Cooking with Wild Game (LN) Volume 1 Chapter 4

The Tiny Guest

Translator: Skythewood

Editor: Deus ex-Machina

「Ugh.」

How many times have I moaned today?

The annoying poitan was rolling right before me.

It was noon, my fifth day in this different world.

Today, after we washed the dishes, took care of the food store and other routine ch.o.r.es, we made jerky.

This might sound a bit unnecessary, but these wasn’t normal jerky, but smoked jerky.

Let me explain further. We used rock salt and pico leaves to knead the surface of the kiba meat, then used the fake rubber leaf (speaking of which, I haven’t confirmed its actual name) to wrap it up. On the third night, we washed off the salt and herbs, and left it to dry til morning. The next morning, we hung the meat on a tree outside the house and lit a fire underneath it. Pico leaves and lilo were burned to smoke it until noon. And smoked kiba jerky was made.

This was the fourth morning of the smoked jerky making process. So Ai Fa didn’t ask me to forage for firewood or herbs, and asked me to smoke kiba meat.

My job was simple, to add firewood and herbs so the fire wouldn’t go out. But I need to watch it for several hours, and it wasn’t a relaxing task. Even so, there wasn’t any incident before noon and I successfully made a large amount of smoked meat.

Ai Fa went to the forest to forage like usual, and I stowed the smoke jerky into the food storage as I waited for her return, ending my job.

I worked until a bit after noon, and Ai Fa permitted me to study the poitan between noon and evening.

During this time, Ai Fa would head into the forest again in order to hunt kiba. Even though there were still piles of kiba meat, but in order to obtain poitan and aria, she had to hunt one kiba every five days. However, I didn’t have any experience with hunting kiba and would just be in the way if I went with her, so I got this period of time to myself.

Ai Fa haven’t hunted any kiba during this five days. Before I came here as a guest, she just needed to hunt one kiba every ten days, and hunting kiba wasn’t an easy task. We got one kiba five days ago (although it’s an accident). Ai Fa said that it would be great if she could hunt one kiba either today or tomorrow.

And next, regarding my challenge.

I was busy with the butchering of the kiba on the first day. In the next four days, I work hard on my study of poitan — But the enemy was tenacious

Simply put, I didn’t know what it was.

This plant probably didn’t exist in my world.

It looks like a potato, although it was a hue lighter than a potato, the texture on its surface and its shape was just like a potato. However, its inside was completely different.

I tried eating it raw, and it was bitter and powdery, completely unsavoury. As it lacked moisture, I suspect that it wasn’t even a plant.

As everyone knows, boiling poitan in water would dissolve it into tasteless muddy water.

I tried adding it into my 『Kiba meat soup』, but there wasn’t any improvements.

However, it seemed to contain nutrients necessary for humans. In the past four days, after we finished the meat and aria, I would add it into the soup before drinking it.

Using the soup from a hot pot to cook gruel should be exciting, but after adding in poitan, the entire pot of soup taste so nasty it felt like a kind of punishment game. Why do we have to drink this mud water? I was in despair.

That was why I was so troubled — I had yet to find a solution up til now.

Ai Fa permitted me to use one poitan a day for my research, but all my experiments ended in failure.

Boiling it in water would turn it into gruel.

Grilling it would turn it powdery and cakey.

It remained the same even if I soaked it in water.

When I fry it with animal oil, it produces a plate of powdery oil.

I even tried crus.h.i.+ng it, frying it without oil, sunning it, I tried everything and still had no idea what to do.

「Ugh—」 I didn’t know how many times I had made that sound.

The next instant, someone hit my head from behind.

「Shut up. Can you be quiet when you are troubled?」

And the one who hit me was of course Ai Fa.

She still haven’t set off into the forest yet, and had been ransacking the storage room until now. But she seemed to have resolved the matter. She was dressed lightly as usual, with just cloth covering her chest and waist as she glared at me with her feet wide apart.

「That hurts. I don’t want to sigh like that either…」

Midway through my sentence, I discovered something under Ai Fa’s armpit. What was that? It seemed to be a bundle of beautifully dyed cloth.

Ai Fa noticed my gaze and spread out one of the cloth.

「These are the cloths my father left behind.」

I see. It was a sleeveless s.h.i.+rt with the front wide open. I should call it a vest. There wasn’t any b.u.t.tons on it, and it had strings at the bottom that could be tied together. The design was simple, and despite the colourful spiral designs, it looks rather fas.h.i.+onable.

「Wah, that’s nice. It suits you」

Even though I said that sincerely, Ai Fa blushed for some reason.

「H-How can I wear this!? I might be the head of the house and a 《kiba hunter》, but I’m still a woman!」

「Ehh? I don’t mean you should just wear this.」

I couldn’t tell if this counted as a vest, but the front was designed to be open, just like the attire Aladdin wore. If she put this on without anything else — No no! That would be a slight against proper customs.

「If you want to wear this, you should put it over the clothes you are wearing right now! And you’re too beautiful for me to think of you as a man…」

「Shut up! I want you to wear this!」

It had been a while since Ai Fa turned so raging mad, and she threw the clothes onto my face.

「Your attire is too prominent! When I’m out there with you, everyone will look at us with suspicious eyes, it’s discomforting!」

Oh, I see. I also felt really prominent with my white attire at the water source in the morning.

And because I didn’t have a change of clothes, I would switch between my t-s.h.i.+rt and chef uniform every day. As for my pants and underwear, I would wash it and then put it on while it was still wet.

But then, it was rather hot here, and the clothes would dry in just a few hours. Even if I didn’t wash my clothes, it would rain heavily all of a sudden and drench me completely. Hence, I have already given up! But because I needed to work in the forest, I couldn’t help feeling down as I watch my white chef uniform getting more and more dirty.

And so, I bowed deeply to my enraged mistress to express my thanks.

「I will accept this gratefully. But this must be important to you, right?」

「… If no one wears it, it will just be rubbish no matter how important it is.」

Ai Fa reached for the knife at her waist with a sour face.

I took a step back involuntarily, but Ai Fa handed that knife together with its sheath to me.

「My father left this behind too.」

On closer inspection, there was another knife on Ai Fa’s waist.

「This knife… Can I really have it?」

「I’m just lending it to you! You always make my knife all oily, it’s troubling for me! If the blade rust because of your negligence, I swear I will cut your ears off!」

「I get it. Thank you. I’m very thankful, I will treasure your late father’s belongings. I promise.」

Ai Fa averted her face unhappily. But she didn’t leave and just sat down beside me heavily.

「… So, have you found a way to turn poitan delicious?」

「I’m stuck at a bottleneck. After all, there wasn’t similar vegetables from the world I was from. Kiba is similar to boars, aria looks like onions, but nothing is close to poitan.」

「In that case, you’re giving up? There’s nothing wrong… with staying this way.」

Ai Fa kept her head turned stubbornly and I looked at her profile from an extremely close distance.

「You’re satisfied with that? I’m not satisfied at all! The 『kiba meat soup』 is getting closer to my ideal, but this thing made all my efforts a waste! I might still be an apprentice, but it trampled on my pride as a chef!」

「…Puraido?」

「Honour, or dignity.」

「I see… Recently, I have been thinking that eating delicious food is better than eating nasty tasting food. But you can’t keep wasting the ingredients.」

「Yes, I know that...」

「These horns and tusks can be exchanged for things other than ingredients. If a knife breaks, it can be used to get new ones. Be it replacing torn clothes or medicine when we’re ill, we will need these to exchange for them.」

Ai Fa touched the necklace on her chest.

「In the past, I just need to hunt one kiba beast every ten days for enough aria and poitan to survive, so I managed to save up some tusks and horns. But from now on, I will need to hunt one kiba every five days. I’m afraid my savings will deplete… in that case, we should cherish the ingredients.」

「I see, but you still agreed to let me use one poitan a day.」

That might be so, but I have already wasted four.

All because I was too useless.

「In that case, let’s not waste this poitan today. I can eat one less, and use it to research…」

「You can’t.」

Ai Fa’s voice was unexpectedly firm, she leaned in close.

「I told you many times, you have to eat two poitan and three aria every day. This is the minimum requirement for the denizens of Forest’s Edge to maintain their health. If you cut down on these, you will fall sick no matter how much kiba meat you eat.」

A blue fire seemed to be burning in Ai Fa’s eyes.

The ethical concept of Forest’s Edge probably didn’t allow people to sacrifice their health for the sake of research.

No — Not just Forest’s Edge. As a chef, I shouldn’t do so either.

If a chef couldn’t manage his own diet well, that would be like a doctor who didn’t pay attention to his-well being or a dye worker who wears white clothes.

Of course I know that...

Chefs have to provide customers with delicious and nutritious meals. No matter how tasty the dish might be, it would be meaningless if it was harmful to the body. However, it was pointless for food to be nutritious if it tastes bad. The objective of a chef was to take care of both these criteria. I didn’t know about other chefs, but my old man and I were chefs that took care of both factors.

And of course, some dishes prioritize the preference of the customers over nutritious value. I myself likes oily tonkotsu ramen.

But I couldn’t do that for normal meals.

We would only eat junk food occasionally, that was why it tastes so good and exhilarating.

Because food contains the nutrition human needs, our body crave for food. However, since humans didn’t live by our instincts, we might have lost this feeling — but even so, we shouldn’t go against this fundamental condition.

Kiba meat really taste great.

I could actually feel that it has the nutrients my body needs.

I could actually feel the nutrients merging into my flesh and blood.

There might be people who would mock me that this was just an illusion, but I was serious about this.

I want to continue making such dishes — Food that could give me such an impression.

I want the people important to me to taste delicious food beneficial to their body.

Eating poitan should be beneficial to the body. Ai Fa is the best proof of that.

Among the people I know, Ai Fa was the strongest and full of life.

If Ai Fa was nourished by the kiba, aria and poitan — then there must be a way to dine on them happily.

Poitan definitely contain nutrients beneficial to the human body…

...Hmm?

Beneficial nutrients?

Necessary for the human body?

Which means—

「I see! I see, so that’s how it is!」

I yelled unconsciously, and grabbed Ai Fa’s shoulders without thinking.

「I thought something was amiss! That something wasn’t there! d.a.m.n, so that’s it…!」

「… Why are you going crazy all of a sudden.」

When the troubled Ai Fa tried to move away I pulled her back my way unconsciously.

「Thanks to you, I found the answer! Ai Fa, you are wonderful!」

I swear all this was done unconsciously.

I hugged Ai Fa’s body unconsciously, holding her slender body that was as tight as a whip.

And of course, my head was. .h.i.t repeatedly a few seconds later, but I was lost in the moment because of my triumph.

Part 2

「Ai Fa I will be challenging a new menu today.」

Even though I announced that after the sun set, Ai Fa just said  「Whatever」 with a sour face.

Was she still holding a grudge for the lapse in my behaviour in the afternoon? Well, my actions was a little overboard — And I would definitely lose the court case if she accused me of s.e.xual hara.s.sment. So it couldn’t be helped if she became suspicious of my character.

「Although the 『kiba meat soup』 isn’t bad, you will still grow tired of eating the same things everyday. Ai Fa, I will give you a big surprise this time, look forward to it.」

「Whatever.」

「… By the way, I wore your father’s clothes right after borrowing it. How do I look? Does it suits me?」

「It doesn’t. Looks funny. I shouldn’t have loaned them to you.」

She was still throwing tantrums.

Nevermind, she will become happy when she eats delicious food.

By the way, it felt impractical to wear just a vest and a cloth around my waist, so I wore my t-s.h.i.+rt under my attire too. It might look a bit weird, but I was afraid of scalding myself when I cook, so I hope everyone could accommodate me. Please treat the white towel wrapped around my head as my standard equipment.

「Let me be frank then. I already prepared the poitan. It used up a lot of firewood, but I will pick more tomorrow, so please don’t mind me.」

Ai Fa was expressionless and silent. She couldn’t be bothered to even answer me.

After beating me up, she headed into the forest like usual. She shouldn’t have seen how I cooked the poitan, wasn’t she curious?

「Never mind, it’s still early, but can I start cooking now? If you aren’t hungry yet, try making yourself hungry.」

Unlike the stoic Ai Fa, I was feeling agitated. Because I was looking forward to challenging this new menu very much.

I plan to challenge grilling meat.

Not just a normal grill, I thought of many different ways of going about it, such as steaming it or grilling teriyaki style. But I wanted to try a dish I’m good at since I verified the poitan’s true ident.i.ty, so I will try the other ways another time.

I have no plans on being a tease. The dish today would be 『Kiba meat hamburg steak』.

Or 『kiba steak』.

I walked to the food store as I hummed, and carried the necessary ingredients to the stove.

Kiba thigh meat and breast meat, 500g each.

Six fake onions, or aria.

Two branches of pico leaves.

Fruit wine.

Rock salt.

And the magical essence obtained from the poitans.

As the essence wasn’t much, I folded a fake rubber leaf as a container for it.

Well then, time to start cooking.

First, I took the thigh meat and cut off about a cm of fat from the top.

It was a bit of a pity, but I needed to use it as frying oil. All the fats on the fur had already been used to make candle, I will make sure to save some for cooking next time.

It has been five days since the butchering, and there wasn’t any sign of decomposition on it at all. The preservation effect of pico leaves were excellent.

Even though the pico leaves were effective, I heard the meat would slowly rot after 15 to 20 days.

By that time, the meat could only be preserved by smoking them. There was still a mountain of meat that I butchered five days ago, and I was troubled every day, wondering if there was a better way to utilize them.

Anyway, time to start cooking.

I started a fire in the stove and diced two aria while I waited for the iron pot to heat up.

After finis.h.i.+ng that, I prepared the meat.

I cut the thigh and breast meat into small pieces, then dice them even further with the kitchen knife.

I started by using Ai Fa’s late father’s knife.

And then with the Santoku knife that represented my old man’s spirit.

Although there was about a kilogram of meat, it was a piece of cake. Hamburg steak was a popular dish in 『Tsurumi restaurant』, and I was already used to this kind of work.

In less than 10 minutes, the kiba minced meat was done.

I turned to look at Ai Fa, and she was looking at me unhappily with the posture of the reclining buddha.

She would usually sit quietly as if to show her respect for the chef. But it seems like her mood was terrible today. Didn’t she have any comment about the kiba meat turning into small pink piles?

Suppressing the unease in my heart, I checked the fire.

I drip one drop of water into the pot, and it vaporized immediately.

It was time.

I threw in a piece of fat, and used a wooden spatula (which I made myself) to spread the fats evenly in the pot. I then threw in the two diced aria.

Unlike a flat saucepan, I couldn’t toss the content of the iron pot. It was a bit tough, but I didn’t give up, and kept stirring the pot with my wooden spatula.

When the colour of the aria changed, I poured in fruit wine.

I stirred carefully until the alcohol evaporates.

After frying the green aria until it turned brown, I s.h.i.+ft it into a container with the spatula.

When we made hamburg steaks in my shop, we would put in a quarter onion for every 200g of minced meat. Adding two whole onions for a kilogram of minced meat was a bit much. But kiba has a strong taste, so adding more aria wouldn’t be a problem.

As I needed to wait for the hot aria to cool down to proceed with the next step, I used the time to cut the remaining aria. I didn’t dice them this time and cut them into thin slices along the grain.

If I want to boil and soften it, I should cut it across the grain. But I want to bring out its texture this time, so I cut it this way.

I cut a total of four aria, and the pieces of aria piled on top of the fake rubber leaf like a small hill… This might be an extravagant wish, but I hope I could get a better container.

As I was bustling around, the aria had cool down. I placed the diced and fried aria and the kiba minced meat onto the fake rubber leaf.

I then sprinkled rock salt and pico leaf — at this moment, the magical essence made its debut.

I poured a certain cream coloured sticky substance onto the pile of meat.

Next, I just needed to mix it well.

After kneading it with my hands for a few minutes, the minced meat turned sticky as expected.

Even though I cut off the fats from the thigh meat earlier, the breast meat still had plenty of fats. Both the tenderness of the minced meat and its l.u.s.ter were impeccable.

Feeling that my triumph was at hand, I felt a chill down my spine.

Brus.h.i.+ng off the meat patty from my palms, I rubbed the excess fats from the kiba onto my palm to prevent the patty from sticking onto them. I will be kneading it into shape next.

If the patty was too big, it would be hard to control the temperature accordingly. I squeezed out about one sixth of the minced meat and kneaded it into an oval. Splat splat splat, I didn’t forget to toss the meat between my hand to push out the air inside.

I made six mini hamburg steak, each was about 160g.

How cute. It was a beautiful pink colour, and I felt like biting it just like that.

Leaving that for now, how’s the fire?

Hmm, it’s a bit too strong. I removed some firewood to adjust.

I could only gauge the intensity of the fire by sight, which was the biggest difficulty in making this dish.

Using strong fire in the beginning and reducing its strength — I couldn’t make accurate adjustments like this, so I had a tough time. But it couldn’t be helped, and I had to use my brain to decide this match. I needed the flexibility and imagination of my brain, followed by my judgement.

I threw in a piece of fat into the iron pot, and waited it to turn crisp and release its oil. After that, I finally put the hamburg steak in.

With a sizzling sound that was music to the ears, an appetizing fragrance filled the house.

As this was a round pot, I had to be careful about not letting the steaks stick together as I placed all six pieces into the pot quickly, and waited a few seconds.

It would be a waste of effort if I failed at this juncture. Paying attention to the change in the smell, I used the wooden spatula to check the heat.

Seemed that there wasn’t any need to weaken the fire earlier. The steaks were about 60% cooked.

But that was better than burning the meat. Even if some juice leaks out, it could serve as part of the sauce. I believe that the kiba juice wasn’t that limited.

After another few seconds, when the heat side turned just the right colour of being cooked, I flipped the steaks.

Well, time to prepare for the next phase — When I backed away, I b.u.mped into an obstacle.

Ai Fa was standing behind me and staring at the iron pot before I realized it.

「Uwah, you scared me! So you’re here, Ai Fa!」

「… Why would I leave my own house?」

「No, that’s not what I mean… Ah, sorry, I need to prepare a few things.」

I went around Ai Fa to grab the bottle of fruit wine, and the fake rubber leaf filled with arias.

I faced the iron pot once again, put down the bottle and checked the colour of the hamburg steak.

The surface was about 80% done, it was about time.

「Be careful Ai Fa, the oil might splash around.」

She didn’t reply, but I didn’t have time to hesitate. I poured the fruit wine into the pot and covered the lid.

Psshh, splat splay, loud dull sound came out.

This was a unique way of cooking 『kiba steak』.

When making hamburg steak, strong fire would be used to grill both sides quickly to prevent the juice from being lost. To cook the inside of the steak completely, it would be grilled slowly over a small fire, or toast the steak in an oven. That was the right way of preparing it.

However, it was impossible for me to use either of these methods, so I opt to steam it. By doing so, I could cook the inside thoroughly before the hamburg steak got burned.

Hence, the patty I kneaded was thin and small.

As I couldn’t tune the heat finely, and I needed to grill the surface of the steak with a strong fire — I had to go through the entire process with a strong flame. I had no choice but to knead the patty smaller and get it done quickly.

But even at this size, I would burn it if I tried to grill the entire steak until it’s completely cooked. In that case, I could only use steaming to accelerate the heating.

It was a simple and logical conclusion.

「Alright, it should be ready now.」

I opened the lid, and the fragrance from the fruit wine burst out instantly.

I tried to split one steak in half with my spatula.

The inside was a beautiful ivory colour, without a shred of red.

「Ai Fa, can you pa.s.s me the plates?」

I focused on keeping the other hamburg steaks from getting burned with my spatula. When Ai Fa heard what I said, she pa.s.sed a wooden plate to me quietly.

I quickly scooped three hamburg steaks into the plate, took a new plate and rescued the remaining three steaks.

「Alright, only the aria is left now.」

The sauce made from the juice from the meat, fats and fruit wine boiled inside the iron pot.

I sprinkled in rock salt, and toss in pico leaves and the slices of aria.

I just need to fry the aria until it turns soft — and the job will be done.

「Ai Fa, pa.s.s the plates back to me for a while.」

When I said that, she pa.s.sed the plates with the steaks back to me again.

Hmm? I was concentrating on the iron pot so I didn’t realize it, but was she holding on to the plates with both hands and waiting for me?

She sure was considerate. Despite how cold she normally acts, I could feel her sincerity and kindness from the things she does.

Leaving that aside for now, back to the topic.

I divided the aria between the two plates, poured sauce over it with a wooden spoon, and the 『kiba steak』 was finished.

「Ah, please sit a while and wait for me.」

I rushed into the food store and took out the poitan I had left there for a long time.

However, I don’t think anyone could tell it was poitan.

Ai Fa stared at the thing on the fake rubber leaf and tilted her head in confusion.

It was a flat, round, cream-coloured object, with signs of being grilled.

If someone from my hometown was to see this object, they might think it was an indian 「nan」, or an 「Okonomiyaki without any toppings」.

It’s true ident.i.ty was a poitan.

「Let’s eat it while it’s hot! I will explain it to you later.」

Part 3

Let me start from the conclusion.

Poitan — should be a type of 「cereal」.

This was my speculation. I didn’t have any means to confirm this.

Anyway, after I made that a.s.sumption, I finally found a way to cook it, and succeeded.

The hint was 「nutritional value」.

It wasn’t complicated at all, a grade schooler should be able to understand.

Kiba meat represented protein and fats.

Aria was a yellowish green vegetable, representing vitamins and fibre.

Then, what about carbohydrates? This question was like a divine revelation.

I wasn’t sure how the body structure of people in this world was. But they looked similar to us, so I could use my common sense to probe this question.

Ai Fa was a healthy girl.

Her skin was beautiful and l.u.s.trous, and her body was like a sculpture, with arms stronger than mine.

Only a balanced diet could build a body like Ai Fa’s.

And Ai Fa eats meat. She also eat vegetables. In that case, it would be unnatural for her to not consume carbohydrates.

Carbohydrates were a source of energy.

Ai Fa’s energy could rival wild beasts, and she was always full of life. Therefore, I was certain she consumes carbohydrates.

「Poitan is a cereal, and a carbohydrate.」

Another factor leading to my conclusion was the poitan’s 「texture」.

When I first ate it, I thought it was 「just like flour water」.

Flour was made from grinding wheat, a type of cereal, into powder. A type of cereal powder.

I didn’t need to grill it, fry it or eat it raw. The answer was before me right from the start.

I should have paid more attention to Forest’s Edge’s food culture. Because 「boiling」 it was the only answer.

Doing so would remove the bitterness of the poitan, and dissolve it in water.

That would make the poitan edible.

But that would just turn it into tasteless mud water. Putting it in a more pleasant way, flour water.

Since that’s flour water, I just need to turn it into flour.

After thinking it through, I started attacking the poitan.

I boiled it with a small amount of water, turning it into sticky and thick poitan juice. I then heat it as much as possible, and when it was about to be burned, the poitan became a slime-like semi liquid state.

I then sunned it for about an hour, and it finally solidified.

I knock it apart and tasted it — it was tasteless and powdery.

As expected, it was similar to 「flour」.

In that case, I will just use it like flour.

My prediction turned true.

I dissolved the powdered poitan into water, and heat it up. It didn’t boil like raw poitan, but started to bubble and solidify, like an Okonomiyaki without any toppings.

I still had some sample on hand, so I tried grilling the semi fluid poitan that wasn’t dried in the sun. However, they wouldn’t solidify at all. After the water evaporates, only burnt powder was left behind.

The key was to dry it completely.

And of course, I didn’t know what kind of changes happened to the molecular arrangement of the poitan, and I didn’t want to know.

Anyway, I found the answer I was after.

And so — I finally conquered poitan, and while I immersed myself in the jubilance of victory, I also felt happy and hyped up. As flour had the 「binding」 property, the 「hamburg steak」 I wanted to challenge in the future was within my grasps.

Binding served to hold the minced meat together.

To do so, egg yolks and bread crumbs were usually used.

And of course, it was possible to make hamburg steak without the binding factor. I heard that adding ingredients to bind the hamburg steak was a culture unique to j.a.pan. There was all kinds of theories, some say 「just adding salt will be enough」 and others say 「there is no need to add anything, just mixing it evenly would be enough」.

Even so, 『Tsurumi restaurant』 would still add binding ingredients. I would always add binding ingredients whenever I cook hamburg steak, so I wasn’t motivated to make this dish all this while.

However, it was another matter if there was binding ingredients.

I could challenge steaming dishes or teriyaki-style dishes whenever I wish, these cooking methods were simpler than boiling.

So I thought, I might as well make a hamburg steak.

Hamburg steak was a type of processed food. It was a meat dish that didn’t retain the original form of the meat. It was a common dish for me, but it would definitely look incredible to the people in this different world.

If I could make a hamburg steak successfully, how surprised would Ai Fa be — When I thought this far, my emotions got hyped up like a girl in love.

After several twists and turns, we started enjoying dinner on the fifth day.

「It might look completely different, but this is poitan. It doesn’t have any taste by itself, so you can tear it into small pieces and eat it together with the meat. You can accept this way of eating it, right?」

Both of us had three small 『kiba steak』 each, with a side of sliced aria and large amount of fruit wine sauce.

And there was also a round grilled poitan, that looked like an okonomiyaki. It was about 30cm across, and 1 cm thick.

「Alright, I’m digging in.」

Ai Fa drew a horizontal line across her mouth with her left finger, mumbled something and then picked up the plate and spoon. She stared at the  『kiba steak』 on her plate with a confused face.

As I peeked at Ai Fa, I cut open the steak with my wooden spoon.

Well, the toughness wasn’t a problem. The opened surface was juicy, it was well made.

But there was a problem with this hamburg steak, whether the ingredients meshes well.

People seldom make hamburg steak with boar meat.

Probably because boar meat wasn’t suited for cooking hamburg steak.

Boar meat was softer than pork, but this property would only surface when 「boiled in water」. I remember the reason was tied to how much fats it have. Anyway, boar meat had the property of turning softer the more it was cooked.

If it was cooked in another way, boar would be cla.s.sified by humans as tough meat.

a.s.suming boar meat was processed and cooked in the right way, it wouldn’t be so tough and be as tender as beef or pork.

Hamburg steak was usually made with beef.

A mixture of pork and beef minced meat was a popular choice for hamburg steak too.

I seldom heard about pork being used to make hamburg steak.

Boars were a similar species to pigs, so the texture of its meat should be similar.

Boar meat was definitely not suited for hamburg steaks — and kiba meat was similar to boar meat. So how would the hamburg steak made from kiba fare? Even if it surprises Ai Fa, would I be satisfied with the results? — It was time to decide the match.

I scooped a spoonful of 『kiba steak』 and sent it into my mouth.

The juice was hot and spread in my mouth, almost scalding me.

My first impression was —「sweet」.

Why was it like this, the meat was sweet and tasty. The unique taste of the meat and the fragrance of the fruit wine spread — I think this dish was delicious.

For a hamburg steak, the texture was rather chewy. I already worked hard to mince it, but it still had such a texture.

But it wasn’t an unpleasant feeling. Instead of being tough, it was closer to being chewy.

And with its bite, more juice would flow out, the freshness and juice spreads in my mouth,

… Oh no.

As expected, I prefer meat with unique taste more than other people.

Be it boar meat, mutton or duck meat, I really like meat with its strong unique flavour.

And so… I really think it was delicious.

I couldn’t judge it objectively.

In short, I felt this dish was delicious!

I sent another piece of meat into my mouth, together with the sliced aria and a large amount of sauce.

Delicious.

Super delicious.

I would probably give the same evaluation if I tasted boar meat hamburg steak.

I actually rated a dish I made so highly. It was embarra.s.sing, but it was really tasty.

If I had to point out a flaw, that would be the thickness of the steak. It would be better for it to be thicker.

Compared to the cooked surface of the steak, the proportion of the juicy part in the middle was too little, this was the only point that dissatisfied me. I tore off some poitan and put it into my mouth, it tastes nice too.

Having rice to eat with this would be the most ideal. Meat needed a sides of vegetables and carbohydrates to complement it after all. Many nations wouldn’t match these food together, but my country and family would do so. I feel that vegetables and carbohydrates were the perfect match for meat. Each of these components was necessary.

It had been a long time since I ate such tasteless carbohydrates.

I could feel my craving for carbohydrates exceeding my imagination.

The grilled poitan wasn’t as soft as bread or naan, and it tasted like okonomiyaki that didn’t have any eggs or toppings. Even so, I felt it was delicious.

One grilled poitan was too little for the three hamburg steak. Because the 『kiba steak』 had a heavy taste, I should be able to eat two pieces of poitan.

Not so long ago, I thought poitan was such a hated existence, and couldn’t help laughing wryly. Someone retorted coldly: 「What are you smiling about?」

Ai Fa finally opened her golden mouth.

This wouldn’t do. I was too engrossed in dinner and didn’t realized Ai Fa’s action.

My appet.i.te was too strong, and I reflected on that a little.