Special Breakfast
↓ Transcript
TODD: Got some pancakes for breakfast, Amanda.
AMANDA: Hnng. Thanks, Dad. Any chance I could try coffee?
TODD: No.
TODD: Bone meal-battered fried steak for the birthday girl.
SELKIE: EEEEEEEEE!!
TODD: And a concoction I came up with. Chai bubble tea.
SELKIE: Isn't bubble tea... pudding bits?
TODD: You mean tapioca, and I know better than to give you globs of plants. Trust me.
[SELKIE takes a tentative sip, then bursts into a happy face]
SELKIE: FISH EYES! Fish eyes and chai!
TODD: You and I have tapioca.
AMANDA: THANK YOU.
AMANDA: Hnng. Thanks, Dad. Any chance I could try coffee?
TODD: No.
TODD: Bone meal-battered fried steak for the birthday girl.
SELKIE: EEEEEEEEE!!
TODD: And a concoction I came up with. Chai bubble tea.
SELKIE: Isn't bubble tea... pudding bits?
TODD: You mean tapioca, and I know better than to give you globs of plants. Trust me.
[SELKIE takes a tentative sip, then bursts into a happy face]
SELKIE: FISH EYES! Fish eyes and chai!
TODD: You and I have tapioca.
AMANDA: THANK YOU.
Made myself want milk chai writing this one.
Todd is a good Dad. I know a lot of Vegans who would have outright refused doing something like fish eyes and chai.
I’m wondering what lengths Todd went through to get all those fish eyes. He’s not just a good Dad, he’s a GREAT Dad!
For a cheaper ‘bubbles’ for bubble tea, he could always make make a specialty jello out of plain gelatin and bone broth and then just cut it into small squares. Could also let her eat the bone broth jello as is, or instead freeze it for popsicles. She might also just like drinking a cup of it hot in the cold months.
Some Boba tea you can get with jelly (normally grass jelly instead of meat gelatin, but I don’t see why another gelatin couldn’t be used). I don’t know if fish eyes have much in the way of flavor, but gelatin might be easier to pair the flavor to the drink.
fish eyes are actually pretty tasty.
And the thing about fish eyes is that, although I concur with the above commenter that it is quite tasty, texture-wise they are not quite as chewy as tapioca balls. Gelatin-based balls do sound like a viable option, but doesn’t geltain dissolve in hot liquid? Might be good for cold drinks but not for hot chai.
This sounds like a great idea, actually. Hope it gets used.
Well, I don’t get the impression that he thinks eating meat is a moral failing. Besides, Todd knows that one of his kids is an obligate carnivore, so he has to be careful.
Going off much earlier comics, he just doesn’t like the taste of meat.
There was that one page that his siblings said he used to be all sanctimonious about being vegan, so on his end I do believe it’s at least partly a moral/ethical thing. He actually really reminds me of my mom’s husband: very dedicated vegan for animal welfare reasons, gets grossed out at the idea of eating dead flesh, but he’ll keep his opinions on your diet to himself if you do the same for him.
You’re absolutely right, though, that he completely understands ‘food ethics’ only applies to humans that are physically capable of making that choice. A vegan Sarnothi would very quickly be a dead Sarnothi, and he’s not about to be judgmental about giving them what their bodies require to survive.
Besides, he’s had a cat for some time and they’re in a similar dietary situation.
Mattrafact, kittehs seem to be obligatory carnivores, too; I’ve met vegans who’ve starved domestic felines by preventing them from consuming flesh. It seems that they are not able to produce the taurine which is essential to life.
It’s Glad I had boba tea yesterday and not today. He’s a good dad, but ugh that sounds nasty.
Was initially thinking caviar, but this is definitely better.
I wonder which would be more expensive.
Actual caviar would definitely be more expensive, but fish roe would probably be pretty affordable and more easily acquired than eyes.
It depends on whose roe and whether you’ve harvested it yourself. I can attest that fresh salmon caviar is as good as any of the commercial tinned sturgeon roe I’ve tasted, but different.
On the other hand, I still eschew Pautzke’s except as bait….
I’m going off the assumption that he had to special order the eyes. Yeah, most places just discard the head as garbage, and I regularly buy a bucketful for $1 as crab bait, but unless you can imagine Todd harvesting the eyes himself, he definitely had to pay the fishmonger extra.
Ok, where did you buy fisheyes in bulk Todd? I would have used Salmon roe myself though.
Oo… salmon roe, bara lawr and toast…
To the shops!
“Hi, Mr. Smith. Come for your fish eyes?”
“Hi, Beverly. Yes, please.”
“Here you go – three pounds at $12 a pound.”
“WHAT?! That’s twice as much as I paid last time!”
“Yes, but now we’ve got Sarnothi customers so you’re not the only one buying them.”
Oh yeah, salmon roe is indeed a wonderful idea!
I love how most of the comments are various ideas for other meat based boba teas.
Honestly, I LOVE Selkie’s expression in panel 3 and Amanda’s in panel 6 (7? I’m counting the two of Selkie as one, so 6.)
I can’t even remember anymore, are Sarnothi ok with small amounts of plants? Tea is technically hot plant water so I’m assuming so, I just wonder what the cutoff is.
Selkie had an exceptional aversion due to not developing any tolerance but Sarnothi can and do eat small amounts of plant matter. It was Pohl who demonstrated that they can drink teas.
I love Selkies jumping eyebrows. It’s also funny to me that chai is literally tea
What’s wrong with letting a kid have coffee?
Everyone knows that drinking coffee will stunt your growth. Children have been told that for – well, I’m 67, and I’ve heard it most of my life.
And that’s the sort of thing that it doesn’t matter whether it’s true or not, just as long as “everyone knows it”.
Getting a kid on a caffeine addiction that young might not be the best idea. A little bit different if it is decaf and they just like the taste. It seems more to me that she just wants the caffeine.