Work Text:
Headcanon:
Dick Grayson shows he loves people by remembering their orders and favorite foods. Everyone thinks it's the smiles, hugs, and cheer, but he’s tactile and is at this point so good at faking smiles that even Superman can't identify the lie. Sometimes he thinks he could fool the Lasso of Truth.
So yeah. Like he knows something about almost everyone, but those he loves, he has orders memorized for like every chain and knows absolute favorite meals. He can't cook them all, but he knows how to track them down. Food has always been love to him since childhood and Dat's very spicy shakshuka and Daj making a mellow chai with their special vanilla. It was in Alfred knowing that when Bruce was feeling angry, he needed to have a french chicken stew and latkes.
So Dick knows if he wants to grab Jason's attention he needs a number 5 with jalapeños from Bat Burger or a bag of tamales from Senora García's cart on 10th and Williams. His brother has simple tastes and is easy to please. A good bribe of fried food on the right night can net Nightwing info from the Red Hood, or get Dick his favorite karaoke partner. Either way he spends time with his brother.
He knows a good box of chicken fried rice with no peas is what Cass needs when stressed, bonus points for remembering she hates chopsticks unless she's trying to impress. And that she loves grape soda, but only Welch's.
He knows Steph misses White Castle more than her dad on bad days (the Gotham restaurants closed 2 years ago when the franchise owner was found in the bay and his family Joker gassed.) He also knows that on the worst PMS days she requires rare steak and A1.
Dick keeps Easy Mac and ham and cheese Hot Pockets in stock for Tim. He also keeps baby carrots and Hidden Valley too. Those are Tim's comfort foods, which no one ever guesses as he was born with a silver spoon. They forget that he was also the most latchkey of children until he was in high school. Tim will also do a cartwheel for Faygo, the weirder the flavor the better.
Duke was a hard one, he spent so long faking, but Dick found it. Duke loved his mom's version of cheeseburger pizza. Dick found out it was a remix of an old Bisquick recipe. His mom had added taco seasoning to the beef and mixed taco sauce into the tomato sauce. When Dick finally made it, Duke cried. It has since become their dish when they need to be together.
Damian had fallen for ramen and curry. A good miso ramen or tikka masala could brighten his littlest brother. If Dick really wanted to make Damian's night he'd take him to their favorite asian supermarket and find the weirder looking instant ramen packs and bottles of Ramune. They would also grab green onion as Damian felt that most ramen required it. It would end with Dick watching as Damian relaxed into his ratty couch with a bowl of noodles and reruns of old Animal Planet shows.
Dick hasn't had his favorite food in a while. When he was first welcomed into the Manor, Alfred had tried, but he made the ratatouille too nice and not spicy and Alfred didn't understand crackling cornbread. By the time he moved out, he had forgotten the steps, and his family's cookbook (an old spiral bound notebook with magazine clippings pasted in) was long gone. Every once in a while he'd try, but would end the night ruining perfectly fine food because it wasn't right. Those were the nights he'd go find someone else's food and hangout. He didn't let himself be alone on those nights.