With new types of plants being available and a rather successful established trade route, Blue Springs City now had access to far more variety than anyone had ever dreamed possible. However, it had been quite a while since Iris had made a large number of recipes and shared the results with others. Everyone was starting to grow accustomed to and almost bored of the available options.

Things like fancy blends of tea, pancakes, and petit fours had been around for nearly two years now. Meanwhile, the newer recipes like sausages, pretzels, or cheesecake were newer, but they had also run their course with time. No one really wanted to complain about the lack of new, interesting dishes to try as it was still far better than they had grown up with. However, that didn't stop Iris from wanting to reinject some much-needed sense of wonder into her citizens.

So, she gathered Fern, Basil, and Ash together and had them set aside two days a week for the rest of the season for a limited-time pop-up restaurant experience.

"So, what exactly are we going to be doing again?"

Ash asked, feigning boredom. He was actually thrilled to be included with the others for this project. Since he was normally not able to cook meals for his family, but he had learned the basics of cooking to impress Iris, he was thrilled to have the opportunity to learn more. Iris smiled as she explained the plan.

"This week, we're going to be focusing on Japanese cuisine. Now, I know that likely doesn't mean much to you all, so I'll give you a rough idea of what we're working with.

Japan was a small landmass surrounded by water with a limited amount of space for farming and no nearby countries they could trade with until water-based forms of transportation were created. So, many of their dishes involve things like dashi, a dried fish seasoning, rice, seafood, and even plants from the ocean like dried seaweed. Of course, over time, their cuisine developed more and then they had other dishes like breaded and fried meat or sweet milk breads.

Now, I'm hardly familiar with all of the finer details of how all the various cuisines in the world work. However, I used to love experimenting and learning about new dishes. My dad was a cripple due to war and ended up being mostly a homemaker, much like Fern, so he did a lot of cooking. So, a lot of my love of cooking comes from him.

My mom was more of the artsy sort who made art from random scraps that would otherwise have been garbage. Kind of like how we turn broken bits of pottery into things. However, she was also an excellent baker and loved tending to her herb garden. She would often take the veggies from the larger garden as well as infused vinaigrettes and plants she grew to a special market to sell them. She was also a big advocate for learning more about other cultures.

So, I had the unique opportunity to learn a little bit about a lot of different dishes served in various places in my old world. This is just one of them, I'm hoping we'll work through some of the others in the coming weeks."

Iris's mates only really understood about half of what she was referring to. Basil remembered her reference to something called Italian seasoning from when they first moved to this location. She had explained it as a special mix of herbs named after a country from her previous world. So, it wasn't like the idea of food being based on specific locations from her previous world was an entirely foreign idea. However, that still didn't make it any easier to understand the foreign concepts.

Ash nodded before replying

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"Alright, I'm guessing you've gathered some of the ingredients we'll need from the Mermaid Tribe then?"

Iris nodded, smiling, as she confirmed

"Yes, that's right! We can also catch fresh fish here, but things like the seaweed definitely had to be ordered ahead of time. Alright, well, let's get started."

There was a limit to how many dishes they could make in one day. Things were even more limited when one considered how they'd be trying to run a restaurant with minimal staff in the upcoming two days. Today was just the practice run where they would prep and she'd show off the recipes. Luckily, she was confident that her husbands were talented enough at cooking that they'd catch on quickly, so they wouldn't need as long to prepare.

Before they began working on anything else, Iris thought it would be best to show them how to make the new dishes. Then they would likely spend most of the rest of the day cutting veggies and meat, pre-cooking rice, etc. in preparation for the next day.

"Alright, first up, I think we should start with a somewhat complicated dish to make. You generally have to boil rice at a ratio of one part rice to two parts water. Maybe even as much as three parts water depending on how fast it boils off. Normally, you would cook the rice and seasonings in oil real quick before adding the water. Bring it to a boil then reduce the heat and put a lid over the rice so it can steam cook. Once most of the water has boiled off and the rice is most of the way finished, remove it from the heat and let it rest. However, cooking with hearths is complicated, so we have to just do our best to replicate that process."

Iris went through the motions of preparing the rice. This part wasn't that difficult, it was the rest of the process that would be problematic. Once the rice was prepared, she had it put in the cold storage before further explaining

"Now, generally, the rice should be refrigerated overnight. That helps to ensure the texture is just right. Luckily, I had Fern prepare some rice with me yesterday."

Iris paused and he nodded in confirmation. Continuing, Iris explained

"The next step is to prepare your meat and veggies. Just about any meat and veggies can be used for fried rice, which is what we're making, but we're going to be using some ham, onion, peas, and carrots. I asked Fawn to prepare some ham ahead of time by salting and smoking it. So, it should impart plenty of flavor to the dish and it won't need to be cooked very long. As for the carrots and onions, we'll need to cut them into very small pieces, about the size of the peas outside of their pods, so that they'll cook faster. Same with the ham, very small cubes."

They went about the process of preparing the ham and veggies. Then they sauteed them in oil until the onions were translucent and the ham had a good bit of browning. Then they were set aside until it was time to use them again.

The next step was the complicated part. This was partially because there were so many different ways that the eggs could be introduced to the dish. Iris had experimented with quite a few of the methods. The rice could be broken up into more individual pieces and then mixed with just the egg yolks before being sauteed. Then the egg whites could be added in and cooked before finally adding the meat and veggies. However, that method was not very reliable, especially for those who weren't experienced with it.

For Iris, the easiest method had always just been to scramble the eggs before mixing the rice, meat, veggies, and soy sauce into the dish. Of course, they didn't have soy sauce. Even if they had soybeans, Iris didn't actually know much about how to process them. It was possible that she could figure it out, given enough years to experiment, but that certainly wasn't happening anytime soon. So, she just used some simple salt and pepper instead, at least the salt would take care of the salty portion of the soy sauce flavor.

It took a while of practicing before Fern, Basil, and Ash could get a hang of the dish. They weren't so much burning the food or anything as much as the rice wasn't coming out with an appetizing texture. Since they were only cooking a small portion while they got the recipe sorted out, it wasn't a huge deal for the dish to turn out mushy. The food wouldn't go to waste either. They had young cubs at home who would happily eat it, likely even enjoying how little chewing was required.

Eventually, they mastered the dish and Iris prepared to introduce the next dish.