“But that’s…!”
“If anything, honestly, it’s pretty minor here.”
“……!!”
Tisse’s eyes widened.
It was her most shocked expression.
Sadly, though, it was the truth. To people here in Zoltan, oden was a strange, foreign dish. Even if it was good, it wasn’t something they would eat every day at home.
“So you would have to encourage a practice of making oden at home before even getting to the medicinal herb question.”
“That’s hard to believe…”
“Well…maybe you could open an oden school or something.”
“That’s it! Wonderful idea, Red!”
I’d been half joking, but Tisse was all fired up.
Anyway, I guess it was good she was feeling better.
“For now, though, it’s probably better to focus on household cooking using medicinal herbs. Trying to encourage the spread of oden and medicinal cooking at the same time would be incredibly difficult.”
I took an egg from Tisse’s oden and tried it.
Surprisingly, it didn’t taste bitter at all. The flavor of the herbs was mild and went well with the egg. I was sure it would be even better with some salt or mustard. It would work well as part of a main dish, as a snack, or even just to go with a beer.
“Oden itself might be difficult, but this egg is a good idea.”
“Oooh!”
“And the herbs you’re using. Serpens ebrius for upset stomachs and blue rust leaf to help blood flow, right? Not to mention the egg’s packed with nutrients. There won’t be any obvious visible changes if you use the herbs like that, but if you eat these regularly, it’ll lead to an overall improvement in your health.”
Rit and the others also reached out to try some egg.
“Oh, this is good!”
She was a fan, too.
“I’m pretty sure people here know how to boil an egg, so they can make them at home. And although it takes time to boil the eggs, you can prepare them in advance, so they won’t take any time to get ready at your stall,” Rit said.
“I think you should sell them as something people can eat while they’re walking around the festival,” I added.
“I’m glad,” Ruti said with relief.
She seemed happy to see Tisse’s cooking being appreciated.
“Thank you. I’ve also discovered a new purpose—spreading the culture of household oden. I’m pleased I asked for your advice.”
“Y-yeah. Glad we could help.”
Tisse’s eyes were burning with determination. That said, it didn’t seem to have anything to do with the festival, so it was best to just set that aside for now.
“That means we have one more dish and a drink to go…,” I said. “It’s the standard, but what do you think about just a simple herbal tea for the drink? It’s getting a bit cool now with fall, so a warm tea would go over well, I imagine.”
“Yeah, I think that’s a good idea,” Ruti agreed. “What sort of herbs should we use?”
“There are plenty of options, but since you’re here, do you wanna just try all the herbs I have that seem like they’d go well in herbal tea?”
“That sounds like it’ll take a long time. Are you sure you don’t mind?”
“I imagine it’ll probably take until sunset. It’s for the stall you’re setting up, though, so let’s have fun, leave no regrets, and do everything we can.”
“That’s right!” Rit chimed in. “I haven’t tried many medicinal herbal teas before, so I’m looking forward to it!”
“The best way to find a new flavor is to experiment. Just like with oden,” added Tisse.
“This one is also curious!” said Habotan.
Everyone wanted Ruti’s festival to go well, and I felt just as happy for her.
Though one of us was still a bit too hung up on oden…
“Thank you, everyone.”
Seeing Ruti’s cheeks soften into a smile made me even happier.
We were all still there when dusk fell.
We’d decided on the medicinal egg, which could be ready immediately for the dish that people could eat while walking around, and a medicinal herbal tea for the drink. Those two menu items were done, yet we still hadn’t settled on the main dish for people to eat while sitting on a bench.
“Hrmmm.”
Everyone had their arms crossed, deep in thought.
As we sat there sipping a variety of different herbal teas, we’d come up with a number of different suggestions, but none of them had really worked.
“There are plenty of options if you assume the person making it has the Cooking skill.”
That was the biggest issue we were having.
The dish we came up with needed to be something that any normal household could make.
Tisse and I had both taken the Cooking skill, so we could balance the herbs’ bitterness with the flavor of a dish. We could cook the herbs to remove their astringency and make a simple arrangement of normal household dishes, but without the Cooking skill, the herbs’ bitterness overpowered those flavors.
We couldn’t think of a dish that was both standard Zoltan fare and was also able to mellow out the bitterness of the herbs.
“Haah. This might be too much for just us,” Rit murmured.
“That’s not like you, Rit. It’s too soon to give up.”
“Obviously, I’m not giving up. But we need someone else’s knowledge to resolve this problem, just like how we went to Stormy yesterday.”
“You think so?”
“This is the perfect time for it. Will you all come with me?”
Rit sounded full of confidence. But where were we going?
“This is…”
It had only been about a ten-minute walk from the apothecary.
The place where Rit took us was a lot closer than I’d expected…
“It’s a well.”
“The well.”
“It’s definitely a well.”
It was the well in the center of the neighborhood.
“This must be the ‘watering-hole conversation’ this one has heard all about!” Habotan piped up.
Lots of mothers who’d come to get water were gathered around the well, gossiping and chatting cheerfully.
I often got pulled into the conversations when I’d lived alone in the townhouse, but I hadn’t come this way much since getting the shop built.
“Don’t you think this is the perfect place to learn about home cooking?”
“True.”
Rit was right; everyone here was an expert on Zoltan-style home cooking.
“If it isn’t Red!”
“Nao.”
“It’s been a while since I saw you here,” she said, smiling. “And you brought a crowd… Are you all here to draw water?”
“Nope,” Rit answered instead. “We came to learn some cooking from everyone.”
““Ohhhh!””
All the mothers around us reacted as one.
What had just happened…?
“So you want to know how to win Red’s stomach, huh?”
“Dear me, this is a serious matter.”
“I better tell Chika at the general store!”
Apparently, they were trying to help Rit. And it seemed they were really excited about it, too.
“I appreciate the thought, but tonight’s a little different.”
“Oh, really?”
“Well, I wanted to ask what sort of food you all usually make at home…so I guess the result is sort of the same.”
“Oooh!”
It seemed like this wasn’t Rit’s first time coming here. She was completely comfortable around these women, while Ruti and I found ourselves left behind.
“You come here often? I never knew.”
“I mean, it won’t be long before I’ll be one of the mothers here in Zoltan, right?”
“Oh, uh…”
“I’m confident when it comes to adventuring, but there’s so much I don’t know about being a mother, so I’ve been getting advice in advance from women with much more experience in that area.”
“Ah, so that explains the times you came back a bit later than expected.”
Sometimes when Rit went out to the market alone, she’d get home maybe half an hour later than normal, but she must have just been stopping by here.
While a part of me was able to calmly analyze that much, the thought of Rit being a mother still shook me a bit.
“Do you feel some reluctance about that, Red?” Tisse asked, staring at me closely.
Of course I’d been ready for that from the moment I gave Rit the engagement ring…or actually, from the moment I gave her the amber bracelet.
This shock I was feeling was…
“I’m just embarrassed.”
“I see. How wonderful.”
Tisse’s expression hardly changed as she complimented me.
Mister Crawly Wawly clapped his front legs.
“More importantly…”
Feeling even more embarrassed by Tisse’s reaction, I focused on the topic at hand.
“Sorry for bothering you, but we’re planning on running a stall during the Harvest Festival next week.”
“Oh? Your shop is?”
“My sister is also selling products using medicinal herbs from her plantation, and Habotan here is selling ninja tools from the Jade Kingdom.”
“Well, that sounds delightful.”
“I’ll be sure to stop by.”
The mothers were all excited at the news.
“There’s something we’d like your help with,” Ruti said, speaking up.
Ruti got along well with children, but I don’t think she’d ever gone out of her way to talk to women of this age group.
The mothers all looked fascinated at what had brought Zoltan’s Hero to ask them for help.
“I’d like the medicinal herbs we’re growing to reach more people. They can be used not just to make medicine but also as ingredients in cooking…however, we can’t think of an everyday dish to add medicinal herbs to.”
“By ‘everyday dish,’ do you mean something even we can make?”
“Yeah. Something that doesn’t require the Cooking skill, that any family could enjoy.”
“I see. If there was a dish like that, it would give us a reason to buy your medicinal herbs as well.”
“But we don’t really use any medicinal herbs in our cooking.”
“Sorry, but I don’t think we can help you.”
“What I’d like is for you to tell me what Zoltan homestyle cooking is. I’m sure I’ll find some sort of hint in the sorts of foods you all make at home,” Ruti said earnestly.
“Ahh.” Nao crossed her arms and nodded. “In that case, we might be able to help. C’mon, everyone, why don’t we try to give her a hand?”
“Oh my! I’m a bit embarrassed to show Ruti my cooking skills, but if you think that will help…”
“Why don’t we go to Cotton’s house and cook together?”
“Oooh, that’s a lovely idea. We can all make something and take home a little bit of everything.”
“That would be great. Everyone at home would love a dinner with all sorts of different foods.”
With everyone chatting cheerfully, the matter was settled.
There was plenty of unrelated gossip, too, but that was just part and parcel for these sorts of gatherings.
“It’d be nice if I could cook for you every once in a while.”
“Do you think it would please Lady Torahime if this one learned how to cook?”
Rit and Habotan were both fired up with different goals in mind.
Tisse and Mister Crawly Wawly had developed a passion for cooking lately as well, so they also looked excited.
And I loved cooking, so it went without saying I was excited.
Cotton Pearlman was a middle-aged woman who lived in a particularly large house downtown. Her husband, Lonsdale Pearlman, was a descendant of a noble line, who’d left the family in exchange for inheriting a sizable fortune. That made Lonsdale a commoner; however, he’d used that wealth as capital to set up a stonemasonry business, and back in the day, they had apparently handled more than half of Zoltan’s stonework needs.
The company was no longer as big as it had once been, but the decorations on their large three-story home still spoke to his former prominence.
“Make yourself at home. Feel free to use the kitchen however you like.”
Mrs. Cotton smiled warmly as she welcomed us into her house. She showed us to the kitchen, and I was genuinely impressed.
“This is a wonderful kitchen.”
“There used to be lots of maids who’d cook here, but it’s a bit of a waste now that it’s just me.”
There was enough space for five people to work in the kitchen without it feeling crowded. It was well-worn, but also well-maintained.
“Even places that don’t look like they’ve been used much are nice and neat. It must be tough cleaning such a big area.”
“Hehe, thank you,” Mrs. Cotton said, smiling. “Cleaning up is a bit of a hobby of mine. It was much more rewarding when my children were younger, though; now all I do is dust, and it feels a bit lacking.”
“All right, then let’s all use it together!” Nao said.
Even if they didn’t have the Cooking skill, just watching the mothers of Zoltan in the kitchen made their wealth of experience clear.
I knew I’d be able to learn a lot from them.
As we listened to their stories, they taught us how to make all sorts of dishes.
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