kscans

Chapter 308 - An Acquired Taste? A Strange Taste? Mand (Part 2)

Mand was casting a doubtful gaze at the young leaves of a tree called Aralia in this world. It seemed to be a tree equivalent to what is called Uko-gi on Earth, and it was well known among those who live in the forests, such as elves and beastmen. It grew in relative abundance in the Salt-Sour Mountain, and Yuri not only collected young leaves from these wild trees but also propagated them using his standard cutting method. The young leaves of Aralia were used as a food ingredient, and its roots were also used as a crude drug. For Yuri, it was an indispensable and useful tree species.

"Heh... so leaves like that..."

Mand still looked half convinced, or rather, about seventy percent "doubtful," but the person in question was someone his master Adon held in high regard, and he knew from his usual words and actions that he was knowledgeable about cooking and ingredients. So, he decided to accept it for the time being. Seeing this, Yuri, perhaps encouraged, went on to eloquently explain his other wild edibles. If his explanations were not mistaken, these wild edibles seemed to be quite formidable.

As far as he could tell from the taste test, they were certainly not as bad as he had thought... but they were all slightly off the standard. They were not unpalatable, but he wanted to call their taste more strange than a delicacy. But well, that could be managed with the way they were cooked. There might be herbs unique to the Salt-Sour Mountain as well.

However, even admitting that, there was a point that Mand could not overlook.

(He might have the ingredients, but isn't he lackin' in the seasonin' department...?)

If he lived in the Salt-Sour Mountain, he probably had no trouble with salt, but what about other seasonings? Even if he had a few wild herbs, he must be sorely lacking in spices like pepper (piper), as well as sugar, vinegar, and cooking sake. ...Well, it seemed he had obtained some wood honey as a substitute for sugar. When he actually confirmed with Yuri, it seemed the lack of seasonings was indeed a fact. In that case, he would not be able to make any decent dishes.

However, there was a mutual misunderstanding between them on this point.

In reality, Yuri's diet was fairly well-stocked with seasonings, including a wide variety of herbs that grew wild in the Salt-Sour Mountain, as well as a prototype fermented meat sauce, and broths from Pepit and mushrooms. But... the standard Yuri was unconsciously using was the food culture of his past life in Japan. A world where seasonings from various regions and countries were easily obtainable was something that could not even be dreamed of in this world. To say it was 'insufficient' in comparison was cruel to this world.

In any case, there was no way for the two of them to notice this difference in perception.

(This is... we've got to do something to help him, or this is bad, isn't it?)

And so he came to harbor a secret sense of indignation and a plan... but that aside, there was something that was bothering Mand a little. Yuri had just taken these "wild edibles" out of his magic bag... but whether they were wild edibles or vegetables, were they really something you would bother to store in a magic bag?

Storing perishable ingredients in a magic bag was something Mand could understand. He could not help but think it was a luxury, but perhaps the Salt-Sour Mountain was a place where they could not afford to say such things. But even so...

(What's the reason to be so particular about freshness?)

To explain the sense of incongruity Mand felt, it is necessary to describe for a moment the treatment of "vegetables" among the upper class of this country.

In this country, the treatment of vegetables was not so different from that of 21st-century Earth, with people knowing that not eating them was bad for your health... but there was one difference, and that was the treatment of raw vegetables. That is, eating raw, uncooked vegetables was considered something the poor did, and the higher one's social status, the more they tended to avoid eating them raw. That was not cooking. Also, perhaps because they were going to be cooked anyway, the upper class tended not to pay much attention to the freshness of vegetables. At the same time, while they ate a lot of root vegetables that were suitable for cooking, they paid little attention to soft leafy vegetables. Leaves were something for livestock to eat. The exceptions were celery (selri) with its strong flavor and cabbage (capit) which was used for pickles.

Mand, like many others, was influenced by this perception...