Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 14 - Chapter 3.4

4

“Huh? What’s going on, everybody?”

When we finished up our study session at the Ruu settlement and returned to the Fa house, we found six women there waiting for us. They came from the Fou, Ran, and Deen clans, as well as the Liddo clan that had been showing up lately. From that group, a middle-aged woman who I believed was one of the Ran was flashing us the whites of her teeth in a big grin.

“You even have to ask? Today’s the day you invited those guests from town, isn’t it? We figured we should all get together and welcome them.”

“Oh, really?” I replied, hopping down from the driver’s seat and disconnecting Gilulu from the wagon. As I did so, the rest of the riders also started getting out. That meant Myme, Mikel, Toor Deen, and Li Sudra. Li Sudra would usually be dropped off midway to head back to her own house, but today she accompanied us, saying she wanted to see what would happen next.

“Pleased to meet you, everyone from the forest’s edge. I’m Myme of Turan, and this is my dad Mikel,” Myme greeted with a deep bow, at which the women all gave their names in turn. The only ones I had memorized out of the group were Toor Deen’s aunt Jas Deen, and Ai Fa’s childhood friend, Saris Ran Fou.

They weren’t used to welcoming guests from town like the folks from the Ruu clan, so they were split between looks of deep curiosity and caution. But at the very least, the Ran woman from before gave Myme another smile.

“You’re going to be preparing dinner at the Fa house tonight too, right? We would all love to join you for a little taste test, if that would be all right.”

“Huh? You do too? Okay...I’ll give it my all!”

Myme had managed to fully recover on the way here.

Though she had been all dejected while we were preparing to leave the Ruu settlement, during the journey here she had roused herself and declared, “I’ll try to make a more proper dish at your house, Asuta!” That alone had been enough to cause me to tremble with excitement.

“Well then, could everyone please wait at the stove around back? And Myme and Mikel, could you step inside the house for now? I’ll show you to the pantry.”

There were just a bit under two hours left until sunset. Since I would only be preparing dinner for four, including our guests, it wouldn’t be any issue at all, but I still wanted to get to work on the soup dish as soon as possible.

“Oh, could I ask you to prepare the soup, Myme? Then while that’s heating up, I can introduce the other dishes.”

“All right, got it,” Myme replied, now wearing a serious look as she glanced around our pantry, which was truly modest compared to the one at the main Ruu house. Ultimately, what she picked out were aria, tino, nenon, myamuu...as well as fuwano flour and kimyuus egg.

“Hmm, so you’re finally using myamuu?”

“Huh? ‘Finally’?”

“Ah, it’s just that I’ve gotten a lot of use out of myamuu, but you haven’t used it at all until now.”

Myamuu was a potherb with a smell similar to garlic. After those early days when I only had salt for seasoning, I’d always found myamuu to be very reassuring to have.

“Myamuu has a strong aroma, so for me it’s quite difficult to bring it in harmony with everything else. It’s amazing how you can use it so splendidly.”

“Hmm, I get the feeling that it’s more that I rely too much on myamuu.”

“That’s not true at all! Because giba meat has such a strong flavor in and of itself, no doubt it pairs well with myamuu. But the aroma of the myamuu would overpower kimyuus or karon leg meat,” Myme said as she loaded her basket up with ingredients. Since I wanted leg meat again, I grabbed some and then showed our guests the way to the rear stove.

During last month’s break period, we had done a big renovation on the area around the stove. A leather roof stretched overhead, and off to the side of the stove was a large workstation. Those additions were necessary to do study sessions and prep work with a large number of people.

“For now, let’s boil the giba meat and get a stock.”

After filling a pot from the house with water, Myme started to boil several thin slices of thigh meat. But before long her eyes went wide when she saw how much scum started bubbling up.

“That’s so much scum! I didn’t notice at all before!”

“Yeah, because you were boiling it in fruit wine then. It didn’t give the food an off taste or anything though.”

“That’s true... But still, that may have been what ruined the flavor.”

With a serious look on her face, Myme diligently started scooping out the froth.

“This certainly is quite the crowd...” From out of the forest, Ai Fa spoke up as she moved over to join us, returning from the hunt carrying a huge giba.

At that, each of the women introduced themselves to my perplexed clan head. And then, her childhood friend Saris Ran Fou stepped forward.

“Welcome home, Ai Fa. You aren’t injured anywhere, are you?”

“I’m not... As you can see, I don’t have so much as a scratch on me.”

“I’m glad to hear that... Truly, I am grateful for the compassion of our mother forest,” Saris Ran Fou replied, joining her hands together in front of her chest in prayer. Ai Fa, meanwhile, scratched her head and looked like she didn’t know what to say.

“Saris Ran Fou, prayers like that should be reserved solely for family.”

“My apologies. But you’re every bit as important to me as family...”

The members of the Fou and Ran clans watched the two of them with warm gazes.

For a long time, Saris Ran Fou had cut herself off from Ai Fa. Even after the Suun were no longer a threat and their clans reforged their bonds, things had remained awkward between them. And that was because Saris Ran Fou had been unable to wipe away the guilt she felt toward Ai Fa.

However, that relationship ended up getting mended for an unexpected reason. Back when I was kidnapped by Lefreya, Saris Ran Fou had apparently barged into the Fa house to soothe my clan head’s overwhelming grief.

Now that things had finally been patched up after over two unfortunate years apart, Saris Ran Fou wore a truly blissful smile. Though she was the more mature and elegant of the pair, she paid no heed to who was watching as she moved very close to Ai Fa, which really warmed my heart to see.

Well, Ai Fa’s acting just as blunt as always, but I’m sure she’s every bit as happy inside to reconcile with her childhood friend, I thought, unwittingly breaking out in a smile. And then, with a slight blush on her face, Ai Fa kicked me in the leg.

“Umm, did I make some sort of careless blunder that earned me that?”

“Quiet, you.”

At that, Saris Ran Fou let out a quiet giggle.

And then, Myme loudly shouted, “Ah! It’s been some time! Um, do you remember me...?”

“Hmm?” Ai Fa muttered, shooting Myme a questioning look.

Still holding the scum-scooping ladle in her hand, Myme gave a bow.

“I’m Myme of Turan. I really am glad that you were able to find Asuta.”

“Are you...that girl I met in Turan, perhaps?”

“Yes!” Myme answered, her eyes sparkling.

I was the one left in shock here, though.

“Y-You two know each other? But how?”

“Well, I already informed you of how I searched the Turan territory back when you were kidnapped by that noble child, correct? It was then that I met this girl.”

This was another shocking new revelation for me. I had never imagined Ai Fa would have formed bonds not only with that maid Sheila from the house of Daleim, but even with Myme. It seemed that a whole lot happened with Ai Fa during that period, and not just the thing with Saris Ran Fou.

Paying no heed to my shock, Myme just kept on smiling.

“I’m so glad to hear you remember me.”

“You’re the only one who showed us any sympathy at all in Turan... I see, so you were Mikel of Turan’s daughter, then?” Ai Fa replied, sounding deeply moved as she looked back and forth between Myme and Mikel. “It seems if a parent has a good heart, their child will be raised well too. I’m overjoyed to welcome our savior Mikel and his daughter to the Fa house as guests.”

“Savior?” Myme questioned. Now she was the one left tilting her head.

Ai Fa didn’t seem like she was going to say anything further, and so I went ahead and explained in her place.

“The one who confirmed I was being held in the manor of Count Turan was a boy named Jeeda. And it was your father Mikel who told Jeeda where that manor was. That means I owe Mikel my life.”

“Huh?! You never told me about that, dad!”

“I didn’t do anything... I just answered the question I was asked,” Mikel grumbled with a sour look.

After jabbing him in the side with her elbow, Myme then shot Ai Fa a smile.

“Fate certainly can be mysterious. I was worried about you all this time. Back then, you just said you were looking for your comrade who was kidnapped by ruffians...but you’re Asuta’s family, aren’t you?”

“Indeed. I am the head of the Fa clan, Ai Fa.”

“Ai Fa of the Fa clan... I want to thank the western god over and over again for having been granted the chance to meet the two of you, Ai Fa and Asuta,” Myme said with a mature-looking expression.

And as she met that gaze head on, Ai Fa nodded back. “Right. Well then, I have my own work to take care of. But I’ll be looking forward to tonight’s dinner, Myme of Turan.”

“Right, I’ll give it my all! By the way...that’s a giba, isn’t it?! It really is amazing how you can hunt down such a huge beast!” Myme excitedly proclaimed, having regained her usual childish innocence as she stared at Ai Fa’s back. The giba my clan head was carrying had to weigh somewhere in the seventy- to eighty-kilo range.

Though Ai Fa was acting perfectly composed, there was a hint of sweat on her forehead. Even she had to be exhausted after taking down a giba that size and carrying it all the way back home.

“I can’t skin this beast next to the stove, so I’ll be carrying out my work over that way.”

“Right, you got this.”

Ai Fa nodded, then departed around the side of the house.

Mikel moved to follow her, only for Myme to question, “Where are you going?”

“I’ve seen you cook a thousand times, so I’ll go watch this giba skinning instead.”

“Huh?! You’d leave your own daughter while she’s working on such an important job?!”

“What part of this is ‘an important job’? It’s just all something you decided to do on your own,” Mikel bluntly replied before also leaving.

“Tch!” Myme clicked her tongue in annoyance, then she got back to scooping scum. And then, one of the Fou women called out to her.

“Hey, you’re going to be boiling the meat just like that for a while, right?”

“Huh? Ah, yes. I intend to let it boil thoroughly for the next half an hour to an hour.”

“In that case, I think I’ll go wash the innards or something. The Fa clan’s always helping us out, after all.”

With that, around half of the women took off. The ones who remained were Toor and Jas Deen, Li Sudra, and the Liddo woman.

“So Mikel didn’t tell you anything about me or the Fa clan, huh?” I called out.

“That’s right,” Myme replied with a nod as she added wood to the stove. “After Ai Fa visited our house I talked to dad about it that night, but he just said, ‘Don’t get involved with the people of the forest’s edge.’ I’ve only heard the rumors around town about that whole incident with the house of Turan too.”

“Is that so...? Now that I think about it, Mikel started buying meals for two after that whole commotion died down.”

“Right. I’m sure it was the house of Turan rather than the people of the forest’s edge that dad wanted me to have nothing to do with. But that’s only natural, considering what they did to him in the past.” After casting her gaze down for just a moment, Myme looked up with a smile. “But dad’s been helping out the people of the forest’s edge from the shadows, right? That thought makes me incredibly proud.”

“Yeah. Mikel’s a wonderful person.”

And the one who introduced us to Mikel was the leader of the Silver Vase merchant group from Sym, Shumiral. Then that led to me encountering Myme, so yeah, fate really did work in mysterious ways.

As we were having that relaxed chat, eventually the Ran woman returned in a hurry.

“Asuta, could you come with me for a bit? Or if you’re too busy, Toor Deen would be fine too.”

“Huh? What’s up?”

“That old man is saying some strange stuff. We don’t really get it, so could you come listen instead?”

Asking me was one thing, but why request Toor Deen? At any rate, I took along a somewhat uneasy-looking Toor Deen and joined up with Ai Fa and everyone.

“Ah, Asuta. And I see you came too, Toor Deen,” Ai Fa greeted with bloody hands, turning toward us. The way she looked didn’t suggest that this was anything particularly urgent, and so that calmed me down for the time being.

Mikel stood there stock still with the same sour expression on his face as always, while the women were shooting us troubled looks. And the giba was dangling from the tree with its naked white flesh exposed, a mountain of innards lying on the pelt stretched out atop the ground.

“What’s the issue here, Mikel?”

“It’s not really anything. I just questioned how they were handling the innards.”

“Ah, the handling of the innards?” I said. Toor Deen must have been summoned because she was seen as an expert at cooking them. “So what’s your question? After we wash out the giba innards, they do make for a pretty tasty ingredient.”

“I already heard that. But you don’t make the meat into sausages?”

“Sausages?”

“When I ate your cooking I remembered how even though finely mincing meat isn’t popular at all in Genos, they have dishes like that in Sym,” Mikel stated, sounding annoyed. “Just like with jerky, that method’s supposed to help preserve the meat. So when I heard innards go bad easily and need to be eaten within five days, I asked why not make them into sausages.”

“Well, I do have an interest in sausage, but I’ve never tried making any. Besides, if you’re focusing on preservation you’d still end up with something tough and dried out like jerky.”

“When you completely remove the moisture that causes stuff to rot, it’s only natural it’d be tough. But if you finely mince the meat, it’d be a lot easier to chew than normal jerky, right?”

“That’s true. But the people of the forest’s edge have such tough jaws and teeth that a lot of them don’t like their meat that soft.”

“Hmph... But wouldn’t travelers in town want dried sausage? I’ve heard plenty of travelers from Sym walk around with gyama sausages.”

I was left at a bit of a loss for words.

Mikel, meanwhile, just bluntly continued on.

“Now that I think about it, you’ve stopped selling jerky at your stalls, haven’t you? I guess you don’t need to anymore now that you’re making so much profit with your other dishes, eh?”

“N-No, like we discussed before, we ended up raising the price of meat in the ashen month, and after that the jerky stopped selling entirely. It’s no surprise we wouldn’t get any takers when it’s not much better than karon jerky but now costs one-and-a-half times as much.”

“That’s ridiculous. The jerky sold in the post town is made with karon leg meat, so you should be able to make something higher-quality with giba.”

“Hmm. Then, is there an issue with how we’re preparing it?”

After giving a small sigh, Mikel started scratching his head with his left hand.

“Where’s your smokehouse? There must be something off with it.”

“Er, we don’t have anything like that. At the forest’s edge, we hang it from a tree and smoke it over an open fire with lilo leaves.”

“Is your firewood from grigee trees...?”

“No, we don’t really have a specific type of firewood we use. Is grigee wood especially suited to smoking food?”

At that, Mikel let out a now clearly audible sigh. “Despite knowing all those different cooking techniques, you’re a complete amateur when it comes to smoking food?”

“Yeah. It’s kinda embarrassing,” I replied, leaning forward a bit in excitement. “You know all about it though, right, Mikel? Could you give me a bit of instruction on how it’s done?”

“Instruction...?”

“Yeah. To be honest, when I’ve been able to find time I’ve been experimenting with trying to make tasty jerky, but my progress has totally stalled. If you don’t want to, though, then...”

“Regardless of how I feel about it, if we start smoking at this point, the sun will end up setting. And I don’t really think you can make proper smoked meat without a smokehouse,” Mikel bluntly answered, only for a voice to chime in.

“Um...”

When I turned in shock to look, I found Li Sudra standing there behind me. I hadn’t noticed at all, but apparently she had come over with me and Toor Deen.

“Do you need to do something special to make a smokehouse? If you just need a free house, there are a number of them in the Sudra clan... When people don’t live in a house, it soon falls to ruin, so it would be nice to be able to put them to use instead.”

“If you’re talking about a finely-built wooden home like this one, that would be great for smoking food,” Mikel replied as he looked up at the Fa house. “But it’s too late for today. If you definitely want to try, then we’ll have to do it some other day.”

“You’ll come visit the settlement at the forest’s edge again?” I asked, filled with anticipation.

“If you really insist on it,” Mikel answered, furrowing his brow. “There’s one other thing I wanted to ask... Have you just been throwing away the giba’s head?”

“Huh? Yes, I don’t really know how to handle anything from the neck on up, so we’ve just been shaving the meat off the cheeks and then discarding the rest...”

“What a waste. The eyes, brain, and tongue of most animals are considered valuable,” Mikel said as he glanced all around the dangling naked flesh of the giba. “It certainly is odd to eat the entrails but not the head. And as for how to use them, as long as you heat them through, they at least shouldn’t give you the runs.”

“Then would it be fine to just boil it, skull and all?”

“As far as I know, the most common method with karon is to crack open the skull so that the brains are exposed and then boil it up. As for the tongue, you can just slice that off in advance and treat it like any other grilled dish.”

“Doesn’t the tongue require additional preparations? Er, I’m completely inexperienced, so I’m just guessing here...”

Mikel shot me a glare out of the corner of his eye.

“With karon tongue, you start by lightly boiling the surface, and then you cut off the tough skin. But if you’re dealing with a young karon, then the skin is tender too so you can just grill it as is. I don’t know anything about how it’d be with giba, though...”

I turned toward Ai Fa. After wiping the grime from her hands, she once again picked up her knife. “If it’s edible, then it certainly is a waste to just leave it for the mundt. Why not give it a try with this giba?”

“In that case, we’ll go ahead and wash out these innards. If we just leave them here forever, it’ll hurt their flavor,” the Ran woman said, turning toward Toor Deen with a smile. “You and Asuta should pay close attention to how he prepares the head. And then you can teach the rest of us later.”

“Right, understood.”

At that, the women left to wash the innards bundled up in the pelt.

Ai Fa started by dissecting everything below the neck and burying that in pico leaves in the pantry, and then she faced the head itself.

A sliding door was laid out on the floor of the main room in the house to be used as a cutting board, and the giba head sat atop it. Lately she had been cleanly skinning the head too, so the white bone and hypodermis sat there clearly exposed.

“Let’s start by cutting the tongue loose.”

As Mikel, Toor Deen, and I all watched, Ai Fa inspected the giba’s head.

“The tongue seems to be connected rather deep in the throat. Would it be quickest to remove the lower jaw, I wonder?” she mused aloud, pulling out a small blade which she slid into the joints of the jaw, then cracked it apart. That was the monstrous strength of a hunter for you.

Now that the giba’s tongue was exposed, Ai Fa cut it loose at its base.

“Hmm. Looking at it like this, it certainly is massive,” Ai Fa commented, picking up the light pink tongue with her fingers. It was long, thick, and slimy-looking. I figured it had to be around twenty centimeters or so in length. It had a rather grotesque appearance, but as an ingredient it looked like it’d be seriously delicious.

“The surface doesn’t seem especially tough. Can this just be eaten as is?”

“Well, why not try it like that this time, and if it seems like an issue, add that boiling and cutting step?”

“Right, so next is the brain? But a giba’s skull is tough, so a blade could actually break if you insert it carelessly...”

“If there’s any sort of seam in the skull, then you should be able to use that to open it up,” Mikel stated.

“Hmm,” Ai Fa murmured with a tilt of her head. Then, she started using her blade to cut away the hypodermis still clinging to the skull. “Yes, there is indeed a seam.”

Ai Fa pressed her knife up against the black seam running through the skull. And the blade appeared to slide on in with shocking ease. She twisted the knife and the giba skull split open with the sides separating from each other. My clan head then reached inside, and with a cracking sound she wrenched it completely apart.

“Considering how large the tongue was, the brain certainly is small,” Ai Fa stated, holding it out for us to see. Sure enough, there was a round little brain with a pale pink color on the inside of the right half of the skull. Though the giba it had come from had to be around eighty kilos in total, the brain was only around the size of a human fist.

“We should boil this, right? But what about the eyeballs?”

“With karon, you boil them along with the brain and bones. Since you can get stock from bone, it works out just fine,” Mikel explained.

“I see.”

After removing the horns and tusks, Ai Fa dropped that split skull into a pot.

“That concludes my work here. I leave the rest to you, Asuta.”

“Yeah. I’ve never even heard of dishes involving brains or eyeballs before, so I guess all I can do is boil them.” After ladling out some water, I went ahead and lit the stove. “For the time being, I guess I’ll add some lilo leaves to alleviate the smell at least a bit. Whoa, that’s a ton of scum...”

It was coming bubbling up at a tremendous rate, even more so than when boiling meat. I figured that was proof it was packed with both off flavors and delicious ones too.

“What will you do with the tongue? It seems rather substantial.”

“Let’s just try slicing it thin, sprinkling salt over it, and grilling it. It seems like it’s just the right amount to have everybody give it a try.”

I at least had experience with eating beef tongue before. And so, just imagining what giba tongue would taste like was enough to get me excited.

As I entrusted Ai Fa with manning the stove for the skull, I headed for the outdoor stove, where Myme greeted me with a smile.

“Ah, Asuta! So that’s giba tongue?! Just what does it taste like, I wonder...”

“I’m certainly looking forward to it too. Are you still working on the parboiling?”

“Yes. You told me that giba meat gets softer the more you boil it, so I wanted to try pushing it a bit further.”

It was just around then that the group who had been washing innards returned, so I decided to go ahead and give grilling the giba tongue a shot. And so, after setting steel meshes over the stove, I went a bit luxurious and used some charcoal.

“Ooh. Looking at it now, the tongue is just more meat, isn’t it?”

All the women present were currently staring at the sliced giba tongue. Each of the slices were a bit under a centimeter thick, and they sure looked seriously tasty. I had chopped off the unshapely bit at the base and added it to the pot with the skull, so what was here now looked just like the beef tongue you’d see on offer at a yakiniku place.

“Well then, let’s try grilling it up.”

I placed a slice of giba tongue on each of the meshes, and instantly the fat started dripping down onto the charcoal and making a sizzling sound.

By the time I had put down the tenth piece of meat, the first one had started turning a nice color. Still, they were around a centimeter thick each, so as I carefully heated them through and flipped them over in turn, the irresistible aroma of grilling meat and fat filled the air.

“I feel bad for everyone back home, that we’re getting such a wonderful experience all to ourselves again.”

“What’s wrong with that? This way, we can make the same thing for our families as soon as tomorrow if we want.”

Now that they mentioned it, around half of this group had also been present when we taste tested the offal. As one of the newcomers this time around, Saris Ran Fou was left blinking there in surprise.

“All right, time to eat. Could you grab that plate, Toor Deen?”

“Right, here you are.”

I laid out the grilled giba tongue atop the large wooden plate. Then, to finish it off, I sprinkled some sheel juice I had brought from the house over it.

“Go ahead, everybody. They’re hot, so be careful not to burn yourselves.”

After all the women present picked up a slice of giba tongue, I finally reached out for one myself. Since it was just freshly grilled, I swiftly tossed it into my mouth so I wouldn’t be burned by the fat.

The thick fattiness was counteracted by the sheel juice, making it perfectly tasty. And though it was thick, it had a more refreshing flavor than beef tongue, with a crispier texture. Plus, the flavor of the meat itself was stronger than with beef. I was already pretty full from my time at the Ruu settlement, but I still felt like I could eat several slices of it.

“Mikel, Myme, please go ahead and give it a try too.”

“Thank you!” Myme replied with a smile, while Mikel just grabbed the meat with a frown. “So tasty! It has yet another unique, wonderful flavor, unlike any normal meat!”

“Yeah. The fat and meat are blended together as one, so it makes for a different sort of texture than the other cuts, doesn’t it?”

I felt confident you wouldn’t need to remove the surface layer like with karon tongue.

It was such a delicious cut that could be prepared so easily, and yet we had been just discarding it out in the forest all this time. I was just as ashamed, if not more so, at my own thoughtlessness than I had been when I first tried cooking up innards.

And when we had finished taste testing the giba tongue, Myme loudly proclaimed, “All right! I’ll give it everything I’ve got to make a dish that’s just as good! I think it’s about time to move on to the next step!”

“Right. I’ll be looking forward to it.”

Before that, I had to share this deliciousness with Ai Fa too. I moved to go do just that, but after a moment of thought I stopped myself and turned toward Saris Ran Fou instead.

“Umm, I have to watch Myme work, so could I have you bring this to Ai Fa?” I asked, holding out the plate. The woman seemed a bit taken off guard, but then she gave me a smile.

“All right. I’m sure Ai Fa must be getting rather anxious over in the house, after all.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too.”

With an even brighter smile than before, Saris Ran Fou took off running toward Ai Fa.

The two of them were always so busy that they never really had the time to take it easy and chat. So it would be good if they could rekindle their old friendship, even if they only had a moment while they enjoyed the rest of the giba tongue.