked on grilled meat with a fairly high fat content.
"Mmm, there's a sour smell." Zorua jumped onto Heath's shoulder and gazed hungrily at the skewers in his hands.
Heath glanced at Zorua. As expected of a canine, her nose was incredibly sharp. Meanwhile, Farfetch'd had already eagerly placed the sliced lamb beside Heath and was watching him with pleading eyes.
Heath felt a little helpless, but his hands never stopped moving. He kept turning the skewers rapidly so that every one heated evenly.
Once they were almost ready, Heath placed the skewers on a tray, counted the Officer Jennys' tables outside, and divided the skewers evenly among them.
"These are for you and Farfetch'd. One per person... one per Pokémon. I'll give you something else to eat later." Heath handed a pork skewer each to Zorua and Farfetch'd, then went back to busily skewering the lamb.
Heath didn't have much time to eat, but he could at least let his two little companions have a taste.
What kinds of barbecue do you all like?
Before you continue