Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 28 - Chapter 1.4

4

“Ugh, it was starting to feel like the meeting was going to be the least troublesome part of the evening,” Milano Mas muttered at our table after Donda and Mida Ruu eventually left the dining hall.

“Sorry about that. But I’m glad that everything worked out.”

“Well, I guess commotions like that are necessary sometimes to help the people of the forest’s edge and the townsfolk to get along.”

At the other tables around us, the various inn owners seemed to have rebounded and started eating again.

Lema Geit had thrown herself back in her chair with a sour expression. Even after she had settled things with Mida Ruu, she still seemed to have no interest in trying giba meat.

“Now then, our fine friends from the forest’s edge...can you give us an outline of your plans for selling giba meat?” the head of the firm, Tapas, asked after regaining his composure.

“An outline?”

“Yes. The quantities you want to deal in and where you intend to sell it are the questions that immediately come to mind. I’ve heard that you currently make deliveries in person to each of the inns you’re contracted with, but if you end up with ten or twenty inns buying from you, it will be very difficult for you to continue doing that.”

“Ah. Yes, that’s true.”

“And as for the question of quantities, the cost of karon or kimyuus will vary wildly depending on whether you’re buying in bulk or only a small amount, and I believe you should follow that practice with giba meat as well.”

Indeed, buying kimyuus or karon meat in small quantities could mean paying double the price for it. Inns needed to prepare dozens or even hundreds of meals each day and would buy enough for several days at once, which had led to the development of the concept of wholesale pricing.

If we were to sell giba meat on the open market but were the only ones not to price it that way, then it would be what all the individual consumers who could only purchase a little meat at a time would want. Besides, the nobles in the castle town had mandated the use of wholesale pricing schemes, and disregarding their policies wasn’t an option for us.

“I’d like to go with the same prices as kimyuus and karon. Also, we currently deliver enough meat for three days at a time to the inns we have deals with, and that’s what I’d like to keep doing.”

“Well then, that leaves where you’ll be selling. Kimyuus and karon meat is generally sold at the morning market, with buyers heading there to make their purchases.”

“Hmm. Then should we do the same?”

“Well, if you do, you won’t need to establish a contract with each individual inn, so it should require less effort for everyone involved.”

That would probably be a little tricky for us. The Fa and Ruu clans were always busy in the morning preparing food, and anyone who wasn’t already involved in that was needed to take care of other chores, so it would be difficult to pull more people away.

“Do any clans under the Ruu have people to spare?” I whispered to Reina Ruu.

“I’m not sure,” she replied, tilting her head a bit. “The Ruu are already getting assistance from our subordinate clans to gather pico leaves and firewood. We need a lot more of both than we used to in order to keep on doing business in the post town.”

“Yeah, that’s no surprise. In that case, we might have no choice but to ask for help from the clans that aren’t connected to either of ours. Um... When does the morning market begin and end each day?”

“It generally starts at the upper fourth hour and wraps up less than an hour later. Every few days, karon sellers from Dabagg visit, but they generally spend the night in the castle town before getting set up for the market in the post town the next morning. And the kimyuus sellers from the Daleim lands aim for that time frame as well.”

In that case, participating in the market would probably only take us about two hours in total, once travel time was factored in. If we asked the Fou, Gaaz, and Ratsu, they would probably be able to lend us a couple people for that long. We had also recently gotten friendlier with the Dai, who lived pretty far away from us, so they weren’t able to help out with prep work. But that meant it was likely that they would have some women they could spare for this.

“We’d like to return to the forest’s edge to discuss this matter with the leading clan heads and the other clans first,” I said. “But we do intend to abide by the way you do things here in the post town as much as possible.”

“I believe that would be for the best, yes. My own inn has been tasked with helping to spread the use of karon torso meat, so unfortunately I will not be able to use giba meat myself,” Tapas noted with a smile. I felt it was a bit of a shame that Yang wouldn’t get a chance to use giba meat. “Well then, that should settle matters regarding giba meat for now. I’m certain that after tonight’s dinner there will be quite a few more innkeepers who will want to work with it.”

“Quite so. I definitely want to buy some for my inn. After all, a lot of my customers from the east are fond of giba meat,” Jizeh remarked with a smile. A lot of easterners seemed to have a positive view of the people of the forest’s edge, and that was certainly true of this older woman who had a parent from the east.

“By the way, there shouldn’t be any problem with handling onda orders the same way we would any other vegetable, correct?” Tapas asked.

“Not at all,” I replied. “Apparently, as long as they’re informed of how much will be needed once every few days, the farmers should be able to provide whatever you need. Presently, only a man named Dora has agreed to keep selling onda, but if his farm can’t handle all of the demand, he’s willing to reach out to other vegetable sellers in order to increase the supply.”

Apparently, Tara would be the one in charge of going around and taking orders. Dora ran a pretty big farm in the Daleim lands, so I was sure a fair number of the innkeepers present had previously ordered vegetables from him.

“Well then, are we about done here? If so, I’m going to take my leave,” Lema Geit remarked in an annoyed tone, and Tapas turned toward her with a disappointed look.

“The discussions are largely finished and the food is almost all gone. But are you really not going to stay for drinks and friendly conversation?”

“Tonight, I’d just be in the way. Besides, if I drink on an empty stomach, I probably won’t be able to stand afterward.”

Rimee Ruu suddenly called out, “Ah! Um, we still have dessert left! Even if you don’t want to eat giba meat, you should still be able to eat dessert, right?!”

“What’s this now? The meal is over, isn’t it?”

“Dessert is supposed to be eaten after the meal! So we were waiting for everyone to finish!”

Even Lema Geit ended up holding her tongue when faced with Rimee Ruu’s perfectly earnest smiling face. Figuring this would be good timing, I decided to chime in too.

“I’d actually like everybody’s opinion on one additional matter. Would you mind sharing your viewpoint too, Lema Geit?”

“Eh? I told you the whole smashed stall thing is settled, sure, but that doesn’t mean I feel like helping you lot with a moneymaking scheme!”

“We aren’t the only ones who stand to profit. But for now, we’ll just serve the dessert Rimee Ruu mentioned.”

With that, we cleared away the empty plates before carrying out the after-dinner desserts.

When Lema Geit saw the fresh plate placed on the table before her, her eyes opened wide and she asked, “What the world is this?”

“That’s called chatchi mochi. Next to it is a dish made using poitan, sugar, eggs, and milk fat.”

The pancake-style baked poitan were one thing, but what really surprised everyone was the chatchi mochi. It was translucent and jiggly and didn’t really resemble any commonly known dish found in Genos, so it made a really strong impression.

“Oh wow, sweets too?! That’s a happy surprise!” Yumi said excitedly from her spot a short distance away from us. In all likelihood, she was the only person here who was familiar with our desserts.

“Asuta, what do you mean by sweets?” Tapas asked.

“Well, as the name implies, sweets are sweeter than ordinary cooking, and they bring a different kind of pleasure to eating. In the castle town, they’re eaten as a midday snack and after dinner.”

“Hmm. Then it’s like chewing on a sweet ramam when you’re feeling a little hungry?”

“Yes, that’s exactly right. The post town hasn’t had access to any sweet fruits aside from ramam up until recently, so nobody here seems to have had much inspiration to make this kind of thing before.”

In terms of fruit, the post town also had arow and sheel, but since both of them were more on the sour side, they were only used to add flavor to dishes and fruit wine. Sugar from Jagar wasn’t commonly used in the post town either, so perhaps it was only natural that they wouldn’t put much thought into making confections.

“I’d like to hear everyone’s opinions on whether people in the post town might like to buy this kind of food. They’re fairly popular in the settlement at the forest’s edge, but what do you think?”

Like with the earlier parts of the meal, we had a simple dish alongside a more elaborate one. The pancakes were covered in a sort of dark-brown caramel made by boiling down sugar. The chatchi mochi had karon milk in them, and we had drizzled substitute chocolate sauce made from gigi leaves over them.

The innkeepers slowly reached out toward one of the plates. Unsurprisingly, they all seemed to be starting with the pancakes, which didn’t have such an unusual appearance.

“Mm-hmm, pretty tasty!” Yumi said right away.

Sams, who was still seated next to her, looked shocked. “What is this stuff? It’s ridiculously sweet.”

“But it is good, isn’t it? I can’t get enough of that milk fat flavor!”

I was hearing quite a few sounds of surprise coming from our little crowd. However, I noticed that Lema Geit was silently glaring at the plate in front of her.

“Aren’t you gonna try some? They don’t have giba meat in them, you know,” Rimee Ruu called out with a smile as she stuffed her cheeks with dessert.

“Hmph!” Lema Geit snorted. “How many times do I have to tell you before you get it? I’ve got no intention of making friends with you people of the forest’s edge!”

“Huh? But I wanna be friends with you,” Rimee Ruu replied, her shoulders slumping.

The look on Lema Geit’s face grew even more sullen in response, so I decided to chime in again, figuring I needed to offer some support.

“Lema Geit, we’re people working in the same industry, and also business rivals. It’s one thing if you feel animosity toward us people of the forest’s edge, but is it really necessary to take it so far that you end up losing profit?”

“Losing profit? Why would I lose profit?!”

“If sweets turn out to be a hit in the post town, everyone will start putting out their own, right? If you deliberately refrain from competing, it’s inevitable that you’re going to lose business, don’t you think?”

The innkeeper had no response to that.

“And your losses could end up turning into profits for us people of the forest’s edge.”

“Hey! I can’t tell if you’re trying to draw me in or pick a fight with me!”

“Both and neither, I’d say. Like Tapas said at the start, I’d like to work together with everyone, but I also want to compete with you all in the same field.”

Lema Geit’s thick fingers scratched roughly at her head, until she finally made up her mind to pick up a spoon. It seemed she was going for the chatchi mochi.

“What the heck is this stuff?! It’s all flabby, and it looks like it has to be hard to eat!”

“Be careful not to spill any of the chocolate sauce! It makes the mochi really yummy!” Rimee Ruu said, smiling once again.

After shooting her a glare, Lema Geit finally went ahead and tossed the chatchi mochi into her mouth.

“Well? It’s tasty, isn’t it?” Rimee Ruu asked, her eyes sparkling with anticipation.

However, Lema Geit was still wearing that same sour look on her face. “What a disgusting texture... It’s hard to imagine this is food.”

“Yeah, Papa Donda and Darmu said the same thing at first! But now, they eat even more than I do!”

Rather than replying to that statement, Lema Geit simply kept chewing in silence.

In the meantime, Jizeh spoke up, saying to us, “This certainly is an unusual flavor. You call it chatchi mochi, but how exactly did you use chatchi in this dish?”

“Well, what we did was extract something from chatchi that makes it a little sticky and use it to make these mochi. The process involves finely chopping up the chatchi and squeezing them in water to make something called starch come out. Once it dries out, you end up with something similar to poitan flour, which you mix with water again and boil. Then when it cools off, it comes out like this.”

“I see... So it’s the same chatchi starch stuff you mentioned when you were talking about the meatball sauce?” Jizeh took another bite of chatchi mochi. “It may look strange, but it’s quite tasty as well... And this sauce you added on top, it seems to have been made from gigi leaves.”

“That’s right. You’re familiar with them?”

“Yes. I buy them for the inn from a guest that I’m close to.”

Gigi leaves were used in Sym to make tea. They had previously been one of the ingredients Cyclaeus had monopolized in Genos, but Jizeh had apparently been making deals to get her hands on them in secret. Nail and Naudis had been doing something similar with dried milk and tau oil.

“Hmm, but if these require a lot of sugar and milk fat, they must be quite expensive to make, correct? People visiting the post town are becoming less and less reluctant to part with their coins for food, but don’t you think it would be difficult to find enough people willing to pay for these sweets in addition to their regular meals?” Tapas questioned.

I answered with a reply I had prepared in advance. “If I were to try to sell sweets, I would probably offer small portions in order to keep costs down. For example, with these sweet baked poitan, which I call pancakes, I’d sell a whole one for a single red coin and half of one for a half coin. It would be reasonable for curious customers to try them at that price, wouldn’t you say?”

“You’d offer something of this size for one red coin? And you could still turn a profit like that?”

“Yes. At that rate, the profit margin on pancakes will be about the same as our other dishes. We prepared them at this size tonight to demonstrate what they would look like at the price we’re aiming for.”

They were twelve to thirteen centimeters in diameter, and about one centimeter thick. Even if sugar and milk fat were expensive, poitan and eggs were cheap, so the ingredient costs didn’t actually amount to all that much.

At the other tables, folks were starting to huddle up again to discuss the dish.

Jizeh smiled gently at us. “Asuta, why are you doing so much to teach us about these dishes? If the people of the forest’s edge were to sell them first, that would earn you a great deal of attention, wouldn’t it?”

“That’s true, but I figure that if lots of inns and stalls start offering them at the same time, the new dishes will make a much bigger splash. Besides, our true focus is on spreading awareness of how delicious giba meat is; desserts aren’t really part of that.”

“But earning all that money for yourselves would benefit you greatly, wouldn’t it?”

“My only goal when it comes to sweets is to show people new ways to use ingredients. And I thought it best to unveil them in advance like this. Yang—who’s assisting Tanto’s Blessing as a chef—has made a point of doing the same thing in the past.”

Besides, what Polarth had told me quite some time ago had left a really strong impression on me. He had once asserted that Genos was well positioned to become a town where you could find cuisine originating from most of the continent, as a place that had trade connections with both Sym and Jagar.

For better or worse, the foundations for that had already been established in the castle town. Cyclaeus had been so obsessed with gourmet food that it had been downright unhealthy, but because of that, he had secured countless deals for importing all kinds of different ingredients. And Polarth had come up with a truly grand plan to see that possibility realized in the post town as well.

If ordinary travelers without passes started coming to Genos in search of delicious food, it would make the town even more prosperous than it already was. That was the ultimate goal Polarth was aiming to accomplish.

Honestly, his vision was so grandiose that it was a little hard for me to wrap my head around the full scope of it, but the basic idea of improving the range of ingredients available to everyone in order to help develop the town was something I could definitely appreciate.

“Yang is, frankly, more knowledgeable about making sweets than I am. However, he’s quite a busy man, so I decided that I should bring them up myself. But I hope that you’ll give it some thought.”

“Hmm. Then I’ll have to consult with him as well, because these sweets were incredibly delicious. As long as I can make their prices work out, I’m certain my customers would appreciate them,” Tapas said, and then he looked out over the crowd. “Now then, why don’t we all take some time to consider what to do with these sweets on our own? If no one has any further topics to discuss, I’d like to bring today’s meeting to an end and move on to the drinking party.” There weren’t any objections, so Tapas gave a satisfied nod. “Okay, that brings today’s regular meeting to a close. Any further orders are to be paid for individually.”

Instantly, voices called out for wine from all around. Naudis rose with a smile and said, “Yes, yes. I’ll treat you all to the first round of drinks. I’ll take food orders as well, so please hold on for a moment.”

“Naudis, can we order one of your giba dishes?” someone called out from one of the tables.

“Of course,” Naudis replied, his eyes narrowing happily. “Today we have cubed giba meat stew, which we only serve once every six days. There may only be a little bit left, though.”

That dish took a fair bit of effort to make, so we had decided to only sell it to him after a day off from business, hence why he couldn’t offer it more often than that. At any rate, the innkeepers fought to order the cubed giba meat stew as quickly as possible after hearing Naudis say that.

“Now then, what do you all intend on doing?” Milano Mas asked us while watching the commotion out of the corner of his eye.

“Well, none of us drink, but we were planning to stay for a while in order to get to know people better.”

“I see. In that case, I’ll introduce you to—” he started to say, but before he could finish, Yumi weaved her way over to us between the tables.

“You all aren’t leaving yet, are you? If you’d like, I can introduce you to some of the other innkeepers!”

“Thanks, Yumi. But we’re here as associates of The Kimyuus’s Tail, so...” I said, trailing off.

“Don’t worry about me. That girl’s sure to be more useful than I am anyway,” Milano Mas chimed in.

However, Reina Ruu leaned forward and said, “In that case, why don’t we split into two groups so both of you can help us?”

“You want to split our group in half when there are only four of us?” I asked. “Well, I guess six when you include Ludo and Shin Ruu.”

“Yes,” Reina Ruu replied with a nod. “That way, we’ll be able to get to know more people, right? Time is limited, so we should try to use it efficiently. What do you think?”

“Well, if that’s your opinion, then I’ve got no objections.”

And so, Reina Ruu went off with Tsuvai Rutim and Shin Ruu, following Milano Mas to go meet people at one of the other tables.

“Reina Ruu sure has her act together, doesn’t she? Even if she doesn’t look it, I suppose she is older than me, huh?” Yumi said.

“Yeah. She just turned eighteen.”

It was remarkable how much Reina Ruu had matured after taking charge of the Ruu clan’s stalls. And since around the time when we had set up our outdoor restaurant space, I had really noticed her taking an interest in becoming friendlier with the townsfolk.

“Well then, why don’t we get moving too? We’ll make sure everyone here wants to buy giba meat!” Yumi declared.

“Yeah, thanks.”

And so, I left my seat along with Rimee and Ludo Ruu.

Since we had known that I was definitely going to get back late, Ai Fa was currently visiting the Fou house. She was probably having a nice time with Saris Ran Fou and her son Aimu Fou.

However, I still had a bit more work to take care of today. I approached the first inn owner Yumi wanted me to meet, and got started.