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Sanji could hear the sound of pots clanging from the kitchen of the Thousand Sunny. Sounds which definitely shouldn’t have been coming from the kitchen as he had absolutely locked it up tight to keep a certain 19-year-old captain from eating the crew out of house and home. Rounding the corner, he strode toward the kitchen door. Or rather he would have had said door not been completely removed from its hinges.
How hungry had Luffy gotten if he was willing to hurt Sunny to get to the food?
Inside the kitchen the Straw Hat captain was trying to light the stove under a humongous pot. His largest stock pot to be precise.
“Luffy, cut that out before you burn down the ship!”
The dark-haired teen turned with a grin.
“Hey Sanji! Could you teach me to make onigiri.”
“You want to learn to cook.”
“Mmhh not particularly, but Torao’s here and he really only eats rice balls so I thought it might make him happy if I made some for him. Zoro always looks happy when you’ve made a batch for him.”
“I don’t make them for the marimo. They’re a really good way to make use of scraps and leftovers so food doesn’t go to waste.” That it happened to be the swordsman’s favorite food had no bearing on him making them far more frequently than was strictly about leftovers.
“Well Torao needs to eat more anyway. I mean he can’t even finish half an alligator. How is he supposed to recover and get strong for his nakama if he doesn’t eat. And he needs to be super strong if we’re gonna take on Teach and rescue his nakama.” Right. There was that. Bepo had emerged with the Heart Captain a week ago and yet the Surgeon of Death had hardly touched more than a few bites in a go.
“You could have just asked me to make some.”
“No, I have to make them, so it’s special.”
“Fine. I’ll show you how to make them on the following conditions. One, you will never attempt to cook anything without me present to supervise. Two, you will follow every instruction I give you exactly and if I tell you to stop you will do so immediately. Finally, you will be fixing the door. Ripping it off the hinges like that can’t feel good for Sunny.” It should be safe enough as onigiri was mostly assembly once you made the rice. Besides Luffy was only interested in cooking because he was worried about the other captain. It wasn’t like he was going to maintain interest after. And maybe just maybe a certain swordsman would also be happy to get some of his favorite dish.
“Yay. Torao is gonna eat so many onigiri. And then we’ll be able to get his nakama and Torao will be happy again.”
So first they’d need to make the rice. Sanji blanched realizing what he’d walked in on Luffy doing when he’d entered. He hurried over to the stove and looked at the pot Luffy had been trying to start. Sure, enough it had been filled completely to the brim with rice and water. Thankfully, the stove hadn’t gotten started so all in all the rice was salvageable. He went and fetched another pot and a measuring cup.
“So, first thing’s first. You can’t just fill up a whole pot like that for making rice. When you cook rice, it absorbs the water and expands. It gets bigger. You also need to leave room so that it can boil without spilling over. Having a pot full like that is just asking for trouble. And you also need to have the right amount of rice per water.”
“Oh, so I ruined it. I’m sorry. I know we’re not supposed to waste food.”
“You didn’t manage to start the stove, so really you just rinsed a lot more rice than you can make in a go. We’ll just have to have a lot more rice with our meals for a couple of days. It should be fine. Remember if you want to try to do something in the kitchen, I need to be here.” He handed Luffy the pot and measuring cup. “Pour out the water and take one of scoop of rice only using this cup. Then you’ll put two cupsful of water in. Be sure that they are perfectly level with the top”
Luffy hurried to obey. The teen carefully poured the water out of the stockpot and measured out the amount of rice Sanji told him to. His face was screwed up in concentration as he proceeded to add water to the cup. When he was done, he was beaming again. “Now what?”
“Now I am going to light the stove. I’m not risking an accident if you mess up and I think it’s better if you don’t know how to start the stove until you know how to cook more than just holding hunks of raw meat over the fire.” There was a slight pout on the captain’s face but he nodded and stepped aside while the cook started the stove. “So, you need to watch that for when the water starts to boil. Then when it comes to a boil, we’re going to lower the heat, cover it and set a timer for 30 minutes. I’ll show you how to lower it once it starts bubbling. Just let me know.”
Sanji left to go fetch a third pot. If the crew was going to be stuck eating rice for the next few days, he might as well start them out with congee for breakfast. He went over to the stockpot and scooped out more rice before heading to the fridge and adding stock in place of water. When he placed it on the stove next to Luffy’s pot, the Straw Hat captain turned and looked confused at Sanji. “What are you doing? I already told you I’m making the onigiri for Torao.”
“You are making the onigiri, but I still have to make breakfast like normal. This is for congee.”
“You know it’s really cool that you can just think of things to make and just make them like that. Makino always had these big books out when she made stuff.”
“When you work in a restaurant you make things so many times you just kind of remember them after a while.”
“It’s still really cool. I’ve never really made much of anything. Except meat and then the important part was catching it.”
“Sometimes you only have to be really good at making one thing. We had a cook for a year at the Baratie who made the best crepes you ever tasted. Neither me nor Zeff stood a chance of ours measuring up no matter how many times he showed us how to do them. Ours were still great but his were that much better.” Filipe had come to work for them after a rare East Blue hurricane had decimated the man’s village. Filipe’s family had run a food stand specializing in crepes for generations so when the opportunity to earn money to send home came up he took it. Sanji had spent weeks trying to copy his techniques to no avail. “When he left, we had so many complaints from the breakfast crowd that we had to take them off the menu entirely for six months.”
Luffy’s eyes widened. You mean there’s something you can’t make?”
“I can make crepes just fine. Filipe just was a master at that one single thing.” He looked his captain over. “You know if you focus on just making onigiri for Torao, you might master them.”
“Really?” The excitement was evident on his face. “Oh, the water’s boiling.”
“Right, set the timer and while we wait you should work on the door.” Luffy covered the pot and Sanji demonstrated how the dial on the stove could lower the intensity of the
flame. As Luffy set to work on the door, Sanji began pulling out ingredient. They had nori aplenty and he kept them well stocked in furikake. In the fridge he found some umeboshi, mayonnaise and left over Seaking. He laid them out in a simple work station for Luffy. The timer dinged and Luffy was back at his side in an instant. The door was serviceable (hopefully Franky wouldn’t be too put out at needing to correct the repair).
Sanji gestured towards the ingredients. “I already cut the Nori to size and I’m going to show you how to put them together without any filling first.” He demonstrated how to shape the rice into triangle wedges and added the strip of nori before rolling it in the furikake. “When you get the hang of it, I’ll show you how to put the fillings in.”
Well at the very least Luffy was focused. And the onigiri mostly resembled triangles. And with his insistence that HE had to be the one to make Torao’s onigiri, there wasn’t going to be any doubt that these were most definitely made by one Monkey D. Luffy.
After he’d made a dozen Luffy was looking over at Sanji once more, “So how do you put the filling in?”
Sanji inspected the work. It wasn’t going to get much better at least for today and Luffy was doing it correctly just without ideal results. “Alright, so when you put the filling in you need to take less rice at first. Make the triangle again and when it’s formed you need to use your thumb to push a small hole in the side. Then you put the filling in and get more rice to cover up the other side. The rest is the same after that.”
The two continued to work. As defensive as Sanji could be over his territorial claim to the kitchen, it was rather nice having someone working alongside him. Not that Luffy could be depended on for the regular meal prep but an occasional helper from amongst the crew might be something to consider. There was also the question of what they’d do once the Heart Pirates were reunited. The Polar Tang was gone. Would they drop their allies/enemy crew (their friends) off on some safe island or would they house the others abord the Sunny until they got a new ship or well indefinitely? Sanji wasn’t sure who the Heart’s chef was but whoever they were would probably be eager to share the kitchen load. It didn’t take long to finish meal prep and it wasn’t long before his own crew started to wonder in for breakfast.
Luffy guarded his own culinary creation zealously. Robin asked about the onigiri and Luffy proudly proclaimed, “I made them for Torao.” That had mostly kept the others from sneaking a bite (although Sanji dreaded the thought that it was the “I made them” bit keeping them at bay rather than the “for Torao” bit. He had watched Luffy the entire time and they were going to taste just fine despite their appearance. Doubting them was practically doubting his own cooking).
Eventually, Bepo dragged his own captain into the kitchen.
Luffy catapulted across the room. “Torao! Look I made Onigiri for you. You have to eat them.”
The Heart Captain gave a half terrified look around the room before taking a bite. He chewed and swallowed before repeating the process. And again. And again. By the time he finished he’d eaten everyone of Luffy’s onigiri. Luffy was beaming. It was the most Law had eaten since arriving on the Sunny.