Chapter 2: An Ordinary Treat
I’m going to cook dinner in the kitchen. The frying pan is already being heated up.
While heating up the frying pan, I put together wheat flour, yam, salt, water, and walnut oil in a bowl, then begin kneading it. In this arrangement, I’ve also added chopped alpine leek’s leaves that I obtained from the mountain. The alpine leek is a potherb. Using it this way will add aroma and strengthen the flavor. I let it rest for a while. Once I roast it in frying pan instead of the oven, it will turn into bing.
Bing is a flat bread specialty in Chinese cuisine. Popularly paired with Peking duck skin, it can be made in a short time.
“Now then, while the dough is resting, I must cook the main dish.”
My prided bacon marinated in deluxe tare sauce and smoked with maple wood chips is sliced into generous thick slices. Bacon is tastier when cut into thick slices.
Without putting oil, I put the slices into the hot frying pan. It emits a sizzling sound and the savory aroma from the fat, as well as the scent of maple wood chips that was used to smoke the bacon. It’s the meat full with fat, after all. Even if I don’t use oil, the fat oil oozing out from the bacon itself is enough. With the overflowing oil, the bacon is deep fried.
This is the correct way to cook crispy bacon. By doing it this way, the bacon won’t taste bitter. The bacon’s fat becomes translucent. Right now, the next thing is to crack some eggs on top of the bacon.
What I am cooking is bacon egg. It’s extremely simple, but it tastes so good. There’s no way it won’t be tasty; it’s made from the deluxe bacon plus freshly laid eggs from this morning, after all.
“I have to cover it.”
I’m covering the frying pan. Like this, convection will occur, cooking it through covered pan roasting. The egg yolk is tastier when warm. I want to flip it over, but there’s bacon beneath them. If I flip it, the egg yolk will be smashed. So I just cook one side.
When I uncover the lid after estimating the suitable time, some smoke blew out of it. The egg white is firm, while the egg yolk is half-done. It’s the ideal sunny-side up egg.
“Yosh yosh, the meat juice and fat oil are plenty.”
From the thick slices of bacon, a generous amount of meat juice and oil oozes out. Half of that oil is moved into a container. I lick a little of it. Salt and tare sauce used when making the bacon are mixed together with the taste of meat juice and oil. Just those should have guaranteed the deliciousness of this dish.
Then I add honey, vinegar, and salt together, as well as fruit juice from lingonberry making a sweet and sour sauce. I will also properly use the leftover oil and meat juice in the frying pan.
“I wonder if the bing dough I kneaded earlier has rested enough.”
I press the dough into a round flat shape. Then, the flattened dough is put on top of the frying pan, thus being deep fried by the wild boar fat oil. By doing this, I can cook a crispy bing. Not only that, the remaining wild boar fat oil and meat juice are being absorbed by the dough, making it remarkably delicious. The part untouched by the oil will become fluffy and tender. Before long, the bing is cooked.
“Lastly, the finishing touch.”
Stacking the bacon egg on the bing, I also put the finely sliced cabbage on top of them. Lastly, I’m pouring the seasoning that uses meat juice and oil, completely covering them. I’m being careful to avoid spilling the egg yolk and sauce.
With this, it’s completed. It’s jianbing-wrapped bacon egg. If I had some spices, I could make it more delicious, though…
I’m heating up the meat soup that Tina made for lunch to be the accompaniment. There are only two dishes, but these should be enough.
☘
“I’ve made you wait. Here comes our dinner today.”
On a large plate, I placed three bacon-egg with bing wraps before going to the living room.
“Kurt-sama, I’ll bring the rest of it.”
“I’ll leave that to you.”
Tina rushes into the kitchen. When I look back, she’s already putting smaller plates and the soup that I’ve reheated into a tray. She’s good, as expected. She can predict my intentions and move accordingly.
“Hou, so this is Kurt-sama’s cooking. I’ve been smelling cooked meat for a while, making me feel hungry.”
“Please excuse us for only having this modest dish.”
“I am only an old servant; I do not wish for fanciful dishes. I do have high expectations for the taste, though.”
“If it’s that, there’s no worry. I can guarantee the taste.”
Volg and I look at each other’s faces, then grin. Tina has finally returned with the tray. The soup and small plates are arranged on the table.
“Well then, let’s eat before it gets cold. This is the most delicious when it’s still hot.”
“Then, it is better if we eat right at this moment, isn’t it? There’s no reason for us to waste Kurt-sama’s cooking.”
We sit in different chairs. Volg doesn’t seem to mind eating from the same table as Tina. It looks like he has accepted the custom that I told him before.
“””We thank the G.o.d and the forest for the food we have today.””” Our voices blend together as we offer our prayers before eating. Then, the dinner begins.
“Kurt-sama. There’s no knife or fork. How do you suggest we eat this?” Volg asks while looking perplexed.
He previously said that he came from common origins, which shows up in his occasional rough verbal expressions. However, from time to time, I can feel an unmasked elegance from him. This is only my speculation, but I suspect that he was born in a n.o.ble family and forced to become a commoner because he didn’t inherit the t.i.tle.
“In this village, we don’t eat in a refined manner. Just sink your teeth into it like this.” I bite into the bing-wrapped bacon egg wrap that I’ve taken.
“So it’s like that. Thank you for your guidance. The last time I ate that way was on the battlefield. My heart is beating since it’s really strange. Well then.” While showing a slight hesitation, Volg also bites into my cooking. “This is?! How could it!?”
It only took a second from that, but he starts wolfing down the food without minding any courtesy. He even licks off the sauce that drips to his hand cleanly in a bad manner. Then, after he finishes eating, he draws out a long sigh and looks dazed.
“That was amazing. It was terribly delicious. It made me forget myself.”
“I am very glad that you are happy with it.”
When I looked to my side, Tina was also frantically munching on the jianbing-wrapped bacon egg with her small mouth. She looks seriously cute.
“I’ve smelled something like spring onion even before eating, but the moment it entered my mouth, I was instantly overwhelmed with the taste of meat and the sweet and sour sauce, the taste of meat juice and egg yolk kept bombarding my taste buds, and it met with the sauce once again. The texture was also terribly interesting, with the crispiness on the outside and the fluffy tenderness on the inside, there was no hope for me to stop eating.”
The bing wrap’s purpose is to trap the aroma and meat juice inside. Thanks to the tightly wrapped bacon egg and sauce, the moment it is bitten for the first time, the aroma instantly spreads. It was the so-called explosion of aroma. Moreover, there was the bombarding flavor from the deluxe wild boar bacon and the sweetness from fresh eggs rushing forth.
The sauce that came out when I was roasting was able to draw out the deliciousness from the meat and the eggs no matter how many times, then the bing enveloped all of that deliciousness.
The task of the bing wasn’t just that. It enabled the teeth to bite into the crunchiness on the surface that felt good, while the fluffy dough on the inside entangled with the meat juice and egg yolk. It then met again with the crispy part; between that and the fluffy part, the texture was ever changing. The Alpine leek also did a good job of creating the effect of washing off the rich flavors.
It’s precisely because it is simple that the attentiveness to details creates a huge difference.
“To be able to make this kind of dish from such simple ingredients really surprised me.”
“But you still made an unsatisfied expression.”
He should have been sincere when saying that the cooking was enjoyable. Yet, he still looks unsatisfied.
“Am I too obvious? To be frank, I still feel like I haven’t eaten enough. As soon as I finished eating something this delicious, my stomach feels all the more empty.”
“I thought you would say that, so I prepared something.”
I go back to the kitchen, then bringing back a bottle and a plate of thinly sliced bacon that was roasted for a moment.
“What could it be?”
“It’s mead, made from honey. I’ve been thinking lately to make alcohol in my own fief. This is my trial product. Let’s drink it with bacon as a side dish.”
Mead is an alcohol that is so easy to make that it is said to be the oldest alcohol in mankind’s history. Just by leaving honey with low sugar content alone, the condition to make alcohol is met. It is suitable to start being produced in my fief.
“That’s good thinking. I wish to partake without fail.”
I nod to his response, then pour plenty of mead into his cup. This is me, utilizing my knowledge from the previous world and raising the bar. On top of having just eaten something tasty and feeling good about it, if he drinks this, he will become fairly less wary to speak.
Now, let’s hear about different kinds of information from him. I don’t think that Faruno has an unusual design for me, but it wouldn’t be surprising for the people around her to plan through her.
Translator’s Notes: Please read in isecai.wordpress.com. I’m looking forward to see your comment/anything ❤
In this chapter and the previous one, Tsukiyo Rui-sen actually made a note about Volg. His personality was altered since he originally didn’t fit the story’s mood. Apparently he was kind of overbearing at first? Yeah. So we have Volg’s current personality instead.
I’m hating this chapter, it makes me hungry. ? Also blame Tokanya for the pics of the food.
Bing is written as mochi, with “pin” furigana. At first I put jianbing here, but according to CNN’s Shanghai Street Food report, it’s more Taiwan shouzhua bing than dan bing (jianbing). Well, good to know!