Dango 101

Chanti pauses in front of the row of shops, hand to his mouth in thought. He’s reviewing the shopping list he brought along- the only entries being various kinds of dango. He wanted to jazz up his Uniqor herd by introducing some new colors with dango, but now he’s not so sure that it would even be worth it. Why bother buying a pricey watermelon dango if the Uniqor don’t like it, much less change color?

He had finally made up his mind to just turn around and go home when a large shadow looms over him. He turns to address the figure behind him. “Uh, can ah help you, pal- oh. Uh, hi.”

Standing behind him is the stoic mochi maker, Dan. “I was going to ask you that. You’ve been loitering outside my shop for five minutes. If you’re not going to buy something, I suggest you move along and stop blocking the walkway.”

“U-uh, sure! That was the plan!” The bun’s lanky doll form tries to hurry away from the grumpy hunk.

“Wait,” Dan says. “...Have you ever considered trying to make dango?”

“No.” Chanti responds quickly and flatly. “Ah ain’t no good at cookin’.”

“Dango making is very simple. It can hardly even be considered cooking. Besides, you look like you have steady hands.”

Chanti doesn’t know why, but he blushes at that. Was that a compliment? It sort of sounded like one. He looks down at his hands. They look pretty steady.  Are dango and mochi making not just about strength? “Well, ah mean… Ah suppose ah have time ta stick around if you wanna give me a quick lesson. Not that ah know why you even offered in the first place.”

“I’ve been thinking about taking on an apprentice. I’m trying to scout out talent.”

Chanti knows immediately that he is not the apprentice Dan is looking for, but he’s not going to tell him that. It would be nice to know how to make dango- his boyfriend Ivan would certainly enjoy a sweet treat. “Alright, ah’ll bite. Teach me how ta make dango or whatever.”

Dan nods and shows Chanti inside his shop. Before they start handling food, Dan has Chanti tie his ears back and wash his hands. “Oh. I suppose I should ask you your name,” the mochi maker says.

“Ah’m Chanti. Ah run the Polished Pony imp track.” When Dan shows a flicker of recognition, Chanti is delighted at first. Is his racetrack finally gaining traction among the other business owners in Burrowgatory?

“‘Chanti’...” Dan echoes. “Your reputation precedes you. I heard about how your lesson with Hops went.”

Oh no. Yeah, his bartending lesson with Hops had had a shaky start. It ended okay though, as he recalls.

“If you pull any dumb shit here like you did with Hops, I’ll pound you into mochi. Got it?”

Chanti nods his head vigorously. “Yes sir! Ah’ll do it by the book, just like you show me.”

Dan rolls his eyes, but begins his demonstration. He slowly adds water to a mixture of rice flours and kneads the dango dough until it comes together. Chanti copies him exactly, then rolls out the dumplings as Dan shows him.

“We’re making Mitarashi Dango today, since we didn’t add any extra ingredients to the dough. I started a pot of water boiling so we can cook the dango. I’d like you to take the ingredients I set out over there and make the sweet soy sauce topping.”

When Chanti doesn’t move, Dan frowns. “Something wrong?”

“Ta make the sauce…. Do ah hafta use the stove?” Chanti looks nervous.

“Yes? Look, it’ll be fine, just add everything together and stir it and it’ll turn out fine.” Dan turns away to mind the boiling dango, leaving Chanti no other option than to follow his instructions.

Chanti quivers as he adds the sugar, soy sauce, and mirin and begins to heat it over super high heat. A few minutes in, he wonders why it isn’t thickening and realizes he forgot to add the potato starch. The yellow bun dumps it all into the pot, but despairs when the starch just forms brown clumps in the sauce. With a nervous glance at Dan, Chanti scurries off to find some water to hopefully salvage the mixture. The minute left unattended is all the tortured “sauce” needs to catch and scorch in the pan, drawing the attention of Dan. The mochi maker quickly shuts off the heat and turns to scold Chanti for being careless, but stops.

The slender bun looks genuinely gutted as he sees the smoking remains of his sauce in the pan. It seems to Dan that the hapless man was genuinely trying. “A-ah’m sorry, ah was tryin’ ta find some water ta fix it, b-but ah was too slow.”

“That and you had the heat far too high. And when adding starch, it’s best to mix it into water before adding it to heat to prevent clumping.”

Chanti nods while listening to the advice. “Can ah try again?”

“I’d rather you didn’t. Not here, anyway.” The mochi maker hands Chanti a small paper bag. “Here, some things to practice at home. Though honestly, I have doubts that dango-making is your calling.”

Chanti is disappointed, but he can’t disagree with Dan. This was probably the least devastating of his kitchen escapades, but trying again just isn’t worth the potential destruction.

(903 words)