an aromatic platter of sleeping songbird and wine-poached fruits

fruit 18 spices 6 nightingale 1 silk 1 bluetint 1 iron 1 gold 1

An austere white gold platter rests here, poached fruits arranged around a roasted songbird at its centre.

A simple, high-lipped platter of white copper gleams brightly beneath a generous and aromatic volume of transparent sauce, spilling refreshing and enticing aromas into the air as it cools.  Rosettes of caramelised pear float along the peripheries of the platter, while sunken jewels of golden peach and wine-dark plum bleed their own nectars into the sauce, visible as clouds of colour that tint the deepest levels with hues of sunrise.  A single songbird, roasted whole, sleeps at the centre of the platter, skin a pleasant golden-brown glazed with a smoke grey marinade of charred herbs and fallen tears. A midnight blue napkin and a two-pronged fork have been provided to facilitate fine dining.
Spearing a rosette of caramelised pear, you drink in the redolent aroma of soft white flesh before biting into the morsel, your teeth easily cracking the faint golden veneer and scattering the light flavour and complex texture across your tongue. Another questing thrust pierces the still red heart of a piece of plum, and the rich, biting flavour grips your palette with fingers of wine, fruit and the tantalizing notes of roasted meats. Delaying no longer, you consider the whole songbird that sleeps at the centre of the platter before skewering its breast with the singular fork provided and inter the creature in your mouth. Broken bones and lifeless beaks rake at you as you chew the sweet meats, the taste of smoky thyme, sage and rosemary mingling with bitter tears to cast a pallor of sorrow upon the meal. As delicious, slow-cooked meat melts on your tongue and salves your cuts, you are left in peace to reflect on the meal and memories of richness and of sorrow, of satisfaction and of suffering.

An enticing bouquet of fruit aromas spills from the platter, touched with a singular note of ash and sorrow.

A wave of sweet, rich and refreshing flavours is infused into the sauce that fills the platter, underpinned by the mouth-watering pang of roasted meat.