The Power of the Saint is All Around (LN) - Volume 5 - Chapter 3

Act 3:

Food from Foreign Countries

THOUGH THE AVENUE by which I’d found it had been unexpected, I had finally managed to find rice. We’d only been in Morgenhaven a couple of days, so we still had a few days left before we were to return to the capital.

During that time, we were able to search the markets for any other unusual imports, but we stopped doing that soon enough. We just kept finding so many different goods in the cargo Ceyran had brought.

And here I’d assumed that it would take me forever to track down all these spices—I’d already managed to find a ton that I had half given up on ever tasting again. Ceyran had thanked me for that potion, but now I was the one who wanted to prostrate myself to him in gratitude.

How should I spend the rest of our trip? I wondered. I wound up deciding to use my newly acquired spices to cook.

Based on the spices Ceyran and his crew had brought, the cuisine in Zaidera likely resembled Chinese food from my world. Therefore, I gathered the spices with which I would be able to whip up some fairly rudimentary Chinese cuisine. It went without saying that gathering all these ingredients had put me in the mood for it.

Okay, time to cook!

However, Jude insisted that I had to wait. Honestly, he didn’t even have to try to stop me. The fact was that I simply couldn’t cook anything. We were traveling, and I couldn’t expect to borrow our inn’s kitchens. Thus, I would have to wait a bit longer.

“My lady, are you interested in the cuisine of Zaidera?”

“Oh, I am!”

Two days after we first visited Ceyran’s ship, he visited us at the inn and asked me this. And of course I was interested. How couldn’t I be?

After my enthusiastic reply, Ceyran invited us to dine at the inn he and his crew were staying at. His ship’s cook could treat us to a Zaideran meal at the dining room there.

I had a feeling this offer had been made as another act of gratitude for that potion. I was starting to feel like Ceyran was going out of his way to do too much for me, but my desire to taste his country’s cuisine won out.

When I glanced nervously to see what chiding expressions Jude and the knights might be wearing, they chuckled in resignation. It seemed I had been granted permission.

I beamed as I told Ceyran that we would happily visit his inn. Even he chuckled as he told us the location.

Oh boy, if he’s laughing at me too, I’m getting a bit carried away, huh? Sorry! I just can’t control myself. I’m so excited that I might get to eat Chinese food for the first time in literally forever…

“Huh? Has something happened, my lady?” Oscar asked as he arrived at the inn. He had bumped into Ceyran and I talking in the entrance hall.

I told him that we had been invited for dinner. Oscar seemed interested in getting to try foreign cuisine too, and he asked if he could join us. Ceyran readily agreed.

I felt a bit presumptuous—it seemed I was going to be bringing a lot of guests to dinner. Me, Jude, Oscar, and the knights. That really is a number of folks.

Despite their resigned laughs before, Jude and the knights also seemed intrigued by Zaideran food.

Now that the guest list was decided, we sorted out when we would be coming.

There’ll be so many of us, so Ceyran probably needs to prepare some things on his end, right? Considering how long we’ll all be staying here, it’s probably more realistic to expect this dinner will be two or three days from now. 

Or so I thought, but Ceyran assured us that he would happily host us that very night. His crew was fairly large, so they already had generous quantities of ingredients prepared.

All right, then—tonight it is!

“Welcome, my lady,” said Ceyran.

“Thank you so much for the invitation.”

The dinner party was at night, but the sun hadn’t yet set, so it was still fairly bright out. We had arrived a bit early to the inn where Ceyran and his crew were staying.

As we talked about what kind of food would be served, Ceyran showed us to the kitchens where our meal was being made. I felt kind of guilty because I had accidentally let it slip mid-conversation that I really wanted to see what they were up to. I worried it wouldn’t be okay without the cook’s permission, but Ceyran insisted that it was fine.

Really? I got all anxious as we made our way to the kitchen.

“Hey, can you come here for a moment?” Ceyran called to a man in the center of the kitchen. 

The fellow trotted right over to the door. “What is it, Captain?”

“Could I ask you to let her watch you while you cook?”

The cook frowned over at me with a doubtful expression. “You mean that lady over there?” 

“That’s the one.”

I bowed, and the man turned back to Ceyran with a look that demanded an explanation. Ceyran introduced me as one of tonight’s guests, and the man’s expression transformed into one of amazed comprehension. Then he broke out in a broad smile.

“You’re the lass who gave us the potion, aren’t you?” the cook said.

“Uh, yes, I am.”

“You’re more than welcome in my kitchen. So, you’ve got an interest in cooking then, I take it?”

“I do. I wanted to see what techniques you use in Zaidera.”

“I see, I see. Well, you’re welcome to watch from over there.”

Moments ago, the cook had been eyeing me with suspicion, but he was all smiles now. I set foot in the kitchen as instructed and settled down in a spot where I could watch what was going on without getting in anyone’s way. It was precisely the spot that the cook had pointed me to.

If our whole party had hung around, we would surely have been in the way, so Jude and I were the only ones who stayed in the kitchen. It was your typical Salutanian affair. I saw the usual array of pots and knives—the same kinds I saw everywhere else. However, a couple things stood out among the cookware: a bamboo steamer and a traditional wood-burning stove. I recognized both from my old world.

Jude was as surprised as I was. To him, both of these were likely brand-new implements. He pointed at the stove and asked the cook about it. They didn’t steam food in the kingdom, so it was a bit tricky to explain it to him.

As I was going over how steam cooked food in Salutanian, the cook gave a more detailed explanation. He had guessed what we were talking about from our behavior. However, he of course offered the explanation in Zaideran, so I had to interpret for Jude.

“What are you steaming today?” I asked the cook in Zaideran.

“Bao.”

“Wait, did you say bao?!”

“Yes, I believe you call them dumplings over here? We make them by stuffing other ingredients into bread dough.”

Of course I knew about bao—Chinese steamed buns. In Japan, we served them with meat or red bean paste. I’d been so bowled over by the revelation that he was making bao that the cook assumed I just didn’t know what he was talking about.

“The stuffing is usually ground meat, cooked vegetables, or beans that have been boiled and mashed,” the cook continued.

“There sure are a lot of different varieties.”

“Quite so. Depending on the filling, bao can be considered a meal or a snack. It’s a versatile food.”

“What kind of bao are you making for us today?”

“We’ve filled them with vegetables to complement the other dishes we’ll be serving tonight.”

Vegetable steamed buns. I had eaten them at a Chinese restaurant before, back in Japan. They had been made with vegetable oil and seasoned with sesame oil, and they had been unbelievably delicious.

Oh, by other dishes, did he mean there would be more oily foods? Vegetable steamed buns were lighter than ones filled with ground meat, so that made sense.

The cook went on to tell me about his cookware, the other dishes he was making, and the ingredients they were using, all of which I interpreted for Jude. I’d never heard of some of the vegetables the cook was using, so it was terribly interesting to hear what he had to say.

After indulging in this mini-lecture, it was time to eat, so we left the kitchen and made our way to the dining room. On our way out, we made sure to politely give our thanks to the cook and his assistants.

I still hated to intrude while they were so busy, but I’d been able to learn how to make a kind of food I had only the fuzziest memory of, so it had been an incredibly valuable use of my time.

***

Several round tables were set up in the dining room, and we were split up between them. I was encouraged to sit at the table farthest into the room, so Jude, Oscar, and I took our seats there. Our knight escorts were seated at another table.

I saw a number of unfamiliar faces all around. When I asked who they were, I was informed that they were the higher-ranking members of Ceyran’s crew. All in all, there were a lot more people than I’d thought there would be.

A few moments later, wine was brought out to each table, though I had heard that they hadn’t brought any Zaideran alcohol with them. I was curious, so I craned my neck to see what the other tables were having and found that the knights were being served ale.

As drinks were being poured, Ceyran briefly introduced me to everyone. All of his crew members beamed at me, which made me feel somewhat self-conscious.

Uh, can we—can we just move on, please? 

I encouraged Ceyran to skip ahead in his speech out of sheer embarrassment. Thankfully, he soon led us in a toast, and everyone drank.

After the toast, we were brought all kinds of food—some I recognized, some I didn’t. Jude and the knights were thoroughly delighted by every unfamiliar dish. The cooks had used a plentiful variety of seasonings, spices, and cooking methods. The cuisine in Zaidera was quite sophisticated.

Since we had been invited to dine, I understood that the cooks had gone all out and made much fancier fare than usual. Even the crew members were impressed with what they were being served.

The food was carried out on large platters and the people waiting on the tables served out our portions. I eagerly took my first bite, and my mouth was filled with the unique taste of a particular spice.

This must be star anise. I bet it’s going to be a divisive one, I thought. 

I was right. The knights had a whole bunch of different opinions.

“How do you like it?” Ceyran asked as I chewed my way through the first dish. He was sitting at my table.

“It’s delicious.” It was true—I’d always liked the flavor of star anise.

He smiled with relief. It seemed that he could tell that not everyone was as into it as I was. “We’re quite used to the flavor, but I know a number of people from Salutania don’t care for it as much. I was a bit worried you wouldn’t.”

“Yeah, you can really tell.” I glanced toward the knights, so animated as they debated the flavor with each other, and then met Ceyran’s gaze again. We exchanged a wry chuckle.

Oscar’s expression had changed only very subtly at the unique taste. Jude seemed fine with it. I’d figured he would be, since he worked at the institute. Our institute was full of people who were fine with eating herbs raw, after all, so it stood to reason that he’d be unfazed by the flavor.

“Do the people of Salutania prefer food that honors the flavor of the main ingredients?” Ceyran asked.

“I think so.”

“As it turns out, we’ve recently begun using herbs as seasoning,” Oscar cut in, also speaking Zaideran.

He was definitely referring to the kind of food we made at the institute. Oscar had started making frequent visits to the institute for meetings with me about the company. He’d tried the food at our dining hall, and I suspected he had fallen in love with it. We always seemed to have our meetings around lunchtime.

“Herbs, you say?” Ceyran asked.

“Yes. They lend a most refreshing flavor.”

“I see. I assume they’re good for the body as well?”

“I’m afraid I haven’t heard such a thing.”

The fact was that all food benefited the body in some way. However, people were usually more focused on flavor than health benefits, so Oscar probably didn’t know a huge amount about it.

Balanced diets… Healthy bodies… That actually reminded me of something. “Hey, Ceyran, in your country, do you have a kind of cuisine that’s supposed to be especially healthy?”

He gave me just the answer I was hoping for. “We do indeed believe that there is a link between food and health, and that some foods are better for the body than others.”

I reflexively leaned in and peppered him with more questions. He admitted that he didn’t know all that much about it—this theory was more popular among those in higher social positions. I did remember hearing something like that before. 

The subject soon went off on a tangent about herbs. Through me, Jude played an active part in this discussion. Ceyran didn’t know much about the topic, but he did his best to tell us what he knew about the herbs in Zaidera. The conversation got rather technical, so Ceyran called over one of the crew members sitting at another table. This man was the ship’s doctor and was therefore much more knowledgeable on the subject. He confirmed that in Zaidera, they didn’t just use herbs to make medicine. They also did things like boil tree bark and drink the water.

Wait, was this like traditional Chinese medicine?

I listened to him with vested interest. The doctor asked us about Salutanian herbs as well, and we told him what we could. Between my knowledge and Jude’s, we were able to give him quite an informed set of answers. When we revealed that Jude made potions for a living, he nodded in understanding. 

“Is this the fellow who made the potion you gave us, then?” Ceyran asked.

Uh-oh. 

“Oh, n-no, that was commissioned for me by my father. I don’t know who made it,” I answered, feeling a sudden chill.

Jude’s smile was strangely frozen on his face. He realized we were in danger as well.

Thankfully, Ceyran didn’t press for more details.

“Are you interested in learning more about that potion?” Oscar asked just as I was beginning to think we’d escaped the jaws of doom—come on, Oscar!

“Of course I am.”

“Well, I did hear that Zaidera is quite advanced in the study of herbology. Do you have a similar kind of potion there?”

“Hmm, I’m not sure. Considering how powerful that potion was, I have a feeling that only people of high social status would even know if such a potion existed.”

I was at my wits’ end by the time that conversation ended. I was incredibly relieved that Oscar had taken over. I was sure I’d been on the verge of making a huge mess of things.

Actually, the truth was probably that I’d already made a bit of a mess. I really needed to stop talking about potions already or I’d reveal more than I already had.

Thankfully, my prayer was answered, and they started talking about life on board a ship instead. From what they said, it sounded like ship life was as hard as I’d thought it might be.

“All in all, it means daily rations on a ship are rather tragic.”

“Oh, it really sounds like it.” I couldn’t hold back my tears. It all sounded so horrible! My sadness wasn’t an act at all.

While Zaideran cuisine was wonderfully sophisticated, on a voyage, they could only eat preserved foods that lasted a long time. This meant food that had been dried or pickled in salt. Fresh vegetables and fruit rotted quickly, so even if they did bring produce aboard, they had to eat it fast.

Ceyran asked if we knew of any food in Salutania that would keep, but Jude and Oscar didn’t have an answer for him. If Oscar didn’t know—and he seemed like he would’ve—there probably weren’t any known non-perishable foods other than what Ceyran was already carrying.

Preserved foods… I racked my brain, trying to remember the types of food they’d brought on long ship voyages back in my old world. Maybe that kind would taste better than what Ceyran already mentioned? There are a lot of opinions on its flavor, though.

Ceyran noticed me lost in thought. “Might you have some kind of idea, my lady?”

“Maybe, but I’m not so sure about the taste.” Also, I had never made it before, so I didn’t know for sure how it’d end up.

Ceyran sounded intrigued anyway and asked me if I would mind trying to make it.

It was simple enough to do so, and I had an idea of how it was done. The question was whether I could acquire the key ingredient. I decided that if I could find the ingredients at the market tomorrow, then I would make a go of it. Thus, I accepted Ceyran’s request on that condition.

***

The day after the dinner party, Jude and I headed to the market first thing in the morning. The morning market sold vegetables that had been grown locally. The freshly harvested vegetables were vibrant in the morning sun.

I agreed to Ceyran’s request on the condition that I could find the ingredients, but are they actually going to have them here? Not to mention, they’re only selling what they actually harvested today, so there’s a chance they won’t have it even if they do grow it nearby, I thought a bit uneasily as I looked around the shops. Then I spotted what I was after: cabbage. Oh, good, they’re selling it today.

Seeing me pick up a vegetable that even commoners regularly ate, Jude tilted his head curiously. “You’re going to preserve cabbage?”

“That’s right.”

I was going to make sauerkraut.

Cabbage was usually used in soups in the Kingdom of Salutania, so Jude had probably never imagined it could be turned into preserves. I brushed off his puzzled look and got the attention of the shopkeeper. I bought a whole ton of cabbages, since their volume would decrease when I cooked them down. I also bought salt, bay leaves, and a small cask. I asked each shop to deliver my purchases to the inn Ceyran was staying at. I would be making the sauerkraut there.

Once we were done shopping, we made our way straight to Ceyran’s inn. He and his crew were just finishing breakfast, so we arrived at just the right time. Ceyran came to meet us at the entrance.

“Good morning,” I sang.

“Good morning. Did you manage to find the ingredients?”

“That I did.”

“Excellent. Let’s make our way to the kitchen, then.”

After that brief exchange, we headed into the kitchen, where I found everything I had purchased at the market along with some spices. These spices were from Ceyran’s cargo, and I had told him the night before that I would need them to make this dish.

All right. He got everything I asked for. After checking the ingredients, I turned to the cooks and gave them the instructions. All I did was teach them; I didn’t have a hand in the cooking this time.

“So we should finely chop all of these cabbages?”

“Yes, please do.”

There were quite a few, but the chopping was done before I knew it. That’s what happens when you share the work. Just as you’d expect from people who cook for a living. Their knife work sure is speedy.

While some cooks were chopping, others got the cask ready for the preserves. We placed the cask in the sink and poured boiling water into it. Then we left it for a bit. If we were using a glass bottle, we could’ve sterilized it more quickly by boiling it in a pot, but the cask was simply too big and wouldn’t have fit in any available vessel. Thus we had to sterilize it this way.

“Oh, are you going to sterilize that too?” asked Jude.

“Yup. It will make the food kept inside the cask last longer.”

“I see.”

Everyone at the institute already understood the concept of sterilization. As in, I’d taught it to them. The world I’d come from was generally far more advanced when it came to the study of the natural sciences. Whenever I mentioned something my colleagues didn’t recognize, they grilled me relentlessly, and I frequently wound up holding entire lectures about whatever topic had caught their interest.

Anyway, thanks to that, Jude already knew what I was up to with this boiling business.

A little while later, as we were pouring out the hot water, the cooks interrogated me about the reason for doing so, just like my colleagues had. I didn’t actually name the concept of sterilization, but I did tell them that it would stop the food from spoiling, which they were plenty impressed with all on its own. They didn’t have preserved cabbage in Zaidera, but they did preserve similar foods, and they wanted to give this technique a try with those later.

Please go ahead and make good use of this knowledge!

While we were doing this, the other cooks finished chopping up the cabbages. Now we moved on to the next steps. I directed them to dredge the finely cut cabbage slices in salt and knead them until they had pressed out all the liquid. Then I had them mix the cabbage with the prepared spices. After that, they packed the cabbage into the cask and poured the liquid that had been pressed out of the leaves on top. With that, we were done.

“Stuff it in so there aren’t any gaps.”

“Like this?”

“Exactly.”

They did as I said. I’d read a recipe once long ago that said this would prevent the propagation of any unnecessary bacteria during fermentation.

“It’s finished now?” Ceyran asked just as they were layering the outermost leaves of the cabbages on top of the mixture, followed by a stone cover for pickling.

“Yes. Now you just need to store it in a cool, dark place.”

My understanding was that you were supposed to let a mixture ferment for four to six weeks, but I wasn’t sure if that was accurate, as this was my first time making anything like it. I also didn’t know how long the sauerkraut would be safe to eat, so I told Ceyran to make sure to keep an eye on its relative freshness.

I also, er, couldn’t guarantee that it would taste good. This was my first time making sauerkraut, after all, and even back in the world I’d come from, people had been pretty divided on the taste.

When I warned Ceyran in vague terms, he chuckled dryly and said he understood.

“That was a good deal easier to make than I thought it would be,” Ceyran said.

“Mm-hmm. Sorry it was the only thing I could think of, though.”

“Not at all. With this, we’ll have one more thing to eat on board. I’m quite grateful to you.”

Sauerkraut really was the only thing I could come up with, given the types of food Ceyran’s country already had. It wasn’t like I could suggest pickled vegetables or food preserved in miso—they definitely already had those. There was no way they wouldn’t have figured those out, considering the sophistication of the cooking I’d seen them do thus far.

“Vegetables, though… That was a blind spot,” Ceyran murmured to himself.

“What do you mean?”

We had reached a good break point, and Ceyran had suggested we take our leave for a bit. I’d taken him up on that, and we were having tea in the dining room.

“When you mentioned vegetables on the ship, I imagined fresh vegetables,” he explained. “I hadn’t thought of bringing the kind that had already been pickled.”

“Your cook did mention that you had other types of pickled vegetables.”

“Indeed. Your cooking endeavors today made me wish we had brought those too.”

I smiled at his words. I hadn’t done all that much, but I was glad to have been of some further help to him.

“Is that pickled cabbage you made something you eat here in the Kingdom of Salutania?”

“No, it’s from a foreign country I read about in a book once.”

“Ah, so that’s why you’d never made it before.”

“Yup.”

To be fair, that foreign country happened to be in a completely different world, I thought. But I could usually get away with claiming my unusual knowledge came from books.

“You must be an avid reader then,” Ceyran went on, which made a cold sweat prickle down my back.

Thankfully, our conversation reached an end, so we brought our impromptu tea party to a close. I thanked Ceyran again for the dinner he had hosted the night before and then returned to the inn I was staying at.

Before I did, he told me that the next time we met, he would be sure to tell me how the sauerkraut turned out. I had to wonder if we really would ever meet again. Oscar had arranged for my company to make regular purchases of rice, miso, and the like, so I supposed there might be a chance.

Hmm, I guess I could try making sauerkraut again back at the capital? If it tastes good, then maybe we could bring it along on the next expedition.