Dango 101

“You know, for being the person who put out the call in search of someone wanting dango-making lessons in the first place, you seem awfully reluctant to actually teach,” Morgaine said, flipping one of his ears over his shoulder as he followed Dan around the shop.

Dan gave him a look that was somehow deadpan and severe at the same time. “The last time I tried to teach you something, you threw out your back.”

“Oh, that was you?” Shibani piped up from the pillow pile. He shot Morgaine a grin that attempted and failed to be innocent when Morgaine side-eyed him.

“I was led to believe that making dango was a bit less physically intensive,” Morgaine retorted, planting his hands on his hips and pretending that his spine hadn’t just twinged in memory of that whole affair.

Dan grunted at him dismissively but did wave him over to the work table. “The process for dango is more dextrous,” he explained as Morgaine joined him at the table, checking over all of the ingredients and tools to make sure nothing was missing. “It will probably suit you more than using the mallet, with your build, and-” He glanced at Morgaine’s skeletal arm but trailed off.

“I’m incredibly dextrous,” Morgaine said. “Some would say that my dexterity is one of my best traits.”

“Who is ‘some’?” Shibani called.

“Some people, whom you don’t know,” Morgaine huffed back at him.

Shibani chuckled under his breath and settled back down in the pillows.

Dan cleared his throat to draw Morgaine’s attention back to him. “There is less force involved, but in exchange, you must pay close attention. Watch what I am doing very carefully.”

He waited for Morgaine to nod in agreement before continuing.

“This is to prepare black sesame dango, which is one of the simplest recipes. Even you should be able to manage.”

“Wow, okay. If I’d known that I was going to get tag-team bullied when I came in for lessons-”

“Focus,” Dan groused.

Morgaine shut his mouth and focused, but it was tempting to pout.

True to the dexterity comment, Dan handled the dango ingredients with surprising deftness and care. Morgaine followed the way that he pressed the dough, adding splashes of water to soften it before folding in the filling and beginning to mold the mixture into the perfect spheres that marked his expertly-made sweets. It wasn’t quite as viscerally impressive as watching him pound the dough for mochi, but Morgaine could certainly appreciate the craftsmanship and technique.

When he was finished, Dan poured boiling water over the balls of dough, and while they cooked he demonstrated the mixing of the glaze. All of that was easy enough to follow; for Morgaine, the trickiest part would probably be the shaping. It was like he’d heard someone say once: cooking was art, baking was science. With cooking, you could experiment, but with baking, you needed to be exact. Baking was rather like making drinks in that way.

…He wasn’t actually sure whether the process of making dango was more cooking or baking, actually, but given Dan’s attitude, he was going to classify it as science. Even if Dan himself would have argued that it was an art.