Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 5 - Chapter SS2

Fruits & Vegetables

Aria

A layered vegetable resembling a bulb onion in appearance, but lacking the eye-burning chemicals contained in onions. It is vibrantly green in color both inside and out. When cooked for only a short time, it has a crisp crunchiness and very little flavor. Heating for around 20 minutes will cause it to soften and become sweeter. It is a common ingredient in a wide variety of dishes because it is cheap and provides all the nutrition one would need from a vegetable.

Chatchi

A fruit with an outer layer like a yellow-skinned orange, beneath which is a fleshy lump with the taste and texture of a sweet potato. When cooked thoroughly, it breaks down into soft chunks, somewhat resembling mashed potatoes. If not fully cooked, the core will remain solid and crunchy.

Fuwano

A grain used to make a sort of soft but dense flatbread, which can be wrapped, molded, and stuck together to make a meat bun, burrito, or pot pie-like dish. Does not keep as well as poitan.

Gigo

A plant that grows massive tubers over two meters in length. Has a flavor that has charitably been described as “mellow” or alternatively as “boring.” It breaks down when boiled to make a thick stew, and while it has little taste of its own, it can also suppress the unpleasant taste and texture of poitan. When added to baked poitan, the resulting bread is softer and fluffier, somewhat more closely resembling a yeast bread.

Lilo

An herb that is used along with pico to make smoked giba jerky. It has a potent aroma that effectively covers up the stink of raw giba meat, and is sometimes used to make the meat more palatable.

Myamuu

A vegetable that grows in long, thin, green stalks. Cannot be eaten raw, as it is excessively spicy, but this is lost when it is cooked. When properly prepared, tastes like a cross between garlic and a bit of cilantro. It does not smell as strongly as garlic, though. Can be cut up and mashed into a paste that works well as an ingredient in a wide variety of sauces and marinades.

Pico

When pico leaves are dried, they turn black and crumble into a coarse powder easily. This powder is used as an extraordinarily effective preservative for giba meat, drawing out moisture and preventing the onset of decay. When submerged in pico, giba meat will last up to three weeks, even in the hot and humid conditions at the forest’s edge. If properly maintained by stirring regularly, a batch of pico will remain effective for up to a month before needing to be replaced. Pico is slightly spicy, and can be used as a seasoning like pepper. Along with lilo, it can also be used to make smoked giba jerky.

Poitan

A poitan resembles a potato in size and shape, but in actuality it is an immense grain berry, and provides all of a person’s dietary needs for grain. It dissolves readily in water, creating a broth that tastes like raw flour, requiring ingredients with very strong tastes to cover it up enough to make a palatable soup.

Though it is a grain, its tendency to agglutinate is very weak. In order to produce anything that even resembles bread out of it, a specific procedure must be followed. First, the poitan must be heated in a proportionately small amount of water until is dissolved, in order to make a thick, mushy broth. This must be further heated to the point of almost burning in order to reduce the water content, until it becomes a sort of batter. Drying this batter under sunlight will finally produce a dense flatbread that easily pulls apart, but is at least strong enough to make a sandwich with. A small amount of gigo can be added during the heating process to make this flatbread a little softer and fluffier.

Pula

A green vegetable shaped like a ginkgo leaf, but with thickness to it. It is bitter, but if cut into small pieces it can pleasantly accent other tastes.

Romu

A medicinal herb, with pitch-black leaves shaped like those of a maple tree. Reduces pain and fever. A single leaf made into a tea is an effective dose for an adult.

Tarapa

A red fruit about as big as a small pumpkin, with a similar ribbed skin and internal structure. It has a tomato-like flavor, though with a somewhat stronger sourness when raw. When combined with aria, pico, and fruit wine for sweetness, it produces a strong tomato stew that can even overcome the flouriness of poitan. A sort of ketchup can also be made from it.

Tino

A large green vegetable that looks like a rose made of cabbage or lettuce leaves. It has very little flavor, but can be used as a garnish, or to add a pleasant bit of fresh crispness to a chewing experience.

Zozo

A strongly aromatic plant that looks like a coiling beehive. It is not medicinal, but smells like medicine. The people of the forest’s edge use it as a soup ingredient to cover up the smell of giba meat, while the townsfolk make it into a tea. Zozo tea is mildly bitter, but smooth and pleasant to drink.