Chapter 187
With meat and rice at hand, let’s make Onigiri Meatroll [1] also known as Nik.u.maki Onigiri!
It’s simple to make, delicious to eat and one of the best things to eat for a picnic under the clear blue sky.
For me, Onigiri Meatroll has to be made with yakiniku sauce [2] covered meat slices. It’s also one of the easiest ways to make a delicious meal out of meat, so, bonus!
As for the meat choices, hmm, let’s go with Orc, b.l.o.o.d.y Horn Bull and Wyvern meat. Also, let’s have fun experimenting with different kinds of yakiniku sauce.
Alright, let’s buy the yakiniku sauce now.
I opened up the [Net Super] and scrolled through the options. The first sauce I picked out was a long-time favourite. It’s my go-to sauce whenever I’m stuck between choices. Somehow, I always ended up picking it.
As for the others… oh, this one looks good.
This sauce carries the name of a famous yakiniku chain store, it’s the sweet type and therefore perfect for making Onigiri Meatrolls.
I should pick out one more… alright, let’s go with this one.
The maker of this yakiniku sauce is famous for its soy sauce. I’ve tried their medium spicy yakiniku sauce before, and it was pretty good.
Finally, I bought some white sesame seed Furikake [3] and that was the end of my shopping.
Well then, let’s start making the Onigiri Meatrolls.
First, slice the meat into thin slices. I piled the sliced meat into three neat piles, Orc, b.l.o.o.d.y Horn Bull and Wyvern meat. Some of the meat was sliced a bit thicker, others were almost paper-thin. Some were so thin that it broke apart. Well, I don’t mind them not being perfect. In fact, I’ll say that the imperfections added some winsome charm to this dish.
Ever since coming into this world, I’ve been cooking almost non-stop for Fer and the rest. So my knife skill had definitely gotten better.
I do cook at home for myself, but cooking for one person and cooking for three nearly bottomless pits was different. I am now much faster when it comes to cutting and slicing.
Once the meat has been sliced, it’s time to deal with the rice.
I took out the cooked rice and began squeezing them into barrel shapes [4]. Since it was for Fer and the rest, I made them bigger than normal. It’s actually not advisable to make an onigiri too big or it would collapse from its own weight, but since I’ll be wrapping them up with strips of meat, I have more control over the structure.
Hmm, it looks like I’ll have to wrap the onigiri fairly thoroughly. Any exposed bits of rice would just make the whole thing crumble. Yosh, let’s add more meat.
When the rice b.a.l.l.s were all nicely packed up in their meat wrappings, I started a fire under the three pans and poured a little oil on them to get the sizzle going. I place the Onigiri Meatrolls onto the hot pans, rolling them around to ensure even cooking.
Once the meat was properly browned, I poured the yakiniku sauce over the meat wrapped onigiri and let it simmer in the pan, allowing the meat and rice to absorb the delicious, sweet and savoury sauce.
Once done, I plated the Onigiri Meatrolls and sprinkled on the white sesame Furikake.
“Hey, come and get it–!”
Everyone came rus.h.i.+ng over at the call.
“Alright, here you go.”
I placed three plates of Onigiri Meatrolls down. As usual, when faced with a new dish, they all began to give the Onigiris a little sniff.
“The smell is similar to the grilled meat you often give us.”
Ugh…
Fer’s nose was as sharp as usual.
W-well, to be honest. I do like the robust taste of yakiniku sauce, and it’s convenient in all kinds of ways…
Alright, to be completely honest, I’ve been using it too much lately. B-but, since the standard request has always been meat, meat, meat, what goes better with meat if not yakiniku sauce?
A-anyway, I’m using a different yakiniku sauce today. So that counts too, right?
“Oh? Mu… this is a little different. This rice thing master is always raving about is inside the meat. Ooh, this is a very convenient way to eat rice. Hm, good, very good.” said Fer as he lifted two onigiris with his wind magic and threw them into his mouth.
“Oh, so it’s a kind of meat-wrap? You’re right, it’s nice and easy to eat. Me likey!” said Dora-chan, who was holding the Onigiri Meatroll between his paws.
Well, the onigiris were like little parcels of food, a perfect finger food so to speak. Delicious and easy to eat seems to be something they all like.
“Aruji’s food is delicious as usual, the sauce makes the meat yummy so Sui likes it~”
Sui also liked it, so that’s all that matters.
As expected, yakiniku sauce really elevates the taste of meat.
Up till now, I’ve been using this long time best seller sauce as my go-to sauce. However, since we’ve been having meat dishes every day for practically every meal. No matter how good the sauce, if we have it all the time, we’ll eventually get tired of it.
Because of this, I have chosen to try out one spicy and one sweet type yakiniku sauce to give variety at minimum effort. There were many, many types of yakiniku sauce for sale on [Net Super], but, let’s go with these two for now.
“Seconds!” this familiar refrain came a little early this time.
Was it because the onigiris were easier to eat?
Alright, let’s grill up some more Onigiri Meatrolls. This time, let’s use my second favourite yakiniku sauce with the slightly spicy edge to it.
“Coming up!”
When it was served, everyone dove right into their plates. It was quite fascinating to see the onigiris just disappear…
“Nu, this one tastes different”
Oh, so Fer noticed?
“I’m trying a different sauce this time. How is it?”
“Umu, not bad.”
“Yeah, it’s good. The smell is different in a delish way.”
“This one is also delicious~”
Dora-chan and Sui seemed to like this one better. Alright, let me try some too.
Ooh, this is really quite good.
The flavour was rich and robust. The description said that it contains fragrant roasted sesame seeds and I must say that the nutty aroma of the sesame seed contrasted very well against the rich, deep flavour of the sauce.
It wasn’t long before Fer and Sui badgered me for more ‘seconds’ until all the riceb.a.l.l.s were gone.
I also grilled up some Meatroll Onigiri seasoned with the spicy yakiniku sauce from that famous soy sauce manufacturer. Um, delicious, as expected from the expert. Well, I guess one can’t go wrong with a sweet and spicy combo for grilled meat and rice.
“Oi, gimme some pudding-” Dora-chan who had stopped early due to his much smaller appet.i.te began badgering for his dessert.
Ah, that’s right, I haven’t given them their promised two servings of desserts per day. It’s a promise I made with them just that morning.
“I want sweets too,”
“Sui too~”
Ah, as expected, sweets got to be everyone’s favourite. Since they had taken down a Cyclops today with minimum damage, I should reward them.
“You guys did very well during the Cyclops subjugation today, so that means you can have up to three servings of dessert!”
Dora-chan and Sui immediately began zooming or bouncing around with joy. Fer’s happiness was a much more restrained ‘umu‘.
“So, what will it be?”
“I want that white thing.”
“Pudding, of course!”
“Sui wants something new~”
For Fer, it has to be the whole Strawberry Short Cake, pudding for Dora-chan and as for Sui, a few different kinds of cakes should do.
I opened up [Net Super’s] Fujiya Cake. I’m getting rather familiar with their menu now. Let’s see, three Strawberry Short Cakes for Fer. That was the easy one, as for Dora-chan. Oh, there are some sundae puddings on the menus. Alright, let’s get a Banana Sundae Pudding [5], a Strawberry Sundae Pudding and a regular Pudding for Dora-chan.
As for Sui. Ah, what should I pick? There are no restrictions so let’s get this Melon Short Cake, a Blue Berry Tart, and, oh, the Chocolate Cream Chiffon Cake looks really good too.
It took no time at all to make the order. Once the box arrived, I arranged the cakes and tarts onto plates. As for Dora-chan’s pudding, the sundaes came with their own gla.s.s container, how extravagant, so I served it as is. The regular pudding had to be popped out onto a plate as usual though.
Once everything had been arranged, I brought them over to my waiting familiars.
“There you go, order up!”
Fer took a bite of his shortcake and responded with a rather curt ‘delicious’. Ah, looks like he still likes Strawberry Short Cakes best. I completely understand, it’s a cla.s.sic after all.
Dora-chan ate his regular pudding first before starting on the sundae puddings. It was kind of amazing to see him grip the edge of the sundae gla.s.s as he stuck his head in to lick and bite at his treat. Now and then popping up his cream covered head to say, ‘yummy’.
Sui, the lover of sweets, was slowly dissolving her cakes one by one.
Everyone loved their desserts. Sui even added, “This chocolate cake is extra fluffy and delicious~’
I had a canned coffee myself as I watched them happily enjoy their desserts. Once the treats were gone, it was time to think about returning to the city.
“Alright everyone, we’ve done what we came here for, time to go back.”
“Umu, that’s right.”
“Aah, time to return, right? Let’s go and have a bath when we get back.
“Let’s have a bath~”
The Cyclops subjugation mission was done, it was time to return to the city.
[Gumihou: Meatroll Onigiri sounds delicious, I wonder if I can wrap the rice in bacon and grill it with teriyaki sauce…]
[1] Onigiri Meat Roll – Kind of like a carnivorous Cabbage Rolls, but instead of cabbage, we use meat!
Yakiniku sauce – j.a.panese bbq sauce, sweet and savoury
[3] Furikake – literally – sprinkle on top – it’s a mixed seasoning to top rice or meat. It could be made from almost anything, seaweed, sesame seeds, dried bonito flakes, sugar, salt etc. It’s also known as ‘Rice Seasoning’.
[4] Barrel shape Onigiri – Rice b.a.l.l.s general comes in three shapes, triangular, barrel or disc.
[5] Desserts galore! I had to google Sundae Pudding though, turns out they are puddings set in nice gla.s.ses and served with a dollop of cream and other toppings. The flavour should be the type of pudding in the cup, right?