novelPotato Butter
| ← Ch.376 | Ch.378 → |
Translator: Reflet
Editor: ryunakama
"So yeah, Ruri is just great at cutting things."
"Well, she has cut down her share of people after all."
"Not just with cutting though. There are plenty of other strange aspects about her."
"Oh? Such as?"
"Such as? Hmm..."
Taiyou tilted his head, thinking about it for a moment.
"See that stove over there? There's a really small hole in it."
"Ahh."
Youran made a slight grimace.
"A hole in the stove?"
Sakura stood up from her seat, looking over at the stove that Taiyou had pointed out.
"I do see it. Looks like someone made the hole with an icepick. What exactly is this?"
"Another time when she tried to cook fish, she stabbed the bamboo skewer right through it."
"...Oh dear."
"She told me that was always the way she cooked fish."
"Essentially what we would call a bonfire outdoors. Still, can you really open a hole with bamboo skewers?"
"And she also said that meat tastes better when cooked on an open fire, rather than on an iron plate."
"And she also cooked that on a skewer?"
"No, she made it hover and cook."
"Hover?"
Sakura tilted her head. She clearly wasn't sure what he meant.
"As in float."
"Did she dangle it down with a string?"
"No. You're familiar with beanbags, right? Up, down, left, right—-or rather, 360 degrees in all directions produces a crazy amount of speed, and when she did that it solidified atop the flames and cooked."
For a moment, Sakura made a blank expression. Ruri's actions were so bizarre that it took her time to comprehend what Taiyou had said.
"She always does such interesting things."
"Indeed, it's fun to just watch. Although I do find myself tiring from commenting over and over again on the absurdity of it all."
"Are the others skilled at cooking?"
"The triplets are for sure. They make anything in an orthodox manner. Plus they learned a lot from Aoba and Mio-san, and Aoba and Akiha have long been making treats and cakes together, so the sweets side of things is super savory. Now, when we get to Kohaku-san, man oh man..."
"Oh? Is she one of those archetypical 'bad at cooking' types?"
"No, she can be fairly good at cooking when she wants to. It's just, when it comes to Chinese food...Soy sauce, ketchup, mayonnaise, she uses all of those and sure, it's good, but feels a bit overwhelming on the taste buds."
"Well that's unexpected."
"Apparently her cooking just became that way after living alone for many years. As of recently, she's been learning various things from the triplets, increasing her repertoire."
"But if that's the case, that leaves one person who can't cook."
As Sakura said that, Youran, who was standing next to them, twitched. When Taiyou looked in her direction, she was pursing her lips, making a very displeased expression.
Of all of Taiyou's wives, Youran was the worst at cooking. But this was perfectly reasonable, given her origins.
Juuni Island: The village with the highest population in Japan that currently had a million residents. She was both the chief and Shingetsu no Kami, holding the majority of the power. The fact that she was a chief who held autonomy effectively made her the king of a small nation.
So why would someone as high-up as that cook her own food?
If she had not fallen into Taiyou's possession, she would likely have never experienced something like that for her whole life. Youran, who had always thought it well and good to move about on her own, had never actually tried to cook up until now.
"N-No, I'm able to at least cook now that I've learned a lot."
"Oho, really now?"
"Hmph. Just you wait."
Youran got up, walking to the kitchen. With Taiyou and Sakura observing her, she thoroughly washed a room temperature potato, wrapped it in plastic, put it into the microwave and pressed the switch.
She seemed to be quite adept, and Taiyou secretly expected good things to come from such a fine preparation. After a bit, she took the potato out of the microwave and put it on a plate, removing the wrapping. Adding a cross-shaped notch, she inserted butter into it.
"All done."
"Wha-? It wasn't the initial preparation, but the whole process!?"
"Buttered potato? Never thought I'd see that coming."
"Here you go, Master."
Using the chopsticks that Youran had handed to him, he stuffed his mouth full of buttered potato.
"How is it?"
"It's great."
Taiyou nodded. No complaints when it came to the taste.
"It's great, but...what do you think about this?"
"Huh? About what?"
"I need to tell you right now that if you perfect this it could be the same as Kohaku-san's. Heck, go farther and you might even make this into a chemistry seasoning."
"I mean, as long as it's tasty I could care less."
"Well yeah, I mean, it's tasty all right."
"My objective is to escape being the archetypical 'sucks at cooking' character. So if I can do stuff like this then I'm content."
"Seriously?"
"Not like I can win at cooking in comparison to everyone else. What do you think would happen if I tried to get serious?"
"...You probably wouldn't be able to deviate from the recipe."
"Bingo."
Youran grinned while saying that, but her eyes appeared to be just a little vexed.
"I tried many things, but I couldn't make a proper presentation. It's no different right now. Wash the the potato for 20 seconds, cut a wrapping into a square shape and put it around the potato, four minutes in the microwave on the root crop mode, cut a notch in the potato about halfway through, cut off a portion of butter equivalent to the length of the pinky's second joint and then put it in the potato. That's all."
"Well aren't you an astute one."
"But I can't do anything more complicated than that."
"Quite the difference between your work mode, Shingetsu-sama. Why, while you are working normally you are so flexible and resourceful..."
"I know, I'm surprised too, kay. I thought I'd make something of it and tried it out, but it just never amounted to anything."
"Not that the people who taught you were merely bad at teaching you?"
"Five people of various backgrounds have taught me so far."
"How about I teach you, then?"
"You, teach me?"
"I do know you more than any stranger would, even if they did teach you. Perhaps I can make something of you."
"I see."
"Besides, now that we're at it, wouldn't it be best to teach you how to make a proper presentation?"
"Well, sure, but..."
"Huh? You think she should be able to present first?"
Taiyou asked with a puzzled face.
| ← Ch. 376 | Ch. 378 → |