It was unlikely the human would be able to satisfy her needs, and so Fardania was already about to stand up.
However.
“Aye, you got it! Now then, something without meat or fish, which’d mean… Do you mind leaving it to the chef’s choice?”
The master’s response was so confident that Fardania did a double take.
“Excuse me!” Panicked, she stood up and raised her voice.
“Yes?”
“Just so you know, if there’s even a hint of meat mixed into my food, I can’t eat it. Do you still think you can cook for me?”
“It’s no problem, miss. Hm, but the miso soup is going to be off the menu. I use bonito stock for it. Other than that, I can serve you a full meal.”
“Fine, then.” After hearing his words, Fardania had no choice but to back down. She quietly sat in her seat.
What is he planning on serving me? I can’t imagine this being an easy task for a human. Some kind of combination of fresh vegetables and soup? But he said he couldn’t serve me soup…
Fardania was prepared to complain to her heart’s content if this was some kind of trick.
After a brief period of waiting, the master set a plate down right in front of her.
“Here’s your food, miss.”
“What is this?” Fardania couldn’t help but look at the master’s face after glancing down at the plate.
On the black dish was some kind of food that had been grilled with cobbler’s tuber oil and sprinkled with salt. Next to it were fresh-looking orange karoots, boiled to sweetness. To the side of that were moist greens. Up to this point, Fardania remained unsurprised. She had seen all of this before. The problem was the main course: the bizarre white square sitting in the center of the dish.
Fardania had never seen anything like the sizzling hot food in front of her.
“It’s tofu steak flavored with ponzu sauce. I only used seaweed stock to make it, so I think you should be able to eat it, miss. Actually, a lot of young women like yourself tend to order this menu item. Oh, and since bread doesn’t fit your needs, I brought you a side of rice. I can guarantee you it’ll go well with the steak. Please enjoy!”
The master replied to her as if directly answering the question in her mind and then went to take another customer’s order.
…It certainly doesn’t smell like meat.
Fardania leaned in close to the dish and took a whiff. While she didn’t detect the scent of any meat, what she did smell was the ever-so-slightly fruity, mysterious sauce sizzling on the black plate. She also picked up on the aromatic white cube in the center, which was clearly fried using fresh vegetable oil. There wasn’t a hint of the beastly smell that elves so very hated. The master had fulfilled his end of the bargain.
But the problem is how it tastes.
The young elf woman was rather confident in her cooking skills. Since her mother passed away due to illness, Fardania had spent thirty some odd years doing all kinds of housework, and became known in the Shiena woods for being a skilled chef of sorts. She viewed the meal before her as a challenge. Sure, the master had met her bare minimum requirements, but if it tasted awful, none of that mattered.
“Here I go…”
Nervous, or perhaps tantalized by the aroma coming from the dish in front of her, Fardania gulped and picked up her fork and knife. She was curious about the side dishes but decided to tackle the main course first. She brought her knife to the odd white object.
The utensil cut through it with amazing ease and smoothness, as though it were made of air itself.
I don’t get it. The master called it “tofu,” but…
Fardania cut out a square piece of tofu, enough for one bite, and stabbed her fork into it. She took a more careful look at the odd food. If nothing else, the scent coming from the lightly browned mystery object wasn’t awful. It seemed edible.
She was a bit hesitant about the grated vegetables and brown sauce on top, especially as she’d never seen anything like them before. Nonetheless, she chose to carry on.
Here goes nothing.
Regardless of its flavor, the fact remained that the master had held up his end of the bargain. It would be tremendously rude for her to not at least give it a try. Fardania hardened her resolve and took a bite.
Wh-what is this?!
A wave of shock erupted from deep within her heart. The aromatic flavor of the tofu’s crisp surface, and the gentle, warm flavor of its center combined to melt and spread throughout Fardania’s mouth. A brand new world of flavor took hold of her.
This was tofu.
I feel like I ate this when I was little, but I can’t place it. There’s something nostalgic about it…
What is this?
The flavor was strange, much like the texture of the tofu itself. Though Fardania was unaware of it, this flavor was very similar to that of a dairy product produced from animal milk.
Elves didn’t consider dairy edible. Even if they tried to have some, they’d first be assaulted by its rawness, preventing them from being able to enjoy the flavor. This meant that elves of the forest were only familiar with a single dairy product throughout their entire time on the planet.
I know… This is Mom’s flavor.
Fardania gazed far, far back into her memories and came to a realization. Due to their long life spans, elves spent comparatively little time as babies. However, much like humans, they too were nursed by their mothers.
This is incredible!
Finally shaking herself free of the impact of the first bite, Fardania rolled the dissolving tofu around in her mouth, trying to dissect its flavors. What she found left her stunned. While the white cube called tofu was delicious in its own right, it was the sauce on top of it that brought out its flavors and full potential.
I believe he called it ponzu sauce. It’s just a bit sour and salty… What is it made of?
While slowly investigating every inch of the tofu steak in her mouth, Fardania took a moment to think about the ponzu sauce. It contained the juice of an unsweetened, strongly citric fruit and some sort of brown liquid. It was a salty juice that tasted like the tofu. By itself, it was already delicious.
However, there was a third, unknown flavor that brought the saltiness and sourness together. It had the scent of the sea, a place she had not laid her eyes upon in some fifty years. This third element elevated the other two flavors to even greater heights.
How could a human have made this?
Fardania was not sure what exactly this scent of the sea was. However, she did have an idea of how it worked. A long time ago, her mother had traveled the human world and learned about sun-dried mushrooms. She didn’t know why it worked like this, but by drying mushrooms in the sun and using them in soup instead of regular ones, they produced a much better flavor.
This was probably something similar. Drying this unknown ingredient increased its flavor, and simmering it gave the broth a savory quality. Adding this special something to the other two juices gave this dish a single, complete flavor. This was far more advanced than anything Fardania had ever made.
Just that by itself was delicious, and yet…
There were also the fragrant herbs and snowy-white grated vegetables. Matching these with the sour, salty sauce created a complex deliciousness combining multiple flavors and scents. On top of that, thanks to the strong, unique aroma of the herbs, their scent lingered in the diner’s nose even after swallowing down a bite of the tofu.
The complex sauce combined with the tofu and its simple, bland flavor to give the dish a light yet satisfying feeling that filled the stomach.
I can’t believe a human made this!
Fardania was shaken to her very core. The human race had a short lifespan. They would go on to die just as soon as they had come into this world. Compared to elves, humans had no worthwhile culture to speak of.
Or at least, that was what she had thought. Fardania was an intelligent young woman, and as such was more than willing to recognize the error of her ways. This dish was far beyond anything the elves were capable of making. She swallowed her frustration along with the food.
The rice served with the main course had a faint sweetness all its own, which meshed well with the relatively heavy flavor of the tofu steak. The other side dishes, lightly browned cobbler’s tubers and sweet boiled karoots, were delicious. Even the salted greens were positively delectable, leaving Fardania even more frustrated.
I refuse to lose like this!
A fire was lit in the heart of the young elf girl who coveted the culinary arts. She had experienced a shock unlike any other. This was the moment in which the proud Fardania found her path in life.