But don’t take my word for that. I’m just a layman who’s heard bits and pieces from various sources. That aside… As long as there are strict requirements for importing wild fugu from the ocean, it’s almost impossible for the citizens of the Wilds to get their hands on any. If there are only farmed fugu available here, it’s fine for the citizens to think that fugu was a safe ingredient. Furthermore, this is a self-autonomous region where Japanese law doesn’t fully apply. There isn’t the concept of fugu licenses here.
I looked at the price tag again. The farmed fugu in the Wilds were incredibly cheap—it was almost surreal when I thought back to the prices of fugu on the other side of the border. My hands gained a mind of their own as they reached out and transferred some into my basket.
I snapped out of my trance, and my rational mind asked, Fugu pizza? Would that really taste good? Just in case, I grabbed some sardines that definitely wouldn’t go wrong. While I was at it, I also took one portion of shirayaki unagi eel that got my curiosity going.
If anyone else looked into my shopping cart, they probably couldn’t ever predict that I was going to make pizza, not even in their wildest dreams. I hope they’ll be tasty, I thought as I headed to the cashier. After paying for my items, I showed them my reusable bag and earned eco-points without incident.
On our way back home, Kon wore a big smile. When we arrived, we washed our hands and headed to the kitchen to make pizza. To be more accurate, we were doing a taste test before we started working on the actual pizza.
It was too risky to chuck the ingredients thoughtlessly onto the pizza dough without knowing whether they’d produce good results. We would cut off tiny, bite-size chunks and get an idea of what they taste like. If they didn’t go well with pizza, I could always change to tried-and-true ingredients like bacon.
The first on our tasting menu was unagi. I wanted to see whether it matched cheese and umeboshi pulp well. Since my homemade umeboshi were still far from ready, I was using umeboshi from the supermarket. I topped the small chunk of shirayaki unagi with umeboshi pulp and cream cheese, which I chose because I wasn’t bothered to melt the cheese during the tasting session.
Kon was sitting on his usual chair, and he was salivating and swallowing the entire time. I held the sample next to his mouth and said, “Here, try it.” He opened his mouth wide, ate it, then began chewing. His eyes widened, and he looked at me with starry eyes while nodding repeatedly.
Oh? That’s a better reaction than I thought. I quirked an eyebrow. I made my own sample and tossed it into my mouth. An elegant, delicate flavor melted on my tongue. Part of it was probably due to the high quality of the unagi, but to my surprise, I could tell that it matched the umeboshi pulp and cheese extremely well. A hint of salt blended with a distinct sourness and the creamy taste of cheese. It was a stunning combination—in fact, I felt like it could rival kabayaki unagi in sophistication.
This will definitely go well with rice, but I think something else is even better—alcohol. Not Japanese sake, but maybe a highball cocktail.
I chewed thoroughly, savoring its taste before swallowing. I hummed in thought. “I only bought the unagi on a whim, but I made a really good choice, huh? I think it’s a good pizza topping, but it’s also good just as-is. If I used better umeboshi, not the stuff in the supermarket, I have a feeling it has a lot of room for improvement.”
A radiant smile lit up Kon’s face, and he immediately followed with his comment. “It was YUMMY! I like this too! I love it! I dunno how to describe it, but I feel like it’s similar to the side dishes Mommy always makes. It reminds me of the shiokara and dried mullet roe! That type!”
Like always, his preference was rather unique for a child. The dishes he mentioned tended to be the favorites of someone who indulges in alcohol. For someone like him—who came from a family that worshipped a particular category of traditional Japanese food—to give such high praise meant that this was perfect as a snack with alcohol, just like I thought. I nodded to myself, feeling satisfaction take over my heart before I began making sample number two.
And no, it wasn’t sardines. Anchovy pizza was already a thing. It was finally time for fugu to enter the spotlight.
When one thinks of fugu, the first dish that would spring into mind is fugu sashimi. But when you use something as a pizza topping, you have to cook it, so I sautéed it lightly in the frying pan before adding umeboshi pulp and cheese. I delivered the samples into Kon’s mouth, then mine.
“Hmm,” I muttered, “it’s not bad. It’s not bad, but it’s not as impactful as the unagi.”
“Yeah, I think so too. The unagi was way too yummy.”
It was too early to give up though. I experimented with it, trying to find some other combination that might work. Instead of using chunks this time, I cut off slices that were as thin as possible so that I could test more varieties.
After a round of trial and error, I came to the conclusion that fugu didn’t go well with cheese. It was delicious with umeboshi pulp and chopped spring onion shoots, umeboshi pulp and radish sprouts, and finally, umeboshi pulp and asparagus. At one point, I even lost sight of my original goal and discovered that wrapping umeboshi pulp and spring onion shoots inside a slice of fugu sashimi tasted heavenly. The umami and texture were incredible.
Tangents aside, since I learned that fugu, cooked or raw, went well with umeboshi pulp and vegetables, I decided that I’d avoid getting cheese on them when I made the pizza. After our lengthy round of tasting and experimenting, we finally returned to our original objective: making pizza.
I donned my apron and Kon got into his coverall apron.
Pizza dough takes time to make, so today, we’ll be using ready-made pizza bases from the supermarket. Spread olive oil and pizza sauce on the pizza base. Sprinkle chopped green shiso. Start by adding the vegetable toppings—roughly chopped asparagus, tomato slices, okra slices, and corn kernels.
Next, add the fish. Respectively, shirayaki unagi with umeboshi pulp, sardines with umeboshi pulp, and fugu with shredded umeboshi. Sprinkle on a generous amount of cheese—make sure to avoid the fugu chunks. Sprinkle additional chopped green shiso. Cut bottled green olives into halves and scatter around the pizza.
Transfer pizza into a preheated oven and bake. When cooked through, remove from oven and transfer onto a plate. Cut into slices with a pizza cutter.
The first pizza was fresh out of the oven, and I carried it into the living room. There, to my surprise, I found Techi waiting in her usual seat. When did she get back? I told Techi and Kon to start ahead of me before heading back into the kitchen and making another pizza with the same toppings. Considering the calorie intake of beastfolk, one normal pizza definitely wasn’t enough. I needed three at least. The first two are reserved for them. I think I’ll start eating when the third one is ready.
Eating the same pizza three times might get a bit dull, but I hoped the rich variety of ingredients was enough to make up for that problem.
Soon, I carried the second pizza into the living room, then the third. Finally, I took off my apron and settled in my usual seat. When I cut the third pizza with a pizza cutter, I noticed the other two waiting for me with their small plates ready. The first and second pizzas were already gone. Looks like they can still eat more of the same pizza. That’s good.
The moment I finished cutting the pizza, two hands reached out with alarming speed. I took that as a challenge, and I reached for a pizza slice as well. Holding my plate under it, I slowly savored the slice bit by bit.