Chapter 153 -- Minced Meat Dishes And After-Dinner Desserts
"Sorry to keep you waiting . " I apologised straight away, knowing it wouldn't help but I'm Japanese so . . .
"Where were you?" Fer grumped .
"You're late again . " Dora-chan chimed in .
"Sorry sorry . I'll make dinner straight away . " The only apology those two would accept was food-shaped and came in a large bowl . Bowls . Right then, I had lots of Orc General and Bloody Horn Bull minced meat to hand thanks to the Mithril mincer Sui-chan had made for me so that was a start . What could I make that was quick and easy, well, how about filled omelettes? Melted cheese and aubergines would be good to go along with the minced meat too, I could alternate the two dishes . Yosh, let's get started . I opened up Net Super and started off buying onions, ketchup, cheese and meat sauce in cans before I switched over to the cookware section and bought some extra-large dinner plates .
I decided to make a simple omelette straight away and serve it quickly to my contracted monsters since they seemed a bit impatient . Chop some onions, fry in a frying pan with oil until they turn translucent, add the Orc General and Bloody Horn Bull minced meat and stir-fry them together after sprinkling some salt and pepper and adding some soy sauce and sugar, not too much . Once the meat was done I put it to one side to cool a little .
Now for the eggs . I melted butter in a hot frying pan, cracked in the eggs and coddled them around until they were starting to solidify then dumped in the minced meat on top . I got one of the large plates, used it to cover the frying pan then flipped it over and hey presto! One large, actually oversized minced meat omelette ready to eat .
"Yup, that looks good . " I muttered, starting on the next two omelettes . I'd need three omelettes, topped with ketchup (of course!) and having the Black Magic Cooking Stove with its four really strong burners was a life-saver . I could only make two omelettes at a time though since stir-frying the meat used up one burner and cooking the eggs another . I had cooked a lot more meat into the omelettes than I would normally do for myself because, well I knew my contracted monsters really liked meat . I added the ketchup and put the oversized plates down for them and started on the next round of omelettes while they ate .
"Here, eat this while I make some more food . " I said, turning back to the stove .
"Eggs and meat, huh? This is pretty tasty . " Fer mumbled telepathically, his muzzle stuck deep into the omelette . Why did he have to mumble? I wondered as I worked on the next dish . Okay, his mouth is full but he's using telepathy . . .
"Ohhh, the eggs are runny and not overcooked . " Dora-chan added .
"Eggs and meat, it's delicious-" Sui-chan said .
Everyone seemed to like the omelettes . For the next round I made minced meat with aubergines and topped with melted cheese . I started by peeling and halving the aubergines before frying Orc General and Bloody Horn Bull meat with a little salt and pepper . When the meat browned I added the aubergines and topped it all with meat sauce . I had to be careful, the sauce was quite strongly flavoured so I added it bit by bit and tasted it frequently as I stirred it into the mixture . When it was cooked I put the meat and aubergines into a large baking pan, sprinkled the top thickly with grated cheese and put it into the stove's oven . I judged it was ready when the baked cheese turned a light brown and then I took it out and served it onto three plates, just as the three gluttons finished their omelettes . I was getting better at this, I mused . Timing is important in cooking, of course .
"Here you are, be careful because it's hot . " I warned them, a little too late in Dora-chan's case . Straight out of the oven the melted cheese was like napalm .
"Hot hot hot . . . huff huff, oh yeah, this is tasty . . . " He was blowing on the dish and then eating a mouthful, blowing and eating, in too much of a hurry to let it cool down a little but it was the sort of dish that tasted better when it was hot . There was a sudden gust of cold air from somewhere . What? I looked around and saw Fer using his Wind magic to cool his own serving of baked cheese over minced meat . That was one way to do it, I supposed .
"This will do nicely . " Fer commented as he stuck his muzzle deep into the dish . "Ah, still hot . . . but it's delicious anyway . "
Sui-chan only waited a few moments for her own serving to cool a little before ingesting her helping . It seemed she could deal with the hot food better than the other two which surprised me a little . Slimes were water creatures after all, weren't they?
"It's delicious because it's sticky hot . " Sui-chan said . "So much meat, that's delicious too-" Sui-chan really likes cheese, of course .
Oh, I mustn't stop now, time to make more oversized omelettes for the next serving . After that I made more minced meat topped with grilled cheese, more omelettes and more minced meat then more omelettes then . . . finally everyone's dinner was over . Well, apart from my own dinner, a mouthful or two snatched between cooking """Seconds""" for the other three as usual . I had nearly finished eating when-
"Hey hey Aruji, is it time for Sui's reward yet-?" Sui-chan asked hopefully .
"Oh, wait a minute . " I said, swallowing my final mouthful of minced meat and grilled aubergines .
"Nuuu, what's this about a reward?" Fer asked suspiciously .
"A reward, huh?" Dora-chan chimed in .
"Ah, well you see . . . " I started to explain but Fer and Dora-chan crowded me .
"So, this reward for Sui?" Fer pressed in .
"Yeah, what's it for?" Dora-chan was hovering right in front of my face .
"C'mon guys, you're too close . " I said as I pushed them back . "Y'see, I had Sui-chan make a cooking item for me earlier and I figured she deserves a reward for doing it . " As I explained I saw the expressions on Fer and Dora-chan's faces and swiftly changed gears . "Of course I'll give you two the same thing as well, OK?"
"So what kind of a reward is it?" Fer asked, his ears pricking up .
"Yeah, like the big guy said, whatizzit?" Dora-chan added, buzzing around my head even more furiously .
"It's cake . " I answered .
"Cake, is that the white, fluffy sweet thing you offer to Ninril-sama?" Fer asked, licking his muzzle . Thinking about it, I'd given Fer cakes and baked sweets before and he'd enjoyed them, things like anpan and choco cornets .
"Yeah, you know I have a skill to get stuff from another world, right? I got a level up in that skill and it lets me order even more delicious cakes and sweet things than I could get before . " I explained .
"Oh really?" Fer was definitely interested now .
"Sui-chan deserves something for making the cooking item for me and this is the perfect reward since she loves sweet things . Don't worry, there will be some for Fer and Dora-chan too of course . "
"Hummm, I wasn't worried . " Fer lied . Of course you weren't worried that something might escape your big stomach, Fer . Riiiight .
So, to business . I opened Net Super and selected the new Sanke store menu option . Let's see, which should I choose . . . well, it's a bit common perhaps but I couldn't resist the strawberry shortcake . Next, ohhh, they were holding a limited-time Matcha Fair, all sorts of cakes and sweets made with green tea flavourings . I was tempted but I knew Sui-chan didn't like bitter things so I moved on . The white chocolate cake, ohhh, and the blueberry tart too, yup that looked delicious and of course Sanke's signature dish, their world-famous custard pudding . I went back and added some matcha shortcake for myself as an afterthought since why should I do without? That would be sufficient, I decided and fed coins into the Net Super screen . A few seconds later a cardboard box appeared as usual .
I opened the box with some difficulty as all three of my contracted monsters were getting in the way to see what they were getting . Inside was another box with the cakes and pudding, carefully surrounded with cold-packs to keep them cold and fresh . I took out the cakes and put them on plates then unsealed the pudding which came in its own little tubs and put it out on a plate too . It got broken up a little but I figured that wouldn't affect the taste .
"Here you go . " I said, putting the dishes down for the Impatient Trio .
"Umu . " Fer eyed the dishes, obviously trying to decide which of the cakes to sample first .
"Oh, so this is cake? Lemme see what it tastes like . . . " Dora-chan had never eaten cake before, had he?
"Hooray-" Sui-chan had eaten cake before and was very happy, it seemed, to be given the chance to eat more .
After a few seconds of sampling the cakes and pudding . . .
"Umu, what's this really delicious thing that has red fruit on top of the white filling?" Fer mumbled . So Fer's favourite was the strawberry shortcake?
"W- w- what's this?! The wobbly stuff, it's sooo yummy . Gimme some more!" Oh, Dora-chan seems to really really like the pudding . I dished out more pudding to him but I expected he'd be satisfied with only one extra helping . Three servings would probably be too much for the Pixie Dragon . Probably .
"The cake I'm eating is sweet and delicious-! More, more, Sui wants to eat lots of it-!" Yeah, Sui-chan really likes sweet things . I put out one more serving of cake for her but that would be all, I decided . There would be other opportunities to indulge her sweet . . . uh, she didn't have teeth, her sweet . . . ummm, I gave up and turned my attention to my own dessert, a green tea shortcake from Sanke's limited-time Matcha Fair event . I needed coffee to go with this, black of course . I pondered just making it with instant coffee granules but black coffee? Nah . I opened up Net Super again and searched for . . . ah yes, here it is, drip-bag coffee . I selected an assortment pack and fed more coins into the Net Super interface to purchase it .
It's great there are such convenient things like drip-bag coffee now . When I want to drink black coffee it's so easy and quick to prepare, just follow the instructions on the side of the box and I couldn't go wrong . I positioned the drip-bag across the mouth of my cup using its little origami folding handles then I took hot water from my Item Box and slowly, sloooowly poured the water through the drip-bag, letting the dark coffee collect in the cup below . The smell of freshly-brewed coffee filled my nostrils with a comforting aroma . Wonderful . I took a first sip, oh yes, definitely more flavourful than instant coffee .
I bit into my matcha shortcake . It's an adult taste, bittersweet . I sipped more coffee, delicious, then another bite of the cake . Yosh, coffee goes so well with matcha sweets, doesn't it? I settled back to relax . . .
"Hey you, gimme more wobbly stuff!"
"Aruji-, Sui wants to eat more cake!"
Dora-chan and Sui, can't you be a little quieter, please? It seems Dora-chan had become addicted to pudding and Sui-chan's consumption of sweet things was making her somewhat hyperactive and demanding .
Speaking of sweet things and demanding behaviour reminded me of someone . . . Ah, Deplorable Goddess-sama . Oh dear . I wouldn't be able to keep the Sanke tenant store a secret and I was going to get pestered unmercifully by her when she found out . Ah, what a pain . The pleasures of matcha shortcake and drip-bag coffee turned to ashes in my mouth .
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