Chapter 342: Tasting Chimera
Translated by Zzonkedd
Edited by Gumihou and Onionpi
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“Right, which direction should we go?”
““I’m aiming for big game today! Big game!””
““Sui will pew pew lots and bring lots for Master~~””
[8] “Oho? I look forward to it,” I said, after getting off Fer and preparing to set up my stove in an open space within the forest.
[8] “Make sure you prepare that thing,”
[8] “Yes, yes, I’ll do my thing while you do yours.”
Finally, Fer nodded at me and leapt off into the forest with Dora-chan and Sui. [5]
[8] “Hahh… I said all that, but what should I do now…”
[8] We finally stopped inside a large forest after visiting the Adventurer’s Guild. Before they set out for their ‘Big Game Hunt’, I served my familiars an early lunch.
While they were eating, Fer suddenly said, “Hey, what happened to the Chimera meat?”
“Hm?”
Honestly speaking, I felt a little nervous when Fer brought that up. [2] I had been hoping that everyone would forget about that thing. [5] I mean, it was such a mix up of random creatures that I hesitated about using it as an ingredient.
[Appraisal] had said that it was edible and even delicious. That it was the finest lean meat and could be grilled or boiled… [5]
Even so, I was reluctant to touch that meat since I have plenty of other, more normal meat. [1] Unfortunately, now that Fer had opened his stupid mouth…
I can’t even track them by serving something else since Fer knew what Chimera tasted like.
“…guess I have no choice,” [5]
Reluctantly, I withdraw the Chimera meat from my [Item Box] and studied it for a while.
“Well, it looks pretty normal. In fact, it looks like a very beautiful piece of lean meat.”
If only I don’t know that it came from a Chimera. [5]
“I guess I should taste test it first.”
To do this, I first cut a small piece off, chopped it into small pieces, sprinkled it with salt and pepper and fried it up with a bit of oil.
“I even eat Orc now, so I guess I could add Chimera to the list too…”
I had been disgusted by the thought of eating sentient creatures like Orc before but I had gotten used to seeing it as another ingredient and frankly, it’s pretty delicious.
The grilled Chimera meat at the end of my fork could be delicious too. [5]
I took a little nibble.
……..
“Deliciouusssssssss!!!”
The [Appraisal] tells no lies!
Deliciousness spreads through my mouth every time I chew. It was similar to the beef that I had from that shop that serves New York Style Dry Age Beef back in the other world.
Back then, I had been impressed by how delicious red meat could be.
The deliciousness of the thick piece of steak that seems to overflow with flavour with every bite was absolutely fascinating for a meat fan.
“I had been wrong to avoid this. If it’s this good, Chimera or whatever has nothing to do with it, it’s just good!”
Now, how do I cook such delicious meat?
[9]
It would be a pity to mince or slice up this meat. So I guess it has to be served as steak. Thick cut steak at that and seasoned with only salt and pepper.
Hmm… just steaks seems boring, how about, making a gently simmered stew? Or frying it as a beef cutlet?
Since it tasted similar to good beef, a Chimera-katsu might be a good idea.
Alright, Chimera-katsu it is!
[9]
Now that I’ve decided on the menu, it’s time to gather the ingredients. I opened up [Net Super] for a breaded cutlet. Let’s see, I’ll need flour, eggs, and breadcrumbs. For the sauce, since the meat is very good, let’s go with a simple wasabi dipping and soy sauce dipping. Good quality wasabi and soy sauce, of course.
“Ooh, this one looks good.”
I placed a [10] special all-natural raw soy sauce into the cart. It was a little expensive but for such good meat, it has to match with an equally excellent sauce.
For the wasabi, forget about tube paste wasabi. Time for a whole piece of raw wasabi! [6] Naturally, I also had to buy the sharkskin grater.
I also bought some special seaweed salt. High-class salt for high-class meat. I had used seaweed salt before. Compared to regular table salt which has a sharp salty flavour, seaweed salt was mellower and better at increasing the umami of the ingredients.
“Well, first, let’s make the steak.”
[9]
I used the aluminium foil technique specifically reserved for cooking lean beef steaks. Pepper was grated fresh from a pepper mill and the salt was the Mt. El Morai salt that the Shadow Warriors gifted to me back at Avering. Since the salt came in a large block, I had to scrape bits of the pink rock salt with a grater.
The result was pretty good.
I licked the salt on my hand, wow, the salt was pretty mild and delicious.
Chimera steak seasoned with this mild rock salt and freshly grounded black pepper…
Gulp…
“W-well, cooks have tasting privilege!”
I sliced off a bit of the steak and took a bite.
“Aaaahhh, delicious~~~”
The meat juice that gushed through my mouth with every bite reminded me of just what excellent meat I am eating now. I gobbled up a piece, and another but managed to stop myself from eating more of it and began preparations for my Chimera-katsu.
I sliced all the steak into reasonably thick slices, season it with black pepper and rock salt and dusted the meat with flour before dredging it through beaten eggwash and finally covering it with bread crumbs.
After that, I fried the Chimera-katsu in hot oil until the outside is golden brown. The freshly fried katsu was then set aside. Since the beef had already been grilled earlier, all I had to do was fry the breadcrumbs until it was golden brown.
Woohoo, it’s so crispy.
I got my knife out and cut into the katsu. The crunchy sounds were especially delicious sounding.
“Fufufu, let’s try this one…”
I dabbed a bit of grated wasabi onto the slice of Chimera-katsu and dipped a tiny corner of it into the raw soy sauce.
“Woah! This one is delicious toooo!!!”
The bread crumbs were crispy and fragrant, the inside tender and juicy~~
The freshly grated wasabi cut through the oiliness of the fried breadcrumbs and the soy sauce enhanced the umami of the meat even more.
“I can’t get enough of this!”
I gobbled up another two or three slices.
“Wait, I should eat this with seaweed salt too!” [6] I dipped my fourth slice of Chimera-katsu into a bit of seaweed salt dipping.
“It’s pretty good like this too,” the mellow salt enhances the tastiness of the meat, which was already delicious by itself, until it’s almost as delicious as dragon meat. [5]
Too bad Chimera wasn’t as large as a dragon, so there’s less meat.
From the amount of food we (my familiars) consume, we only have two more meals at most from the Chimera meat. We barely have any Earth Dragon meat left…
I had been rationing what left of the dragon meat we have. Otherwise, the deliciousness of dragon meat would disappear in no time.
Well, it looks like we have an alternative to the deliciousness of dragon meat now. I wonder how prolific are they…
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““We’re back!””
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“Oh, welcome back!”
[5] ““I’m hungry~! What’s for dinner?!””
“The meal is ready. How was the hunt?”
““Argh, about that…””
“Umu, we had poor luck today,”
““Sui did not pew pew much today…””
I looked through the contents of the magic bag and found:
3 x Red Boar
4 x Cockatrice
and…
“Hey, this one’s pretty big, is it some kind of goat?”
It was about twice the size of a regular goat and black. It looked pretty muscular with round curving muscles.
“It’s a Black Goat. The meat is a bit peculiar. I don’t really like it. I hunted it down because I saw it.”
According to [Appraisal] it was a B Rank monster with a lot of meat but a rather peculiar taste. [5]
Speaking of which, I never had goat before, but I heard that it could be quite gamey. Something of an acquired taste.
Maybe I should just sell it.
““And that’s it…”” [3] said Dora-chan a little sadly.
“Well, there are days like that. Don’t worry about it. We can still butcher the Red Boar and Cockatrice for meat, so it’s not a complete loss.”
““Still…””
““Sui wants to pew pew more of them…”” [5]
“It’s alright, Sui, there’s always next time. Everyone’s hungry, right? Come on, let’s eat!”
“Umu, today’s meat is…”
“Naturally, I prepared the Chimera meat that you requested.”
“Umu!”
First, I set out plain steaks in front of everyone. Naturally, they were thickly sliced steaks grilled with only salt and pepper.
“The meat is outstandingly delicious, so I made them into steaks with just salt and pepper.”
My familiars barely listened to me as they stuffed their faces into their bowls.
“Umu, it’s good.”
““It’s my first time eating Chimera, but it’s damn good!””
““Delicious~~!!””
“It’s really good despite its appearance,” I said.
[9]
Everyone really liked it. I held up a bottle of Steak Soy Sauce, “It’s good on its own, but you can also eat it with this, want some?”
“Umu, yes,”
““Bring it on!””
““Sui wants some too~~”” [5]
I splashed some of the sauce onto their steaks and got another round of, “Delicious!!” from everyone.
[9] Then, Fer said, “Give me the Garlic Sauce,”
“Oh, you like that one, eh?”
““Me too! Gimme!””
““Sui wants more of this one~~””
After feeding my familiars, I splashed some garlic sauce on a couple of pieces of Chimera steaks and… ooff, that was good.
I had to be careful not to eat too much because we still have the Chimera-katsu.
[9] When the call for seconds came, I served them the katsu.
“These are breaded Chimera steak cutlets that have been fried in oil. It’s really delicious with wasabi, soy sauce or seaweed sauce. The wasabi is a little spicy, so do you want to try some, Sui?”
““Hmm… Sui doesn’t like spicy but will try some~””
So I served the Chimera-katsu to everyone, but made sure to put less wasabi on Sui’s portion.
“It’s delicious like this. More delicious, in fact,” said Fer. “The green spicy thing and soy sauce go very well with the meat.”
““I like it best with the seaweed salt,”” said Dora-chan as he licked his lips. [5]
“What do you think, Sui?”
““Sui still don’t like the spicy one. The salty one is yummy~~””
Ah, looks like Sui still can’t take wasabi.
“Hmm, maybe you’ll like this better,” I passed Sui’s wasabi covered katsu to Fer and gave her some fresh ones with seaweed salt.
Sui seemed to have a rather childish palate…
Struck by an idea, I opened up [Net Super] and bought a can of demi-glace sauce and warmed it on the frying pan. Once the sauce melted, I added ketchup, Chuuno sauce and a little sugar and butter, adjusting the final flavour with a little salt.
“Yup, this looks good.”
I drizzled the demi-glace sauce onto the next helping of ‘seconds’ for Sui.
““Wowow~ it looks delicious~~”” [5]
[6] Sui bounces up and down excitedly over the demi-glace sauce covered Chimera-katsu.
““It’s delicious~~”” [5]
“Nuu, what’s that? Gimme some too,”
““Here too!””
I served them Chimera-katsu with demi-glace sauce too. Generally, anything that Sui likes will be welcomed by everyone.
“Umu, good.”
““Delicious!””
Yes, yes, I’m glad you all enjoyed it.
I spent the next half an hour serving my familiars Chimera steaks and katsu with various kinds of sauce/dipping.
Naturally, as the cook, I get to sneak some now and then too.
[Gumihou: Gumi deleted a lot here too]
[1] Structural Change: Combine 2 paragraphs
[2] Structural Change: Combine 3 paragraphs
[3] Structural Change: Combine paragraph & dialogue
[4] Structural Change: Change passive sentence to dialogue
[5] Delete Repetitive or Pointless Information
[6] Additional Information for Aesthetic Purpose
[7] Add Dialogue Tag
[8] Creative Licence Taken – Author trying a new writing trick again. Starting with a scene 25% into the story before going to the beginning again. Smoothed it out with more details so that it works
[9] Pondering over how to cook Chimera. His thoughts were a little all over the place and repetitive. Refined it. Also fixed the talking and eating interaction to display more than just yummy~ yummy~
[10] Kishobori Shoyu