I returned to my room and was absorbed in the books we had received, and the next thing I knew, it was time for dinner.
Just as he warned, Prince Kyle hadn’t returned, so yet again, it was just the six of us in the dining hall. We were served local cuisine cooked by the manor’s chef.
I saw a number of foods again for the first time in a long while, but among them was one in particular about which Yuri was over the moon.
“What’s this?!” Yuri cried out with joy.
“I believe the server said they’re sticky rice dumplings,” I told him, which was what I’d been told just a moment before.
Inside the bamboo steaming basket was a food wrapped in bamboo leaves. I had a feeling it must be zongzi, and it turned out that I knew my stuff.
When we untied the string and opened the leaves, we found steaming rice of a glossy light brown hue. The grand magus had no doubt shrieked because he had glimpsed the rice inside. In Japanese, we called these Chinese-style chimaki.
The dumpling included little bits of what looked like meat. I excitedly tasted one and was rewarded with the exact flavor I had imagined. The delicious notes brought a natural smile to my lips.
Unlike the rice we had eaten in Salutania, these dumplings had a doughy texture. In all likelihood, the kind we were eating at home was the non-glutinous variety typically eaten in Japan, whereas the dumplings were using glutinous rice.
Yuri noticed that the texture was different too, and raised his plate to eye level to better inspect the dumpling. “The texture is quite different from what we ate back home,” he muttered to himself.
“That’s because it’s using a different kind of rice.”
Yuri whipped around to me. “What kind of rice is this, then?”
“Back in my homeland, we called it glutinous rice.”
“Glutinous, you say? Is that different from the kind used to make mochi?”
“Oh, no, it’s the mochi rice. But it can be used in cooking like this as well.”
“So the difference lies in the recipe too? I see. And since it has a distinct name…”
I had told Yuri about the different kinds of rice when he first fell into his obsession. That had been quite a trying time.
Although I was knowledgeable about plants, I mainly knew about herbs. He’d asked me all kinds of questions, and I’d only been able to answer a few. As for types of rice, at first I only remembered the Koshihikari, Sasa Nishiki, and Akita Komachi varieties. And then I recalled that there were also Tsuyahime, Hitomebore, and Yumepirika. Oh, and Yamada Nishiki too.
I knew there were others, but those were really the only ones I could remember. At the time, I had also told him about glutinous rice, but I had only mentioned that it was used to make mochi. While it hadn’t been much, the grand magus clearly remembered everything I had shared.
He truly was brilliant when it came to learning and memorizing everything about whatever caught his interest.
Someone else was interested in the sticky rice dumplings too: May, who had come to study Zaideran cuisine. She broke apart her dumpling to study its components.
“It looks like it also has meat, carrots, and I think this is shrimp? What’s this?”
My own inspection had revealed the carrots, pork, and bamboo shoots. The shrimp was so small that I hadn’t noticed it was there. I was impressed she had recognized it.
“I assume those are bamboo shoots,” I explained.
“What are those?” She gave me a puzzled look.
“Oh, the young sprouts of a plant called bamboo.”
“Ooh. I’ve never heard of it before.”
“I don’t think it grows in Salutania.”
“So it’s an ingredient only found in Zaidera.”
I was going to be a bit embarrassed if it wound up being a different kind of plant. I guess I’ll ask the server later. I’d feel bad if I led her down the wrong path.
“Since it uses rice, does that mean it’s cooked by boiling the ingredients in a pot like you would the rice?”
“Probably not boiling, I think. This basket is used for steaming.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“They boil water and use the steam that rises from it to cook food in this basket.”
“Huh. So they wrap the ingredients and the rice in this leafy thing and then steam the packet?”
“I think so? I’m sorry, I’m not so sure. I’ve eaten this kind of food before, but I’ve never made it myself.”
All I really knew was that May was right about wrapping the dumpling up in the leaf before steaming. I had no idea if the rice was cooked with the other ingredients before the wrapping or if they were put in raw.
“That’s all right. I apologize for the interrogation.”
“No worries. I’d like to learn how it’s made myself. I wonder if someone would be willing to teach us.”
“Perhaps we should ask the cook?”
“Good idea!”
If only we knew, then we could make them in Salutania, so long as we had the ingredients. I wonder if we can learn some other recipes as well.
I continued eating as I chatted with May and Zara. By the time we were done with dinner, Prince Kyle had returned. It seemed he had made some progress.