Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 8 - Chapter 3.2

2

“And so, I’ve come up with new dishes!”

That night, I wasted no time in having Ai Fa try out my new creations.

Rather than pork kimchi, I made giba chitt, and in place of kimchi stew, I prepared chitt stew. Faced with the bright red meat dish and soup, Ai Fa wore a complex expression on her face.

“Asuta, let me say just one thing.”

“What is it, Ai Fa?”

“I’m well aware of your skills at manning the stove, but... This food appears to have gone rotten.”

“Ah, yeah, I can certainly see that. But it’s alright! Decay and fermentation are totally different. It’s like how fruit wine is sour, and it’s definitely not bad for you!”

“If you say so, then I’m sure it’s true,” Ai Fa replied, but she didn’t really seem to be reaching for her bowl.

There shouldn’t have been any issues in terms of appearance. After all, tarapa is already plenty red, so I felt I just had to worry about the strong sour scent.

And I personally felt that it had come out pretty darn good. I had used sirloin for the giba chitt, and tau oil on top of the pickled chitt as my secret ingredient, then added just a touch more myamuu. As for the vegetables I heated up alongside it, I went with thinly sliced aria and pula cut into strips. Since pula resembled bell peppers, and the garlic chive-esque pepe leaves were already part of the pickled chitt, they added a nice vibrant green to the dish.

As for the chitt stew, I slowly cooked up some cubed shoulder meat and thinly sliced thigh meat, then added enough tau oil to be a main flavor in the dish rather than just a secret ingredient, making for a rich, full flavor. For vegetables, I went with aria and tino. It was a shame that I hadn’t yet found any substitutes for napa cabbage, tofu, or konnyaku noodles, but the stock from the giba meat went so well with the spiciness of the chitt that I honestly couldn’t stop myself from drooling.

“Still, I’m well aware that the people of the forest’s edge tend not to like overly strong flavors, so you probably won’t have built up a tolerance for spiciness and sourness. So I went ahead and prepared normal grilled meat and soup, and this is just for a taste test. But won’t you please give it at least a bite?”

Ai Fa didn’t respond.

“Ah, if you don’t want to that badly, you don’t have to force yourself to eat it...”

“Who said I wouldn’t eat it?” That got her going. She decisively reached for the plate with the chitt stew. But just sniffing it up close was enough to cause her gallant-looking eyebrows to droop listlessly.

“H-Hey, you really don’t need to push yourself. I only made a single person’s worth of each dish to start with, so if it’s too much for you I can finish it all off myself.”

“I told you, it’s fine!”

Ai Fa’s eyebrows raised back up, and she grabbed ahold of her spoon. Then, she scooped up a bit of bright red soup and giba meat and bit down, only for all emotion to vanish from her face, as if she were from Sym.

“What do you think...?”

Ai Fa silently sat down at the plate. Remaining completely expressionless, she chewed away at the contents of her mouth.

I anxiously watched over her while wondering if it was alright, and before long Ai Fa beckoned me over with a single finger. It seemed like a rather rude gesture for her, but I went ahead and scooted over her way, only for a sharp swing to smack me in the back of the head.

“Ow! What are you hitting me—?” I started to complain, only to hold my tongue.

Something was clearly different. Ai Fa was covering her mouth with both hands, her eyes were tearing up, her face had gone bright red, and her legs were fidgeting where she sat.

“Ow! That’s hot! It’s like there’s a fire in my mouth! What in the world did you make me eat?!”

“Ah, er, sorry...”

“Sorry’s not good enough!”

Ai Fa stood up and almost flew over to the water jug next to the stove.

“Ah, Ai Fa, drinking water probably won’t get rid of the spiciness.”

I had heard that to neutralize the spiciness of chili peppers, it was best to go with something full of lactic acid, like a lassi. And from my personal experience, a hot tea was also effective. The habanero fried rice I had once made half as a joke ended up super hot, and so I ended up gulping down warm tea that my childhood friend Reina suggested, and was amazed to find how well it put out the fire in my mouth.

Meanwhile, cold water would not only fail to deal with the spiciness, it could even amplify it. It would bring relief while drinking it, but once that coolness wore off, even more heat would spread throughout your mouth. I didn’t exactly understand the logic behind it, but apparently the spice from peppers wouldn’t dissolve in water, and so it just spread more spiciness throughout your mouth when you tried to rinse it out.

But regardless of all that, my beloved clan head ladled out several scoops of water and gulped them down, collapsed to the floor with relief... and then in no time at all was holding her mouth and twitching her legs again.

“A-Ai Fa, try eating some of this ordinary soup! It’s a little hot, but the giba fat may help wash away the spiciness!”

With that, she came rushing back over my way with incredible speed. However, she didn’t even look at the soup I was pointing to. Instead, with tears in her eyes, she rained down blows upon my head. She may well have been holding back plenty, but she still possessed the strength of a hunter. And so, it honestly felt like my eyes were about to pop out of my head.

Around a minute or so later, my clan head was slumped on the floor breathing heavily, while I leaned against the wall with a mild concussion.

“That’s the first time I thought I was going to die from eating something...”

“I’m seriously sorry, from the depths of my heart...”

After another minute’s worth of rest, we got back to eating dinner.

“I’m going to put a strict ban on the people of the forest’s edge regarding chitt. Thanks to your efforts, a great number of your brethren may have been saved, Ai Fa... Well, I guess I’m the only one who would bring such a thing here anyway, though.”

“Hmph!”

“Ah, I really am sorry. And look! I’ve got meat and soup ready for you, too!”

It was the standard thick slice of sirloin steak coated in fruit wine sauce. As for the soup, it had a mild flavor and was made with tau oil.

As for me, I had the bright red giba chitt and chitt stew sitting in front of me.

I hadn’t imagined I really would end up needing to eat all of it...

My myamuu giba and cubed giba meat stew had received criticism for their overwhelming flavor, but this was the first time I had seen her completely give up on a dish. I was a bit down over having to eat the whole chitt-filled dinner myself, but more than that, I was just plain bummed to have Ai Fa reject my cooking.

Well, I’ve just got to take this as a good learning experience. From here on out, I should make my test dishes in smaller portions, I thought to myself as I sipped on the chitt stew.

It was certainly spicy. But it was tasty, too.

Apparently, incorporating the tau oil had proved a big success. My mouth was of course filled with a spicy heat, but it wasn’t overly sharp, so it didn’t drown out the delicious flavor of the dish.

The tino from the pickled chitt was all mushy and soft, while the fresh tino I added later remained crisp and crunchy. They were the same ingredient but had a completely different feel, and seemed to go rather well together.

I had added a heaping helping of aria, too, but around half of it seemed to have dissolved. However, that helped to provide further depth to the soup, too. Aria really was a wonderful ingredient, and not just for its high nutritional value.

As for the all-important giba meat, I boiled it for around 80% as long as usual, just enough so that the shoulder and thigh meat, which were on the tougher side, still became soft enough by the end. I couldn’t shave down the boiling time any further though, so the dish’s prep time may have been a bit over the time limit needed for serving at The Sledgehammer.

Hmm, which one would be more to the owner’s taste, I wonder... I’m finding it hard to judge which dish is better, honestly.

After giving my mouth a bit of a break by eating some baked poitan, I went ahead and grabbed the plate of giba chitt.

This was also a simple dish designed to make the ingredients in it really shine. I had adjusted the taste a bit with myamuu and tau oil, but I had essentially just sautéed up giba meat and pickled chitt.

I used up a large amount of rib meat when making cubed giba meat stew and myamuu giba, so for the giba chitt, I went with loin meat. That was the softest of the cuts, and I had taken care cutting around the hips where there were the most tendons, so it should have been perfectly suited to such a dish.

At any rate, I went ahead and tossed a bit of giba meat with a heaping helping of aria and chitt into my mouth.

It had a suitable texture, and was plenty tasty, too.

The giba meat had a wonderful presence to it that in no way lost out to the powerful spiciness of the pickled chitt. And the bitterness from the bell pepper-esque pula mixed in here and there provided a real lovely accent.

In terms of seasonings, all we had in the Fa house was rock salt, pico leaves, myamuu, and fruit wine, but a few days ago I got ahold of tau oil, and today I got these chitt seeds. Suddenly, the number of taste variations I could achieve had expanded dramatically, which sort of left my tongue and stomach feeling a bit overwhelmed.

Still, I couldn’t help but feel truly happy.

“Hmm? What is it, Ai Fa?” I asked, as she was tugging on my vest.

Her face was looking a bit frightening again for some reason.

“Give me that.”

“By ‘that,’ do you mean this giba chitt? But it’s just as spicy as that chitt stew.”

“But I still haven’t eaten that dish.”

“Ah, but you really don’t have to go pushing yourself.”

“Just hand it over already.”

The way her brow and nose wrinkled reminded me of a growling wildcat.

And so, having no choice, I held out the plate.

“I’m begging you, just don’t hit me because it’s spicy, alright?”

“So annoying...” Ai Fa muttered, and then glared at the giba chitt as if it was some hated enemy who murdered her parents. After a few more seconds of hesitation, she bit down on the spoonful of meat dyed bright red.

It didn’t take long at all for her to tear up again as she chewed. However, rather than running wild like last time, she instead simply sipped the giba soup.

Then, as she bit into a baked poitan, Ai Fa suddenly muttered with teary eyes, “Hand over that one, too.”

“Huh? The chitt stew? There’s no need for you to punish yourself that much.”

“Stop blathering and just do it.”

Without even being given a chance to argue, the chitt stew was also snatched away from me.

After a few more seconds of hesitation, Ai Fa took a bite of that, too. And sure enough, her eyes were left awfully wet.

“H-Hey, Ai Fa, are you alright?”

“It’s nothing...” she muttered, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. She seriously looked like a small child at the moment. “Alright. I’ll eat half, and so will you.”

“Huuuuuuh?! That’s totally nuts! I’m telling you, you really don’t need to push yourself!”

“I’m doing nothing of the sort. I simply want to eat it.” As she said that, she was biting into a baked poitan to cleanse her palate, which left the statement feeling rather unpersuasive. I mean, I felt sad to have Ai Fa reject my cooking, but I certainly didn’t want her to force herself like this. “What’s with that face...? Are you not going to let me eat it even when I tell you I want to?”

“No, but...”

“I really do want to eat it. When I do, it hurts the inside of my mouth and causes me to tear up, yet I still want more for some reason. It’s like I’ve been hit by some sort of wicked curse,” Ai Fa said, taking another bite of the giba chitt.

Wait, was she not worrying about my feelings, but instead caught up in the addictive nature of spicy foods?

“Ow... Asuta, my lips aren’t swelling, are they?” Ai Fa asked, suddenly bringing her face real close to mine. Her lovely pink lips shone, looking just a bit moist.

“Your lips are just as wonderful as always.”

That earned me a smack to the temple.

“To start with, you just looked to be enjoying it so much that I couldn’t help but want to eat it, too! What troublesome dishes you’ve gone and made!”

“Still, if you really do think it’s tasty, then I’m glad.”

“I honestly can’t tell if it is or not. But I can’t help wanting to eat more.” Then, as she sipped more chitt stew, her eyes teared up and she muttered, “It really does hurt, though...”