CH 34
AWEON Mall Isekai Store, Grand Opening Today!
âAlright then, Iâll just grill some and taste it.â
I mutter in a whisper.
As on the first night I was sent to another world, there was nobody to answer me.
But itâs not like thereâs no one here.
The skeletons with aprons are behind me with the meat in front of me. They are looking at me like they are interested in what I am going to cook.
Thereâs a black haze hovering near the ceiling of the kitchen. Itâs like, âWhat are they doing?â
âMy cooking assistant is a skeleton, and there is a ghost on the tour. Three-minute cooking in another world is surrounded by undead! I mean, you canât do it in three minutes! And Iâm not even the head family!â (idk the reference)
Chloe, Barbera and Anna-san went out to the store front.
Nobody heard my clicking tongue â or they did, but they didnât answer. I hear a click and feel the skeletonâs head tilting, but I donât let it go.
I put a small frying pan on the fire.
While the pan is heating up, I cut down three kinds of meat into thin strips.
The Horned Cow, the Assault Wild Boar, and the Combat Chicken.
Three different kinds of meat that Chloe bought from the butcher in the nearest town. Of course, Iâve never had any of them.
âTheir names are too much like warrior spirits. I thought they were monster meat. But it was sold at the butcherâs, so they are edible, right?â
Although I felt a little uneasy, it was too late. I was able to eat the meat of a one-horned rabbit, so Iâm sure it will be fine.
I picked up the meat of a combat chicken.
Throw it into a warmed frying pan.
Thinly sliced pieces of meat quickly change color.
The meat was [purified] but I wanted to make sure it was cooked well enough.
Once browned, I put the piece of combat chicken meat in my mouth without even sprinkling salt and pepper.
Chew on it.
âItâs tough. But itâs not so tough that I canât chew it. Itâs kind of like a chicken shabu-shabu, isnât it?â
I chew the small piece of meat repeatedly, rolling it around on my tongue to check its texture and taste.
I also did the same with the assault wild boar and the horned cows.
âThe combat chicken is a chicken with close combat ability, while the assault boar is, as the name implies, a wild boar, but with the flesh similar to that of pork. Horned beef seems to be a lean breed of beef. Okay, I guess we can go ahead with the menu as planned.â
I nodded to myself.
Behind me, the skeletons nodded. The heck?
âIâm a little concerned that theyâre all a little hard. Well, I guess weâll just have to try them out. Letâs see⦠â¦â¦â
I turned around and looked at the skeletons.
Annaâs underlings, with only bones and aprons on their bodies.
I donât know if these guys can really help, but since itâs a prototype anyway, Iâm going to give them instructions one by one.
By the way, the kitchen has running water and an exhaust fan.
The kitchen is brightly lit and has the same cooking utensils as the one at the Aion Mall at Kasugano.
The stove is apparently fueled by magic stone, not gas, but thatâs about the only difference.
âWow, itâs so convenient! Thatâs what I expected from a kitchen that makes ready-made food! As expected of Aion! Donât think too much about it. I can use it, so it doesnât matter.â
With a half-smile and a sense of escaping reality, I began to make a prototype.
I began to make a prototype of a Japanese dish using ingredients from another world in the kitchen of the Aion Mallâs Otherworldly Store.
âYou finally came, Naoya! Iâm tired of waiting!
ââ¦.. hungry.â
As soon as I left the kitchen after finishing the first prototype, I was immediately interrupted by Chloe.
Barbera looked up at me.
Anna-san, who laughed wryly, explained to me the reason why the two of them were like this.
âFufufuâ¦. Naoya-san, Chloe and Barbera had a hard time because they reacted to the smell. The customers were curious about the smell, too.â
âI opened the ventilation to the fullest, but the smell of fried food leaked out. The exhaust ducts are connected to the outside, so customers would be curious about it, I guess.â
It was my first time in this kitchen, and my first time using the ingredients.
Although the skeletons helped me, it still took me a long time to get it to a satisfactory level.
It was already past closing time at the Aion Mall Otherworldly Store, and there were no customers.
So I took the finished food with me to the front and let the skeletons take over.
âItâs around dinner time, so itâs just in time. I want you to taste it and let me know what you think.â
Saying that, I pointed to the plate the skeletons were holding.
Their eyes lit up.
âGolden color, and this aromaâ¦â¦Naoya-san, is this a dish fried in oil by any chance? How extravagant!â
ââ¦â¦â¦ I eat it!â
âIâve had this before! Only once at an upscale restaurant that the deputy commander took me to! Donât tell me Naoya has eaten this kind of fine cuisine â¦â¦.â
âFine cuisine? Ah I see, itâs probably because oil is expensive in this world. But if you make it in large quantities, you can make a profit even at a lower price per serving.â
âI see, so thatâs the advantage of eating in! Thatâs great, Naoya-san!â
âYou understand too quickly, Anna-san. I donât know if you are being sarcastic or not when you say [amazing].â.
âIf the price is affordable even for commoners, itâs going to sell!ãWho doesnât like meat anyway!?â
âThere are elves, you know. Eat your fruits and vegetables, elf.â
I made it, ka-tsu (cutlet).
The breadcrumbs are made from the bread of this world, and the oil is made from lard pork fat, or maybe wild boar fat, hence the name â¦â¦.
Anyway, it may not be the same as âkatsuâ in Japan, but it is similar.
Having moved to an eat-in space that was not in service, I cut the pork cutlet into small pieces and prepared the sauce on a separate plate.
The sauce is a mystery condiment here, and since it is limited in quantity, the sauce by itself may not sell well.
But the advantage of serving inside a store is that you can use condiments from Japan.
With this usage, I hope it will last for half a year. The dilemma is that if it sells, it will be out of stock immediately!
âThis is a wild boar cutlet, and itâs hard to call it that, so Iâll just call it a pork cutlet. This one is a beef cutlet, and this one is chicken cutlet.â
I cut up the three kinds of cutlets and put them on plates for the four of us.
Barbera took a bite of the cutlets before I could even say anything to her.
The sound of a crispy bite can be heard. She swallows it down with a gulp.
ââ¦â¦ Delish! More!â
âThatâs not fair, Barbera! Naoya, can I eat now? Right?â
âA- ahh, let me know what you think.â
âWell then, Iâll have some too.â
Following Barbera, Chloe and Anna-san also took a bite of the cutlet.
I took another sip, though I tasted it.
The freshly fried cutlets were crispy and crunchy.
Maybe itâs the wild boar meat, or maybe itâs the monster meat, but every bite is flooded with intense flavor.
I was worried about the bread crumbs, but they were so savory that I thought I could use them as they were. Itâs fine-grained and a little less crispy, but I think thatâs a good thing.
The sweet fat peculiar to wild boar is also nice, and the smell is almost imperceptible.
The oil used for frying was the oil in the uncooked jar that Chloe bought at the butcher shop.
It was filled with wild boar fat, which seemed a bit heavy, but I couldnât help it. Letâs hope the people of this world have strong stomachs.
I continued to taste a piece of beef cutlet and a piece of chicken cutlet.
âYes, itâs good. The pork cutlet is a little bit too tough, but the others are good.â
âDelicious, itâs delicious, Naoya! Itâs even better than the one at the restaurant the deputy commander took me to! I wonder what it is, this black mucus! â
âDonât call it black mucus. Itâs pork cutlet sauce. â
âI saw it on a shelf in the closet â¦â¦. It was a product I didnât understand, but I didnât know it was this delicious. â
Anna-san breathed a sigh of relief and said sincerely.
If you didnât know the product, you should have asked about it.
âThis is good, this is good, Naoya! Because who doesnât like meat!? â
âYes, there is. I mean, Chloe is an elf. â
ââ¦â¦ second, more?â
âOh, weâre going to use up all the meat for the other test. â¦â¦ â
Barbera, who offered the plate to me, dropped her shoulders.
Regardless of her actual age, she looks 10 years old, which makes me feel very guilty.
âIâm not done with that. One of them will take a long time, so I canât do it today, but Iâll have another prototype ready for you soon. â
ââ¦â¦ I, wait!â
Barberaâs eyes sparkled.
Both Chloe and Anna-san look at me with eyes full of expectation.
What a pressure, but Iâm sure it wonât be a problem.
âThe next dish is one that is very popular in Japan and is a classic Japanese dish to serve in another world, okay?â
With that, I headed to the kitchen.
âNaoya? Do Japanese people come to this world often? Iâve never heard of them?â
I could hear Chloeâs question, and I didnât answer back, [Iâm talking about those in creative writing].
Maybe some of them come to this world through transmigration or reincarnation! Chloe and Anna-san said theyâd never heard of them!