Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 13 - Chapter 3.5

5

“Yummy! Your tatsuta age really is the best, Asuta!” Rimee Ruu excitedly proclaimed as she stabbed some of the dish with a metal skewer.

It was now half an hour after the dinner party, and we were in a small room next to the kitchen.

The nobles and the leading clan heads had stayed behind in the dining hall to continue their discussion. But since our role as chefs was over, we were finally able to have our late dinner along with the hunters who had been guarding us.

“I’m quite fond of this salad dish too. Eating boiled meat after cooling it in water makes for such a novel taste.”

“Yes, I agree. But I think the sheel juice plays a huge role in making this so delicious. If you just boiled the meat and vegetables alone, it would feel lacking.”

Perhaps due to the sense of satisfaction that came from completing such a big job, Sheera and Reina Ruu were both wearing even brighter smiles than usual.

All of the various dishes presented to the nobles were laid out atop the table. It seemed that being able to enjoy everything all at once really was more the style of the people of the forest’s edge.

“Ah, don’t just eat nothing but tatsuta age! I want to have more too!” Rimee Ruu complained at her brother.

“Quiet, you. There’s still a whole ton left. Besides, if you eat too much you’ll get all round like Mida.”

“I won’t eat that much. Stupid shorty Ludo!”

All of the members of the guard group were present. And since it was possible to bolt this room’s door from the inside, they were able to take a break too.

Those young men and women of the forest’s edge were gathered around the table enjoying a meal, sitting in chairs despite not being used to doing so. It was a pretty unusual sight, but also a heartwarming one.

At some point, Sheera Ruu used a break in her culinary discussion with Reina Ruu to put some okonomiyaki on a plate and offer it to Darmu Ruu.

“Hn,” the young hunter awkwardly replied as he accepted the dish and bit into it. As Sheera Ruu watched over him, her expression looked both happy and pained at the same time.

“Not that it matters to me, but there seems to be an awful lot of your dishes...” a reserved yet displeased-sounding voice chimed in. It had come from an unusual guest, Roy. Right around now, Timalo’s group must have also been eating dinner in another room, but he alone had asked to eat with us.

“It’ll be like a funeral over there, so I wouldn’t be able to properly taste anything I eat,” Roy had said. He had also been stealing glances here and there at Reina Ruu as we ate, but, well, I decided not to question that.

“You still have this much left after handing half over to Timalo’s group? Are you still going to have room for our dishes with that much of your food?”

“That’s because we only offered up half of what we prepared for the chefs alone. The men of the forest’s edge are big eaters, so we needed to make this much.”

“I can tell that just by looking, but still... Also, what’s the deal with that guy making the strange faces?” Roy asked the second half quietly.

As for where he was looking, it was at our other guest, Kamyua Yoshu. The man was shoveling down giba meat just as swiftly as the hunters from the forest’s edge, and seeming like he was about to cry as he did so.

It had been so long that I had completely forgotten, but Kamyua Yoshu was the sort of unfathomable guy who could become as eerily expressionless as the Grim Reaper when worked up, while at other times he could look so emotional that he appeared to be on the verge of tears.

“Just when I thought Asuta’s cooking couldn’t surprise me again, every last one of these dishes just about knocks me out with how good they are,” Kamyua Yoshu said as he slurped down giba soup.

The people of the forest’s edge tended to be unsociable toward anyone but their comrades, but they were hardly shy, so having outsiders around didn’t bother them, and the harmony of the dinner table wouldn’t be disturbed by having Kamyua Yoshu and Roy present.

For Rau Lea, he was seeing virtually all of these dishes for the first time, and whenever he took a bite he shouted out in surprise. Ai Fa and Darmu Ruu remained expressionless and silent, but they also ate faster than anyone. On the other hand, Rimee, Ludo, and Reina Ruu were excitedly chatting away with brilliant smiles, lending some liveliness to the proceedings.

There really was a much friendlier feel in the air compared to the dinner party. If his goal was to deepen friendship with the people of the forest’s edge, Marstein really should have allowed women and young folks to attend too.

“So, what do you think of the taste of giba meat?” I asked after Roy finished giving each of the dishes a taste test, only for him to scratch his head with a sour look.

“It’s definitely quirky, but it’s not bad at all. I had expected something more like the taste of mountain-raised gyama meat.”

“Huh? Gyama are animals from the eastern kingdom, aren’t they? Do they have a really quirky taste when they’re raised out in the mountains?”

“The meat just plain stinks. That’s why people from Sym use powerful spices like chitt seeds to cover it up. When it comes to gyama meat and dried milk, the only stuff that can be sold in the west is what’s been raised on the plains.”

So apparently, the grass they ate on the mountains and plains differed and had an impact on the flavor of their meat and milk. The dried milk I was familiar with didn’t stink at all, so it must have been made with the milk from gyama raised on the plains.

“This fried dish is even tastier than the one you made before with kimyuus... No doubt it’s left Timalo at a loss for words.”

“I’m sure Timalo’s cooking is really something else too, though,” I said, turning to face the small table off to the side. That was where Timalo’s dishes that Roy and the pages had brought along were sitting, waiting their turn.

“All right, I guess it’s time for us to give his cooking a try too. It’s cuisine from the castle town, just like you’ve been waiting for, Reina Ruu.”

“Ah, right!”

With that, she excitedly rose to her feet and hurried on over to the little table. Roy’s gaze immediately moved to follow, but he somehow forced himself to look away.

“But the guests from the forest’s edge didn’t like the dishes, right? And the duke gave him a pretty harsh scolding, so Timalo ended up pale as a corpse.”

“Yeah, pretty much anyone would be hurt hearing something like that. It was enough that I couldn’t help but wonder if he purposefully chose Timalo for the role to bring him down.”

“Oh right, you were there, huh? Still, I’d say that’s off the mark. Timalo didn’t do anything but try to make the best dishes that he could. I can’t even imagine what anyone didn’t like about them,” Roy replied with a sour look, his arms crossed.

By now, Sheera Ruu had also walked over to the other food table, while Rimee Ruu shouted, “You better not eat all of it!” and took off running.

“Hmm, they all smell kinda weird, don’t they!”

“Yeah. To start with, we don’t use so many herbs at the forest’s edge.”

We four chefs all seated ourselves around the small table. The hunters hadn’t shown any interest whatsoever in food from the castle town, so it was a taste test just for us.

However, the result was truly regrettable.

“Gross!” Rimee Ruu shouted at full volume.

What she had eaten was the fuwano dish, which was like some kind of oatmeal with cheese and herbs mixed in.

Just like the smell implied, it used a large amount of karon milk and plenty of herbs, and if I had to try to relate it to something, it was like chunks of torn up bread were soaked in milk and then boiled with cumin and lemongrass. Then the Camembert cheese-like gyama dried milk was tossed in alongside bits of meat similar to beef sirloin. It was sweet, and yet also had a significant bite to it. Ultimately, it made for a real complicated flavor that was like some sort of hybrid between Thai and Italian cooking.

“Hmm... I can certainly see how this would give you a bad feeling in your chest if you ate too much...” Reina Ruu said. Her eyes had been shining with anticipation before, but now her eyebrows were clearly drooping.

The dish Reina Ruu had eaten was the soup dish that smelled of milk fat and herbs. On top of the butter-like milk fat, this dish also employed herbs akin to cinnamon, rosemary, and garlic chives. And Timalo likely also added plenty of those bouillon cube-looking things that were here in this kitchen. The smell and taste of the dish were both rich and intense.

The karon stomach used in it was white and slippery, but, well, it didn’t seem like a bad ingredient as long as you didn’t have an issue with entrails. Still, the flavoring of the soup overall was once again complicated and difficult to accustom your tongue to.

By Reina Ruu’s side, Sheera Ruu went, “Hmm...” with a complex expression on her face. She had the karon meat dish that was the main course atop her plate.

Originally, the dish wasn’t supposed to be part of the meals for the chefs, but since there were leftovers from the dinner party, it was delivered here. Once it was heated back up, the glossy karon meat gave off a delicious aroma. Ludo Ruu was the only one out of the hunters who seemed curious, and he jumped out of his chair and approached.

“I’m not interested in anything else, but that meat seems tasty. Cut me off a slice, Asuta.”

“Yeah, all right.”

Cutting into the hunk of meat that was as soft as butter, I sliced off a bit for both me and Ludo Ruu.

And when I took a bite...the karon meat really did break down easily in my mouth, as if it was melting away. However, it was more than just soft. Unexpectedly, there was an explosion of oily content in my mouth, taking me aback.

“Gah, what the heck is this?! It’s just a sack of fat!” Ludo Ruu shouted, swiftly hurrying back to the large table and slurping down giba soup as a palate cleanser.

“Roy, could it be... Did you add extra fat to this meat afterwards?”

“Ah, I’m surprised you figured it out. We used these thin hair-like needles to poke a ton of holes in the meat, then soaked it in karon fat and steamed it together with herbs and vegetables,” Roy carelessly answered. “We never would have been able to get that level of tenderness and flavor otherwise. It took the longest amount of time to prepare as a result.”

“What point is there in getting the meat that soft? I’d say the karon meat in that fuwano dish was already plenty tender and delicious.”

“That’s because the karon bought from Dabagg is high quality. This is an effective method for making it even better than what you’d typically get. Honestly, I thought it was an amazing idea.”

The sliced karon meat gave off a gleaming deep-pink shine. It had the flavor of a delicious high-class beef, and the citrusy sauce drizzled on top wasn’t half bad either. Even though it was a roast, it was so tender it seemed to melt on your tongue. And the many herbs and vegetables used lent plenty of flavor to the meat.

However, I couldn’t help but feel that it had crossed some sort of line. I didn’t have much issue with any sort of junk food, but my stomach was protesting, shouting out that something was wrong and twisted. Just as Ludo Ruu had said, it was like gulping down a mass of fat.

“Do the people of the castle town usually eat such a high amount of fat? I can’t help but feel that taking in this much is going to be bad for your health...”

“Hmm? That’s because the count...er, former count had his chefs and restaurants use as much milk fat, reten oil, and karon fat as they pleased. Only nobles can possibly request a dish as extravagant as this, though.”

Had Cyclaeus made himself sick by only ever eating stuff like this? There was just so much oil and salt in the dish that I couldn’t help but think that.

“Ah, this dish isn’t bad,” Reina Ruu chimed in as if to smooth things over.

It was the deep-red boiled vegetable dish consisting primarily of tarapa. It must have been portioned out of that massive tarapa that served as a container. Currently, a very small amount of it was sitting there in an ordinary metal bowl.

I went ahead and gave it a taste test too, and sure enough it was pretty darn good. The stock was made carefully from a variety of vegetables, and though the aroma of the coriander-like herb was a bit strong, the taste seemed fairly close to that of minestrone.

Personally, I would have gone just a bit lighter on the salt, and I wouldn’t use that herb either. Other than that, though, I had no complaints.

“There’s panam honey and sugar in that dish too. Apparently he was extra careful with the amounts so as not to ruin the flavor,” Roy stated in a stiff tone.

“I see,” Reina Ruu replied, clapping her hands together. “I thought there was some sort of flavor I didn’t recognize besides the herbs in there. Panam honey and sugar are those ingredients used when making sweets, aren’t they?”

With Reina Ruu looking straight at him like that, Roy was thrown off balance for just a moment.

“That’s right! Do you have some sort of problem with that?!” He snapped.

“That wasn’t what I was trying to say... If I hurt your feelings, then I’m sorry,” Reina Ruu said with a bow of her head, moving on to the next dish. I also noticed that Roy looked to be at his wits’ end, but I ultimately refrained from talking to him about it.

“Asuta...” a voice called out, accompanied by a tug on the sleeve of my T-shirt. It was Rimee Ruu, looking up at me with tears in her eyes. Atop her plate sat that baked fuwano sweet that was cut into a square. “This...’s gross...”

“Huh? It took you down too, Rimee Ruu?”

Gulaf Zaza was one thing, but nobody could match how Rimee Ruu just exploded with joy when I brought out the sugar back in the kitchen. It was definitely something of a shock for her to show such resistance to the dessert.

In terms of appearance, it looked like a mille-feuille or something, with numerous thin layers of fuwano, and didn’t seem gross in the least. It appeared to have a really moist texture, and the pink color from the minmi fruit was adorable. Honestly, it wouldn’t look out of place at all if it was on display in a pastry shop in my old world.

“It certainly looks delicious though... Well then, guess I’ll dispose of the rest. Ah, but is it all right for me to eat your leftovers when we’re not family?”

“That’s only the custom for when one is over ten and no longer a child.”

“Whoa, you scared me there! What’s up, Ai Fa?”

“I’m done with dinner. All of the dishes were delicious.”

As she stood there behind me, Ai Fa stared suspiciously at the baked sweet atop the plate. From what I could tell, she had finished up before everyone else, while the other hunters’ hearty appetites were still raging.

“That’s certainly an odd dish. It doesn’t smell bad, though.”

“Yeah, and it looks pretty tasty. Do you want to give it a try too, Ai Fa...?”

“I have no intention of eating food made by such an impolite man.”

“I see. Well then, looks like it’s up to me to finish it off after all.”

As I patted the still-crying Rimee Ruu on the head, I took the wooden plate from her. And when I tossed a bit of it in my mouth...I immediately understood why the young girl hadn’t liked it. There was the flavor of some sort of liquor in the dish, a kind of brandy or something.

It might possibly have been the same stuff as that high-class fruit wine that Balan had given me. There were then numerous herbs and fruit juices blended into the dough, so it was a bit difficult to say for certain, but at any rate it definitely had an alcoholic base.

Each and every one of the thin fuwano layers had absorbed plenty of panam honey and karon milk. That made it extraordinarily rich and sweet, and then it had the fruit wine scent about it on top of that, giving the taste much more of a punch than you would expect from looking at it.

“Hmm, well...I’d definitely say you’d need some perseverance to get it all down.”

“You sure are harsh. So much so that I’d call you crazy if I hadn’t tasted your cooking,” Roy chimed in, apparently having recovered from his previous self-inflicted damage. “It’s true that the dishes you made definitely wouldn’t lose to Timalo’s. That certainly is amazing, but I really don’t think that Timalo’s dishes fall that far short... You used light seasonings and hardly any herbs in your cooking, and there are plenty of folks in the castle town who would be dissatisfied with that.”

“Right. That’s why Duke Genos said neither my cooking nor Timalo’s was better or worse. And I don’t have any objections to that evaluation. But...”

“‘But’ what?”

“But in the castle town...or rather, in your cooking and Timalo’s, I’d say you’re going overboard on the seasonings. It feels like your main focus is on how many herbs and oils and dairy products you can pack in without ruining the flavor... Am I mistaken, though?”

“Hrmm... I wouldn’t say that’s particularly wrong, no. Actually, I’d say that’s pretty much what cooking is all about, right?”

“That isn’t how my father taught me. I was taught to use seasonings efficiently to bring out the best in the ingredients.”

“That’s...” Roy started to retort, but then he held his tongue, a troubled look on his freckled face. “I’m only nineteen, but I was invited here to the Turan manor after working at three different restaurants. Each time I moved to a grander workplace, the amount of ingredients and seasonings on offer grew... And it was driven into me that a chef’s skills came from how well they could use them.”

“Right, I can understand that much.”

“Then what is it you can’t understand? In a dinky shop, you can only use a dinky variety of ingredients. And in a first rate restaurant, you have plenty of first rate ingredients to make first rate meals, as a first rate chef. That’s what I’ve been taught...”

“Hmm... That certainly is a different way of thinking compared to back where I come from. If you have some high-class meat, then I figure the tastiest way to eat it may just be simply grilling it up.”

“Then why do you bother frying or boiling giba meat? You’re confident in its flavor, aren’t you?” Roy shot back, making a face like a sulking child.

As I scratched my head, I offered him a grin.

“Why is that, I wonder? Giba meat is delicious, so I think it’s at its tastiest just by rubbing in salt and pico leaves and grilling it. So I may just be wasting my time racking my brain, trying to come up with something that can match that flavor.”

“As if that could ever be true,” Ai Fa interjected, jabbing me in my side. “There’s no need for such pointless concerns. It will make me quite angry if you start doing nothing but grilling meat for dinner.”

“I’m not exactly concerned about it. I intend to keep on straining my brain every day from here on out, so go ahead and look forward to what I come up with.”

“Hmph,” Ai Fa snorted, just in time for a knock on the door.

“Coming,” Kamyua Yoshu replied for some reason, hurrying on over. After removing the bolt, slightly opening the door, and exchanging a few words with the person outside, the aloof bodyguard turned my way. “Asuta, it seems Cyclaeus is finally awake. If we let this chance slip by, he likely won’t wake till tomorrow morning, so could I have you get to work preparing his dinner?”

“Yeah, that’s fine.” At last, it was time for my final task. “Well then, Reina Ruu, I leave the rest to you. You don’t have to force yourself to finish all of Timalo’s cooking though, all right...?”

“Right. Take care, Asuta.”

Ai Fa ended up being the only one to accompany me, after stopping the others when they moved to stand.

The first step needed to be reheating the food in the kitchen. With that in mind, I exited the room along with Ai Fa...and found an incredibly unexpected crowd standing there.

“Hey there. Sorry for the hassle, Asuta.”

The sight of the person standing at the head of the group left me at a loss for words. Of all people, it was Duke Marstein Genos himself who had been speaking with Kamyua Yoshu from the other side of the door.

Behind him were Melfried, Donda Ruu, and Lefreya, as well as Sanjura sandwiched between two ducal guards.

“Sir Donda Ruu will be accompanying us to act as a witness. Once this task is finished, all of today’s work will be complete. I’m counting on you, Asuta.”

“Understood...”

And so I faced my final task, fists clenched tight.