“Ah, Asuta! So this is where you were!” an energetic voice called out, and when I turned to look, I saw Yumi leading a group over to our stoves. She had Telia Mas, Shin Ruu, and his two younger brothers with her, which I thought was a pretty interesting combination. Telia Mas seemed to have finally gotten used to her banquet attire, as she no longer looked so embarrassed.
“Hey there. I don’t think I’ve seen you guys since we got set up. Did you manage to get a bite of curry shaska?”
“Yup! We were standing around talking over where Sheera Ruu was working, so some folks from the Ruu clan brought us some! That was a really interesting dish!” Even for a resident of the post town like Yumi, her first reaction was still that she found it “interesting.” “I’d love to have my mom and my old man try it out, but if it’s an ingredient from Sym, I’m sure it must be pricey!”
“Yeah, but once the demand for it reaches a certain point, the price should drop somewhat. For now, though, it should probably be considered a luxury good.”
“In that case, we definitely won’t be using it at our inn. Still, I guess I only got to eat food like that in the first place because I get along with all of you from the forest’s edge so well now!”
Now that a decent amount of time had passed since the banquet had kicked off, Yumi seemed to be really fired up.
I then looked over at the three young men who were with her and gave them a smile. “Hey. I feel like it’s been a bit since I’ve seen you, Shin Ruu. Did you all meet up over where Sheera Ruu is serving food?”
“We did. We talked for a while, but Darmu Ruu was being so loud that we ended up stepping away.”
“After that, we went to go see Lala Ruu!” Yumi added. “But then I started thinking that your next dish might be ready soon, so we came here to check!”
“That was a good guess. I just now finished getting it ready,” Toor Deen said with a smile. She had been the one handling the prep work.
“Okay, then let’s start serving it now. Yun Sudra, if you would?” I prompted.
“Right,” Yun Sudra replied, picking up a plate. When Yumi saw what was on it, her eyes shot open wide.
“Are those giba cutlets? Didn’t you complete that dish a long time ago?”
“Not quite. These are going to be part of our dish.”
The pot that Toor Deen was in charge of had a large amount of aria boiling in a salty-sweet tau-oil-based sauce. She scooped out a bit of it and transferred it to a pan on the neighboring stove, which Yun Sudra swiftly added the giba cutlets to, along with some kimyuus egg that we had prepared in a bowl. I plated some shaska for the five of them as the pot came to a simmer and soft boiled the egg. Once everything was ready, we scooped up the giba cutlets, aria, egg, and sauce all together and transferred it onto the shaska, completing the giba katsudon.
“Here you go. Personally, I think this tastes every bit as good as the curry shaska, so everybody give it a try.”
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