Archive of Our Own

Sauteed garlic, onions, and cumin dominated the kitchen. The counters were a mess of rich-smelling open jars, brightly colored plastic cutting boards, and discarded vegetable scraps. The air was so thick with spice, it stung Maritza’s eyes, but she barely noticed. Her new friends had agreed to let her cook a plant-based dish for them, and all her concentration was on proving to them that vegan food could be delicious. Never mind she didn’t actually know how to cook.

The plan was to make vegan alcapurrias. No one would miss the meat, she’d thought, if everything was deep fried. Yadriel and Julian sat at the kitchen table peeling and chopping vegetables. Or Yadriel was, — Julian was doing more eating than chopping. Good thing they only needed one banana of the bunch. Paola had left an hour ago to study at the library, giving up her claim on her usual spot when dirty dishes began creeping up around her stacks of books.

Beside her, Rocky pulsed their old food processor. Bought second-hand when her parents were newly married, it was an ugly 80s beige, but the motor was powerful and ground the vegetable mix they’d prepared easily. Maritza watched Rocky use a spatula to push down the food around the sides of the bowl. She was, Maritza had discovered, a natural in the kitchen. The kitchen was one of the few places Rocky could find space to breath in the overstuffed group home where she lived, so she offered cooking duty whenever she could.

When Maritza had first met Rocky near the train tracks, her initial opinion had been of a serious, no-nonsense type of woman. But as she’d gotten to know her, peeked behind the wall she’d learned to build up living at the group home, she discovered she loved to joke around as well, and her smile, though rare, warmed a space deep inside Maritza.

Maritza had had the idea to cook a feast last week after Rocky had expressed interest in what vegan food was like. She’d spent all her time since preparing, — choosing recipes, hunting down ingredients, realizing that “feast” might be too ambitious and narrowing it down to one (hopefully) amazing dish. Perhaps, she should have chosen something simpler, something she’d actually made before, but there was no going back now.

Convincing everyone had been easier than she’d thought. Though Yadriel enjoyed meat, he had prior experience and knew that even without animal products, food could still be delicious. For everyone else, their initial reaction had been a hard “no,” exactly what she expected. She had her argument at the ready, but surprisingly Rocky had stepped in first. “The girl is offering to cook for us, be nice.”

Oman and Luca would be by later. Oman was busy tutoring Luca. Flaca had flatly said she didn’t cook, and would come by when the food was ready.

Maritza had spent a little time with Julian and his gang of friends in the last couple months since first meeting him. She liked Luca, got along great with Flaca, and even Oman was starting to warm up to her. She enjoyed Rocky’s company most of all, but she always felt awkward around her. Maybe it was the way her heart fluttered every time she was near, so she’d been ecstatic when Rocky volunteered to help.

Rocky gave a few final pulses then seemed to deem the mixture ready. She dusted her hands off on the apron Maritza had lent her and straightened her ponytail before turning to Maritza with a small smile. “What’s next?” she asked.

Realizing she had been staring, Maritza brought her attention back to the pan she was stirring. She’d been doing that a lot lately, — staring at Rocky.

“Um.” Marizta checked the recipe on her sauce-smeared phone. “We need to cook the “ground beef,” she motioned towards the mixture in the food processor.

Jules looked over at the concoction of pulverized mushrooms, cauliflower, carrots, and pepitas. “That is not ground beef.”

Maritza glared at him.

“Who cares, it looks delicious,” Rocky said, smiling at Maritza as she said it.

Rocky pulled a pan down, one of the few clean ones left, and set it on the stove to heat. “What made you decide to become a vegan?” She asked.

It was a question she got a lot, but never knew how to answer. “I didn’t really decide to, I’ve just always hated eating animal products.” Even before Maritza understood what meat was, — that the pork in their dinner was from a cute little pig, her mom said she never liked the taste.

But when she did learn she refused to eat meat, then eggs and milk. The first time she saw a healing ceremony, that’s what really cemented it for her.

As a bruja, she could feel the power of blood in a way non-brujx couldn’t. She remembered being so confused. She could feel the life force of the pig, but there was something wrong about it. It still made her uncomfortable, being around blood filled portajes.

“There was this…incident when I was younger. It made me first realize the connection between the animals I loved, and the meat we consumed.”

Maritz waited for Rocky to ask what the incident was, but Rocky was good at knowing when people didn’t want to talk about something. “How old were you?” she asked instead.

“Three or four I think?”

“Really?” Rocky paused in her work to stare up at Maritza whose heart did that fluttering thing again. Rocky looked awed for a moment, then smirked as she turned her attention back to the stove. “I should have known, you were born stubborn.”

“Hey!” Maritza laughed, waving a sauce covered spoon around. A big glob landed on her sweater.

Rocky smiled, a rare thing she felt lucky to experience. “You’re family seems pretty cool about it.”

“Yeah, they…” Maritza swallowed. Rocky was staring at her lips.

“Izta…” Rocky laughed. “You got sauce all over your chin.” She grabbed a towel and leaned in to wipe it off. She pulled the towel back but didn’t step back to the stove.

“Hey, what do we do with all this mush?” Yadriel broke the spell, bring the bowl of vegetable dough he and Julian had completed.

Maritza glared at Yadriel. She would have to punish him for his interruption later. “Now, we put everything together and fry it.”

“Vegans eat fried-food?” Julian asked. “Awesome.”

Maritza rolled her eyes. Yadriel got a pot of oil heating, and she showed Julian and Rocky how to form a little pocket of dough around the picadillo they’d made. They fried each one, with only the sizzling of the oil filling the room, their concentration on watching the food they’d worked so hard on turn a delicious golden brown.

With every alcapurria fried and patted dry from excess oil, she plated them with some sauce. Ketchup with vegan mayo, her favorite. “Dig in!”

Julian grabbed one first.

“Watch out they’re really-”

He bit into it. “Ah!” he cried. “Hot, hot, hot, hot.” He waved a hand in front of his open mouth, trying to cool it down. He breathed deeply for a moment then closed his eyes as he chewed and swallowed the molten morsel.

“Oh my god.” He said.

“I tried to warn you.” Maritza said.

“That was amazing.” He grinned. He took another large bite. “Ah, still hot!” he cried fanning his mouth again, “But so good.”

Rocky and Yadriel blew on pieces before putting them into their mouth, and soon the kitchen was filled with the sound of chewing, swallowing, and little sounds of gratitude for the delicious food.