“HOW CAN YOU TELL FROM a single dish whether or not the cook is adept?” a customer once asked Prosatio Silban. “Simplicity in the complex, and complexity in the simple,” came the cook-errant’s swift reply. His customer creased her brow.…
Tag: WIP
Works In Progress. The “typing” part of Writing — and the most challenging.
Prosatio Silban and the Weekly Vacation
LIKE ALL PEOPLE ACROSS THE Uulian Commonwell, the Cook For Any Price always looked forward with eager anticipation to Sixth. For the first five of the Uulian week’s six days, everyone (including beggars and outlanders) tended to their trades, professions,…
Prosatio Silban and the Dire Straits
FROM WHERE DO YOU DRINK when your once-abundant spring dries up? Prosatio Silban sighed, and – for the dozenth or so time – regarded his empty pantry, coldbox, and coin jar. I don’t imagine repeated examination is going to fill…
Prosatio Silban and the Artful Dodge
HERE’S A SIMPLE QUESTION: WHAT is the essence and meaning of “art?” I have never seen such beautiful food, Prosatio Silban thought. The village of Pastisi had made a name for itself by crafting the most picturesque baked goods in…
Prosatio Silban and the Dueling Perfumers
THE SENSE OF SMELL IS an important component for that of taste. But can it stand alone? “I shall be brief,” said the woman in the jewel-bedecked caftan, smoothing a tailored crease upon one crossed knee. “My enterprise, ‘Sobor’s Scents,’…
Pithyism #20-20
EVERYTHING IS EASY — IN HINDSIGHT.
Prosatio Silban and the Tainted Wind
NOT ALL AWAKENINGS ARE RUDE – but some may as well be. Prosatio Silban stretched, yawned, sat up, and contemplated the interior of the curtained sleeping-berth tucked into his galleywagon’s rear. Something is amiss, he thought. But what? His inquisitive…
Prosatio Silban and the Boundary Crossers
PROSATIO SILBAN HAD TO LOOK twice before he realized what he was seeing. Why is this Xao woman, he asked himself, dressed as an Uulian? It was a fair question. The Xao were almost the oldest original residents of the…
Prosatio Silban and the Gourmet Gallivant
IT BEGAN, AS DO SO many seriously frivolous matters, with an impassioned tavern-boast. “Outside of present company, the best cookery in the Uulian Commonwell is found not in epicurean Pormaris but in its provinces,” burly, wise-eyed Apista Thurtok said. “And…
Service (A Prosatio Silban Amuse Bouche)
“YOURS IS A NOBLE CALLING,” Prosatio Silban said. “Pray, what is its secret?” The waiter from the acclaimed restaurant Tide & Time had just finished his breakfast of poached fidget-hen eggs, salt-cod-and-potato hash, and stone-rye toast. He took a last…
Prosatio Silban and the Friend’s Favor
“HIS NAME IS FIRENZO OOBAHR,” Firenzo Ebli said. “And he needs to find himself. Please – let it be in your employ.” Prosatio Silban put on his most polite face. “I am honored that you thought of me, but I…
Prosatio Silban and the Game Game
MUCH HAS BEEN WRITTEN OF the nomadic Xao, one of three peoples descended from the Exilic Lands’ original inhabitants. But of their sundered cousins, the forest-dwelling Xai, few tales have been told – and fewer still are those outsiders who…