filet of badjung fish, lightly fried in spiced oil;
slices of chilled coconut;
meat and baked fruits shredded in rice;
a platter of tiny omelets;
Spican cigarillos.
Dominic Flandry is the guest of Nias Warouw, director of the Guard Corps of the Planetary Biocontrol on Unan Besar. Warouw envies Flandry's galactic gastronomical experiences:
crops of Terran origin but with flavors varied enormously by soil, climate and mutation;
native foods;
different philosophies and practices of cuisine.
Just as Flandry could have wound up working for Ydwyr the Seeker if he had not escaped from Talwin, so he could have wound up working for Warouw if he had not escaped from Unan Besar. Warouw wants the shared breakfast to be a first step. He is the only competent Intelligence officer on Unan Besar but no match for Flandry.
See The Food Thread.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
If Nias Warou was no match for Flandry, it was not because he lacked the talent and ability to do so. Rather, the problem for him was how he had been forced to reinvent the entire of police investigation and detective work on Unan Besar. And we see Flandry reflecting on how disquietingly GOOD a job Warouw made of that. Nias Warou was severely hampered by the sloth, inertia, corruption, and incompetence of centuries by Biocontrol and its comic opera "Guards Corps."
Sean
Yup. If anything, Flandry is helped by the fact that he's acting alone. Warouw has to act through others, and most of them are dullards; and he's working for a bunch of incompetent placemen.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
Again, exactly! And those dullards Nias was forced to use were not even minimally competent "by the book" dullards. I recall, quoting from memory, conversing with Flandry about his own men: "With such incompetents I have to pursue a crafty, up to date professional".
Sean
Post a Comment