It was nearly evening by the time Volf arrived at the Green Tower. Thinking that he might be quite chilly when he arrived, Dahlia had an early dinner prepared and waiting. “What’s the matter, Volf?”
“So, um, I spoke with my brother.” The gold in his eyes paled as his gaze found its way to her—bad news, most likely.
If it was so hard for him to broach the subject, then it was no time for her to be smiling. “Shall we eat first? We can take our time to chat afterward.”
“Sure. Uh, what is that anyway? Some sort of tuber?”
What she transferred from the large pot to fill each bowl were shiny white hemispheres. “This is a turnip boiled in salted water.” Nearly too big to cup in both hands, the turnip halves had been stewed low and slow. She’d originally planned to blend the whole thing into a potage, but she’d ultimately decided on this method since it was so sweet. “You can slather it with some butter and sprinkle on some salt, then scoop it out with a spoon. If you get bored of it, you can also try the miso sauce with ground chicken.” Fearing the turnip would be too plain on its own for Volf, she had made extra sauce with ground chicken and miso; the Beast Hunters had shared the latter ingredient with her after the field training session, and it tasted similar to the aged red miso found in Japan.
“It wasn’t too hard to cook that gigantic turnip, was it? Sorry to have you do this for me every time.”
“Nothing could be simpler than simmering it, and everything else was preprepared too. Besides, you brought me the ham and cheese last time.” She’d been rather busy as of late, so the warm veggie salad, salted cabbage, cut ham and cheese, and the egg drop chicken soup with turnip greens had been prepared ahead of time. Accompanying the meal was rather watered-down liquor with a squeeze of lemon, perfect to warm up with on a chilly day like today. Her father had dubbed this the “Common Cold Preventer,” which probably wasn’t too far off the mark considering the supplement of vitamin C. If anything, though, her father had drunk too much for good health. “Let’s eat while the turnip is still hot.” It wouldn’t do if the butter couldn’t melt.
The duo dug into the hemispheres with their spoons, blowing on the steaming bites before putting them into their mouths. With little effort, the halves of the turnip nearly dissolved, filling their mouths with its rich flavor and the sweetness brought out by the salted butter. This turnip must have been harvested as late as possible for it to be this size, making it a delicacy found only at this time of year. After a while, she reached for the miso and ground chicken sauce. The salty pungency of the miso and the savoriness of the ground chicken were tempered with a sprinkling of sugar, mixing exquisitely with the turnip’s flavor on the palate. The notes of butter sometimes shone through as well, providing a rather delicious accent.