"Tell me about these." Julienne nodded to a table full of produce.

"Sure." The vendor rubbed his hands together. "Over on this side we have some summer melons, strawberries, sweet cherries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries. And then we have some greens. Spinach, kale, celery, chard. This batch of asparagus turned out really good. And then some herbs over here."

Julienne waited to see if the presentation would continue. When it didn't, he nodded and took one last look around.

"Feel free to try anything," the vendor said.

"Thanks," Julienne said before walking away.

Mindy smiled at the vendor as some kind of apology. "A good batch of asparagus."

"It's a big market."

The biggest, in fact. On the last day of each week, Ambrosia City's largest farmer's market occupied nearly a half-mile of road down in the Roots. With so many stalls, the quality of goods varied tremendously. But Julienne's standards never did.

"Tell me about these," he demanded of another vendor.

"One silver for two avocados. Three for seven. Apples are—"

"Thanks." Julienne smiled, nodded, and walked away. He looked around, paying as much attention to the crowd as he did the produce stands. "I was thinking of our next menu item."

"I'm listening," Mindy replied. Yarrow was too far away to hear. He said that he could keep an eye out for threats more easily from a distance. That served Julienne just fine.

"I think our latest fad could last through Winter's Blossom—"

"By fad, you mean…Yarrow's dish?" Mindy teased. Just because she was empathetic to Julienne's struggles didn't mean she refrained from poking fun at him for them.

"Yes. And I appreciate its existence." Julienne glared at Mindy and gave the sentiment a moment to land. "I say it'll last through Winter's Blossom as a compliment. Most dishes barely survive a season. But I don't want to be reliant on a single dish to get us through the winter. And I'd prefer to have something that is a bit more of my own creation for when we host Grand King Flambé."

"And so that you can be back on top."

"I'm trying not to think like that. I'm glad we have a staple dish. It allows me to take a longer view of things and prepare for my birthday already." Julienne approached another vendor. "Tell me about these."

"Sure. Oyster mushrooms here, buttons, morels, enoki. Had some lion's mane, but it sold out. All sold at the same price by weight."

"Thanks." Julienne turned on his heels and walked away.

"Alright, alright. Hint taken." Mindy inhaled deeply as Julienne approached another vendor. He was practically back by the time she was done breathing out. "So do you have any ideas for this dish?"

"A new narrative. Inspired by something you said over the summer."

"I say many inspirational things. Care to narrow it down for me?"

"You were hoping to serve something more…flexible." Julienne brushed down a bit of unruly hair that flapped in the wind. "I believe the word you used was 'slop.'"

Mindy's bright blue eyes caught the sparkle of the sun. "We're going to serve slop to the king?"

"Of course not. You also mentioned wanting to get away from the snobbery of it all. I'm afraid that will have to stay."

"So you were inspired by me, but won't do anything—"

"But in considering what slop and snobbery are, I had a thought. The traditional narrative of a Julienne's birthday is that we are a gift from Labrusca to Ambrosia City. A thank you for the powers bestowed upon the land. There's this give-and-take, right? Ambrosia gives power to Labrusca, Labrusca gives it back. I think the way we traditionally do these birthday dinners might actually betray that give-and-take."

"Go on."

"You're Platterian."

"Born and raised right here in the Roots."

"Did you ever feel at home in Toral? At least a little bit?"

"After about a month, yeah. But this'll always be my home."

"Okay. If I could make an assumption—"

"You would never be so bold."

"You started to feel at home around the time you began saucelier lessons."

Mindy brushed back a loose strand of blonde hair as she considered things. "Yeah. That's probably right."

"There's something to be said about the power and gift of bringing your culture to a new place. But I think you have to do more than that. You have to take on some of the place's culture. That's how disparate groups become one people. So when a Julienne comes to Ambrosia City and cooks Labruscan ingredients in Labruscan styles, there's ultimately a layer between the gift and the recipient. They become two ingredients that don't mix. I want to peel that layer off."

Mindy laughed to herself.

Julienne didn't know why, but he laughed back. "What?"

"You want to serve Ambrosia City slop with the added snobbery of Labruscan fine dining?"

Julienne stuck his tongue through his teeth and gently bit down. He would have never been able to distill his grand, philosophical musings into something so simple and down-to-earth. Mindy truly was the master of presentation. He pulled his tongue back with a click. "Yeah, I guess that's one way to put it."

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"I like it. I think it'll work. I'm an expert in Mesan slop, you're an expert snob."

"And you're a comedian." Julienne approached another vendor that had nearly an entire farm's worth of produce set out. "Tell me about these."

"Full box sales only, no singles. No weighing. Samples down at the end."

"Thanks." Julienne returned to Mindy. "What sauce would you serve with walleye?"

Mindy shrugged as if it were the most obvious question in the world. "Lemon garlic butter."

"What if you wanted to be creative?"

Mindy blew a raspberry as she thought. "Creamy lemon dill sauce. With a bit of mustard."

"What if you were being creative but not cooking at Cafe Julienne. Cooking at home. To the Mesan palate."

"Careful, you almost forgot to hide your veneer of superiority."

"I'm being genuine. Something…off-limits." Julienne looked behind them. Yarrow was still a few people back and on guard. In the distance, Julienne thought he saw Nori with a little brunette girl eating something fried on skewers.

"Off-limits…" Mindy hummed. "Beans."

Julienne turned back to her. "Beans?"

"Have you ever drizzled beans on a dish in all of your time at the Cafe?"

"Drizzled…beans? I've made a couple of cassoulets in my time, particularly when we knew we'd have Bayuk guests."

"Doesn't count. That's too baked into the dish. I'm talking about beans as a topping. Or as a sauce."

"We serve green beans all the time."

"No! I'm talking about pinto beans. Lima beans. Kidney beans. Little ugly things that make you fart."

Julienne tilted his head down and glared at her through his eyebrows and dangling black hair.

"Sorry, sorry." Mindy raised her chin up to the sky and waved her hand out as her voice made a mockery of nobility. "At Cafe Julienne, we do not serve anything that might make our esteemed guests flatulent."

"Call them patrons."

Mindy dropped the act. "Ah, whatever."

"So you'd serve beans with walleye. Tell me about it."

"Well, you could do it a few ways. Could do cranberry beans and confit potatoes. Or maybe corn succotash. That's a bit more Kuutsan, though. Baby lima beans and bacon. Ooo, I know! Tomato basil white beans. That's Labruscan-ish. And it would give a good bit of color to the whitefish."

"And how would you feel about serving that at Cafe Julienne?"

A spry smile came to Mindy's lips. "A lakefish covered in beans? I wouldn't want your uncle to know I had any part in its conception."

Julienne nodded. "But it'd be good?"

"Oh, we'd make it great."

"Alright then." Julienne approached a vendor that had a small table with a limited selection. "Tell me about these."

For as small and old of a woman as she was, the vendor had a certain aggressiveness to her. She grabbed an eggplant and swung it at Julienne's hand. If he hadn't opened his palm to accept it, she would have surely rapped his knuckles with it. Still, her voice had a sweetness to it.

"How much sun should eggplants get?" she asked.

Julienne had no idea. One of these days he would have to shore up his pitiful cultivation skills. He looked to Mindy for help, who approached with a smile. "How much sun should eggplants get?" Julienne repeated.

"They're a full-sun crop, aren't they?"

The woman shook her head and slapped an eggplant into Mindy's hand. "Not this far south. Which side of the mesa grows better eggplants?"

Julienne looked to Mindy. She shrugged.

"East side," the woman answered. "But not all eastside farms are created equal. Ours is two thousand feet from the mesa where the Trunk meets the Crown. That means that when the sun hits a forty-five degree angle in the sky—usually around three o'clock in the summer—the sun is no longer directly shining on our eggplants."

Julienne and Mindy exchanged muted smiles as they listened.

"Go a day or two north and you'd want full sun on the eggplant, but down here, you'll just end up scorching and dehydrating them. We still use shadecloths for twenty minutes every two hours starting at noon until the sun has gone. And the morning sun is better for them than the afternoon. That's why they're best from the east. We do a deep watering every three days. That encourages the roots to grow into deeper soil, providing a more robust taste. Feel free to try one."

"I can tell they're good without tasting." Julienne tossed the eggplant around in his hand, satisfied with the essence within. "You must have Chefs in your employ."

"Freelancers. They come around on the weekends."

"Your passion is noticeable in the product. You deserve equally dedicated Chefs."

"Are you volunteering?"

Julienne laughed. "No, no. I'm afraid our time is all accounted for. I'll take a dozen of these, though."

"Of course. It's—"

Julienne put a full gold coin in the woman's hand with the same fervor that she had used to give him an eggplant. Even with all of the effort this woman had put into the eggplants, they still weren't worth even a third of what Julienne paid.

"Oh, let me get you some change."

"Don't worry about it. Which of these are the best?"

The woman scrambled to help Julienne and Mindy load their bags with the absolute best selection of eggplants. She thanked them profusely up until they walked away with their goods.

Mindy pointed to a stall with grapefruits. "I need a snack. Want one?"

"Bad for my stomach."

"Acid trouble is back?"

Julienne sighed and nodded. He was back to propping himself up on two pillows when he slept. If things got worse, he'd have to start sitting up in his sleep.

Mindy got her grapefruit and peeled it as they walked past unremarkable stalls. "So Julienne. I have a question for you."

"What?"

"Did you ever feel at home in Toral?"

"As a child." Julienne didn't want to think about his summer anymore. He hoped the answer would satisfy Mindy.

But it did not. "And this year?"

Julienne sighed and decided the quickest way through it was to speak off the cuff rather than contemplating an answer. "Not only did I never feel at home, but I feel like my time back there stripped that feeling of home from my childhood. It was not as I remembered."

Mindy pursed her lips and nodded. "And do you feel at home in Ambrosia City?"

This question Julienne considered. He stuck his tongue into the corner of his lips and slid it across. He certainly didn't feel at home down here in the Roots. Even with nearly weekly visits to markets like these, it still felt foreign to him. Like he had come a long way down from a place that was nothing like it. Like he didn't belong. There was Labruscella and there was the Academy and everything else was just something between those two. Intermediates filled by guests and strangers and nobodies.

"Sometimes."

Julienne's mood improved over the week—particularly when Great Aunt Julienne approved of his eggplant involtini test dish—but his results in Tarragon's class quickly stagnated. He managed to pass Hyssop and traded places every day with Benedict, but he could never conquer Cress, who improved over the week but not enough to break up the top block. Archie reigned supreme all week, and the number two spot changed as often Tarragon cared to call out names. Oliver, Barley, Akando, Nori, and Yarrow all had turns in second, but they all underperformed the moment they got there. Blanche slipped down the ranks, but Julienne suspected Tarragon did that to keep her and Archie apart so that they would stop distracting each other—and the rest of the class. Their budding relationship became the talk of their class. Some students didn't care. Others were amused by it. And for one particular student, the relationship quickly became a constant source of annoyance.

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