Chef Lyn's elephant french toast

Another day of research, another day of research. My excitement has only reached new levels thanks to Hana's contribution. Old unmodified clothes truly were a marvel, yet nowadays, updated clothes render them obsolete. That doesn't mean we should discard them completely, or anything from the past for that matter. Museums exist for a reason; to preserve and teach.

As I was going about my daily routine, I received a notice some new food had been added to the "food from the past" category of the food generator. That's one of my initiations, you see as I constantly pushed for food from eons past to be preserved in the food generator, and as luck would have it, many stasis places also had food in stasis. Some was standalone, and some were on those preserved, such as a pack of gum.

Me being the human history buff that I am, I naturally have to try the new food. Yet before I could so much as reach my food generator, Irina sends me a message.

"Hey, could ya look through your recipe database for something?"

Sure, AFTER I try this new item!

...

Irina smiled as she twirled her foot around, presumably waiting for a response from whomever she said could help us.

"Sorry, taking a while. Welp, consider it IRL buffering."

"More like going straight to voicemail."

"Hmm, guess that works, though usually most are quick to respond, but this girl's the type that will put it on silent if she's hyper focused on something, or hyper focused to do something. But at least she reads the messages before deciding to ignore them or not."

Hmm, so our recipe person is a girl, and someone who's hyper focused on things. Hmm. The only person I've met like that in this era is Lyn, but Irina likely knows lots of people, so there's a high chance it's someone I haven't met... WAIT! Irina said, 'Someone we BOTH know', so it HAS to be Lyn.

"So are we asking Lyn for help?"

"Pin pon, you got it!" Lyn smiled as she appeared holding a pack of fruity Momentz.

Wait, LYN APPEARED!?

Calm down girl, it could just be like when Selena first made contact, or she warped over with whatever future tech exists. I kind of hope it's the latter, as if she has the recipe, we could all have breakfast together. Maybe we could even invite Selena, Delena, and Suzie.

"So lay it on me, what recipe do you request? I have various recipes saved from conducting not just internet searches, but also from tracking down descendants who held on to their old family recipes," Lyn smiled.

"Elephant French toast."

"Hmm, any standout features? Oh, and do you happen to know the origin of this dish?"

I told Lyn everything she needed to know, causing her to go deep into thought. She then tapped both sides of her head with her fingers and looked as though she was staring off into space.

"Don't worry, she's just multitasking. Likely looking through her database on one eye, and surfing the internet on the other," Irina smirked.

"If you told people of my era they could multitask like that in this era, there'd probably have been a lot more folks going into stasis back then."

"Heh, so that was the top priority of your era. And that's why we say you're from the idiot era."

I pouted at the quip, yet my tantrum was averted thanks to Lyn finishing her search.

"Elephant French toast from the Elephant lounge restaurant chain. That chain reportedly closed down completely in late 2024, and it seems like it was truly lost to the era."

"..."

"But luckily, some staffers posted the recipe on their social media pages, with some even posting videos on how to make it."

My face immediately lit up as I asked to see the video. Lyn pulled up a screen and we all watched the video. In it, a young woman showed us how to make the elephant French toast I craved so much.

"That's it? It's basically like a jelly-filled doughnut or onigiri with filling in it, except French toast," Irina mumbled.

"What matters though is that the ingredients and preparation method are shown. Now if you'll excuse me, Chef Lyn has to cook."

...

Ending the holocall, I warped over to my kitchen laboratory. Cooking nowadays is more of a ceremonial art thanks to food generators, but thanks in no small part to my efforts, there are now holidays where we all cook the old fashioned way.

Since the food generators do have raw ingredients stored should one wish to do the cooking themself, all you gotta do is find a cooking area, and summon everything you need. Mixing and baking is where the good ole tech of the era comes into play, but for this dish, I'll try to match it to that of the era it was made in, which thanks again to my ingenuity, is possible.

Since some museums had models of old ovens and appliances, all I needed to do was get them to let me clone them, and I could go to work. And for my culinary credentials, I feel I'm a master chef, or at least the master chef on this planet. Cooking is still a thing on other worlds, with some even having you cook everything simply with natural resources, with the caveat that should you build a stove, you could use it.

But getting back to the topic at hand, this is relatively easy compared to some other dishes I've researched, but the challenge is not in making the dish, but rather how much Hana will like it. She's the sole judge on this as she's the only one that's tried this dish.

...

As soon as Lyn vanished, Irina informed me that she had only been here via holocall, though she could teleport over if she wanted to. Apparently, there was an ability to allow anyone of your friends to warp over to your location, wherever and whenever. You could also warp on your own to places you've been before. Even I could warp to places now that my phone was updated, and while it may be tempting to warp back to places I've been to previously, I want to complete the main quest first then go back and side quest. Now I'm getting nostalgia for video games, but breakfast is the topic at hand. A pack of Momentz isn't a sufficient breakfast, so hopefully Lyn can make the Elephant French toast.

As we waited, Irina sent me a link to a stream on my phone. Upon opening it, I realized it was Lyn attempting to make the elephant French toast.

"Now for this part, we gotta stuff the bread with the honey filling. This is why it's needed to make the bread extra thick, as French toast is often very thin, and gets soggy easily. You don't want the honey to all leak out when you douse the toast in syrup..."

Watching the video truly was a blast from the past. Perhaps in downtime, I could sit and watch some videos just like I did back then.

Eventually, Lyn was done, and I suddenly found myself staring at myself on screen.

"Delivery! One order of elephant French toast!" Lyn smiled as she set a plate down before me.

I nearly jumped at both her sudden appearance, and the fact that I was live. Regaining my composure, I grabbed my fork and knife and dug in.

"Mmm... MMMMM!"

Oh, that sweet, sweet rejuvenation! How I've missed you!

Within seconds, it was gone and I had already chugged my milk down. "I'll take a second."

"So it was a hit then! Perfect."

It was then that I realized that Lyn had only brought out a single dish, meaning she'd likely have to remake it, yet to my surprise, that was a non-issue.

"Bet you're thinking that I'm gonna have to make the dish again, well that's the beauty of the modern kitchen. It saves the dishes you make and can replicate them. And since you liked this dish..."

I watched as Lyn pulled out a device and summoned a dish of elephant French toast. She then scanned the dish into the food generator and just like that, elephant French toast was saved from total extinction.

"Now if I may, allow me to join you to relish in my masterpiece. Those fruity Momentz you scanned in were quite good, and practically on every store shelf in your era, so it's surprising it hadn't been put into the food generator until now."

"Yeah, I'm glad I had one in my pocket."

The three of us quickly descended into conversation as we ate our breakfast. Now this was how I wanted to start my day. Seems I can give the breakfast experience of the era an A+ in terms of evolution.