“What am I gonna do with this stuff...?” I muttered as I gazed at the lump of meat on the kitchen counter. It looked more like whitefish than anything else, and I was at a loss as to how I should prepare it. “I guess the first thing I should do is cook a bit and give it a taste test!”
I cut off a small portion of the meat, lightly seasoned it with salt and pepper, and got it cooking in a frying pan. My ingredient of choice that evening was ice dragon meat, which I’d obtained back in the Brixt dungeon. That particular dungeon had concluded with us meeting Gon, which had been such a huge deal it had more or less blown everything that came before it out of the water in terms of significance. In other words, I’d totally forgotten that the meat had dropped at all.
Honestly, I’m impressed that Fel did manage to remember it.
When it became clear that the rest of the butchering process would have to wait till the next day, I’d sent Gon and Dora-chan a telepathic message, and the five of us had reconvened on solid ground to go home. Elrand had done his best to turn that five into six, but Moira had descended upon him like a bolt of elven lightning and we’d managed to return to the house we’d rented without any unwelcome hangers-on in the end.
I hadn’t really done anything at all throughout the whole day, and yet I felt like my time in that field had been packed with exhausting events from start to finish. I was hoping to sit back, relax, and sip my way through a nice cup of coffee before making dinner, but Fel, of course, had other ideas.
“A day such as this merits a delicious dinner. No—it demands it,” Fel said the second we stepped through the door. Gon, Dora-chan, and Sui had quickly chimed in to agree, and just like that, my fate was sealed.
Anyway, dragon meat was more or less the gold standard for delicious food, as far as my familiars were concerned. It had only been a couple days since we’d had dragon steaks at Earl Langridge’s home, though, and my reserves of both earth and red dragon meat were looking really dicey. I barely had any earth dragon meat left at all, in fact—the amount I had in stock would probably only get me through two more meals at most, considering how much my party ate. I knew for a fact that everyone would suddenly start craving that stuff the second I was out of it, and unfortunately, I also knew that running into an earth dragon and a red dragon in quick succession had been a major stroke of luck.
Then again, it does sort of feel like dragons are magnetically drawn to me, or something. Maybe it won’t be an issue in the long term after all.
When I explained our dragon meat predicament to Fel, he’d paused for a moment to consider the matter before suddenly perking up with excitement. “Come to think of it, did we not have the meat of an ice dragon?” he asked. I’d actually had no idea what he’d been talking about at first, but when I checked my Item Box and really did find the stuff, it all came back to me in a flash.
“Though we are not able to eat the leviathan yet, the meat of an ice dragon will serve as a satisfactory appetizer. They are, after all, not altogether unalike in flavor. It will enhance our anticipation for the leviathan itself,” Fel declared.
“Oh? An ice dragon’s meat is a rare thing indeed,” Gon noted. “And I suppose it does taste rather similar to leviathan meat, yes. I’m excited to sample what you make with it!”
《Riiight, from that one dungeon! We met Gon right after, and I forgot all about it!》 Dora-chan said.
《Oooh, ice dragon meat!》 Sui cooed excitedly.
Just like that, ice dragon meat was put on the evening’s menu before I could get a word in edgewise. My familiars sent me off to the kitchen on the double, their gazes full of anticipation.
“All right, that should do it,” I said as I plucked the piece of ice dragon meat from the frying pan. It still looked pretty fishlike, even after it was cooked. I gave it a bite. “Oooh,” I murmured. The meat was soft—flaky, even.
“You know, this reminds me a little of cod, actually!” I said. The meat was deliciously umami-rich in a way that cod could never compare to, of course, but in terms of texture, there was a distinct similarity. “Yeah, this is really tasty! That’s dragon meat for you, I guess. I can think of all sorts of dishes that it would work well in. A nice, simple meunière would be good, but I think I have a better idea...”
An image had sprung into my mind of a veritable mountain of fish and chips. Yeah, that sounds like it’d hit the spot. I think I’m on to something. Tonight’s dinner will be fish and chips, for sure! I snapped up some simple ingredients from my Online Supermarket, then got right to work!
To start, I cut a bunch of Alban’s homegrown potatoes into wedges, leaving their peels on, then left them to soak in a bowl of water. While the fries were soaking, I sliced the ice dragon meat into pieces, gave them the ol’ salt-and-pepper treatment, and lightly dusted them with flour as well.
Next up: the batter! I combined flour, baking powder, and a little salt in a bowl, then added liquid in the form of beer. The combination of beer and baking powder would give the batter a really nice, satisfying crunch when it was fried. Speaking of frying, that was the very next step—I dipped the pieces of ice dragon meat in the batter, then plopped them right into the oil.
The potato wedges had spent long enough in their bath by that point, so I scooped them out and gave them a very thorough drying before frying them as well. This was one of those moments when having several burners available to me was a godsend—I could have multiple pots of oil going at the same time. When the fries and fish were just the right shade of golden-brown, I pulled them from the oil, let them drain for a moment, and that was that!
“Okay, that should do it! All it needs is some ketchup, and”—I paused to bring out a certain secret ingredient from my Item Box—“my own homemade tartar sauce!”
The sauce was a very simple mixture of minced-up hard-boiled eggs, pickles, and onions, plus mayo, vinegar, and a bit of salt and pepper. I’d made a ton of it a while back, and still had plenty left over for this meal.
“All right, looking perfect!”
I piled everyone’s plates high with fish and chips, stashed them in my Item Box, and headed out into the living room where my familiars were eagerly waiting for me.
“Here you go, guys! I decided to try frying the dragon meat this time,” I said as I presented the fish and chips to everyone.
“Hmm. This is not unsatisfactory, though the potatoes are unnecessary,” Fel said, wasting no time in digging into the dragon meat side of the meal.
“Well, fries are an essential part of this dish, and that’s all there is to it!” I said. “You should really try them before you complain! They’re great!”
“Yes, this is delicious! What a wonderful crunch! It gives me the strangest thirst, if you take my meaning, my liege,” Gon said as he dug into his meal as well.
“Oh, do I ever. A beer would go great with this,” I agreed. Honestly, that’s a really good idea. I should bring one out for him—and for myself, while I’m at it.