Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Garak Stories

Lunch at Quark's

--12:00--

Garak walked into Quark's bar, to find Ziyal already sitting at the table where he usually sat with doctor Bashir.

"Ah I see you are more punctual than doctor Bashir, what a nice change." he said upon arriving at the table. "But I must ask, how did you know that we sit at this table? Or is it just a coincidence?"

"Quark told me. He always keeps the table free for you." Ziyal replied.

"How nice of him." Garak said giving her a smile. He sat down and looked at the food menu in front of him. "Now what should we eat?" he said, wondering aloud.

"Well I thought you could recommend me some good cardassian dishes." Ziyal said looking up from the menu to look at him. "Kira already acquainted me with some bajoran specialties, so today I'd like to explore the other part of my heritage." she said smiling.

"Of course, with pleasure." he looked at the list, scanning it. "Well, we have the cardassian soup, very salty, very tasty, with some seaweed. Then we have the steaming dish of a variety of vegetables - they're served hot. Then we have the amagna fruits with a boiling, bubbling sauce-"

"What are amagna fruits ?" Ziyal asked, interrupting him.

"Imagine them blue, round and slightly sour." Garak said imitating the shape with his hand.

"Well Hello, hello. Look who we have here..." Garak looked up to see Quark standing at their table, holding a padd in his hand and looking at the two of them. "So this is your second date?" he said looking from Ziyal to Garak.

"I would hardly call this a date." Garak said disagreeingly.

"I beg to differ." Quark said with a chuckle.

"Ziyal is having lunch with me, because doctor Bashir cannot. He has an important Starfleet meeting." Garak explained the situation.

"Yeah sure..." Quark said, rolling his eyes and emphasizing the disbelief in his voice.

"Your Dabo guests are awfully loud. Doesn't that disturb your customers?" Garak said, glancing down at the dabo table and then back at Quark.

"You're the first one to complain." Quark said still smiling.

"Maybe I should do it more often and something might actually change." Garak suggested.

"Eh hmm..." Ziyal interrupted them both with a coughing sound.

"She's right," Quark said getting slightly more serious again. " Are you going to order or should I go serve some less complaining customers?"

"Quark," Ziyal said, drawing his attention to her and away from his and Garak's argument. " I'm having I hard time deciding what to order, maybe you could help me." she said looking at the menu. "I want some soup. How does andorian soup taste?"

"I wouldn't recommend it," Quark said, shaking his head. "It's really cold, there are actually little pieces of ice floating in it." he said emphasizing the word ice. "And as I heard, you cardassians like heat more." he said glancing at Garak and giving him a meaningful look. Garak looked away indignantly.

"And this vulcan soup?" Ziayl said, continuing to examine her menu.

"Well it's good, if you like eating something that doesn't have any taste at all!" Quark said, making it evident that he didn't like the taste.

"Okay then I'll take the cardassian soup." she said, finally deciding.

"One cardassian soup it is." Quark said, writing it down on his padd. "What next?"