“Here we are! Moonlight Inn.”
Located near the west entrance of the city was Moonlight Inn, owned by Mira’s family. From the outside, it looked pleasingly better than the surrounding buildings. The mahogany-like walls were kept clean and looked well-polished, giving off a glimmering, vibrant red vibe. On top of the door hung a wooden sign with a picture of a crescent moon and some writing, which I assumed to say “Moonlight Inn”, carved on it.
“Mama, I’m back!”
“Welcome back, dear.”
This was not what I had imagined at all. I had assumed Dark Elves to look like darker, taller humans, but I immediately retracted that statement. She was extremely beautiful, this woman known as Mira’s mother. While her hair was the same crimson color as Mira’s, her skin was slightly darker while her eyes shone with a deeper yellow. Her figure was also in excellent shape. I can see where Mira got her “dimensions” from. Additionally, although I would like to leave this out, she was about as tall as Abel.
“Mama, this is Rein. He’s here to take the request we submitted.”
“Oh? Well, welcome to the Moonlight Inn, Mr. Rein. We hope that your time here will be enjoyable.”
{Pleased to help, Miss Mia.}
“I am assuming that either Mira or Keith have told you about me.”
{Yes, but they didn’t tell me that you would be this beautiful.}
A hard, but playful, slap hit my back. I could feel it resonating throughout my body.
“Reiny! Don’t try to flirt with Mama.”
“Oh, my. I am flattered. The only other person that would openly compliment me would be my husband. Now, shall we begin work?”
Miss Mia brought me to the kitchen, which was quite small for my tastes but I didn’t have room to complain. It was furnished with a stove, an oven and a place where most of the chopping and food preparations were done. The cooking stations mainly used branches and charcoal for fuel. In the cabinets, there were a variety of locally grown vegetables, such as carrots and potatoes. Normal meat that I was used to, such as chicken and pork, were not found, but there was an abundance of rat meat from the dungeon. There were some spices, similar to parsley and basil, but not too fancy. There was also salt and pepper but it wasn’t in abundance.
“Here are some dishes on the menu that I made previously. I am not as proficient at cooking as the chef but I hope that it will suit your tastes.”
What was presented in front of me was a leg of heavily herbed baked rat’s leg accompanied by a slice of rustic bread and a creamy white soup. At first, I was taken back by the strong smell of the rat meat, in which the herbs didn’t do much to rid the odor, but my pride as a self-appointed culinarian insisted that I take a bite.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
{Thank you for the food.}
The results: The meat had a strong gamey flavor which made it difficult to stomach. To the majority of you who have never had rat’s meat before, the texture is surprisingly similar to chicken and pork, but slightly less fatty. What most people do, in countries like Thailand, where farmed rats are sometimes sold on the streets in the less developed regions, is marinate it with aromatic herbs and spices to get rid of the pungent smell, which is comparable to that of bear meat. However, I can assume that this rat was just covered with the spices instead. Along with that, the meat was fairly bland and tough.
The bread was decent, but since it was probably left out for some time, it was almost inedible without softening it in the stew, which tasted like similar to salted flour water. There were some pieces of vegetables in it, but it seemed undercooked.
[Acquired Iron Stomach]
Overall, I can understand that such a dish would be accepted in a town, or a world, like this, but I could not bear to eat something like this. Despite saying that, however, I finished the meal, not only because I have not eaten anything the entire day, but as a sign of respect.
{That was… delicious.}
“Is that so? You seemed to have a hard time eating most of it though.”
{I’m… just not that used to the taste, that’s all. If you don’t mind, I would like to try and make some adjustments to this dish, as a…. preparation for today’s work.}
“By all means, please.”
And so, began my endeavor.
Primarily, there was the problem of dealing with the rat itself. I was not that familiar with the anatomy, so I asked Miss Mia to skin and gut it. After that was done, I removed the meat from the carcass and sliced them into karaage-sized pieces. I, then, put them into a bowl, generously seasoning with salt, pepper, and local herbs, adding rapeseed oil, which was surprisingly abundant, in to help with the marinade.
Whilst leaving the meat to marinate for roughly an hour, I began to make the other two accompaniments. First off, bread. Since there was yeast available, I decided to make fresh bread. After mixing yeast with lukewarm water, the mixture was left for two minutes, and were then promptly added to a bowl of flour. I greatly dislike the smell of yeast. However, fresh bread, as a result, is welcomed. I added some milk to the mixture and kneaded it until it was a smooth yet firm consistency. Sugar would have been great to have in this case but, seeing that there wasn’t even a speck of it here, it was probably very expensive. Leaving the dough to proof for half an hour, I moved onto making the stew.
Sticking with the same theme as Miss Mia, I started making preparations for a creamy stew. After finely chopping some onions and garlic, which were surprisingly stronger in flavor than the garlic available in Japan, I gently sautéed them in a pot with rapeseed oil. After they were slightly translucent, I added in some of the marinated rat meat, cooking it until it was somewhat brown, to which I added chopped mushrooms, diced carrots, and cubed potatoes. And of course, I can’t forget to season generously or else a certain chef in my consciousness will have my head.
After the contents were properly sautéed, I added some stock, that was left over from Miss Mia’s dish, into the pot, letting it deglaze the pot and slowly simmer. When the stock had been reduced by about ¼ of the original volume, I added a mixture of milk and flour, for depth and consistency respectively. This was left on a low heat until it was ready to be served. How did I put the stove on low heat you ask? You reduce the amount of wood that you’re burning!
In the case of the bread, since there was not an exact way to gauge the temperature of the oven, I had Miss Mia bake it how she would usually bake her bread, hoping that it would turn out fine. However, if you were to bake this with a proper oven, then 20-25 minutes at 450 degrees would be optimal.
The marinated rat meat was seared in a pan with oil, basting occasionally so that the meat would not go dry. This was especially difficult because of the low-fat content of the rat meat and there was no butter present. Once the meat was thoroughly cooked, the cooking juices were mixed with some wine, which was then left to simmer into a gravy-like consistency.
I present to you: Seared rat meat with creamy rat meat stew and rustic bread.
{Bon appétit.}
While it wasn’t the best meal I’ve ever eaten, it was much more palatable than the meal that I was just previously served. But for Mira and Miss Mia, on the other hand, were stunned by my makeshift creation.
“How is this possible? The stench of the rat is almost all gone! And it’s moist!”
“I never knew that the same old ingredients could be used to make something so delicious! I must say, I am very impressed.”
{It wasn’t much. I did what I could with the ingredients lying around.}
“Well, we look forward to working with you for the time being.”
{As am I.}
[Acquired Cooking]
That night, one after another, groups of adventurers and travelers alike came to fill their bellies and quench their thirst. Roughly 30 customers were present this evening, eating and drinking their fatigue away like there was no tomorrow. Needless to say, this was significantly more tiring than any part-time job that I had ever taken up.
[Cooking Lv.1 -> Cooking Lv.3]