It had the appearance of white somen, just like the noodles that had been served at The Silver Star. But there had been seeds of some sort kneaded into those noddles, so this would be my first time trying plain shaska.
“So this is shaska, then? It looks pretty similar to pasta, like you all said,” Yun Sudra remarked with a smile, as she was the only chef we had with us who hadn’t gone to the dinner at The Silver Star.
After nodding at her, I took a single bite of shaska, and found that it had the same texture as when I had tried it before. Despite only being about a millimeter thick, it was impressively springy. Actually, looking back, I recalled thinking that it was similar to glutinous rice back then.
You couldn’t stretch out normal glutinous rice this much, though. That’s a pretty clear sign that this stuff is abnormally strong.
And then there was the taste of the shaska. Before, it had been flavored in a way that reminded me of tan tan ramen, but because of the seeds kneaded into it, I hadn’t been able to figure out what the flavor of the shaska itself was like. Having it plain now for the first time, I found that it was faintly sweet. Rather than having a strong flavor, it had a faint one with a light aroma that spread throughout my mouth and then soon vanished. The mamaria vinegar had been completely washed off, leaving no hint of its taste or smell, so I was able to analyze the mild flavor of the noodles in as much detail as I wanted.
It’s totally different from rice vermicelli. From what I remember, I’m pretty sure that stuff is made using indica rice, which isn’t sticky. This definitely feels like I’m eating glutinous rice that was made into noodles.
I was getting pretty excited, but the other chefs who were with me looked pretty doubtful as they tried it.
“Hmm. It doesn’t have any real flavor to speak of...but I suppose pasta made from fuwano and poitan is kind of the same way when it’s plain.”
“Yeah, but its texture and chewiness does set it apart. I think it’s pleasant in its own way, so maybe we could use it to make a dish that’s totally different from pasta.”
Toor Deen, Reina Ruu, and Sheera Ruu all wore deadly serious expressions, while Myme, Rimee Ruu, and Yun Sudra looked like they were really enjoying themselves.
Then, a bit more shaska with a minuscule amount of red sauce poured over it was distributed. This batch had been made in advance, and Varkas had heated it back up while we had been sampling the plain shaska.
“This is a sauce we prepared using stock made from karon meat and bones, as well as a bit of salt, tau oil, and ira leaves.”
Once people started eating that one, I began hearing sounds of satisfaction coming from quite a few of them. Just adding a lightly flavored sauce to the shaska made it dramatically more delicious. Varkas, who preferred to season things in elaborate ways, probably thought of it as nothing more than a simple bit of flavoring, but the sauce was unbelievably good on its own. And it had definitely been made specifically to highlight the unique characteristics of shaska. The karon stock paired wonderfully with the spicy ira leaves, and it seemed to me that the shaska noodles with that sauce on top was a perfectly fine dish already.
“This is delicious. In fact, I’d say it’s equally as good as the black fuwano dipping soba sauce Sir Asuta once taught us how to make,” Yang said, sounding deeply impressed.
Having finished all of his current tasks, Varkas was scanning the crowd of the chefs before him with a somewhat vacant gaze. “What do you all think? If any of you wish to use shaska, we will move ahead with ordering it regularly from Sym. This is an ingredient I intend to keep spending a lot of time on in the future.”
“Hmm. Well, it certainly does seem to be an ingredient worth grappling with. It requires a fair bit of preparation, but the same is also true of the black fuwano dipping soba Sir Asuta devised... And I am sure there will be plenty of people who would be thrilled to be able to try dishes that could only be found in Sym up until now,” Timalo replied in a polite tone. Most of the other chefs seemed to agree with his assessment.
After glancing around the crowd with a look of satisfaction, Polarth turned to me and said, “What do you think, Sir Asuta? As you are already experienced with preparing black fuwano dipping soba, I would imagine that you could use this to come up with something wonderful in no time at all.”
“Yeah, that’s true... But before that, I’d like to try a different preparation method and see if that works.”
“A different preparation method?” Polarth questioned, tilting his head, while Timalo furrowed his brow dubiously.
Behind them, Varkas glanced at me with a look that was impossible to read. “What do you mean by that? Are you saying you’ve worked with an ingredient similar to shaska before, Sir Asuta?”
“I won’t know for sure until I actually try what I’m thinking of. But I would really like to give it a shot.”
Needless to say, I was hoping to find a way to eat shaska in its whole form. As someone born in Japan, that desire was only natural. Though I had encountered all sorts of different ingredients here in Genos, I hadn’t been able to find anything that even came close to rice until now.
“How terribly interesting. If you do not mind, could you show us some of the experiments you’d like to try now?”
“Huh? I don’t really mind, but, well...it’s going to take a while, and it could end up as a massive failure.”
“That is no concern. We still have time to spare, do we not?” Varkas directed that question at Polarth, as he was the one in charge.
Smiling, the noble nodded and replied, “Of course. This shaska is the final ingredient we intended to present today, and there should still be some time before this manor’s chefs will need this space for their own work.”
“I see. Well, in that case, I’ll see what I can do,” I said.
I was already planning to start buying shaska, even if I had to pay for everything out of my own pocket, so I was grateful for the chance to do a little research on it. All that said, though, I didn’t know how similar shaska actually was to rice. There was a strong possibility that this wasn’t going to be as easy as I was hoping. After giving the matter some careful thought, I decided on four different approaches to try out.
“Okay, then let’s start by portioning out the shaska. I’d like to make enough so everyone can have a taste, so enough to fill five of these containers should be plenty.”
With assistance from Reina Ruu and the other chefs, I got the shaska portioned out into the containers. Actually touching the grains told me that dried shaska was quite hard in a way that definitely resembled uncooked rice. When I looked at them up close, though, I found that they had a really smooth oval shape, with no cavity to indicate that its germ had been removed. In short, it was a totally distinct grain from a whole other world that just happened to resemble rice.