A Food Corner in the Slums

[This is a forthcoming story. I'll post a few chapters first, then update when I can.]

Wash the chicken frames found in the food scraps, coat them in flour and dark breadcrumbs, then fry them and serve with sweet chili sauce and seasoning. And there you have a delicacy: fried chicken frames.

Stuff the broken marrow bones she found with mushroom fluff and rice milk, steam them, then brush with oil and roast over charcoal until golden. Finish with a drizzle of honey sauce, and there you have another delicacy: charcoal-grilled bone marrow.

The customers knew these were just food scraps that had been processed a second time. But they couldn't resist how delicious the young woman's cooking was, or how cheap it was.

A pound of fried chicken frames cost just one star coin, and five charcoal-grilled marrow bones cost the same. On Garbage Planet, those were bargain prices, almost as cheap as the cheapest dark bread.

For the same price, why not treat your taste buds a little better? Besides, the young woman could clean the ingredients thoroughly. She could even remove the toxins from foul-smelling starbeast innards using all sorts of methods.

Before long, more and more people began bringing discarded ingredients from the garbage dump to the young woman. And this planet, which survived by processing garbage and recycling scrap, finally got its first restaurant.

At first, only the nearby scavengers came for a bite. Later, a few local gang leaders heard about the place and came by. Eventually, even the students from the planet's only school showed up for a change of pace. On the chaotic, barren Garbage Planet, there seemed to be a new spark of color to inspire hope.

As the interstellar university league kicked off, the Garbage Planet school team set out for the competition. Along with the equipment bought using resources gathered from across the planet, they brought plenty of the restaurant's sponsored braised stinky tofu. It kept well and had a satisfying chew. It smelled awful, but tasted rich and savory. Once you opened the package, its indescribable smell could travel ten kilometers.

The players on the Capital University team were practically drooling. "We never thought you guys on Garbage Planet ate this well! Can we buy some? A thousand star coins for a pack, and we'll pay after the competition... What? You're about to be eliminated? No way. How about we trade some of our supplies for it instead?"

The Garbage Planet team members exchanged bewildered looks. In an instant, they saw the light. They abandoned their bitter struggle over resources and embarked on a new path: grabbing every chance to get on camera and advertise.

The young woman, who had been peacefully watching the competition while stewing starbeast liver, was dumbfounded. Orders came pouring in, and from then on she began a grueling, busy life transforming Garbage Planet into a planet of fine food.

Theme: Food can heal