Chapter 4: The Rutim Banquet (Part 1)
1
Dawn broke, and the day arrived at last.
That is, the day of my first job, handling Gazraan Rutim and Ama Min’s wedding banquet.
“Hey... What, you’re up already?”
When I awoke in the vacant Ruu house, Ai Fa was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the room, doing up her long blonde hair with both hands.
“So you’re up as well? It’s still too early to start working. You can go ahead and sleep longer.”
“No, I’m the type that can’t go back to sleep once I’m up. And I don’t seem to be feeling tired at all, anyway,” I said while giving a stretch.
Sure seemed like a nice morning. And I was feeling great, too.
“The banquet will last till midnight. You won’t have any time to rest between midday and then, so you should sleep a little more now.”
Huh? She’s being unusually kind there, isn’t she? Was she worrying about me, because I took on this huge job?
At any rate, I sure was having a happy start to my day.
“It’s fine. It’ll be nothing compared to these last five days. After all, now I just need to put all the work I’ve done up till now into motion... Well, that may not be so simple to pull off, though.”
“In that case, you should save your strength. Just rest.”
Hmm? It was starting to feel a bit less like she was just worrying about me, somehow.
“Now that I think of it, aren’t you going to be helping me out today? So in that case, shouldn’t you not have anything to do if I’m not awake?”
Ai Fa didn’t say a word.
“Just where were you planning on heading this early in the morning?”
“...I intended to borrow their bath and cleanse myself before work,” she said, glaring at me with her wildcat-like eyes. “So you just stay asleep.”
“Um... Now that you’ve said that, there won’t be any more unfortunate accidents, right? And hey, do I really look like the sort of guy to repeat that sort of mistake again and again?”
No response.
“Do I?! That sure is disappointing! Alright... If I do something unforgivable and break that taboo again, then you can just follow the customs and take my eyes.”
“What use do I have for those...?”
I refrained from quipping back, “Then do you want me to marry you?” and just silently exited the house alongside Ai Fa.
Now that I thought of it, Ai Fa had intended to leave the Ruu settlement this morning and spend the time till tomorrow morning in her own house. She had said, “As a member of the Fa clan, I am not qualified to participate in a Rutim banquet,” or some such. But I responded, “That’s just ridiculous!” and had her assigned as one of my cooking assistants so that she stayed here.
I couldn’t even stand imagining Ai Fa all alone sipping her handmade giba stew, while Granny Jiba and Rimee Ruu were participating in the banquet.
When I asked Gazraan Rutim about the matter, he just said, “Do as you please, Asuta.” Actually, he had a bit of a dubious look on his face, as if to say he figured that had been the plan from the start. Gazraan Rutim was an innovator who planned to have someone who wasn’t even related to him man the stove for his wedding, so compared to him it was no surprise that Ai Fa would be quite a bit more stubborn and inflexible.
At first Ai Fa was hesitant, but when I passionately insisted, “Please, let me carry out my duty today too, as the one who mans the Fa clan’s stove,” she relented in the end.
And so, that was how we ended up walking side by side to the main Ruu house like this. We just leisurely strolled along through the main plaza, seeing how it was now completely set up for the banquet.
There were now 10 stoves in total set up in the plaza. They were just put together out of white stones, and seemed rather simple in their construction. With the way they were built, heat would escape here and there, so I wouldn’t be able to satisfactorily use different flame strengths, like I had practiced. And so, all the cooking was going to be done in advance in the kitchens of the various houses, and these stoves would just be used to keep everything warm.
There was already a massive wooden stage in front of the main Ruu house that was meant for the bride and groom, and the logs for the ceremonial fire were assembled in the center of the plaza. All of this had been set up by the Ruu women over the last few days.
The plaza was about half the size of a school’s grounds, but once there were 100 people here, it was sure to be plenty bustling and lively. I got excited just thinking about it, and that feeling was only growing stronger.
That many people would be eating my cooking. The thought made me feel proud... and also frightened.
I felt strange and my pulse started to race for a moment, but then I looked over at Ai Fa’s face and calmed back down.
Ai Fa’s expression was the same as always, never changing.
“Hmm... Is it alright if I say something a little weird?”
“I firmly refuse.”
“It really makes me feel at ease, being able to be with you all the time from the morning onward.”
“...Are you saying you want to follow me even to the bath?”
“No! Can we please just get away from that topic already?!”
Ai Fa shrugged her shoulders, which was rather unlike her.
“These five days have been special. Once tomorrow comes, we shall return to our former lifestyle.”
“Yeah. And I mean, I’m plenty happy about that, too.”
As Ai Fa glared at me, her face went ever so slightly red. Honestly, I was feeling pretty embarrassed too, but I still somehow felt like I won.
“But tomorrow that Kamyua Yoshu man shall be coming to visit, right?”
“Ah, now that you mention it, that’s right. Still, just what sort of nerves must that old guy have, to be willing to charge into the forest’s edge all on his own? Seriously, if he screwed up even slightly, Darmu Ruu would’ve cut him down.”
Ai Fa looked like she was thinking something.
“Hmm?”
“Darmu Ruu couldn’t defeat that man.”
Our conversation had somehow taken a rather violent turn so early in the morning.
As we were having this discussion, we detoured around the massive two meter high stage and arrived at the main Ruu house, where we ran into Granny Tito Min coming out of the entrance holding an axe.
“Oh, my, you’re rather early, Asuta and Ai Fa. The girls are all bathing, so feel free to join in if you like, Ai Fa.”
Ai Fa’s glare was drilling a hole through my cheek. I was about to insist, “I swear, I won’t come anywhere near you!” but Granny Tito Min was right there, so I couldn’t.
“You’re heading for the kitchen, right, Asuta? I’m heading out back too, so I’ll lead you there.”
“Thank you. So you’re chopping firewood this early in the day? Ah, sorry... It’s thanks to me burning up so much, isn’t it?”
“That’s for sure. It’s the first time we’ve ever had the firewood run out anywhere near this fast. I chop, and I chop, but I just can’t keep up.”
“I really am sorry.”
“I’m just kidding. It’s all for the sake of your delicious cooking, right?” she said with a wide, gentle grin.
My old man didn’t get along with his family, and my mom’s parents passed away young, so I didn’t have any memories of my grandparents. She was always bright and cheerful, but also had an incredibly composed dignity about her, so I thought that Granny Tito Min really must have been a splendid grandmother.
Granny Tito Min married Granny Jiba’s son and they had Donda Ruu, who then married Mia Lea and they had seven children, and then their eldest son, Jiza Ruu, married Sati Lea Ruu and Kota Ruu was born... In that way, the Ruu bloodline had carried on unbroken.
If the other six get married, I’d sure like to man the stove for their weddings like I am today.
Well, I was certain that dream would never become reality as long as Donda Ruu was clan head and Jiza Ruu was his heir. But over the past five days, I had grown close enough to the members of the Ruu clan that I couldn’t help but hold that dream.
“Well then, I shall borrow your bath,” Ai Fa said while shooting me one last glare, then walked away down the path surrounded by greenery.
I swore in my heart that that was no preface or omen, and I wouldn’t go anywhere near the bath until the women returned.
Knowing nothing of those thoughts of mine, Granny Tito Min said, “Go ahead and use them freely, as you please,” and opened up the doors to the kitchen, pantry, and dissection room.
The custom was a bit of a pain, but I needed to have someone from the house open up each of the doors first thing in the morning. That was how they did things in this settlement, as they didn’t use any locks.
Now then...
The banquet would start in the early evening. That meant I needed to finish all of the cooking before then, but there was only one task I needed to take care of at the moment: the preparations for the new dish I had perfected for today, giba meat and tarapa stew.
I had asked myself how to make poitan delicious as a liquid, and this was the answer I had reached. What I ultimately chose as my partner wasn’t the Japanese yam-esque gigo, but the tomato-like tarapa.
This dish took a good bit longer to cook than my others, so it wasn’t a bad idea to start early. Once I finished it I could just heat it back up for the main event, making it the most fitting dish to take care of first.
To start with, I carried the bag of aria I had set aside yesterday out of the pantry, then diced all of them. Of course, I intended to use them as a sort of pot herb, but it certainly wasn’t normal to be using this many at this step. But since there were going to be 100 people, that meant I needed to use fifty of them.
Even if it was just a wooden plate’s worth per person, I wanted everyone there to eat it. So with that thought in mind, I decided I needed to make four pots filled to the brim with the stuff.
And so, I single-mindedly did nothing but chop away at those pseudo-onions, the aria. I chopped and chopped and kept on chopping. If these had been real onions, I would’ve been crying up a storm by now. But aria didn’t sting the eyes, so I just kept chopping.
10 minutes later I had finished dicing them all, but then I realized something: I didn’t have any pots!
I see. The women were also cleaning up after last night’s dinner while they were bathing. I’d doubt my own sanity if I just said “Oh, so that was it!” and headed off towards the bath, though. But fortunately, I didn’t have to get anywhere near causing such a tragedy, as Reina Ruu soon showed up looking flustered, with wet hair and holding a pot.
“S-Sorry! When I heard that you were already cooking, I hurried up and washed a pot for you to use!”
“Thanks. You really saved me, Reina Ruu.”
Perhaps because she had been in the middle of her bath, her long black hair ran down her back rather than being done up in its usual braids, causing her to look sort of like a different person entirely and catching me off guard. And she was also in a single piece outfit like her mother, which was certainly fresh.
“Ah, s-sorry! I’ve let you see me in such an improper state...” Reina Ruu said, her face turning red even though she was actually showing less skin than usual.
“Um, once we’re done washing them all, we’ll get the rest to you soon, so...”
“Don’t worry. I won’t go anywhere near the bath, no matter what.”
Reina Ruu breathed a sigh of relief, then said, “Well then, excuse me,” and took off running.
I felt a little hurt to see how worried she had been, but at any rate, I lit the stove, heated up the pot, dropped in some giba fat, and then threw in the diced aria. Naturally, since I used fifty of them there was an awful lot, so it took five goes before I had them all fried up. I heated them up till they turned a yellowish brown, then added some fruit wine for flavoring at the end, and finally transferred them to a wooden plate once all the alcohol burned off.
Once I had repeated that process five times, it was time to move on to the meat.
I had 15 kilos each of both shoulder and thigh meat, adding up to 30 kilos in total. That was quite the quantity to handle, too. Anyway, I cut it all up into bite-sized pieces.
Around when I finished with that, another pot came tottering in, held by Rimee Ruu.
“Sorry for the wait! Everyone will bring the other two later!”
“Right, thanks.”
It looked like she had properly finished bathing. Her reddish brown hair looked nice and soft, but she was wearing her usual attire.
“You’re already preparing the stew? I’ll help out, too!”
“Ah, really? In that case, could you go get the tarapa? I believe there should have been eight fresh ones bought just yesterday.”
“Tarapa, right? Got it! Tehehe...”
“Hmm? What is it?”
“Nothing. I was just thinking how glad I am that you’re not a bad person.”
With that, Rimee Ruu took off running into the pantry.
Hmm?
Was she saying that because I was working away this early in the morning?
While thinking it’d be nice if that was what she meant, I started cooking the giba meat.
Just grilling it till it got a bit of color was plenty. I took advantage of the size of the pan and fried up chunks one after another, then secured them on wooden plates once they were done.
It was easy to say, but it was still 30 whole kilos of meat. In no time at all, the whole kitchen was filled with the overwhelming scent of meat and fat.
At any rate, next up was aria, this time meant as a proper ingredient rather than just flavoring. I used fifty for that too, and I just single-mindedly chopped away at them.
In the meantime, thanks to Rimee Ruu’s efforts I ended up with eight tarapa sitting on the stand next to me.
They were like tomatoes that were the size of pumpkins. It had a ribbed shape too, so it really was a lot like a pumpkin. But the color and taste were just like those of a tomato.
At any rate, this vegetable I had previously benched was being tasked with serving as the base for the dish’s flavor.
“That’s a whole lot of aria! Should I cut some too?”
“Ah, before that, I’d like to have you bring out the tino and chatchi. All the ones in bags, if you don’t mind.”
“Got it!”
It may have been early in the morning, but Rimee Ruu was already bursting with energy, earnestness, and adorableness. If she were my daughter or little sister or something, I’m sure she’d be the apple of my eye.
As that thought was running through my head, the remaining sisters and Ai Fa made it to the kitchen, carrying the other pots and utensils. It would seem that I made it through this ordeal without needing to have my eyeballs scooped out.
“Here, we brought them! Geez, my heart started pounding when I heard you had started cooking,” Lala Ruu whispered into my ear.
I gave Reina Ruu an ambiguous smile, since she really had dispatched everyone.
“So you didn’t come visit us today...?” Vina whispered into my ear. She would be beet red if it really happened, so seriously, what was she saying?
“We need to take turns with our mother and the rest, but once that’s over, we’ll come help you out.”
“Thank you, Lala Ruu.”
“They’ll be bathing next. You understand what I’m telling you, right?”
I do, from the depths of my heart.
And hey wait, just what sort of person do you think I am, exactly?
It was then that Rimee Ruu returned with a, “Gah, this is heavy!”
Tino were like slightly larger heads of lettuce, and there were six of them packed in the bag, but Rimee Ruu had managed to carry a metal pot on her own, so it really shouldn’t have been too heavy of a burden for her. It must have just been that it was too bulky and unwieldy to manage with her tiny body.
And man, did she ever look adorable.
“Asuta, sorry for the wait! All that’s left is the chatchi, right?”
“I’ll go get that. How about you help with the cutting, Rimee Ruu?” Ai Fa offered.
“Yeah!”
Ai Fa speedily headed into the pantry, while Rimee Ruu grabbed a knife meant for preparing vegetables from the wall.
The people of the forest’s edge sure were diligent learners. As soon as they grasped the process, things started moving forward incredibly smoothly.
“In that case, shall I leave the tino up to you, Rimee Ruu? You know how big they should be, right?”
“Yeah, bite sized!”
Rimee Ruu happily chopped away with her kitchen knife.
The three older girls put away the utensils and dishes, then exited out the door only for Ai Fa to return with the bag of chatchi in their place.
“This is the chatchi, right? What should I do now?”
“Ah, could you peel the skin off of those, then? You can just do it with your hands.”
Chatchi was a fruit that was like a yellow-skinned orange. When you peeled the skin, though, a slippery white sphere popped out. And so, when Ai Fa put some force into her efforts, sure enough, that slippery little sphere went flying.
After letting out a surprised, “Wah!” Ai Fa then proceeded to kick me in the leg.
“Why are you kicking me?!”
“Oh shut up...”
“Ahaha,” Rimee Ruu laughed.
Before I had even realized it, we were down to just the trio of me, Ai Fa, and Rimee Ruu. There was a nice calm feeling in the air, so I decided to let that unwarranted kick just slide on by.
“Once you’ve finished peeling them, please wash them in water until the sliminess is all gone.”
The chatchi was a new addition I had discovered in the pantry. It clearly looked to be a citrus fruit on the outside, but on the inside it was strikingly similar to a potato. And unlike the poitan which looked just like a potato, this had the exact same sort of taste and texture, too.
After Ai Fa washed them, I split them down the middle, and then chopped them up into roughly three-centimeter sized chunks.
With that, the preparations were finally complete.
Fifty aria, diced up and fried to use for flavoring.
Another fifty aria, cut into wedges.
30 chatchi and six tino, chopped into bite-sized pieces.
30 kilos of giba shoulder and thigh meat, with the surface grilled.
Finally, eight massive tomatoes, the tarapa.
I had to cook all this up before laying hands on that accursed poitan... Or put another way, I needed to use all of these different ingredients in order to conquer it.
This is the best I can manage, as I am now.
Poitan broth was sticky like flour dissolved in water, and was hard to get down.
Seriously, why was poitan such a pain?
My hypothesis was that it was down to a result of lack of seasonings to add flavor.
At the forest’s edge, people only used rock salt, pico leaves, and at most sometimes fruit wine for seasoning. And so, no matter what it just had a bland, mild flavor. I could make a fine stock out of meat and vegetables, but it would be difficult to neutralize the poitan’s peculiar taste with that alone.
It was then that the thought of a stew came to mind. After all, a stew often made use of the stickiness provided by flour.
With the ingredients on hand at the forest’s edge, though, a beef stew or cream stew would just be way too hard to make.
It was then that my attention turned to the strong vegetable taste of the tarapa.
The tarapa was more acidic than the tomatoes I was familiar with, but by using the aria as a pot herb, the fruit wine, and the black pepper-esque pico leaves, I was able to create a flavor that called to mind italian tomato sauce. And so, I decided to use this as a base to create a unique stew all my own.
To be honest, it was like an original combination of the Tsurumi Restaurant’s popular beef stew and tomato simmered hamburger dishes.
“Alright. Please light the remaining stoves, you two. Make it a strong flame, but not too strong.”
As I said that, I eyeballed it out and added about a fourth of the ingredients into each of the heated pots.
Aria in place of onion. Tino in place of cabbage. Chatchi in place of potato. Those were my three main tools.
Once the aria were nice and soft I added in the giba meat and a bottle of fruit wine, filling the kitchen with a sweet aroma. Once it was nice and boiling I scooped away the scum, then poured in plenty of water with a ladle.
I’d estimate that it filled about 80% of the pot.
After I added the water, I regulated it down to a low flame.
It needed two whole hours just to heat half of the total amount we needed.
There wasn’t any bouillon around, so my plan was to get a nice broth out of the ingredients themselves.
I managed to copy the same steps over three of the pots, but then I stopped at the last one.
“Ah, Rimee Ruu, I’m using this fruit wine for a different dish. Sorry, but could you swap it out for a different bottle?”
“Hmm? Huh? Now that you mention it, the container is sort of different.”
That was the container of fruit wine I had received from Kamyua Yoshu a few days ago. I thought I may have a use for it so I had Ai Fa bring it from the house three days ago, but its time to shine was still to come.
When I added in the fruit wine that Rimee Ruu brought me and finished up the final pot, we finally hit our first lull when we could take break.
We all wiped away some sweat, then walked over to the door to cool off.
I still had to scoop scum and occasionally add in some firewood, though, so I couldn’t go far.
“This is amazing. Now you’re using the poitan and even the tarapa. I’ve never seen a giba stew that uses so many vegetables at once before!”
“Yeah, I can see that. Well, today is a celebration, so it’s something special.”
A mulligan stew using all sorts of ingredients, with the giba meat and vegetables that were said to be like a symbol of the life force they obtained from it... And the aria and poitan in particular were said to be indispensable in living a healthy life.
I’m sure that custom was born solely out of them being so cheap, but still... There was no need to pointlessly bend a tradition that had existed for 80 years now. Even if those ingredients were hard to stomach, you just had to cook them in a way that made them easy to eat.
I had also thought up the idea of heating the poitan up and then grilling it rather than boiling it, but it was possible that there were folks out there who would only eat it as a liquid, and would see it as nothing but an oddity when it was in solid form. I racked my brains over what to do for those people, but then Granny Jiba and Donda Ruu’s words that heating everything together was like a symbol of their life force gave me the revelation I needed to arrive at this giba meat and tarapa stew.
Currently, I was heating the meat and vegetables up according to the basic outline used for beef stew. Afterwards, I would use boiled tarapa’s flavor as a base to make a tarapa sauce. Then when I added the poitan, it would have the basic appearance of a stew.
Normally I would have fried flour up with butter to make a brown roux, but I couldn’t exactly pull that off here. I mean, I didn’t have any ingredients like butter to start with, and when I tried frying the floury poitan with giba fat, it just sputtered and burned and ended up totally useless.
But still, I was able to achieve that sticky texture just by throwing a raw poitan in, anyway. And that way was more in agreement with the concept of heating everything together.
I couldn’t help but worry if that was too simple of a method, but it turned out well. As long as I didn’t screw up the amount of poitan I added, it really did come out like a proper stew.
This was the result I had arrived at after wringing out every ounce of my ability for five days straight.
And it would serve as what we call the hors d’oeuvre. I’d set up the schedule with the familiar dish first to try to ease the doubts of the guests, even if it might only calm a few of them, before I brought out the more unusual dishes like hamburgers, spare ribs, and baked poitan afterwards.
God only knows what the result would be, though.
“Well, it’s not exactly my usual way of doing things, throwing around such expensive vegetables and making such an elaborate dish... But I decided it was alright because it’s such an important occasion.”
“It should be fine! I mean, it was super yummy! I think this stew may be my favorite out of all the stuff you taught me about, Asuta.”
“I see. Then I guess you’ll have to make it when your big sisters get married.”
“Huh?! You won’t be making it?!”
Rimee Ruu seemed to have taken a great enough blow that it was like I could see the word “stunned” floating over her head.
“No, but I mean, there’s no way that I’ll be allowed to man the stove for a Ruu wedding, right? You’ve really got to consider your dad’s disposition here.”
“Huh?! It’s fine! I mean...” Rimee Ruu started, her innocent little face brimming with the sort of mischief that was rare for her. “Didn’t you see papa Donda’s face after he ate that stew the day before yesterday? He went all ‘guh.’ ‘Guh!’”
“He sure did. I thought he was going to flip over the pot.”
“No, that was the sound of him being surprised at how tasty it was! I’m sure it was him almost letting ‘So good!’ slip out!”
“Really? I never even imagined that.”
“I’m super sure! I just know! So... when I get married, you’ve gotta make it, alright?”
That left me at a loss for words.
I stole a sideways glance, and saw that Ai Fa was just silently staring at the flickering flames of the stove.
As Rimee Ruu looked up at me with expectation sparkling in her eyes, I placed my hand on her little head and said, “Right... When that time comes, I’d definitely like to make it.”
At least if I remained in this world till that day came...
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