Chapter 187: Homesickness
The day has finally come.
The drooping ears of rice have turned golden.
Yes, thanks to Dryas-sensei, the rice had ripened in a mere 10 days.
The Sanctuary walls are still underway, but rice is way more important so this was inevitable.
「Now, let’s harvest!」
「「「Ooouーー!」」」
The children that shouted while raising sickles custom-made by Doganbo-san for children were Lala, Sara, and Shirona, the little girl group. As Cat Sith, Catkin, and Human, they were of different races but they are the little sister group that gets along well. Miri, Wappa, and Colette, the elder sibling group were also helping out.
「Master! Kaede will do the sheafing, okay?」
「Thank you, Kaede.」
Kaede will tie up the bundles of rice that we’ll harvest with her own thread.
And there was a person here that was so happy she was brought to tears.
「…… it’s rice, I’ll be able to eat rice.」
「Good on you, Akane-sama.」
「Thanks Lulu, let’s do our best to harvesting the rice.」
「Yeah nya!」
Akane, a Japanese girl abducted to this world, was unable to have a decent meal in the Divine Empire of Sydnia. Since living with us, she’s been able to eat delicious food, but as expected, there wasn’t Japanese food.
Since the paddy field itself wasn’t that vast, with the Elf Melty-san and her children helping, harvesting came to an end relatively quickly.
In reality, the grains should be sun dried, but I asked Sylph to dehydrate it.
After threshing and polishing, I saw the shiny white rice, and in the several years that I’ve lived here, it was only then that it struck home. Just like Akane, my eyes watered as I stared at the white, polished rice.
「Takumi, make miso and shoyu!」
「Ah, yeah, I would’ve even if you weren’t so desperate. It’d be a prototype but I think it’ll be passable thanks to Dryas.」
「We have kombu and niboshi too!」
「Yup, we don’t have katsuobushi though.」
For this day, I ran about to secure ingredients. Natto bacteria for sake brewing is a powerful enemy so I haven’t made it, but for the side dishes that could be used with rice, I requested the Mermaids for fish, and I asked Melty-san, the manager of crops that could be used as spices and condiments, for various items.
「Takumi, you’ll be the one to make things today right? What are you making?」
「H~mm, how does nizakana, pork shogayaki(it isn’t pork though), and miso soup sound?」
「The best! If we had tsukemono and green tea, I’d have nothing more I could say.」
Akane’s head seems to already be filled with rice and matching side dishes.
「We don’t have tsukemono, but there’s green tea, you know?」
「Really?!」
「The types of green tea and black tea are the same, after all.」
「Woohoo! Lulu! Let’s go ask Dryas-san for ginger!」
「Okay nya!」
Akane ran to Dryas with Lulu-chan.
Oh how desperate she is. I understand her feelings though.
I made a hagama[1] solely for cooking rice.
I washed the rice and used the water from the Spirit spring to cook it.
「I’m using a wild boar monster in place of pork, but it’ll probably alright.」
I didn’t cook much in my old world so I can’t do anything other than the simple stuff. I don’t know if the shogayaki will taste as I imagined.
Soy sauce, mirin, sake, sugar, and the ginger that Akane received from Dryas. I think the sauce tastes something like this.
Marnie, Maria, and Lulu-chan who typically made our everyday meals were beside me watching me make the food. Tasting the miso and shoyu, I consulted the three. I might be able to eat the food the trio would make with miso and shoyu.
「Hey hey, I’ll help with the miso soup!」
Maybe because she couldn’t endure it anymore, Akane began helping.
Eventually, Maria and the other two helped. The pork shogayaki, red rockfish nitsuke, miso soup were done.
On today’s table, since people aside from my party, namely the Great Spirits, the children who helped with the harvest, and Melty-san and her children, were to be seated, the table was extended and chairs were added.
「Itadakimasu!」
「「「「Itadakimasu.」」」」
I tried a sip of the miso soup. Yup, it turned out good. I’ll give the taste of miso a passing mark too. So good.
Then I took a mouthful of rice.
「Takumi-sama, are you alright?」
「Ah, yeah, I-I’m fine.」
Unknowingly, tears ran down my cheek. Having worried Sophia, I grew embarrassed. When I glanced at Akane, she was shedding tears while gulping down the rice.
「Takumi-sama, it’s tasty nya.」
「My cheeks’ll fall off nya.」
「So goo~ood!」
It looks like the it’s well received by the little girl trio.
Everyone said that both the pork shogayaki and the rockfish nitsuke were delicious. Gnome had especially enjoyed Japanese food and he said that from now on, he’d like us to make it once in a while.
It was highly rated by the Great Spirits.
In a good mood, I used the rice bran to start making takuan and tsukemono.
I wonder if I could ask Dryas to make sticky rice too. Yup, my dreams are expanding, huh.
***
Footnotes:
1. Hagama – traditional rice cooker made of cast iron with a wooden lid. Example here.
2. Most foodstuff mentioned here are common enough, or easy to find on google. ?
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