Saikyoukantei 15: Lunch is a simple ‘Other’ Rice Bowl

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Saikyō no kantei-shi tte dare no koto?~ Manpuku gohan de i sekai seikatsu ~
Author: Minatose Tsukasa
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Lunch is a simple ‘Other’ Rice Bowl

A/n: It’s bigfrog meat and chicken eggs, so it’s an other rice bowl (serious face)
^{<t/n: an ‘oyako-don’ (parent-child bowl) is chicken and egg over rice, hence the parent(chicken) and child (egg). A ‘tanin-don’ (other person bowl) is a play on ‘oyako-don’ by subbing the chicken out for other meat. So it’s basically an ‘unrelated people’ bowl.>}

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“Now then, let’s all make lunch together.”

“ “Yessir!!” “

An energetic response came from the kitchen. They had spent the morning deep-cleaning the base, but these are boys who train with the goal to become treasure hunters every day. They moved three times more than Yuri, but not a single one of them are tired. Furthermore, everyone said that Yuri shouldn’t push himself, so he had cleaned slowly and leisurely at his own pace.

Furthermore, the reason for their consideration was all for this moment. They couldn’t have Yuri exhausted when it came time to make lunch. Yack remembered it well. How to make easy, delicious food. Therefore, all of the apprentices lined up in front of Yuri, giving him a good response.

“There aren’t that many people, so today’s lunch will be, let’s do other rice bowls.”

“Other rice bowl?”

“U-m, let’s see, it’s a dish where meat is simmered in a salty-sweet flavored broth, with beaten eggs added to the broth, and it’s eaten after placing it on rice. How about including a vegetable soup with that?”
^{<t/n: tamago toji – ‘egg-binding’, where beaten eggs are added to a simmered dish and cooked until hardened, ‘binding’ the other ingredients together>}

“… Is that delicious?”

“Personally, I think it’s a dish that I’d recommend that goes with rice?”

“ “Alriiiight!!!” “

When Yuri tilted his head and replied, there was great excitement. They were terrifyingly delighted. They had already understood that the food Yuri makes is delicious. And the croquettes he had recommended were truly delicious. It’s what that Yuri recommended as a dish that goes with rice, so it’s definite that it’s delicious. All of the boys were in agreement.

They waited for Yuri’s instructions. With a feeling like, hurry and teach us what to do. Now, Yuri was thinking that he’d have each of them make their own portions while helping. … There’s a moderately sized frying pan that’s just about right, and he thought they could egg-bind a single person’s portion with that. That said, it will be difficult for them since they aren’t familiar with the flavor, so Yuri decided to simmer the meat in a different frying pan.
^{<t/n: it’s usually made by simmering meat in broth then directly pouring the beaten egg over it.>}

“Then we should make the soup first I guess. Yack, can you boil the bones like the other day?”

“Roger -”

“… Hey, Yuri. What’s up with those bones?”

“They’re bones I got that were left over from the butchering at a meat vendors. You can get stock from bones, which increases the umami.”

“ “ Eeeeh?!” “

Leaving the shocked boys alone, Yack tossed the bones into the pot. Stock is necessary for imparting umami into vegetable soup. Therefore he went to get bones from where the meat vendors discard the animal bones. And it’s even free. And for the vendors, he’s just picking up their trash, so it’s win-win for everyone.

As that was being done, Yuri took out another pot. He’d filled it with water in, and there was a green object that no one had seen before in it. The boys didn’t know what that floppy something was. However for Yuri, it was an extremely familiar ingredient. … It’s konbu-san, which is very useful for making stock.

Yuri discovered this konbu lined up in the corner of the dried goods in the fish vendor’s, and he bought it. There’s no concept of extracting stock from konbu in this area, so it seems to be a mysterious product with no use. Even the fish vendor’s owner just bought it together with the other items when he replenished his dried goods, and doesn’t know anything about it. … If the fishermen gave a proper explanation, wouldn’t the wonder of konbu dashi spread beyond just port cities? – Yuri thought seriously.

Now, he poured the soup from the pot with the konbu into a deep frying pan. He poured until the frying pan was half full, and also put in several pieces of the konbu, and heated it up. Giving it a sideglance, Yuri picked up an onion.

“Does everyone know how to peel onions?”

“An? You’re done after peeling off the brown parts, right?”

“Un. Then remove the top and bottom, remove the brown parts, cut it in half, and remove the core, okay?”

“ “… … core?” “

They had never heard of removing the core. The core of the onions they had hwere still white, so it didn’t seem to do any harm. However, Yuri always removes the core. That is the part the sprout eventually sprouts from. For some reason he doesn’t eat it. It’s not like it’s poisonous, but it has a different texture, so Yuri tosses it out without hesitation.

And so, the boys imitated him as they watched Yuri’s process. Now, everyone had one onion per person, which was their own portion. Only Yuri had two, because he was making the house-sitting and supervisor Tifana’s portion as well.

Each person sliced the peeled and cored onions to the size they preferred. Yuri prefers to dice them, but the texture isn’t as enjoyable if it’s diced, so he sliced them accordingly. Yack and Urgus’ are slightly larger than those you’d slice for stirfry. Camille’s are about the same size as Yuri’s. … And Mag’s were sliced so, so thin you wondered if they were onion slices or not. The appearance of him silently handling the kitchen knife made him look like some artisan.

Moving on, Yuri took out the bigfrog meat. He cut them into bite-sized, slanted pieces. The reason for cutting them into slanted pieces is to increase the amount of surface area for the flavor to soak in and heat to permeate quickly. Yuri cut a little more than he imagined necessary for the amount of people and checked the simmering konbu stock soup. … Of course he took the konbu out before it boiled.

“The flavoring will be soy sauce, sake, and sugar for a little sweetness.”

“Okay. Why are we using soup that had konbu(?) in it?”

“You see, you can get a lot of stock out of konbu, compared to other seaweed. Furthermore, just the presence of stock will make it very delicious, see? To test it out, try tasting this soup that’s just konbu stock? And compare it to normal hot water?”

Yuri dished up four peoples’ portions of the konbu soup into small dishes used for tasting. And the four people drank the offered soup that only had a very faint color of konbu. … When they drank it their eyes widened in surprise. Because even though there was no salt or soy sauce in it, it had a flavor.

“Eh? Why? It tastes of something.”

“Uwah-, even though it’s hot water, it’s good-”

“It has a different flavor from the animal bones, ne.”

“… … delicious.”

“ “ Mag spoke?!” “

“… … Eh? Does Mag usually not speak?”

Seeing the three boys making a fuss, going, ‘No way, Mag actually-’, this time it was Yuri’s eyes that became dots. Mag fundamentally doesn’t speak, and his bangs cover his eyes as well, so you can’t see his expression at all. However he’s the type that’s careful with his work and does the work given to him meticulously. … Everyone was surprised to hear words from that Mag’s mouth, muttered as they were.

Well, it’s fine; while thinking that, Yuri put seasonings in the konbu soup that was in the frying pan. Adding sake, soy sauce, and sugar and boiling it down, it made the salty-sweet flavor of rice bowl sauce. After getting the flavor down, he put in the slant cut bigfrog meat. He left it to simmer down.

Leaving the four people staring earnestly at that frying pan, he quickly diced up the onions. He was thinking he’d dice the carrots up the same way, but he reconsidered, thinking that it would be more interesting if they were cut differently, so he cut them into half moons. Finally he cut the potatoes into bite-sized pieces, then peered into the pot the animal bones were boiling in. … It looks like a good stock.

With a practiced hand Yuri plucked out the bones and transferred them to a bowl, checked the flavor of the soup, nimbly added salt, pepper, and herbs, and adjusted the base of the flavor of the soup. The main dish is the salty-sweet other rice bowl, so the soup will be a little light to draw out the umami of the vegetables. Once the flavor was adjusted, the vegetables went in, and it was simmered on medium-low heat. Once the vegetables’ umami seeps out, the soup will likely take on a gentle flavor.

“Isn’t the meat done?”

“The color’s changed.”

“Then shall we taste it?”

So saying, Yuri took out two larger pieces of meat and divided them into five portions, putting them in a tasting dish. He brought them to everyone’s mouths one after another, and everyone except for Yuri raised their voices in delight. Yuri checked the texture of the bigfrog meat that had been softened by the sake in the sauce and how the flavor had soaked in. … If he didn’t know, it had a texture and flavor where he would think it was chicken breast.

However, the umami is intense. It was even more delectable than the ‘raised for consumption’ livestock that Yuri knew. Certainly, the texture and flavor are similar to the meat of bred animals. It’s similar, but the umami is vastly different. So this is monster meat, Yuri thought. He thought that since the ingredients are delicious, it would probably be delicious even if cooked simply.

“Okay, shall we make other rice balls~? First, serve rice in the bowls.”

In this world, there are rice cookers among the magical tools that run on magic stones. Naturally, this base also has them. By Yuri’s reckoning, this rice cooker is a 1 sho (1.8L) cooker, and there are even two of them. … Well, if all 20 members were to eat together, it might not be enough, though. Anyway, Yuri dished out the freshly cooked rice into deep dishes. Naturally, since meat and eggs were going to go on top, he didn’t put too much.

“Put a single portions meat and soup in this smaller frying pan. Then add onions and simmer the onions until cooked.”

First Yuri made his own portion, ladling meat and soup into the frying pan, adding the cut onions and heating it. When it had boiled, he cracked the egg in two and beat it with his chopsticks. They dumbfounded as he beat the egg with a satisfying clacking sound, but Yuri didn’t notice.

“Once the onions are cooked, pour in the beaten egg and simmer. … Well, as for how long to simmer it, to your own preference I guess? I prefer the whites of the eggs to be cooked through.”

Smiling happily, Yuri poured the finished egg-bound dish on top of the rice in the deep plate. Syrupy egg and the meat and onions peeking through it. Not to mention you can see the salty-sweet sauce soaking into the rice. Everyone gulped.

“Okay, each of you try making it the way I showed you?”

“ “Okay!” “

Then, without any major mistakes, everyone finished their other rice bowls. Of course, Yuri made and provided a portion for Tifana, who had entered the dining hall at some point. Vegetable soup with somewhat syrupy onion and the tempting egg on the other rice bowl. The moment after both of them were served up and everyone made to eat, Yuri took that action.

“Itadakimasu.”
^{<t/n: ‘I shall partake’>}

Bringing both hands together, he quietly gave his thanks for the blessing of the food. It’s a custom that’s natural to the Japanese. However, for people in a different country, it’s a strange action. … There are plenty of prayers lifted to the gods before meals, but it didn’t have that sort of meaning, and there were very few people who understood the thanks contained within the uttered, “itadakimasu.” Furthermore, this is another world, so everyone watched Yuri, mystified.

Realizing this, Yuri smiled lightly and told them.

“It’s the custom of my homeland. It means being grateful for the ingredients and the people who made them.”

“Then let’s do the some. Is this right?”

“Yes.”

“… Then, itadakimasu.”

“ “Itadakimasu!!” “

At the gently smiling Tifana’s words, the boys followed along. Then, everyone began to eat with a ferocious vigor. The boys can’t say anything but, ‘Delicious.’ Perhaps Tifana had a feminine interest in food preparation; she sat next to Yuri and asked about the details. After hearing about it, she widened her eyes in surprise.

“Even though it’s this delicious, the process is very simple, isn’t it? And you can mass produce it.”

“That’s right. In my hometown, rice bowls were served to laborers since the olden days, after all. It’s supposed to be fast, delicious, and easy to eat.”

“… … I think they’d be thrilled if you taught this dish to a restaurant.”

“You think so? I’d be happy if I could help.”

Tifana laughed as if troubled as Yuri laughed lightly and ate his other rice bowl. She tilted her head, mystified, as she smiled gently, thinking that Yuri really is someone with no greed. To him this was just lunch. But according to Tifana’s senses, he could make a lot by teaching this dish and receiving a fee. However, Yuri has no such intention.

Rather, if he was asked to teach them, he’d teach them normally, and that would be the end of the matter. After all, it wasn’t invented by Yuri. Also, he has no concept of teaching a recipe for a fee. He’s just a normal male high schooler (although an otomen), and he hasn’t thought of it.

Shall we go to a restaurant together next time? When she invited him, Yuri nodded his head normally, and the boys made envious faces, but he didn’t realize it at all.

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A/n: The method for cooking is how Yuri’s house makes it, so there may be differences in opinion…

Also, this world as no concept of stock. Therefore, they’re like, “What do you do with that?” when it comes to konbu.

I am awaiting your opinions and impressions.

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<t/n: (2/2) Apologies for the delay, some real-life things have been going on.

I’ve never thought that my ability to cook would actually be kind of necessary in translations, but here we are. Is umami common enough now that I don’t have to translate it? >