Jumping pond

This traditional Gongon meal is reserved for special occasions.

TIMEEEE TO DANCEEEEE!

— The fruit bomber

A fun, communal meal, where everyone is expected to participate, be on their feet, and join in on the fun of catching the shrimp jumping away from the big fish soup dish.

Ingredients

Emu fruit

Whenever the druids commune with the Emu Tree, the tree produces a special fruit used for this dish.
The fruit is small and juicy, too bitter and acidic to eat by itself. The seeds are bright green, small and crunchy.

Yabbies

The speckled yabbie is a small freshwater crustacean, blue in colour with bright green small spots throughout.

by Irina Ilina

Fish soup

Lacking in the department of dentiture, gripplis make stews or soups with the larger fish they can't simply swallow.
For the jumping pond, a mild fish soup is preferred, often made with plain fish and water.

The fruit bomber

A position usually reserved for young (or young of heart) gripplis.
The fruit bomber is in charge of cutting open the fruit from the Emu Tree and dunking it in the soup dish, right after the alive yabbies have been placed in.
The juice of the fruit leeches into the soup, and as soon as it reaches the yabbies, these try to escape a slow and inevitable death by leaping off the soup dish.

Active meal

It is then the gripplis tongue and agility comes into play. Tongues start darting into the air, catching the yabbies and the Emu Tree seeds mid-flight.
Once the "dancing" has finished, everybody drinks up the remaining soup left. This is often a time to praise and joke about the "performance" of clan members during the meal.

Superstitions around the dish

It is believed that the person who catches the first yabbie will have Yuelral smiling on them for the foreseeable future.
Catching the first Emu Tree seed is a lot more contentious, as it signals great responsibility or burden. Often, only the druids or the clan's leader will try and catch it. Someone has to, however, as if the seed falls into the ground, it is believed to be a nefarious omen.