kscans

Chapter 27 - Leaves of Grass, Spices and Herbs

As Yuri ran around looking for insect repellents and medicinal herbs, he also found several other useful items as by-products. Setting aside the poisonous plants...

"I found more herbs than I expected."

In light novels and such, it was a classic story for the protagonist to make a fortune with pepper. In other words, it meant that spices were not known, and he had given up on getting spices here in the Forea World. But...

"There's no pepper, but there are quite a few herbs. I guess people in the old days seasoned their food with things like this."

Come to think of it, traditional Japanese cuisine did not use things like pepper either. Instead, things like sansho pepper, ginger, shiso, wasabi, and water pepper had been widely used. Similarly, near the abandoned village where Yuri lived, although they were not exactly the same, he had been able to find an unexpectedly large number of herbs. Of course, he brought some of them back to the village to cultivate. The Wood Magic that the god had kindly given him was proving very useful.

He had found several things that were used to remove the gamy smell of meat and things used for herbal tea, and he was gratefully using them. But...

"But the meat of magical beasts isn't that smelly..."

Surprisingly, the meat of the magical beasts that Yuri had obtained so far, all of which had attacked Yuri and been defeated in return, had surprisingly little gaminess. Rather, most of them had a rich flavor and were sufficient just by lightly sprinkling salt on them and grilling them. This was the same even for insect and arthropod-type magical beasts. Well, come to think of it, they were relatives of shrimp and crab. In any case, although the texture and taste were completely different, the taste of the magical beasts was common in one point, that they were delicious. Therefore, even his precious herbs were not being given much of a chance to shine at present, but,

"Well, I'll probably get meat other than magical beasts eventually, and it might be a problem if I don't have herbs then."

He could probably make portable seasonings by drying them or something. In fact, Yuri had seen a product called herb salt in his previous life.

"More importantly, this is..."

Among the various herbs he had obtained, there was one that was of a different stripe, or rather, unexpected.

"This is stevia, isn't it? No matter how you look at it."

《Kouhe: A perennial grass that grows in sunny places. Its height is fifty centimeters to one meter. It blooms with white flowers from summer to fall. The entire plant contains high-sweetness components, but the concentration becomes highest from late October to early November after flowering, so it is good to collect it during this period.》

He had been interested in gardening in his previous life, so he had read several books on herbs, and this one's appearance and description almost perfectly matched the stevia in them. He wondered if this was also a case of convergent evolution. But more important than that right now was to secure this. The number of plants was not large, so he immediately decided to take it back and cultivate it. Whether it was high in calories or low, it was an important sweetener in this world, which was lacking in sweetness.

"I can't count on sugarcane because of the climate, so I thought I had no choice but to look for sugar maples or sugar beets. I was lucky.♪"