Instead of wondering if I could afford a room, I should have been asking if there were any rooms left. All of the inns on the edges of market street were full. So also were the ones a bit further out near the textile shops. There was a fancy building called Konoha Mountain Villa, but it was apparently only for high level political visitors.

  So I rented an apartment, the cheapest one I could get. It was on the outskirts of town. It needed a lot of work to be fixed up to a dump. The walls were cracked, the ceiling a bit sunken, and the floors were compressed dirt with old bamboo covering them. There were two other units next to mine. Three total apartments to this building, with another two buildings each facing inward to a small patch of green grass.

  The neighbors looked at me oddly when I rolled the food cart into the apartment. I didn't want it damaged by anyone attempting theft or indulging curiosity. The cart could repair itself, but the system would charge me for it.

  The system can do amazing things, but almost all of them cost money. If I pay enough, I can unlock a vending machine option. It would only be available in appropriate technology level realities, but I could use it to passively earn income while shopping or sightseeing.

  I set up the cart in the apartment and used the sweet toffee nut apple filling I had made for crepes to fill popovers. I used some crepe batter as a base, added more milk and flour to dilute the cheese taste and thinned out the amount of egg in the mix. I swapped out the popcorn maker for the pizza oven. This stone oven sits on top of the cart counter. It has simple temperature controls, but a door that seals shut for fast baking.

  The sealed door was a crucial part of this bake. Any cold air could cause the steam pockets in the dough to deflate.

  The first step to perfect popovers is to preheat the pans. The batter had to start sizzling the second it hit the metal to create the marvelous bloom of exploded pastry.

  Once the pans were hot, I pulled them from the oven then wiped them down with melted butter. Then I poured the batter into the cups filling them just over three quarters full. I don't recommend filling this full in a normal cupcake tin. Too much batter and the popovers will press up against each other. These tins were custom made. The cups were slightly deeper than most cupcake tins, and spaced further apart. They are made for large pastries.

  They baked for about twenty minutes at high temperature then twenty more at a lower one. I used the pizza oven temperature settings. The pizza oven control knob only has the settings MAX, 7,6,5,4,3,2,Min, OFF. I cooked the popovers at a sharpie mark in between 6 and 7, and then to the lower setting of 3. Not every reality has the same temperature measurements.

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  Soon the air was filled with the smell of bread rising.I put the apple toffee nut filling into sealed piping bags then headed them in a kettle of hot water. Once the pastries were out of the oven, I poked a hole in the and piped in the warmed up filling. The filling had to be warm or the pastries would cool too fast and get mushy instead of crisp.

  I made exactly thirty-six popovers. I figured twelve popovers per building times three buildings should be enough for everyone and then some. I did start delivering the first batch while the second batch was baking.

  I started with my next door neighbor, he was an older man who walked with a pronounced limp. I made my introductions and said that I would be staying here for a few days or so. He was a retired ninja who had settled down for a quieter life. He said he loved the popover, but would only accept one. I wanted to give him all four pastries I had plated for him, but he told me to take some over to the nearby orphanage instead. “Those kids deserve nice things more than I do.” were his exact words.

  I went back home and set the three spare popovers into storage so that they would be fresh for delivery to the orphanage. I got back just in time to change the temperature setting down to 3 for the second batch. I grabbed the four popovers for the other apartment in my building out of storage and left to knock on their door.

  A young man, about twenty years old, answered the door. Granted I now look 28, but sometimes I still look at the world like I am fifty-six. Well fifty-six plus a few. The young man looked tired and hungry, haggard to the bone. Just beyond him in the house I saw why. The woman behind him was very pregnant. There were crayon marks on the walls, and the mad giggling of a toddler coming from the other room.

  His face brightened as he saw the pastries. More so as the smell of apple, cinnamon spice, walnut, and toffee filled his nose. I made my introductions, gave the gift of pastries on a paper plate to the family of three and a half, then excused myself to grab the next batch out of the oven.

  The other apartments were mostly the same. Many of the people were suspicious as to why a merchant was giving away food. I had to tell them it was Market research to see what people here liked. If they felt like paying me back, just letting me know their thoughts on the food and how much I should charge would be payment enough tonight. One family had eight children. I had to go back and grab the spares for the orphanage. I decided the orphans would get a fresh baked batch, plus some cookies.

  After I finished popping over to my neighbors with popovers. Groan all you like. Dad jokes are a privilege of my age,whether I look it or not. I started another batch of popovers for the orphanage. This batch would have 20 sweet toffee apple, and 20 pork and onion filled.

  I finished at about eight pm, filled a basket with all the pastries and some ginger snaps, then walked down the dirt path to another building similar to the apartments. Before I could get to the door, my passage was blocked by a scowling ninja.