Crafting: Veteran Chef

I've been spending a lot of my "spare" time in-game working on Qiara's cooking skills, and it's been going rather smoothly. She made sole sushi until she was 84, started making Yellow Curry (85 cap), but that didn't sell terribly well, so I moved her over to Marron Glace (86 cap). It's really a very cheap synth, and sells quickly on the AH. Kiki made maple sugar from maple logs she bought at the Woodworking Guild in Al Zahbi, getting a lot of HQs in the process. Quiznos is the San d'Orian grocery boy, and buys whatever Qiara might need: Chestnuts, San d'Orian Grapes, La Thiene Cabbages, Selbina Milk.

I wanted Qiara to make some Pescatore for Kiki, so I spent a day running around everywhere, catching Gold Lobster in East Sarutabaruta, Grimmonites in Sea Serpent Grotto, and Sandfish in Rabao. I've also been keeping up with Black Sole fishing when I've got time before Dynamis or Limbus. Kiki's Fishing skill is 70.2 now as a result. I wish fishing skilled up as quickly as cooking has been for Qiara.

Tarutaru Rice prices went back up since my last crafting update, so I've had Ohrly busy growing a lot of it. I have about 8 stacks on hand for my next bout of sushi (Dorado Sushi caps at 93, so I should get busy catching Noble Ladies on the Ferry).

After capping on Marron Glace, I thought perhaps I could have Qiara start making Flint Caviar, which is made from Emperor Roe, which is made from Emperor Fish. So I headed to the Glacier to try fishing some up, but they were really hard to catch - using a stack of trout balls (they didn't bite on sliced carp), I hooked 8 of the fish, but could only reel in two of them. So the next plan was to make Coeurl Sautee (cap at 88), which I would then use to make Coeurl Subs (cap at 93).

Qiara had a lot of coeurl meat on hand, honey was cheap at the AH, grape juice is easy to make with a constant supply of grapes from San d'Oria. The biggest "trouble" was wild onions, but Kiki made several trips to the Outer Hurototo Ruins to beat up Goblin Thugs until she had a couple stacks to send Qiara, and repeated the process when those were gone. I ran out of meat before capping, and made one small trip to Zi'Tah to farm some more, but Ranzz and Lucrezia have been spending a lot of time killing Coeurls in the Labyrinth of Onzozo lately, and Ranzz sent me a few stacks of meat. By the time I had capped on the sautees, I had over 50 of them on hand.

Having reached 88, Qiara was ready for her next guild test. They wanted her to make a Seafood Stew, and all she needed was a Gold Lobster, so Kiki fished one up for her. Qiara made the stew, turned it in at the guild, and is now a Veteran in the guild. I really should start working on guild points and get her an apron and hat, but I'd rather just focus on leveling for the time being.

I laid in a good supply of white bread, la thiene cabbages, mithran tomatoes, crying mustard, and selbina butter, and Qiara made stack after stack of Coeurl Subs over the past week. I also threw in a few odd synths where I had the ingredients, just to see if she might get another skillup, such as Vampire Juice (handy for soloing WHM), and Rolanberry Pies (hit the cap of 90 for those on the three synths I had ingredients for).

I'll finish up all the Coeurl meat, since the subs sell relatively well (it will take me a long time to sell off all that I've made already, since I refuse to flood the market), but I'd also like to make a bunch of Tavnazian Salads, which cap at 92. Kiki uses about two stacks of tacos a week, and it would be nice to skill up while making some salads then turn them into tacos for Kiki. I'll have to do a bunch of fishing in the meantime, but a lot of it will have skillup potential, so it's all good.