Shomin no Aji - Chapter 648, 649, 650

Exposed!
"Yo, looks like the Idika matter is resolved, huh?"
"Leon-sama... Please don't startle me like that. Also, could you refrain from barging into the kitchen?"
"Sorry, sorry. So, is there something tasty to eat?"

He asked, glancing around. Listen to people when they talk!

"... We're just about to start cooking. Please wait with Otousama in the other room."
"What? I can't be here even though there are foreign royals around?"

No, you can't.

Honestly, having a foreign prince in our kitchen is bad enough, but having our nation's Sacred Beast joining in? That's even worse...

"... Leon-sama?"
"Huh? … Oh."

Prince Kaldor and Tika-san were looking at Leon-sama and me with puzzled expressions.
Oops... In front of them, I was supposed to call him by his alias, Leo.

"Leon... The same name as the Sacred Beast of Doristan Kingdom's founding... And Miss Cristea addressing an ordinary adventurer with -sama... Could it be—"
"N-no way... Are you the Sacred Beast Leon himself?!"

Seeing their astonishment, Leon-sama grinned mischievously, as if his prank had succeeded.

"Busted, huh?"
“"Whaaaaaaaat?!”"

Their shocked exclamations echoed through the kitchen, needless to say.

"… This is just too much."
"Your Highness, this must be a thing in the Doristan Kingdom. Nobles' daughters cook meals and have lunch with the Sacred Beast. It must be a custom."
"Is... is that so?"

No, it's not.

Prince Kaldor glanced at me, and I subtly shook my head.

"Prince Kaldor, the Ellisfeed Ducal House has historically had many ties through marriage with royalty, so we maintain a close relationship with the Sacred Beast Leon-sama."
"Otousama!"

Apparently drawn by the commotion in the kitchen, Otousama arrived.

"No, that’s not what I meant..."
"Isn't that right, Leon-sama?"
"Uh, yeah, that's right. Yeah, exactly."

Wait, he backed down surprisingly easily?

"Well then, Leon-sama, why don't we wait in another room until the dishes are ready?"
"Sure, let's do that. Ojou, take your time cooking."
"Sigh."

As I watched Leon-sama follow Otousama out, I noticed something...
The butler accompanying Otousama was holding several bottles of Otousama's prized collection of rare liquor...
Catnip for cats, fine alcohol for Leon?

It seems Otousama's precious collection has become the noble sacrifice of the day...

"Well, let's get back to work, shall we?"
"Y-yeah."
"R-right..."

I spoke to the dumbstruck Prince Kaldor and Tika-san to get them moving again. Slowly but surely, they snapped out of it.

"There’s a ton I want to ask... but for now, what are we making?"
"Yeah, there’s a lot I’m curious about, but I feel like I’ll regret asking. Let’s just start cooking."

Yes, please keep it that way. It would help me a lot if you didn't ask anything.

"Alright then... Let's start with a simple fried rice."
"Fried rice?"
"Yes. It's similar to a dish made with Lars, where cooked Idika rice is stir-fried."

I asked Head Chef to prepare eggs, chicken, onions, carrots, and other root vegetables.
We need plenty of ingredients to make it filling enough—not just rice.

"If we had side dishes, simple fried rice with just eggs, green onions, and pork (or bacon) would be delicious too."
"We'll use pre-cooked, cooled Idika. The ingredients can be anything, but chop them finely to match the size of the Idika grains as closely as possible."

Following my instructions, Head Chef swiftly chopped the vegetables.
Other cooks removed the chicken skin and diced it into tiny pieces.
Meanwhile, I called Shin over and asked him to start preparing the ingredients for the next dish.

"Heat a frying pan, coat it with oil, and stir-fry the ingredients in the order of what takes longest to cook."

With a sizzle, the finely chopped ingredients danced in the pan as Prince Kaldor and Tika-san watched intently.
Tika-san, in particular, was furiously taking notes without even looking at his paper.
Is he actually writing properly?

"Once the ingredients are cooked, transfer them to a plate. Add more oil, then pour in beaten eggs."

As per my instructions, the chef poured the eggs into the pan, and they began to solidify with a satisfying sizzle.

"While the eggs are still semi-cooked, add the Idika rice and stir to coat the grains with the egg."

Head Chef swiftly grabbed the plate of Idika and poured it into the pan.

"Return the cooked ingredients, mix everything well, and then add soy sauce—ah, this is a Yahatul condiment, but fish sauce works too. Pour it around the edge of the pan to infuse the flavor. Adjust with salt and pepper to taste, and it's done."

The aroma of soy sauce caramelizing tantalized the senses. The result: a hearty fried rice!

"If timing the egg mixture is tricky, pre-mixing the beaten egg with the Idika works well too."

This method creates the so-called golden fried rice.
I like both, but for Lars cuisine, pre-mixing tends to make the grains fluffier and more separate.

"Wow..."
"That looks so good!"
"I'm planning to serve this for lunch, but let's have a taste now."

Head Chef served small portions on plates for everyone.

"The first-ever Idika dish... fried rice... Thank you for this meal."
"Time to dig in!"

The two immediately scooped up a bite with their spoons.

Well, I'll try it too.
Ah, it's perfectly stir-fried, with the egg evenly coating the rice. Delicious!

"Wow... this is amazing."
"Is this really made with Idika?"

Their eyes sparkled as they stared at the fried rice.

I took a bite too.
Ah, as expected, the chef's skill makes a difference—even with body reinforcement, their stir-frying technique is superior.

And the aroma is phenomenal.
This rivals the high-grade jasmine rice from my past life, or maybe even surpasses it.

"This is fantastic. I’ll recommend incorporating Idika into our household menu to the Duke."

Hearing the Head Chef’s praise, Prince Kaldor and Tika-san exchanged looks and nodded.

"Alright, Miss Cristea! Let’s move on to the next dish!"

… Wait, they're really into this now?
The pressure to make the next dish equally delicious is immense!

----------

Gyaahh! Good lord!
"Uh, well then, I’ll start on the next dish."
"Yeah!"
"Looking forward to it!"

I averted my eyes from their eager gazes and checked the ingredients that had been prepared beforehand. Good, everything’s here.

"This time, we’ll be making a dish where cooked Idika is topped with stir-fried ingredients. Head Chef, if you would?"
"Yes, ma’am."

The Head Chef responded to my call and stepped up to the cooking station.

"First, finely chop the onion and garlic, and coarsely mince the bell pepper."

Following my instructions, Head Chef completed the prep in no time.
He’s so quick, yet his work is always immaculate. Meanwhile, I—well, as long as it’s edible, right? Okay, okay, I’ll try harder.

"Next, mince some pork or chicken. Both are commonly eaten in Samonar, so we’ll use chicken thigh meat for this recipe."

Cattle are valuable as labor animals on farms here, so they’re only eaten if they can no longer work due to injury or age.

With two knives, Head Chef skillfully chopped the chicken thighs into coarse mince with a rhythmic "tat-tat-tat."
Watching this, the two onlookers marveled, "Ohhh..." Their admiration was adorable.

"Once the ingredients are ready, heat a frying pan, add oil, and sauté the garlic over low heat."

Head Chef swirled the pan to evenly coat it with oil.
Soon, the enticing aroma of fried garlic began to fill the air.
Ah~ smells so good.

"When the garlic’s aroma is noticeable, add the minced chicken and turn up the heat slightly, stirring until the surface turns white."

I debated whether to sauté the onions first, as they take longer to cook.
However, I wanted to leave a bit of crunch in the onions, and some of the fat from the minced meat helps reduce the grease.
That’s why the meat goes in first.

"Leaving a little of the fat in the pan, discard the rest. Then add the onions and bell peppers, followed by fish sauce, chili bean paste—this is a special spice blend from my home—and sugar. Stir well."

If only I had oyster sauce, it would feel more authentic.
But to make oyster sauce myself, I’d need to visit a port town to procure oysters.
That’s a future project.

"Stir-fry the mixture until the vegetables release their moisture, then add basil and adjust the flavor with pepper. For an added aroma, you can finish with a bit of sesame oil, if available."

We source sesame oil from Yahatul, but I’m not sure if it’s available here in Samonar.

"If you want more heat, you can add thinly sliced chili peppers—seeds removed. Ideally, you’d add them when infusing the oil with garlic at the beginning, but adding them later works too."

Oh, and don’t forget—never rub your eyes after handling chili peppers!
Trust me, I learned that the hard way in my previous life.
That’s an advice from me, Cristea!

"Finally, cook a sunny-side-up egg in another frying pan, if possible. Serve the stir-fried chicken over the Idika and top it with the egg. For the best taste, try to keep the yolk soft and runny so it blends with the other ingredients."

Head Chef pulled out a frying pan specifically for eggs and began frying one.
At just the right moment, he added a splash of water, covered the pan, and let it steam.

At my home, raw eggs are still uncommon, but soft-boiled eggs have become the standard among our staff.
They’ve mentioned being disappointed when eating out, as the eggs are always overcooked.
This is an issue of food safety management, though, so it’s hard to change.

If restaurants could use magic to disinfect eggs, that would help.
But explaining the concept of eliminating bacteria is a challenge.
I hope that once the knights at the Adelia Academy dining hall appreciate the charm of raw eggs, the trend will catch on.

Ah, the egg is ready!
I plated the freshly cooked Idika with the stir-fried chicken, handed the dish to Head Chef, and he gracefully placed the sunny-side-up egg on top.

"And there you have it—Gapao Rice is ready!"

"Ga... Gapao Rice?"

Yes, when it comes to jasmine rice, Gapao Rice is a favorite of mine. I love it as much as Nasi Goreng.
The ingredients are similar, but the difference lies in preparation.
A rough comparison would be: Gapao is stir-fried toppings on rice, while Nasi Goreng is stir-fried rice with toppings.
Sorry for the simplistic explanation.

Since we just made fried rice earlier, I explained that using the same ingredients for Nasi Goreng would give it a different flavor.
Afterward, I served small portions for tasting.

"Prince Kaldor and Tika-san, you two can have extra yolk portions."

Well, not just extra—I gave them most of the yolk on separate small plates.

"Huh? Isn’t this egg undercooked? Won’t it upset our stomachs?!"

Ah, the classic reaction. I suppose the sight of runny yolk might make one think that.

"Didn’t you eat that thing called an omelet for breakfast? You know, the jiggly one?"

Tika-san asked curiously.

"Yes, but it was soft yet fully cooked."
"This one seems cooked too. Besides, there’s no way Miss Cristea would serve us anything dangerous or weird, right?"

Tika-san said, confidently seeking my agreement.

"Uhh, well, yes, that’s right."
"Really?"

Prince Kaldor looked at me skeptically as I hesitated.
I mean, I’ve never intentionally made or served anything weird, but there was a time when people called me the "Repulsive food-eating Lady," so... yeah.

As I gave an awkward smile, Head Chef stepped forward decisively.

"Please rest assured. Miss Cristea is a culinary revolutionary—a veritable ambassador of gastronomy and a national treasure. Meeting her is a blessing beyond measure for you, Prince Kaldor."

Head Chef’s serious declaration stunned me. Behind him, the kitchen staff nodded in agreement.

Ahhh! Why would you say such a thing?!
Prince Kaldor and Tika-san were clearly taken aback, muttering things like, "Uh, thank you?" Prince Kaldor later confided, "They looked like fanatics..." My kitchen staff is terrifying!

----------

Oops, I did it again! (Though it’s pretty much the usual.)
"This is delicious!"
"Totally! Mixing the meat, egg yolk, and Idika to match your own taste is so much fun!"

The taste-testing of the gapao dish began, and it seemed to be another success.

"Hey, Tika. If you eat so much meat now, you’ll end up with only Idika left and not enough to go around."
"I’ll just get more meat later!"
"… Come to think of it, you did the same thing with curry last time. But this is a taste test, you know?"

Prince Kaldor looked exasperated as he pointed this out to Tika-san, who suddenly remembered, "Oh, right!" and gave me a pleading look.

"Um… we can get seconds, right?"
"My apologies. We only made a small amount this time. But, um, we’ll make more at lunch!"

Unable to ignore Tika-san's crestfallen expression, I promised to make more later.
Still, he gazed longingly at the plate with the leftover Idika and sheepishly asked, "Can I at least have another fried egg like earlier?"

How sneaky…

With a glance at the Head Chef, one of the apprentice chefs eagerly stepped forward. "Let me handle it!" They quickly cooked a beautifully soft-boiled fried egg.

Ah, it seems the frying pan dedicated to eggs—now a standard for training chefs in the Ellisfeed household—is maturing nicely. Good, good!

The Head Chef nodded in satisfaction; the apprentice might soon graduate.

Tika-san carefully broke the yolk of the additional fried egg and savored the rest of his dish.
I guess we’ll need to prepare extra gapao and fried eggs for lunch.

From the corner of my eye, I noticed Kurogane and Mashiro sneaking tastes as well.
Judging by their reactions, they liked it.
If Father and Leon-sama gets involved in a second-helpings contest, it definitely won’t be enough.

Well, two dishes have passed the test so far. Time to move on to the next!

"So, um, the next recipe usually involves steps that take a full day or more, but we’ll speed it up with magic this time."

I had the soaked Idika brought over and explained that the washing and soaking process was the same as usual.

"Next, the soaked Idika is drained and sun-dried for about half a day to overnight. However, we’ll use magic to remove the moisture this time."

I drained the soaked Idika, then used wind magic to dry it further.

"After that, we combine fire and wind magic to ensure thorough drying."

Prince Kaldor and Tika-san stared at me blankly.

… Oh no, was this another thing I shouldn’t have shown them?

The Head Chef was smiling awkwardly.
Still, it’s too late to back out now, so let’s keep going!

"Once it’s sufficiently dried, we dry roast it in a frying pan until it crumbles easily when crushed between your fingers. Alternatively, you can use a low-temperature oven or sun-dry it for another half day to a full day."

After cooling the heated Idika, I crumbled it between my fingers. Perfect.
Time for the next step.

"Now, we grind the Idika in a mortar until it becomes powdery."

As I reached for the pestle, the Head Chef quickly stepped in. "Allow me," he said, taking over the task.

Ah, it’s a relief to delegate such strenuous work. Thank you, Head Chef.

"When it’s finely ground, we sift it to separate the finer powder from the coarser grains, then grind the latter again."

Grinding, grinding, grinding…

While this went on, the soaked Idika was dried and ground by other chefs.

Oh, how I wish I had a food processor.
Maybe this is something Galvano Ojisama and Owen-san could work on?

I had avoided creating magic tools for milling wheat, fearing it could displace workers.
But this kind of experimental use really highlights the need for one.

You’d think I could secretly make one and keep it under wraps, right?
But word always gets out, like, "The Ellisfeed family has this amazing tool!"
There’s no compliance culture in this world like in my previous life...

"Cristea-sama, it’s ready."

The Head Chef’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

The ground Idika—essentially rice flour—looked perfect.

"It’s smooth. Perfect."
"Thank you. Cristea-sama, could this be...?"

The Head Chef looked at me knowingly, as if confirming his suspicion.

"Yes. This is rice flour made from Idika."
"I knew it…"
"Wait, rice flour?! As a substitute for wheat flour?"
"No way! Idika as a substitute for wheat?!"
"Yes. This powder can likely be used just like wheat flour."
"It’s so smooth… I’ve considered using Idika like wheat, but it’s so hard that grinding it into a fine powder seemed impossible."
"But, Your Highness, look—it’s a fine powder. Amazing!"

Prince Kaldor and Tika-sama looked at the mortar of rice flour with teary eyes. Uh…?

"Cristea.sama, you’ve created something groundbreaking.

Head Chef said, looking both impressed and uneasy.

"Huh?"
"If this can be done with Idika, could we do the same with Lars?"
"Um, well, I applied the techniques I developed while researching Lars, so… yes."

… Let’s just go with that.
Suddenly announcing Idika as a wheat substitute would seem too suspicious.
Reflect, Cristea. Reflect.

"If this Idika flour can indeed replace wheat, and it’s cheaper to produce… the market will be thrown into chaos."
"What?!"

Not just a little slip-up—this could be a full-blown disaster!

"Miss Cristea! Please sell us this method!"
"Um, I’d need to discuss it with my Otousama first! I can’t decide on my own, and also…"
"And?"

Prince Kaldor leaned in eagerly, but thankfully, Tika-san intervened.

"Your Highness, isn’t this going to be a very high-stakes deal? Let’s calm down for now."
"Right… you’re right."

Phew. I was so relieved to see Kurogane and Mashiro, who had been quietly watching, relax and sit back down.

"Let’s discuss this with my Otousama later. For now, let’s test how well this powder works by cooking with it."
"Good idea.

The prince said, stepping back to calm himself.

Kurogane and Mashiro returned to their seats, muttering something like, "Lucky break."

That was close!
I might’ve just caused a major incident!
Though running into Prince Kaldor was already a mishap…
Looks like I’ll be getting scolded by Otousama again!