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Having a regular menu and deliveries of frozen, pre-diced vegetables once a week is boring. Going to the farmer's market every day after work and finding discounted food that will be otherwise thrown away, and then making a delicious dish out of it? That's a challenge that Parsnip can get behind.
There's no menu, and she sells out every day.
Inspired by this (YouTube link).
Pre-read by EileenSaysHi and AlwaysDressesInStyle
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In fiction, the Dismas Hardy books (Lescroat) have a restaurant near the courthouse called "Lou the Greek's". They serve only one dish per day, often yeanling (lamb or goat) cooked in weird ways.
Questions about ingredients or cooking methods will often get you kicked out & they don't do special orders for anyone.
Voice of Experience
Denture cleaning powder is fairly good at removing coffee stains. Soak it overnight.
It's exclusive! /smuggrin
Once again, a working class pony on Earth fic that is engaging and entertaining.
Order up! One plate of heaping good pony fic, served hot.
11391273 Why in the world would you want to remove the thick black residue of former coffee properly enjoyed? You're probably somebody who puts the cast iron skillet in the dishwasher, too. Heathen! (Of course, I don't drink coffee, so that's a decaf heathen curse, which doesn't really count.)
11391319
Owned some cast iron skillets back in the mid 1970s & didn't know you shouldn't wash them. They were eventually ruined.
You oil them & store them in a warm dry place. If you have a gas stove, the oven is perfect.
If you must clean them then use a little oil & salt for scouring then wipe them clean. Properly cared for, they can last for decades.
Learned that from Lescroat's books. (Dismas had a giant cast-iron skillet. He would occasionally fry up & eat everything in the fridge. His wife disapproved.)
I don't know if this is an error, or a play on words that I didn't get.
There’s a good reason for her to list ingredients out in front of her cart on a board: the existence of people with allergies and a wide variety of dietary restrictions. She could eschew that crowd as customers—for instance, her food could be reliably vegetarian but not vegan. If she neglects to mention an ingredient when someone asks and that person goes into anaphylactic shock, that’s a potential lawsuit right there.
Also, Parsnip being related to Radish Root (CocktailOlive’s OC) would be hilarious.
Even before I read this I knew it would be a Favorite.
Yknow there’s a good number of actual restaurants that work off this principle. Yknow you’re Bout to get some good shit when you can’t pick it or you can only pick from 1 of 3 things
Ponies and food, two of my favorite things!
Have the bat ponies on earth discovered Mango Pepsi yet?
Jeez if she’s going away with that much everyday, that’s not a farmer’s market, that’s a clearinghouse. I used to work farmers markets on the weekend (summer’s over) and if it’s not shelf stable (honey) or materially dirt cheap (bread), no one brings anywhere near that much stuff. And that assumes it’s not spoiled (I’ve seen farmer’s markets where entire packs of strawberries were deflated from mold and bulbs of garlic were black)
That said, nice story if a bit naive sounding.
Beautiful, simply beautiful
(Also: now I'm hungry - darn it)
And this story came to be, just because You and I found that poffertjes food cart in that park in Zeist during the convention. XD
Enjoyed this story.
Thankyou.
The Equestrian food be bussin
11391367
I imagine that anyone with an allergy would ask if today's meal contains *insert allergy triggers* and would simply head elsewhere if there was an issue with that day's offering. Keeping in mind that Parsnip improvises each day's meal from scratch and is rightly proud of it then she knows exactly what is in the offering, pretty much a negligible chance of forgetting an ingredient as opposed to more conventional places who use commercially prepared ingredients.
Not that difficult to work out.
I myself dislike spicy food so I always ask first and know that if most of what's on today's menu is spicy then it is my concern not the venue's.
An extremely comfy story, thank you for sharing it.
<3
Even if it's just tossing borderline-rancid stuff from the back of the fridge in a soup pot for mulligan stew, cooking for yourself is a basic life skill, and people who subscribe to the old mentality that cooking and cleaning are for girls are on the fast track to incelhood.
Using the microwave steamer with diluted vinegar in the reservoir is a good way to kill rancid smell and any pathogens.
That said, Shokugeki no Soma is the most manly, epic shonen series I've ever seen.
Much of traditional human cuisine descends from either methods of preservation, or finding uses for stuff that's about to go bad, or both. Squeeze every calorie out of what you have, and survive to see another winter.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoQjqpg_6bCOItkKvTdGsK6xYQw1IwAKE
https://www.farmersalmanac.com/recycling-because-you-had-to-27082
I love me some lutefisk, and even the most trendy hipsters don't realize that sushi was originally just a method to preserve and transport fish and vegetables, and early in it's history, the rice was frequently discarded.
And I'd quite proud of the history behind Minnesota Hot Dish. Imagine Lutheran grandmas collecting potato peelings in the church fellowship hall and pressing them into the progenitor of tater tots, taking government-rationed frozen veggies, canned condensed soup in place of gravy, and ground beef (with the grease drained off to donate and make shells to kill the krauts), all baked together for a quick and dirty, but hearty meal to feed the family, and neighbors if there's enough, after a day working the fields, or mill, or observing a new procedure for medical school at the Mayo Clinic.
Goddamit, I sound like Ironmouse and Koefficent cussing out and lecturing Gordon Ramsay about pegao.
Ooh, that's a neat idea for a food cart. I don't think I'd be brave enough to try it, though.
One Plate Only.
Lovely work. Your pony on Earth stories are always delightful slices of life, but this one is especially engrossing and well-crafted, from the full-circle structure to all the bits of Parsnip's journey thus far sprinkled throughout. I sincerely wish I could visit this food cart now, even if Philly is quite a ways to go just for lunch. Thank you for another delightful dish.
I'd sell my soul to live in the Ponies-on-Earth universes you've created. You really do a bang-up job showing how having them around would objectively improve the human experience.
Ironically she's probably as successful as she is exactly because of this psychology.
This story is so good.
Those stories are delightfully cheesy and unabashedly fun to read.
PresumableI guess ponies like convenience just as we do, but I would have thought the whole Keurig setup and business model would be rather distasteful (if not downright anathema) to them what with things like "single use plastic waste" and "coffee DRM".
There is probably some Business 201 and/or psychology 201 class discussing this sort of thing. There are plenty of other places that boast steady consistency and whatnot. She is not competing with them. I would say part of her long term draw (after the initial "Ponyponyponypony!!!" novelty wears off) will be her varied and random menu. For me personally, I would love to frequent a cart like Parsnip's; Significant Other and I have been frequenting a little meat and three near our workplace for the last decade(!). They have a random plate meal special option on the menu which is lovely if you are an adventurous foodie.
11391509
Never mind the bat pones, I just now discovered that is a thing
11391202
Some places say that the customer is always right. Other places are more sensible.
I suppose you could, but why would you want to? That's extra flavor.
11391277
Working class ponies are my people!
11391319
The best kind!
I'm with you on this.
11391341
Tugs are a part of a harness, they're also called traces. It's the part of the harness that connects to the load--in her case, the wagon.
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Skidding_harness_diagram.png
Part 22 in this image; this isn't a cart harness but the principles are essentially the same.
11391367
She'll tell people what's in her food if they ask; she just doesn't have a menu because she doesn't know what she'll be serving every day. Her food would be reliably vegetarian, I think. Like, I can make the case for pegasi eating fish, but I don't think that tends to be very popular with the other tribes, and I don't think that Parsnip would bother to try and get meat when she's got so many options without.
I feel like I've heard the name around, but I'm not familiar with CocktailOlive's work.
11391374
Thanks!
11391430
The story's based on a real food cart in Philly that doesn't have a menu 'cause the owner cooks whatever he feels like on that particular day. I have been to a restaurant that only had a couple items on the menu, and it was good food.
11391508
Just can't go wrong with that combo.
11391509
That's a good question. Maybe.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2018/6/20/1761771.jpg
Source
11391519
I legit haven't spent much time at farmer's markets (we've got a little local one in the summer time, once per week), but my reasoning was that people would want to bring enough food that they wouldn't sell out too fast (and miss out on profits) but not so much that there would be a high amount of spoilage/wastage.
Also, I don't even know if there is a daily farmer's market in Philly. DIdn't bother to research that.
11391542
Thank you!
The curse of reading about a pony cooking food
11391569
This actually predates that--although the idea of a pony selling poffertjes really fits in with my headcanon, too, and it's also a canon fact that ponies love pancakes.
Especially Twilight
derpicdn.net/img/2015/4/14/873703/large.gif
11391619
You're welcome!
11391660
Darn right it is!
11391703
Agreed--anyone with an allergy should ask, especially since Parsnip doesn't have a menu. And she is more familiar with her menu than people at most restaurants would be, likely even some chefs, since virtually all of her food is home-made with simple ingredients.
The only place she might get tripped up is when she gets bread or something like that, although it should have ingredients on it.
A good restaurant will be more than happy to tell you. A couple years at Trotcon, a group of us has gone to a very traditional African restaurant, and of course none of us have any idea what the dishes are--the workers have always been happy to tell us if it's spicy, what's in it, etc.
11391812
You're welcome!
11391819
11391871
Like, I'm not a great cook by any means, but I can follow directions on a box and know how to make a bunch of different foods as well. Mostly pretty basic stuff, not gonna lie, but it gets me by.
I'm also willing to do some amount of experimenting with ingredients I've got. Doesn't always work out like I hope, but it's always a learning experience.
Vinegar is a useful kitchen cleaning too for coffee makers, too. Just remember to run through a couple pots of water after, or else the next pot of coffee will taste very bad.
I don't know much about shonens, but I can agree from that clip you posted.
That was glorious
11391902
AFAIK a lot of traditional types of foods/spices/whatever are based upon ways food was preserved/used when it wasn't at its freshest, and that falls into Parsnip's skillset, maybe not so much the long-term preservation, but the improvisation of 'this is what we have, what can we make with it?'
It would be interesting to do a deep dive into all the various improvised dishes from different cultures and different time periods. I've watched a few cooking videos on YouTube for Depression-era cooking, and some of Townsend's videos also cover cooking the most basic ingredients into something at least edible.
11391944
It's the kind of thing that isn't for everyone--I know people who don't want to experiment with food, they want to have something known every time. And then I also know people who are always interested in something new . . .
The story's based on a real food cart in Philly which serves whatever the chef feels like cooking, so it's at least a plausible way to make a living.
11391994
With a side of spring water (in a bottle)
11392048
Thank you!
I also wish I could visit her food cart . . . ponies make everything better.