Cooking with Wild Game, page 15
“Hello, Dan Rutim! To the sun god!”
The two clinked their plate and cup together, then chugged down the contents. They seemed to be enjoying themselves even more than they had last night.
“Asuta, I’m getting hungry too! Cut me off some giba meat!” Dan Rutim said.
“All right. I made sure to leave some just for you.”
I cut some rib meat off the right side of one of the giba, which I had intentionally left untouched. Then I placed it on a large plate, still on the bone, and offered it to Dan Rutim and Dora’s family.
Although not even thirty minutes had passed, over seventy percent of the giba’s body was now nothing but bones. It had only been around thirty kilos or so to begin with, and after all the moisture and fat that it had lost, that must have fallen to about twenty-two or twenty-three, but it had still gone as fast as at the celebratory banquet at the Ruu settlement. The stalls to my left and right seemed to be struggling a bit more with the cutting and were moving at a slower pace, but even so, half of the meat they were offering had already been eaten.
“It really is incredibly busy around here. It was crowded over by the inns too, but I think this far northern section is the most packed part of the stall area,” Dora’s older son remarked with a kind smile. Tara had run over to Rimee Ruu’s stall, and then she went to deliver the meat she received over to Yumi.
It truly was even more hectic than usual. The street was completely packed with people, and there was just as much enthusiasm in the air here as I had seen at the banquets at the forest’s edge.
There were some drunkards getting into fights here and there, but the guards quickly settled any such incidents. They had increased their patrols, and there looked to be even more of them deployed than usual.
“Oh my, it seems we really did show up late. Is there still enough left for us?”
The Gamley Troupe had returned once more.
It was a group of five—the acrobat, Pino; the strongman, Doga; the flute player, Nachara; the beast tamer, Shantu; and the tall guy, Dilo, whose act I still hadn’t seen.
“Welcome. We should still have enough left.”
“Glad to hear it. Could you make ours an extra tasty bit?”
“Got it. Is everyone else not around?”
“Those fools had all sorts of complaints about stuff like not wanting to eat in front of people, or not liking such large crowds even though we’re all performers. Well, they can just go ahead and chew on jerky in the dark if that’s how they feel.”
So they had eight stubborn people like that in their group of thirteen? Now that she mentioned it, I got the feeling that a lot of performers could be surprisingly introverted and gloomy.
“Ah, you’re that beast tamer! Those delightful animals aren’t with you?” Dan Rutim called out after toasting with Dora, and Shantu responded with a deeply wrinkled yet cheerful smile.
“If we were to bring them out of the tent, the guards would scold us for it. They’re over that way, eating uncooked kimyuus meat.”
“It’s a shame they have to live such constrained lives! Such powerful beasts must yearn to have wide-open spaces they can run around in!”
“That’s just how it has to be in town. But when we’re traveling, we let them run free where they won’t frighten anyone.”
The crowd in the area around us was also listening to Dan Rutim and Shantu’s conversation with great interest. It seemed that people as outlandish as these traveling performers were difficult to approach for the townsfolk. Dan Rutim’s sociability really was something else.
Meanwhile, since Jiza Ruu was watching them, Ludo Ruu and Rau Lea had to behave themselves and just observe the goings-on from near the stalls. However, occasionally someone would call out from the road and Ludo Ruu would respond with a bright smile.
After they had had their fill of giba meat, Pino’s group pulled out their instruments, to the great delight of the crowd. Shantu left us, while the little guy, Zan, and the twins came in to replace him. Together, they all started playing a tune that didn’t sound like it was from around here. When they later switched to performing that song I didn’t know the name of—the one celebrating the sun god—the crowd began singing along.
“Still, I never knew that giba meat was this delicious!” one of the folks eating some of the last remaining bits of our roast said to me. The man had dark-brown hair and a skin color that made me figure he was a westerner. “We only just arrived here in Genos last night, but we heard talk at the inn about how popular giba cooking has become, so we decided we had to come over here. But, man, it was still such a shock.”
“Is that so? Normally, we run our stalls during the day, but on holidays like this, we’ll be open at night instead, so please feel free to stop by then.”
“Yeah. We visited Genos half a year ago, so I know you’ve been serving giba cooking from your stalls since then,” the man remarked with a smile while holding up a large metal cup full of wine. “Back then, we figured giba meat was inedible and just ignored it, but it seems we were just being stupid. If you’re going to be open for business tonight, we’ll be sure to hurry over.”
“Great, thank you.”
For a lot of our customers, this was their first experience with giba meat. Looking over at Reina and Sheera Ruu’s stall, it looked like even more people than usual were calling out to them too.
“The post town is so incredibly busy during the revival festival,” a voice said from behind us. It was Gazraan Rutim, who had just been silently watching over the proceedings until now. “I’m surprised to see how the westerners are acting around us as well. It’s been quite a while since I last came to the post town.”
“Yeah. But since only folks who aren’t afraid of the people of the forest’s edge come around here, that probably makes the change feel more pronounced.”
“Even so, despite having this many hunters gathered, hardly anyone is looking at us with fear in their eyes. Such a thing would have been unthinkable before now. And my father, Dan, is blending in so smoothly, it’s almost like he’s one of the townsfolk himself.”
“That’s because your father has a great personality,” I remarked, breaking out in a smile without thinking. Gazraan Rutim gave me an affable grin of his own in response.
Meanwhile, Jiza Ruu and Sufira Zaza were standing behind us. What were they thinking about, watching over all of this? And what about the leading clan heads who were waiting for their return, back in the settlement at the forest’s edge?
In order to have more prosperous lives, the people of the forest’s edge should sell giba meat in town... The validity of that viewpoint, which Ai Fa and I had advanced, would without a doubt be carefully scrutinized come the next clan head meeting.
That day of judgment was fast approaching, just half a year off.
3
“Well then, let’s head on back to the forest’s edge.”
The whole roast giba had all been eaten by the townsfolk before the lower first hour arrived, without so much as a scrap remaining. Though I had wanted to enjoy the festive atmosphere a little longer, we would be visiting the post town again in the evening and needed to finish our preparations beforehand. Besides, we got to take in the celebratory ambience on our way back to The Kimyuus’s Tail.
Just as Dora’s older son had said, our part of the stall area really did seem to be the most lively, but all of the stalls spread out beside the street still had folks gathered around them. When we arrived at the inn area after getting past all that, we found that the streets there were even more packed.
Most of the inns had chairs and tables set up outside, where folks were making merry. Grilled kimyuus meat was being brought out to them constantly from the inns’ kitchens. I couldn’t even begin to hazard a guess as to how many kimyuus had been slaughtered for today.
A red flag which I didn’t usually see was being displayed on the fronts of the inns. Was that another one of the townsfolk’s customs for celebrating the sun god? At any rate, the aroma of grilled meat and fruit wine filled the streets, and it felt as if the whole town was intoxicated.
Thanks to the overwhelming commotion, we didn’t actually attract that much attention, pulling our three stalls and two wagons. But since we had seven hunters with blades accompanying us, it was only natural that we did get at least a few nervous looks. We even saw a couple people who stopped and stared in shock, looking like they were about to drop their fruit wine at any moment.
Amid all that, we did have a moment of tension when some kids running around through the crowd almost bumped into Jiza Ruu. The eldest Ruu son dodged out of their way before that could happen, of course, but one of the children was so surprised by the hunter’s agility that he got completely distracted and kind of just kept going on momentum until he tumbled to the ground.
Jiza Ruu looked down upon the child with narrowed eyes, seemingly still smiling even when he actually wasn’t. However, being over 180 centimeters tall with a muscular build and wearing a hunter’s cloak made from a giba pelt, he must have looked as intimidating to that child sitting there in the dirt as the strongman, Doga, did to me. I could see it on his face; the kid was clearly terrified. But just before he broke down sobbing, Ludo Ruu scooped him up from behind.
“You need to be careful to watch where you’re going when you’re running around like that. If a totos kicked you or something, you could have gotten seriously hurt.”
The boy’s teary eyes turned to focus on Ludo Ruu. The youngest son of the Ruu was grinning widely, as always, and rustled the child’s hair. “Boys shouldn’t cry over something like this. Are you hurt anywhere?”
“Ah, he scraped his knee. It’s bleeding a bit,” Lala Ruu remarked, having left her stall to lean over in front of the child.
Just then, a middle-aged woman came running on over after pushing her way through the crowd.
“U-U-Um, that’s my child, so...”
“I see. It looks like he hurt his knee, so you should treat it before it gets any worse,” Ludo Ruu said, smiling at the woman. Even if the young Ruu hunter was a man of the forest’s edge, his grin was always wonderfully charming. The woman ended up giving him a teary smile in return, her face still pale as she scooped up her son. “And you guys, if you want to play tag, you should pick a place that’s more open,” Ludo Ruu called out to the other children standing about, and they all broke out in bashful smiles.
As I breathed a sigh of relief, we resumed pushing the stalls. Ludo Ruu just strolled along with his hands together behind his head, while Jiza Ruu seemed to be staring at his younger brother.
“Wow, the Mas family’s inn is really busy too!” Rimee Ruu exclaimed as we approached The Kimyuus’s Tail. I wasn’t used to hearing them called the Mas family, but, well, she wasn’t wrong. To Rimee Ruu and the others, it was probably the westerners who didn’t have family names who were the strange ones.
At any rate, The Kimyuus’s Tail certainly did seem to be bustling. Various inns around the post town had been tasked with serving the kimyuus meat and fruit wine distributed by the castle, not including the ones with owners who were too lazy to bother with all that work. There were tables and chairs set up in front of the participating inns, where most of the customers were enjoying themselves while drinking wine.
“So, you all already gave away all your giba meat? Good work!” one familiar pot seller called out to us. Seated beside him was the cloth dealer. They were acquaintances of Dora’s whom I had been introduced to way back when I first opened my stall for business, making them some of my oldest regulars. “That whole roast giba really was incredibly delicious! I only had a single slice, since I didn’t want to cheat anyone else out of it, but I could have easily filled my belly completely with that stuff!”
“Thank you. I hope we’ll see you again on the day of the sun’s peak.”
“Of course you will! Ah, good work to you all from the Ruu clan too!”
Our regulars understood the fact that after a certain point, the Ruu clan had branched off from the Fa to open their own business. Reina Ruu and the rest of them answered the man’s greeting with smiles of their own.
“Ah, Asuta and Reina Ruu, good work,” Telia Mas chimed in with a smile as she carried food out of her family’s inn. Unsurprisingly, she had whole roast kimyuus atop a large wooden plate, and the salty-sweet aroma of tau oil and myamuu was wafting off it.
At stalls like Yumi’s, they had just whole roast kimyuus pickled in salt, but it seemed the inns were all using their own particular tricks. Naturally, they had to pay for the ingredients used, but if it meant they stood out more, it was sure to attract additional business. The fruit wine they were handing out in cups seemed to be cut with fruit juice.
“We just had a customer from Jagar ask if we were serving any giba meat. Apparently, they’re offering both kimyuus and giba at The Great Southern Tree.”
“Huh? They’re serving the giba without charge, right?”
“That’s correct. Apparently, things are really bustling over there, thanks to that.”
By serving giba meat for free like we had done, The Great Southern Tree must have been planning to draw attention to itself. Naudis really was a step ahead of everyone else when it came to business dealings.
“My apologies, but could you just leave the stalls out in front of the storehouse? We’ll handle them when we get a chance,” Telia Mas directed us.
“Got it. Well then, we’ll see you again in the evening.”
After that, we returned the stalls, then headed straight for the settlement at the forest’s edge.
We made it back just a little before the lower first hour rolled around, but our long day was only just beginning. From now until night fell, we had to focus entirely on handling the prep work for the meals we would be selling from our stalls and delivering to the inns.
For the duration of the revival festival, we would be splitting up and rotating who handled the cooking for the inns. Today, the Fa clan was taking care of The Sledgehammer, while the Ruu were in charge of The Kimyuus’s Tail and The Great Southern Tree. We had planned things out so that our groups would alternate between being in charge of one inn or two. It took a fair bit of effort to handle all three together, so my plan was to keep up this rotation until the revival festival ended.
At any rate, we quickly got to work.
For The Sledgehammer, that meant preparing 60 servings of the giba sauté arrabbiata, then for the stalls we would be making 160 poitan wraps, 200 giba and nanaar carbonara, and 120 of the daily special, tarapa stew. Then, in whatever time we had left over, we needed to work on making more curry base and pasta too.
But, well, among those dishes, the poitan wraps and giba and nanaar carbonara were prepared on-site, so it would all work out. Baking the poitan was left to the chefs who had remained here, and we had already made the sauce for the poitan wraps yesterday. Since pasta took some time to prepare, we were keeping those dishes at the usual number, while raising the poitan wraps and daily specials by twenty meals each.
Also, the tarapa stew was an Italian-styled dish. The Ruu clan were preparing giba hot pot stew and myamuu giba for today, so there was no worry about overloading our menu with tarapa. With that in mind, I wanted to go with a dish that really centered around the stuff.
For the base, I used a revision of the tarapa sauce recipe we had been making for a long time, with aria and myamuu finely chopped and sautéed in reten oil, which was then stewed together with tarapa and fruit wine, and finally the taste was adjusted with salt and pico leaves. For a bit of subtle seasoning, I added tau oil and sugar, as well as an herb from Sym that seemed rather close to basil.
As for the meat, I used rib meat and thigh meat, sixty grams each, cut into large chunks. After adding salt and pico leaves for a base seasoning, I grilled just the surfaces, then boiled them fully in the sauce afterward.
For vegetables, I went with aria, tino, nenon, ro’hyoi, ma pula, and chan, a variety just as lavish as the teriyaki meat stew. Also, once it was served up on a plate, we would add grated gyama dried milk on top.
I had been diligently building up experience with tarapa-based dishes ever since I had prepared that stew for the Rutim banquet way back when and first opened my stall serving giba burgers. It was the vegetable I was most familiar with, in all my experience using unfamiliar tools and ingredients, and all the trial and error I’d gone through.
Reina and Sheera Ruu had come up with a wonderful dish using tarapa sauce as a base—their teriyaki meat stew. That had spurred me on with a craving to create the absolute best tarapa dish I could prepare at the moment too.
I figured that even if some customers had stew or giba burgers from the Ruu clan the following day, it would still be completely satisfying for them, so I held nothing back in making a dish I could feel proud of.
Personally, I felt that Reina and Sheera Ruu were just as important as Myme and Varkas for me to keep an eye on. I hoped that we could all have a friendly rivalry, spurring one another forward to make the greatest dishes we could. With that wish firmly in mind, I once again gave my all to handling the day’s work.
“You look like you’re enjoying yourself, Asuta...” Ai Fa said as I boiled the contents of a pot. As she didn’t have anything to do but help carry stuff, she had been seated next to the stove for a while now, just staring at me as I worked.
“Yeah, of course I am. Why do you bring it up?”
“No particular reason. Just giving voice to a thought that crossed my mind.”
I figured she might have been lamenting her inability to work as a hunter right now, but her eyes seemed surprisingly gentle. I couldn’t help but notice my heart had started pounding just from looking at her.
“You sort of look like you’re enjoying yourself too, Ai Fa.”
“Hmm? If my clan member is happy, then so am I. That much should go without saying at this point.”
As the sunlight shone down on her, filtered through the trees, her golden hair sparkled. I seemed like Ai Fa’s charms had grown even stronger since last night, and I was starting to get worked up. However, it was a blissful, warm sensation causing me to feel that way inside.
