Chapter 569 Fun Shopping at the Royal Capital Market
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“Right, I think that’s enough fruit for now…”
“That’s wonderful, Master. Let’s go to the food stalls right away.”
“Umu, agreed. Let’s go.”
“”Right! The nearest food stall is just there!””
“”Meaty~~ meaty~~””
“Hold it!” I immediately stepped in front of my familiars and glared. “I said that’s enough fruit for now. We’re done with the fruit, but I have other things I need to buy.”
Everyone started to wail and complain, but I have already made up my mind to not compromise on this. No, I absolutely cannot compromise on this.
“You can keep complaining if you must. However, my next purchase will determine the deliciousness of the food everyone eats. I want to continue to improve my skills from here on. Don’t tell me you don’t want to keep eating delicious food from now on?”
Luckily, everyone backed down after that. We’ll definitely be visiting the food stalls later, but for now… shopping!!
My next stop was a store that sells flour, wheat flour. Goodness, I never knew that wheat flour alone comes in all sorts of colours and appearances! In my mind, flour has always been the usual white flour I use to make batter or bake cakes. In this store, I found myself looking at brownish whole wheat flour, as well as flour in varying shades of brown and white. The majority of the flour was sorted by region, which I guess is natural for a flour store that offers produce from all over the world.
As expected of the Royal Capital, even their flour store alone was already this impactful. There were so many varieties that I had no idea where to look, let alone make a decision of what to buy.
At times like this, it’s best to consult the experts. Let’s ask for a recommendation.
“Excuse me, could you give me some suggestions?”
The shopkeeper was an older chubby fellow who immediately beamed and said, “Well, we only deal with high-quality flours. However, if you would some recommendations, how about these?”
Whole grain flour – Darcy Flour
“Bread baked from Darcy has a lovely crisp finish and a great aroma. Ah, I always ended up eating too much when the wife bakes Darcy bread.”
Refined white flour – Söderfeld Flour
It was not as white as the refined white flour that I could buy from [Net Super], but…
“…this flour is a favourite among the n.o.bility. This special Söderfeld wheat which had been painstakingly refined to its highest quality is a little expensive, but the resulting bread is very soft with a hint of sweetness. You can eat as many as you like without feeling stodgy.”
Whole grain flour (blend) – A blend of Camarque and Rouault flour
“This one is less well known, but not being popular doesn’t make it any less delicious! This is one of our best sellers! Because we want everyone to have delicious bread to eat, we make it possible for them through affordable flour!”
What incredible enthusiasm!
Whole grain flour – Martz Flour
“The producers from Martz have yet to achieve fame, but mark my words, it is only a matter of time! Our store swears by it. Bread baked with this flour would have a crispy crust and is especially lovely when freshly baked.
Refined white flour (blend) – A blend of Söderfeld and Arago flour
“A top-quality product known for its excellence. A great favourite among high-ranking aristocrats. Bread baked with this flour would have the softest, fluffiest texture exuding the fragrance of wheat and sweetness that tickles your nose even before you take a bite. Worth every bit you pay for it! In fact, dear customer is very lucky because although this flour is expensive, it usually flies off the shelf the moment it reaches our store.”
“I see, I see,”
I see that you’ve become this chubby due to an overconsumption of carbohydrates. Still, I have to give him points for carefully baking and tasting his products. This gives me more confidence about his recommendations.
“Looks like I have no choice but to buy a lot,” I said.
“Oh my, thank you for your purchase!”
“Let’s see, I’ll have five bags of the Darcy, Martz and as for the cheaper blended flours…”
“The Camarque and Rouault blend as well as the Darcy and Martz, five bags of each,”
“…and two bags of the pure Söderfeld and, um, one bag of the Söderfeld blend,”
“Yes, yes, very good. Excellent choice, thank you very much, that will be 42 gold, please.”
I winced a little at the price, but paid up willingly enough.
After that, I went through the noisy market again for the next store I had my sights on. The mixed herb store~!
[1] “Welcome, how may I help you?”
[1] The proprietor was a dog Beastman with a slightly stern face and upturned dog ears.
[1] Wow, this was certainly one thing that’s very different from Carelina.
“Um, could you recommend something that goes well with meat for me?”
The Beastman nodded, “Meat, eh? Well, if it’s meat, how about this one.”
The jar he placed on the counter was an herbed-salt mixture. Shops don’t usually sell herbed-salt because salt is too expensive and would ma.s.sively hike up the prices of their products. People generally just purchase the mixed herbs and spices and later mix in whatever salt they can afford into the herbs before using.
“Wow,” I said. “You included the salt here?”
“Indeed, our store carries different kinds of salt. We are confident in our products and ability to match the best kind of salt for each herb blend.”
“I see, I see,”
“As a dog Beastman, I have absolute confidence in my ability,” said the proprietor as he tapped on his nose. “Our shop specialises in quality selections and blends that infuse the best and most exquisite fragrance into different kinds of cooking. I am proud to say that our shop carries the best of the best in the Royal Capital.”
Wow, got to admire the confidence.
“Come now, have a little taste,” the Beastman smiled and shook a small amount of herbed salt on my hand. “This one goes very well with roasted meat.”
I licked the little dusting of salt from my hand and, “Oh… this is pretty nice,”
The Beastman beamed, “It’s good, eh?”
I nodded several times. His smug face was a little annoying, but herbed salt was really good.
“Here’s my next recommendation. This is our top seller right now,”
Through the gla.s.s jar, I could see yellow grains mixed with dried green herbs and pinkish salt grains. The scent was…
“Is this citrus?”
“Indeed, you have a good nose, sir. Mixed herb with lemon zest is all the rage now. Since it was popular with ma.s.ses, I thought I’d give it a try. Personally, I had my doubts at first about using this stain remover in an herb blend, but the result turned out to be quite excellent.”
The [2] ‘stain remover’ here was actually lemons. For some reason, lemons grow very well in this world and could be found pretty much everywhere. Every household in the rural area would have at least one lemon tree in their yard and the tree itself was not very tall.
[3] “As for how people started using lemons in their spice blends, I heard that it originated from a village that sells a popular drink made from honey and lemon. I can’t even conceive how people would think that lemon would be good to eat, let alone drink, but that’s innovation for you.”
I nodded absently, more interested in the blend in my hands than the origin story of why they started including lemons in their diet.
“Have a taste of this one too,”
The scent of lemons immediately filled the room the moment the jar was opened. The smell was a little strong, but refres.h.i.+ng.
“Lovely isn’t it? I’d recommend using this on fish or other seafood dishes, but it is good with meat dishes too.”
I can already taste the result on my tongue.
“I’ll take both!”
“Thank you for your purchase!”
I have no idea when I’ll come back to the Royal Capital, so I should buy as much as I could. In the end, I bought three small sacks of each herbed salt which came up to 10 gold.
Fufufu, nice~ nice~ this is what shopping should be like.
Without much thought, I wandered through the market again and ended up inside a tea shop. I had bought some tea at Carelina and have plenty of tea in stock, but, ohoho, why shouldn’t I?
Let’s shop some more~
[Gumihou: Lol, the familiars would be like those miserable husbands waiting for their wives to be done with their shopping.]
[1] Adjust the mixed herb shop scene to make it more dynamic
[2] In the original text, they were talking about ‘lemone’, which looked like earth’s ‘lemon’… I’m sorry, but that level of lame-on was too much so Gumi changed it to ‘stain remover’ and redid the scene
[3] Origin story of the lemon herb mix was kind of lame, so shortened it
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