Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 14 - Chapter 2.2

2

At last, we made it to the post town.

Thanks to the unexpected delay, we ended up in quite a rush to open for business.

Since the Fa clan was in charge of delivering the meals and fresh meat to the inns today, I left transporting the stalls to Yamiru Lea and the members of the Ruu clan, then headed to The Sledgehammer first.

“Ah, Asuta, I’ve been waiting for you. My apologies, but I’m a bit busy here so I cannot come greet you.”

As I carried my luggage into the kitchen, a seriously spicy aroma filled my nostrils. Apparently, the owner, Nail, was in the middle of cooking already despite how early in the day it was.

“That’s a nice smell you’ve got going. So you’re already preparing meals?”

“Yes. I had a bit of an idea, and so I’ve been testing it out. If you don’t mind, would it be possible to have you give it a taste test?”

That proposal was just what I had hoped to hear. Ever since it became possible to purchase a greater variety of ingredients throughout the post town, Nail had been striving to develop new dishes each and every day.

What he had boiling now was supposedly kimyuus meat and vegetables. The Sledgehammer was an inn frequented by easterners, who tended to prefer strong spices, and so the contents of the pot gave off a truly powerful aroma.

After scooping up a bit of that broth onto a small wooden plate, he held it out toward me. It was transparent, with a thin film of fat on top. And as I put it in my mouth, a striking spiciness hit me hard.

“This sure is spicy. But it definitely has quite a bit of depth, and it’s tasty too.”

“Thank you. Last night a customer shared some of an unusual herb from Sym with me, and so I tried pairing it with chitt seeds.”

Nail kept his expressions flat like an easterner, but I could still spy some satisfaction vaguely showing on his face.

As she took a sip of the same dish, Toor Deen let out a weak, “Ugh... M-My apologies, but it seems this dish is a bit too spicy for me...”

“It is all right. Even most westerners would find this too spicy. As it is ultimately a taste meant for customers from the east, perhaps there is no helping that,” Nail replied, not looking offended in the least as he stirred the pot. “I’m certain this flavoring would match well with giba meat too. I was thinking I would see how it was received with this kimyuus dish, and then if that works out, give it a try with giba.”

“Right. I’ll look forward to hearing how it goes.”

After receiving our payment for the meals and fresh meat we delivered, Toor Deen and I left The Sledgehammer.

And as I led Gilulu by the reins, we headed toward our next stop, The Great Southern Tree. It was a splendid inn, located off to the side of the main road running through the post town. The owner’s wife was seated at the reception desk, and she guided us to the kitchen where Naudis was waiting.

“Ah, thanks for coming, Asuta. Could you leave everything on that table there?”

“All right. Are you preparing food...?”

“Yes, that’s right. I was thinking of changing the proportion of tau oil and sugar in my simmered dish a bit, so I was giving that a try.”

Naudis seemed overjoyed at being able to use plenty of sugar from Jagar, his father’s homeland. And with a gentle smile on his bearded face, he tossed some firewood into the stove.

“If you don’t mind, could I have you give it a taste test, Asuta? I would very much appreciate hearing your opinion.”

“I’d be glad to.”

The time to open the stalls was drawing near, but even so, my curiosity still won out. Once again, I gratefully accepted a small plate with a bit of broth.

Unlike the powerful impact of the previous dish, this one had a truly gentle flavor. The soy sauce-like tau oil and the sugar created a salty-sweet taste, and then the stock from the ingredients seeped into it.

“What do you think? It certainly isn’t anywhere near the cubed giba meat stew you make, but I’m personally rather proud of it.”

“Yeah, it’s delicious. If it were me, though, I might want to add just a bit of fruit wine...”

“I see. I used quite a bit of sugar, but was it still not sweet enough?”

“No, it would be for the flavor, not the sweetness. I think that the taste of fruit wine would pair very well here.”

“Ah, so that’s why you’ve still been using fruit wine in the cubed giba meat stew, even with sugar available. In that case, I’ll also give it a try,” Naudis replied with a joyful grin.

As someone especially concerned with the quality of the dishes he offered among the inn owners of the post town, he had been the first one to approach me about selling him giba cooking.

“Well then, this is your payment for the giba meat and dishes. I’ll be counting on you all again tomorrow.”

“Right, but tomorrow it will be the members of the Ruu clan delivering everything.”

After a brief hello to Naudis’s wife too, we left The Great Southern Tree. The Westerly Wind only purchased fresh meat from us every few days, so for today we headed to meet up with the rest of the group at the stalls.

As we walked down the street, Toor Deen called out, “Asuta, I thought that previous dish was tasty too. That inn owner is good at cooking, isn’t he?”

“Yeah. Naudis had a passion for cooking to start with, after all. Apparently he’s been in charge of the cooking at his place for quite some time now.”

“But you still think that Myme girl’s cooking is way tastier, don’t you?”

Without the slightest hesitation, I replied, “Yeah. It’s a little hard to explain, but Myme’s cooking...it’s special.”

“Special, huh...? If you don’t mind, could you explain what you mean?” Toor Deen very timidly asked.

She hadn’t brought up Myme at all yesterday, but had she just been refraining? After all, as someone every bit as passionate about delicious food as Reina and Sheera Ruu, there was no way she wasn’t interested in the girl.

“Let’s see... For example, Nail and Naudis have an advantage in that they have access to more ingredients than most. That’s because they were able to purchase rare ingredients from their customers, Nail from the east and Naudis from the south.”

“Right... If I remember correctly, you bought chitt seeds, dried milk, and tau oil from those inn owners, didn’t you?”

“Yeah. Cyclaeus had bought up most unusual ingredients to be had, but Nail and Naudis were purchasing them in secret for personal use. But, well, even then they weren’t able to get a hold of stuff like Jagar-made sugar or honey.”

As we walked along, Toor Deen enthusiastically nodded. And while we hurried along the path that was steadily growing more and more crowded, I continued my explanation.

“And Nail and Naudis have one more point in their favor too. It’s a little embarrassing to say this out loud, but, well...it’s me.”

“Right, your presence is a point in their favor, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. Lately we’ve been delivering the completed dishes to them, but in the past I used to prepare them in their kitchens. Thanks to that, Nail and Naudis had plenty of opportunities to see me, Reina Ruu, and Sheera Ruu cooking giba.”

It wasn’t as if I had taught them like I had with Milano Mas at The Kimyuus’s Tail. But those two inn owners had enthusiastically watched as we cooked. And even after we started delivering completed meals, they would always give them a try under the guise of a taste test.

“As a result, I had quite a bit of impact on both Nail and Naudis. But that’s not the case with Myme. Well, it seems like she took inspiration from me to use fruit wine, but other than that it was all the result of Mikel instructing her.”

“I see... So you say she’s special because you weren’t involved in her cooking...?” Toor Deen questioned, suddenly looking up. “But that Mikel man was a chef in the castle town, wasn’t he? When you all ate cooking from the castle town, didn’t you think it wasn’t especially tasty?”

“Yeah. I guess I’d explain it as, some of it was good, but most just wasn’t to our tastes,” I replied, recalling the dishes that had been prepared by the chef Timalo in the castle town.

Timalo’s flavorings and cooking techniques were pretty out there, so we all had to struggle a good bit to get them down. He paired karon milk with sour herbs, and injected extra fat into karon meat... The only dish I could truly say was delicious was the vegetable dish made from a giant tarapa.

“But you think Myme’s cooking is tasty, when she studied under Mikel?”

“That’s right. The cooking I’ve had from the castle town used way too many ingredients and was a bit overly complex. But Myme’s dish from yesterday only used salt and fruit wine for flavoring.”

Besides, I got the feeling that Myme wouldn’t ever ruin the flavor no matter how many ingredients she used. That was more my intuition than logic, though. But that just went to show how splendid the dish Myme had prepared really was.

“I see... If you’re saying all that, then this Myme girl really must be an incredible chef...” Toor Deen replied, then she looked up at me with an entreating gaze. “Umm... When Myme and Mikel are invited to the forest’s edge, would it be all right for me to attend too...?”

“Yes, of course. I want everyone to give Myme’s cooking a try, so I certainly have no intention of leaving you out. Please, come and give it a shot.”

“Thank you,” Toor Deen said with a joyful grin.

It was the sort of charming smile that made me want to just reach out and pat her on the head. But since it was best to refrain from doing so with girls over the age of ten, I just grinned back instead.

“I’m sure Myme and Mikel will stop by again today. If she brings cooking again, would you like to try some?”

“No, if possible...I would like to taste a dish she made with giba...”

“Ah, that sounds nice. Since we’ll have the chance, how about we have her take a crack at making a dish like that?”

As we had that exchange, the stalls where everyone was working finally came into view. And as they were taking care of the prep work, there were already a large number of customers waiting. Somehow, it looked like even more than usual.

“You’re late, aren’t you? Were you planning on pushing all of the work onto me?” Yamiru Lea questioned with a chilly glare.

“Sorry,” I replied, bowing my head. It seemed she had borrowed Lala Ruu’s help to get things ready.

“It seemed like you weren’t going to make it in time, so I figured I would help out. You were late from the start today, so the customers were starting to get impatient,” Lala Ruu stated, then she shot Toor Deen a grin. “Everything’s ready now, so let’s give it our all again today!”

“Ah, r-right. Thank you, Lala Ruu.”

The two of them had gotten close a good while back at the clan head meeting. When Toor Deen had been burned by boiling water, Lala Ruu had helped her out.

The hostile relations between the Ruu and Suun from back then had since been wiped away, and Toor Deen had joined the Deen clan on top of that. The young girl had regained more and more of her natural emotions and started helping out with the stalls, and no one in the Ruu clan was happier about that fact than Lala Ruu.

“Well then, shall we open for business?” Sheera Ruu asked with a smile, as she was in charge for today. She and Tsuvai had also finished the preparations over at the Ruu stalls, apparently.

And so, we began another busy yet satisfying day of work.