Beef Tataki with White Truffle
Right after receiving the text from Emilé, Marzia got up on her feet and grabbed her purse to head outside. She made sure to stop by Dante's office to notify him. "Danny, I'm off now!" She said while knocking twice on his door.
"Got it!"
A white Audi Q8 is parked just a few feet away from the main entrance, which Marzia recognized as Emilé's car. Feeling thankful that she woke up today with all of the OC's previous memories intact in her brain, Marzia figured that she'll have no problem whatsoever.
Her fingers hovered over the door handle, hesitation and doubt clouding her head. Marzia didn't even realize she was spacing out like a dumb person until the car window slid open, revealing a confused looking Emilé.
"You coming in, or what?"
"Oh right haha," The woman masked her embarrassment with an awkward laugh, mentally slapping herself for already making a weird first impression. Marzia pulled the door shut, making herself comfortable in Emilé's car.
"Lo ngapain kaya orang aneh malah ngelamun depan mobil gua? If I hadn't snapped you out of it you might've probably stood there for another thirty minutes." Emilé questioned as he started the car, exiting the property.
"Tiba-tiba tadi gue kepikiran udah ngasi makan ikan gue di rumah belum," Marzia shrugged nonchalantly, trying to brush it off as if she did not just made a fool out of herself minutes ago. "Tapi lo kan ga melihara ikan, anjir? Gila lo?" The dark brown haired man beside her butted in, staring as if she just grew two heads before she could finish the rest of her sentence.
"That's why I thought it was weird, why was I suddenly thinking of a fish that I don't even own," Marzia rolled her eyes. "At least let me finish my sentence, idiot."
"You are the idiot. How overworked are you, really?"
Marzia simply shrugged yet again. She actually didn't mind the amount of work that had to be done as the day of the gala slowly approached in. In fact, she's quite enjoying it. Never in many years would she expect to be having the time of her life sewing dresses, but here she is. All of the credit definitely goes to the OC's consciousness though, none of this would've been possible without it.
"There's two days left, and technically semua persiapan udah siap. Gue cuma iseng aja buat dress baru, mana tau hasilnya bagus kan lumayan buat cuan."
A flick landed on Marzia's forehead.
"Hey! That hurts, Binoche."
Emilé snickered in response, his face now sporting a cheeky grin. "Duit mulu otak lo."
"Says someone yang hobinya makan mulu dari kecil sampe cita-citanya pengen jadi chef supaya bisa makan sepuasnya," Marzia shot a mocking look at him. Offended, Emilé whipped his head towards her in shock. "I never said that."
"Oh you did, alright. I still remember to this day how you cried and begged your mom to let you enroll in culinary school," Marzia giggled at the memory. It wasn't exactly hers to begin with, but she remembered it so vividly as if she was the personally experiencing it. "You even went as far as selling your game console and all of your comic books just to convince her."
Emilé seemed to recall the memory, his head nodding in agreement at Marzia's words. "I succeeded, though. Took me a whole month to think it over, sacrificing my gaming console and comic books, I mean."
"Now here I am, a three Michelin-star chef with over four restaurant branches open under my name." Emilé finished off his sentence with a smirk, resulting in an annoyed stare from Marzia.
"Iya deh si yang paling chef."
She's now seated on one of Emilé's many stools in his outdoor kitchen, its size spacious enough to hold 20 people. Asking Marzia to taste a new recipe he came up with is one of the many traditions they have together as childhood bestfriends. They would often switch between the indoor kitchen in his house or the outdoor one, depending on Emilé's mood that day. Today, he's feeling particularly cold and inisisted on cooking under the warm sunlight much to Marzia's dismay. It wasn't overly bright or anything, Marzia just didn't feel like sweating.
Unfortunately for her, that didn't stop Emilé from dragging her outside to watch him whip up a dish.
His back is facing her, the man's tall and broad shoulders accentuated with the help of his slim fit black turtleneck. Marzia questioned his choice of attire, but didn't comment much on it. One thing's for sure, he looks super fine in it.
"How much longer are you gonna make me wait here, Binoche?" Marzia groaned after Emilé basically ignored her to cook whatever he was cooking.
"Shush, child. Duduk yang manis aja di situ," Emilé glanced over his shoulder to take a look at Marzia. "Plus it's almost done. Go get me a plate from the second top cabinet on your right, please."
The latter proceeded to reach open the said cabinet as per Emilé's instructions, finding a stack of a dozen medium sized white plates placed neatly inside. Marzia approached the male with two plates in hand, the scent of lightly seared beef marinated with ponzu sauce quickly hitting her nose as she got closer.
Taking the plate from Marzia, Emilé carefully plated the beef and adorns it with minched chives along with sesame seeds. The visual alone made Marzia's mouth waters, making her visually gulp at the dish.
Emilé grinned fondly at the sight of his bestfriend drooling over the beef tataki he had just finished cooking, setting it on the kitchen counter. "Nih, cobain," He pulled Marzia's arms gently to sit beside him, scooting a bit to make space for her. Turning his body so he's facing her, Emilé silently watched as Marzia took a bite out of the freshly cooked beef.
The marinated beef slowly melted in her mouth, the taste of the ponzu sauce hitting her taste buds. Sour, salty, yet sweet. It perfectly complimented the lightly seared beef over medium heat. "Wait... Am I tasting truffle in this?" Marzia's eyebrows contorts in uncertainty.
"Bingo!" He grinned. "What do you think? Menurut lo cocok ga rasanya?"
"It's..." Marzia trailed off, chewing the beef slowly to savor the tangy flavour. "Surprisingly good. The garlicky flavour of the white truffle adds more depth to it. It's not too strong so it doesn't overwhelm the citrus taste in the ponzu sauce,"
She stared at Emilé in awe, eyes sparkling under the sunlight. "You're a genius, Binoche."
Meanwhile Emilé only laughed in endearment as he shook his head. "Nanti gue masakin lagi kalau lo suka, Mars." He said as he ruffled her hair fondly.
