Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 16 - Chapter 3.2

2

After that, we next headed for The Great Southern Tree.

Naudis had been holed up in the kitchen, and when he saw us he greeted us with a smile, saying, “Ooh, I’ve been waiting for you.” Lately, it seemed that he had been manning the kitchen a lot more than his wife. “So that’s the finished dish that uses all those herbs? I’ve been excited all morning to see just what in the world it will taste like.”

“I’m glad to hear it. That’s a nice smell... Are you already preparing dinner?”

“Ah, yes. Well, you see, I actually have something I’d like for you to taste test as well. I went ahead and tried to put together a dish of my own as soon as I could with those new ingredients.”

That news definitely got me excited. After all, Naudis and Nail were both rather skilled at cooking, for residents of the post town.

“I really would like to hear your honest opinion of it.”

He set plates of the boiled tau oil dish down in front of me and Reina Ruu. It contained karon leg meat cut into bite-sized chunks, thinly sliced aria, those mushrooms that looked like orange shiitake, and daikon-like sheema that had been cut into wedges.

There was a strong aroma of tau oil and myamuu about the dish. And with a big helping of a dark brown broth similar to the one used in my meat and chatchi stew poured over top, it really did look tasty.

“Well then, let’s dig in.”

With a wooden spoon, I picked up a bit of sheema and karon leg meat and popped them into my mouth.

I could tell right away that he had used tau oil, myamuu, sugar, and fruit wine. The dish had an appropriately salty-sweet taste. The karon leg meat seemed really tender too. The leg meat got softer the longer you boiled it, and this really was superb.

To compare it to the recipes I knew, it seemed closest to a Japanese-style stew. The aroma from the myamuu was a bit strong, but it wasn’t enough to ruin the dish. While it was fairly simple overall, there was some definite depth to the flavor.

“It’s very good. You used the dried fish stock in it, didn’t you?”

“Yes, indeed. I did as you said, and that alone was enough to add such depth to the flavor.” Naudis, who was even shorter than me, puffed out his broad chest. “And since I was even able to get ahold of sheema and mushrooms from Jagar, I’m truly satisfied with how it turned out. I’m proud to say that it’s every bit as good as the cooking I once enjoyed in my father’s homeland.”

“The meat is fantastically tender, but the other flavors have only seeped into it a small amount. Did you parboil it first?”

“Ah, no, I marinated it in fruit wine first, and then boiled it,” Naudis said, breaking out in a wide grin. “I recalled how my grandmother taught me that tough meat softens up when you marinate it in sparkling wine from Jagar. And when I tried it out with the sparkling wine you brought me, it certainly did just that. But I didn’t want to waste anything so valuable, so I tried using fruit wine instead.”

“Ah, I see. And did you perhaps marinate it with aria alongside the fruit wine?”

The answer was yes.

Now that I thought about it, marinating beef in red wine was a method to soften it up back where I came from too. And I could recall hearing that when you did so, it was more effective if you added stuff like onions, vinegar, and yogurt. Oh, and lately The Kimyuus’s Tail had taken to soaking leg meat in karon milk in order to soften it up.

“This is good. I’m not especially fond of karon leg meat, but the flavor is definitely tasty,” Reina Ruu chimed in with a look of satisfaction. This might have been the first time she offered such direct praise regarding the skills of someone from the post town. That just went to show how simple yet delicious Naudis’s dish really was.

“While it of course doesn’t reach the level of your giba dishes, Asuta, I feel confident it will do just fine at a cost of four or five red coins. I intend to add it to the menu right away, starting tonight.”

“Well, it certainly is delicious. I could see it becoming just as popular as the giba dishes.”

“I think that’s going a bit too far. I cannot possibly imagine beating the cubed giba meat stew, for example, now that the taste has reached such heights after the introduction of ingredients from Jagar.”

At The Great Southern Tree, I continued to offer the cubed giba meat stew once every ten days, just like before. The most recent time I made it, I used sheema, chamcham, and that shiitake-like mushroom rather than aria. Naudis had been overjoyed at the time, but I no longer knew how to react.

“Okay, now let’s try your dish, Asuta,” Naudis said with a serious look in his eyes.

It was time for him to taste test my giba curry, which used a bunch of herbs from Sym. Would folks from the south really accept it? Would Naudis think it was worthwhile to even try selling it to them? It was finally time for all that to be decided.

“This...really is shockingly good,” Naudis said after taking a bite of the reheated giba curry. “I thought it was good to begin with, but... Hrmm... Still, you said you didn’t want to sell the dish itself, but rather the base ingredients to make it, didn’t you?”

“Yes. At least for now, that’s my intention.”

“Can people like my wife or I really make such an alien dish? We don’t have any knowledge at all when it comes to herbs from Sym.”

“I don’t believe that should be an issue. You just need to toss this into a pot with boiling meat and vegetables,” I replied, pulling out a small leather bag from my hip and showing him the curry base.

I had blended together eight different spices, sautéed aria with milk fat, added fuwano flour, and then finally dried it out so it hardened up. At first I was nervous that the milk fat might cause it to go bad, but after discussing the matter with Nail and his customers from Sym, I determined that by using this many herbs, it should last for at least ten days or so.

“Naturally, when I made this, I used the seasonings and ingredients that I thought would work well, but it should still come out really good with different ones too. I’ll explain the basic steps, but from there you should be able to use whatever ingredients you prefer.”

“Hmm...”

“Sheema might not quite fit with it, but chan, ma pula, and mushrooms in a Jagar-style curry sound like they would be pretty good.”

Naudis gave a sigh, then stared back at me with a determined look in his eyes.

“Understood. At any rate, if there’s a chance other inns will start carrying this dish, then I need to at least try it out. I think I’ll have the customers give it a shot tonight at dinner.”

After teaching Naudis the basics of the recipe, we left The Great Southern Tree. Our next destination was The Sledgehammer.

“Asuta, there’s one thing I just don’t understand...”

“Hmm? What is it?”

As we walked down the now more crowded street, Reina Ruu looked deep in thought.

“I truly thought that dish made by the innkeeper was actually good. I’m sure Sheera Ruu or I, maybe even Rimee, could adjust the flavor to be more to our tastes, but I didn’t have any real issue with it as it was.”

“Yeah. Naudis is pretty darn skilled.”

“Honestly, to me, that innkeeper seems more skilled at manning the stove than that Yang chef. Am I mistaken?” Reina Ruu asked, a deeply thoughtful look on her face.

“Hmm...” I murmured, pondering the matter myself. “I’m not sure. Yang is definitely on top in terms of the knowledge and skills he possesses...but that may actually be hindering him.”

“Hindering?”

“Yeah. For example, you’ve grown really skilled at manning the stove, so you ended up wanting to use some tricks other than just grilling and boiling meat, right? But the chefs in the castle town believe using lots of ingredients makes for a better dish, and I think that viewpoint will only keep growing stronger.”

“Right... I understand that.”

“And as someone born in the castle town, I don’t think Yang has a good grasp of what people from the post town like. I figure he’s just stabbing in the dark, trying to find the ideal taste to meet the expectations of the townsfolk while also taking care not to let the flavor get too complex.”

On the other hand you had Naudis, who had been dissatisfied over how he wanted to use ingredients from Jagar, but couldn’t. And now that that had changed, his passion must have erupted all at once.

“Naudis and Nail have actually eaten cooking from Jagar and Sym, and they’re trying to recreate that for their customers. I figure that’s a lot like how I’ve been trying to recreate the taste of dishes from my home country. When you have that to guide you from the start, you know what sort of ingredients you need and how you should flavor it, which leaves less of the trial and error Yang has to go through.”

That was probably why Naudis and Nail were a step ahead of Milano Mas and Yumi’s mother Sill. Actually, it wasn’t just Milano Mas and Sill, as the majority of the post town was left in a state of confusion over how to handle all those newly introduced ingredients. And perhaps it was the same for the chefs of the castle town, who had to master all those different ingredients, whether they were introduced decades or even a full hundred years ago.

“In other words...Mikel of Turan had his daughter polish her skills with a limited set of ingredients so as not to cause her to experience that confusion, right?”

“Yes, that’s exactly it. And I’m sure Mikel built his skills into a strong foundation first before trying to develop his ideal dishes, rather than getting caught up in the values of the castle town.”

“So what about that Varkas chef?” Reina Ruu asked, the look in her eyes growing all the more serious.

As I thought it over, I replied, “I don’t know any more than you do about him, so this is all speculation, but...I think he’s someone who just adapted especially well to living in the middle of all that chaos. He fully embraced the idea that using all sorts of ingredients makes a meal better, and raised his ideal recipes to perfection that way.”

“He raised them to perfection?”

“Yup. Putting things in terms of totos, even if we can handle several of them at a time, we still need to manipulate their reins carefully and watch their footings, right? But Varkas feels like he’s standing in the middle of a herd of totos trying to run off in every direction, grasping all their reins and holding them in place by force.”

Reina Ruu couldn’t help but giggle at my crappy analogy.

“I feel like I sort of get it. Each of those totos are things like sweetness and spiciness, right?”

“Yeah. Even though one wrong step could ruin everything, Varkas’s cooking maintains an exquisite balance.”

“Right. I get that too,” Reina Ruu replied, giving a small sigh as she fiddled with the tips of her long black hair. “To be honest...I find that Varkas chef a little frightening.”

“Frightening? Why’s that?”

“He’s doing something as a chef that I never could. If it turns out that that’s the right way of doing things for a chef...all of my hard work would be for naught.”

Her feelings about him and mine might not have been that far apart, honestly. However, I had no intention of giving up on my own skills because of it.

“Don’t worry. Cooking isn’t really about striving to see who’s superior. After all, everyone’s tastes are different, right? So we just need to keep trying in our own way to make dishes that we find tasty.”

“Yeah... I don’t think you’re wrong about that,” Reina Ruu said, sounding as if she was trying to persuade herself.

It seemed Varkas had left an even deeper impression on this skilled chef from the forest’s edge than I had expected.

At The Sledgehammer, the curry once again earned open praise.

That was no surprise, considering how much Nail liked it when it was still a work in progress. At any rate, when he tasted the completed giba curry, his whole body started trembling, perhaps because he was restraining himself from breaking out in an expression.

“It’s terribly delicious. I’m sure my customers from the east will be exceptionally pleased. So much so that I worry my other dishes may even stop selling.”

“I think this dish should be sold in small portions, so maybe you could make it part of a set.”

Though I didn’t have much experience with them, I remembered that Indian restaurants often bundled curry and naan with kebabs or tandoori chicken and the like. And I was sure that not only my giba sauté arrabbiata but also the spicy meat dishes Nail made would pair well with the giba curry.

Oh, and about my giba sauté arrabbiata, I had revised the recipe to employ fish stock, dried seafood, and herbs from Sym.

“I’m currently experimenting with karon and kimyuus herb-grilled dishes using the herbs from Sym that you brought me. Though they can’t compare to your cooking, I’m sure they’ll make my customers happy.”

“It was Duke Genos and Polarth who introduced those ingredients to the post town, though. Not me.”

“But you were the one who made it all possible. I have offered my thanks to Selva and Sym over and over for the good fortune of having met you.”

After Nail saw us off, we next headed for The Kimyuus’s Tail. Since we had planned in advance to run around to all the inns like this, I had prepared dinner in the morning.

Milano Mas was also surprised, saying, “The flavor has improved a whole lot. It’s gotten real spicy, but how should I put it...? It doesn’t feel like it’s running wild in my mouth. And the meat and vegetables are incredibly tasty too.”

“I’m glad to hear you like it,” I said, feeling relieved. The Kimyuus’s Tail was the one place I had been worried about. “So, what do you say to trying to cook this yourselves, including the meat and vegetables? I don’t think it’ll be difficult to prepare.”

I actually hadn’t sold The Kimyuus’s Tail any fresh meat yet. That was because Milano Mas was concerned that if he increased the number of giba dishes on offer, the kimyuus and karon dishes would stop selling. And he figured that they wouldn’t be able to make anything all that good with giba meat regardless.

Even after I succeeded at persuading The Westerly Wind, Milano Mas still hadn’t changed his mind. I figured he was probably concerned that if they served crude dishes, it would hurt the reputation of giba meat.

“But you and Telia Mas can make such tasty dishes with kimyuus and karon now, can’t you? To be honest, I don’t think you two are that far behind the folks at The Westerly Wind in terms of skill. So there really isn’t anything to worry about.”

Even here in the post town, manning the stove was generally seen as women’s work. Nail and Naudis had taken charge of their kitchens in spite of that, out of a desire to offer their customers from Sym and Jagar delicious meals.

Since Milano Mas’s wife had passed away so young, she didn’t have a chance to teach her daughter, Telia Mas, how to cook. That was how The Kimyuus’s Tail ended up with the unfortunate reputation of not having particularly good food.

“If you think I’m trying to trick you, then please just try cooking the giba curry at least once. If you’re not satisfied with the taste, then I’ll give you some more lessons, so...”

“You don’t have enough free time on your hands for more lessons. And there’s no reason for you to help us so much to begin with.”

I felt another sigh coming on at how distant he was still acting. But still, I figured that was all part of Milano Mas’s charm.

“If it helps to show people how delicious giba meat is, then it doesn’t matter to me how much extra work it takes. And it may not be all that important to you...but The Kimyuus’s Tail is the inn I’ve had a relationship with the longest, so it means a lot to me. I can’t help wanting it to earn just as good of a reputation as the other inns, if not better.”

Unsurprisingly, Milano Mas’s expression remained just as sour as always. However, I still somehow got him to accept my proposal. What clinched it was definitely Telia Mas giving her backing, saying that they should offer the dish.

After giving them the same instructions as the other inns and some curry base to try out, we left The Kimyuus’s Tail.

Finally, we headed for the last inn, The Westerly Wind. There, we demonstrated how to make giba curry on the spot.

I went with a simple selection of three vegetables—aria, chatchi, and nenon—and a bit of excess skim milk. Just adding the curry base to that was enough to create a perfectly satisfactory flavor.

Then using some dried fish stock, I made a bit of mock curry soup. If they didn’t want to buy comparatively expensive dried fish, they could also get a good enough stock by slowly boiling giba, karon, or kimyuus meat.

It earned a very strong reception. Or at the very least, Yumi and Sill sang its praises.

“Yes, I could see this taste becoming a bit addictive. I’m sure some folks won’t like it, but I would love to serve this,” Sill said, glancing over at her husband. But as usual, Sams wore a sullen look.

“The inside of my mouth hurts. Will this stuff really sell?”

“It definitely will! If nothing else, it’s at least tastier than the karon soup we served before we started buying giba meat, right?” Yumi commented, in quite the good mood.

“Tch,” Sams clicked his tongue.

“If you don’t mind, please go ahead and offer this portion to your customers. If they don’t like it, then I’ll go ahead and back down,” I chimed in, even though I felt bad applying such pressure. But if you didn’t act with confidence when dealing with this innkeeper, you would end up pointlessly ruining his mood.

“It’s decided, then. You’re one heck of a businessman, Asuta,” Sill declared cheerfully, sipping down the rest of her curry soup.

Yumi similarly focused on cleaning her plate, and then she suddenly turned my way. “By the way, you’re going to be cooking in the castle town soon, aren’t you? Are you going to serve this giba curry dish there?”

“No, I decided not to since apparently Banarm doesn’t have much of a custom of using herbs. And besides, I developed this dish with everyone from the post town and the forest’s edge in mind.”

“Hmm? You mean for nobles you need a dish that’s much grander?” Yumi replied, sounding rather unamused.

“No,” I answered. “It’s true that I want to tailor the dishes to the tastes of nobles, but it’s not like I set out to make something luxurious. Maybe what I came up with just happened to turn out that way?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“The prices of ingredients here in Genos don’t line up with things back in my home country. For example, smoked fish is incredibly expensive here, but back where I come from, anyone could buy them with ease. The same was true for salt, sugar, vinegar, and tau oil.”

“Just how well off was your home country?”

“I guess the average person is pretty well off back there, yeah. But more than that, things just had different values. For example...to buy these white clothes I’m wearing, you would probably need a white coin.”

“Huh?! For those rags?! Ah, sorry...”

“Well, these were brand new half a year ago.”

Still, if you equated a red coin to 200 yen and a white one to 2000 yen, that was about how things worked out. As an aside, I got a good deal on this white T-shirt, since it was on sale for 1980 yen.

“From my point of view, it was a real shock to find that a single bottle of tau oil cost one white coin. I mean, aria and poitan go for around the same price as similar vegetables in my home country... At any rate, the costs of things are out of sync. Maybe the nobles would be happier with something that uses expensive ingredients, but I don’t personally feel like I’m making anything extravagant in the process.”

“Hmm, I see... Now that you mention it, this curry dish uses plenty of herbs from Sym, so it’d be normal to consider it pretty luxurious.”

“Yeah. But I want the folks from the post town and the forest’s edge to eat it, not the nobles. It was a dish the people close to me ate back in my home country,” I replied, shooting Yumi a smile. “I’m a commoner to begin with, so the cooking I make is all aimed toward ordinary folks. But it seems that if I do use the expensive stuff, I can satisfy the nobles of Genos with my cooking, so we somehow came to an agreement, and I want to give the job my all.”

“Right. No matter what sort of dish you’re making, you always seem to put just as much effort into it.”

“I guess that’s true. I just try to think about what sort of dish will make the person eating it happy.”

There were dishes out there that were suitable for nobles. And the same was true for the folks from the post town and the people of the forest’s edge too. I was just trying to pick the dishes that would make them happiest out of my repertoire.

“I’m sorry for going off on you there... I just was a bit annoyed at the thought that you would be working harder than usual for nobles.”

“Nothing’s changed on my end. No matter who I’m dealing with, I always give it everything I’ve got.”

“Yeah, I’m relieved... But you’d better not end up a personal chef to some noble, okay?”

“Ah ha ha, I’ve got no interest in anything like that.”

No matter how many coins I might be offered, I definitely wouldn’t choose that path. After all, my home was at the forest’s edge now.

“That’s all, sorry for taking so much of your time. I’ll stop by again tomorrow, so please tell me what people said about the giba curry then.”

With that, my trip around the inns came to an end, and it was finally time to head back to everyone else.