Transition to Another World, Land Mines Included. 050

Apologies for the lack of translations recently. Unfortunately, my family has been caught up in some pandemic-related issues and I haven’t been able to find the time to update the site. I have scheduled a number of auto updates for the near future so hopefully that will tide us over for now and I’ll be back to pick this up with as little disruption as possible.

Transition to Another World, Land Mines Included.

ACT 2: UNION
050: Let’s Make Tonkatsu!

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“I hope it’ll meet your expectations… Anyway, let’s move into the kitchen, since we can’t cook here,” Haruka said with a smile.

“Sure!”

With that, the two girls headed into the kitchen. The rest of us followed, gathering in a corner of the kitchen to watch. The area was much too narrow for all of us to help.

“We’ll need oil, so let’s take that from the meat.”

“OK. So I just need to remove the fat, right?”

They proceeded to strip the boar meat of fat, which they tossed into a large pot. The Tusked Boar was quite fatty, so they managed to harvest a good amount. It was fascinating to watch Aera slice the fat off so cleanly while we chatted idly in our corner.

“Erm, isn’t it super unhealthy to fry tonkatsu in lard?”

“I know. I always thought that salad oil was the best option…”

“Some restaurants do fry it in lard, though, because it’s a solid at room temperature so it’s not sticky and easier to handle? But yeah, it may be unhealthy.”

“It’s basically a lump of cholesterol.”

“But even if salad oil is low in cholesterol, using so much of it defeats the purpose anyway.”

“Yes, even if some vegetable oils really do contain no cholesterol.”

I guess moderation is key. Even if something is good for the body, it may become harmful if consumed in large quantities. The worst were those diets that urged people to eat only one type of food in order to lose weight. You might see results in the short-term, but it could become unhealthy after some time, right? I guess it was fortunate that most people gave up on dieting before that happened.

“You’re really good at this, Aera-san… I think we have enough,” Haruka said.

“I worked a lot with meat. Are we going to use all of the fat? It’s a lot.”

“Yes, so please light the stove and melt it.”

“OK.”

Aera lifted the pot of lard and set it on the stove, then proceeded to fiddle with it. Was that a magical item as well? Most stoves in this world used charcoal fire, but Aera’s didn’t seem to. She must have spent a ton of money on it too. I wondered if she’d purchased it at the advice of the so-called consultant.

“We need to slice the meat into thick pieces next… Guys, which part should we fry?” Haruka asked.

“I vote for the loin!” Tohya exclaimed quickly.

“I like the fillet more,” Yuki added.

“Nao, you prefer the loin, right?”

“I don’t really have a preference, but I guess so.”

Bite-size pieces of fillet cutlet were great, but a whole slab of thickly-cut loin was definitely the classic tonkatsu. It sure sounded like a luxury, but maybe it was because we were no longer rich?

“Well, let’s use the loin, as well as any other parts that look good. Aera-san, can you slice the loin into pieces about this thick?” Haruka requested with a gesture.

“Sure.”

Aera sliced off quite a few good pieces, which Haruka then proceeded to pound and rub with salt.

“Let’s make a liquid batter, since it’s easier. Do you have any eggs, Aera-san?”

“Yes, but… If we use eggs in the recipe, it’ll drive the price of the dish up.”

In our previous world, eggs were so cheap that the price seemed quite unbelievable sometimes. However, the opposite was true in this world, probably because the eggs were laid by pet chickens since industrial farming doesn’t exist. I guess it made sense, since eggs were also hard to come by in Japan before the war.

“We can use water, but it’ll be more delicious with eggs. We’ll try both, then you can decide which method to adopt.”

With that, Haruka mixed the eggs with some wheat flour to make a batter that resembled what we used to make tempura.

“Erm, Natsuki, is that how you make tonkatsu too? It doesn’t look like the method I know,” I asked.

“Oh, I’m guessing your method is to coat the meat in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs, right? Or is it the more complex method with flour, milk, flour again, egg, then breadcrumbs?”

“I guess the first method? Anyway, the breadcrumbs are an essential step, right?”

“Yes, but Haruka’s method is easy and fail-proof, not that I use it myself.”

I cocked an eyebrow at Natsuki’s strained tone. I personally didn’t care which method was used, as long as the end product tasted good.

“Do you have bread, Aera-san? It doesn’t matter if it’s a little stale… Thanks. Natsuki, could you shred this up, please?”

“Sure.”

Natsuki took the bread from Aera and started grating it into crumbs, which Haruka and Aera then used to coat the battered meat.

“Ooh, then we fry these in hot oil?” Aera asked.

“That’s right. We need to watch the oil temperature, but that shouldn’t be too hard… Let’s try.”

Haruka dropped some breadcrumbs into the oil to test its temperature, then slid the pieces of meat in next. Soon, the kitchen was filled with an appetizing aroma to accompany the sizzling oil. It was a simple aroma and nothing too special, but delicious all the same.

“It’s ready to be taken out now. Let’s do that?”

“OK!”

Aera continued to fry up more tonkatsu under Haruka’s watchful eye. While she seemed a little hesitant at first, her actions became smooth and even a little reckless the more pieces she finished. Within ten minutes, she’d finished frying enough pieces for all six of us.

“And it’s done. We just have to cover it in sauce, then we can eat it straight or make it into a sandwich… But it seems a little lacking still.”

While I was happy to just dig in to the delicious tonkatsu right there and then, I guess it was nutritionally bad just to eat it on its own. Of course, we had Dindle for dessert, but having a side salad would be nice.

“Then I’ll make something, since we have some fresh boar innards today,” Aera offered.

And here I was, trying to be healthy by thinking of salad. While it wasn’t Aera’s fault, my image of salad was now tainted by innards. And ‘fresh innards’ too, what a powerful image.

“…Fresh innards?” Haruka asked with a frown. I guess I wasn’t the only doubtful one.

“Aera-san managed to harvest some boar innards from our hunt today,” I explained.

“I see… May I watch then, Aera-san? I’m not good at preparing and cooking innards.”

“No problem. If you go hunting often, it pays to know how to prepare them properly. Innards go bad easily so most people don’t harvest them, but it’s alright if we’re planning to cook and eat them quickly.”

Aera went over to her fridge to retrieve the boar’s heart, liver, kidneys, and tongue, then lined them up on her chopping board. It was quite a grotesque sight, to be honest. I knew we ate these things back in Japan, but looking at them like that didn’t help.

“Let’s start!” Aera said with a child-like smile as she started cutting into the heart.

The sight was soon too much for me, and I retreated to the cafe area to wait.

~

“Thank you for waiting~”

In the end, Tohya decided to join me, while Natsuki and Yuki stayed with Haruka in the kitchen to watch Aera work. Thanks to her professional skills, Aera managed to quickly whip up a vegetable soup, innards stir-fry, and grilled innards to go along with the tonkatsu.

“Whoa, looks delicious! I’m gonna start with the tonkatsu!” Tohya said happily as he accepted a sauce pot from Aera, poured some onto his tonkatsu, and dug in.

“Giricious! Sho good!”

I knew what he was saying, but I wished he wouldn’t speak with his mouth full. However, I did share in his enthusiasm, and took a bite out of my tonkatsu too.

“Mmn~!”

The crunchy texture underneath a sweet sauce, paired with meat juices gushing into my mouth. How delicious!

The meat itself was so tasty. The Tusked Boar tasted so much better compared to the pork I used to get at the supermarket. And excuse me if I sound like a critic, but I wish we hadn’t grated up the breadcrumbs quite so finely, since using coarser breadcrumbs could have made the tonkatsu even crunchier. Oh well, I guess that was the drawback of using a regular grater.

Even so, it was clear that all of us, Aera included, were happily munching on the tonkatsu. I was sure it would be pleasing to the palate of the people in this world.

“So we can use these in sandwiches too…? Hmm, I think a soft type of bread and a little accent will do nicely,” Aera murmured to herself as she slid her tonkatsu between two slices of bread and took a bite.

I tried to think back to the cutlet sandwiches sold back in Japan, and what ingredients were used to make it. Was it cabbage, or lettuce? Was there mustard in it too?

“But this should sell well by itself! I’ll start making these for sale once the Inspeel sauce is done. But the question is, how many should I make…?” Aera asked with a frown.

“Can you give an estimate of the cost price of one sandwich?”

“Well, it depends on which part of the boar we use. If I use a slice about this big, from a cheaper part of the animal… I’d say about 15 Reas?” Aera guessed, her hands gesturing to a size that looked to be about 50g of meat.

The cost of meat in this world is slightly higher than what I was used to back in our previous world. When we hunted Tusked Boars, we could sell its meat for about 5 Reas per gram, but that was with fat and bone still attached. Once those were removed, the amount of edible meat wasn’t much at all.

“Luckily, tonkatsu tastes quite good no matter which part the meat comes from,” I assured Aera.

“Yep! This is my first time eating cutlet made using the belly meat, but it was so tender and melted in my mouth. So delicious!” Tohya added with joy.

“Unfortunately, I’m not a fan of the belly… But the rest did taste pretty good,” Natsuki shared.

Tohya was probably a fan of belly meat since it was full of delicious fat. However, Haruka and Yuki were nodding in agreement with Natsuki, so I guess it wasn’t a hit with the girls. I myself probably wouldn’t mind having it once in a while. Maybe boiling the meat first, then removing any fat before deep-frying it would make it really delicious?

“I think buying the whole boar is a good idea. Then, you can pick the better parts to make the more expensive dishes, and use the fat to make tonkatsu. What do you think, Aera-san?”

“That sounds good, but I don’t think the butchers will like me buying up their entire stock.”

According to Aera, raising livestock is limited to certain areas, so butchers in the city had to buy prey caught by hunters and adventurers like us. With such an unstable supply, it would not be good business for a butcher to sell all the meat to one customer and neglect the rest of his customer base. Thus, without a steady supply chain, it was hard for us to procure a good amount of meat.

“Hmm… We do quite a bit of hunting ourselves, so I guess we can sell one of our boars to you…?” I ventured.

“Really!? I’ll make sure to pay you more than the butcher! I’ll even buy all the innards if you can bring those back!”

That’s right. If we could provide boar innards to Aera without the butcher as a middleman, the items might still be fresh enough for her to use in cooking. The dish she’s cooked up for us today was quite delicious, so I was sure it would sell well. I turned to everyone.

“What do you think, guys?”

“I don’t mind,” Tohya agreed without hesitation. Yuki and Natsuki nodded as well.

“I don’t mind either… But we won’t be able to go hunting every day. What will you do then, Aera-san?” Haruka asked.

“Maybe I can advertise the dishes as ‘specials’, and only sell them when I can secure a supply of meat from you guys? Or I can try to look for another supplier?”

“I’d suggest the latter, so that you won’t be in trouble if we can’t sell you any meat. Either way, once you build up your customer base, you won’t have to rely so much on cutlet sandwiches,” Haruka advised.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Our idea is to sell the sandwiches as a way to attract customers. Once you start to shift your focus to more luxurious dishes, you don’t need to work so hard to sell sandwiches in the morning anymore.”

“I see, I’ll keep that in mind,” Aera nodded in understanding. “I guess I’ll start buying meat from you guys once the Inspeel sauce is done in a week.”

“Sure. So, shall we head back to the inn? We still have things to do tomorrow,” I suggested.

“Will you be OK tomorrow, Aera-san? Do you need help?”

“No, I’ve always been running this restaurant on my own! Besides, you guys have already helped me out so much,” Aera said, her gaze shifting towards her store’s signboard and the menu blackboards.

The menu was already written on with white chalk, the words and pictures beautiful and decorative with shadow effects. I’d spotted Yuki working on these while waiting for Aera to finish cooking, and thought she was just making a simple sketch, but it seemed like her drawing skills were quite amazing. Even so, Yuki still seemed a little dissatisfied.

“If only I had some colored chalk, then this would look nicer,” she sighed.

“We’ll come over here to have meals sometimes, so if you have any troubles, please let us know,” Natsuki offered.

“Thank you!”

Aera gave us a grateful bow. After bidding her goodnight, the rest of us returned to the inn.

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