Dwarven Kingdom.
This country situated in the western part of the continent is composed mainly of tunnels bored through mountain chains. As it offers a safe alternative to traversing dangerous mountain roads, merchants and adventurers alike travel through this country in great numbers.
But despite the large flow of people through the Dwarven Kingdom, it can almost be said that there isn’t a single non-dwarf living here in permanence.
The reason for this is because this country is, as its name implies, a country for dwarves. To get this moody race to acknowledge an outsider and accept that person as one of their own is said to be even more difficult than defeating a dragon.
Yet in such a Dwarven Kingdom, there has been one human who has recently been officially acknowledged as a citizen.
His name is Juuzou. In this Dwarven Kingdom where various ingredients and cuisines are gathered, he has continuously birthed dishes amidst comments like “wait, that’s not for eating!” and “it’s been altered so much that it doesn’t have a hint of its original appearance!”
This is Juuzou, the role model for all Japanese chefs.
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At the mouth of an eastern road in the Dwarven Kingdom, the one in the direction of Fitzgald Empire, there is a certain restaurant.
“O~i, Master! Seconds, please! Large serving!”
“Got it, will bring it to you soon!”
In this Dwarven Kingdom where most architecture is stone-based, this small store stands out with its wooden construction. As it is lunchtime, the store is bustling with many dwarven customers. And the one standing in the kitchen is a man who appears to be in his thirties.
His mild face whose characteristic seems to be not having any characteristic is currently the very picture of seriousness.
“Hey there, Juuzou. I’ve come as promised.”
It is a young female voice that addresses Juuzou as he is busying around.
“Ahh, Bahra-san. Welcome.”
Juuzou-san turns his gaze to see a female with a small build who’s sitting up straight with her hands on the counter.
She is a female dwarf, and her name is Bahra. She is the daughter of the carpenter who Juuzou-san had been greatly in the care of when he was setting up this store.
“There are still many customers at the moment, so please wait a while. Would you like a dish on the house?”
“Really? Then please make me that ‘Napolitan’ from the other time. With extra sausages.”
“Certainly.”
Juuzou-san’s courteous reply causes Bahra-san’s face to light up like a flower blossoming.
As someone with a great disposition and good at cooking, Bahra-san is quite popular among the guys. The reason for this Bahra-san to visit Juuzou-san’s store is because of a request of great importance.
“Thank you for waiting. Here’s your Napolitan.”
“Thank you. Then I’ll eat it slowly while waiting for you.”
So saying, she takes up a fork, and begins digging into the red-stained noodle dish.
Incidentally, Napolitan is 100% a Japanese creation. If you show it to an Italian, you would get hit with a “what part of this is from Napoli?!” so please be careful.
Isn’t it fine just dumping ketchup on pasta? We’re Japanese, after all.
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“So then, what’s the new dish for today?”
“Please wait just a little while longer. I’ve already finished making the preparations.”
It is now mid-afternoon after the lunch rush, and the number of customers has settled down. Bahra-san’s expectation-filled words from the counter seating brings a wry smile to Juuzou-san’s face as he begins cooking.
The request that Bahra-san has accepted from Juuzou-san is to taste-test all the new dishes that he plans to offer in this store.
Juuzou-san himself is strict about his own cooking, and he would never serve to customers a dish that he himself is not satisfied with. However, this is another world. And his customer base is dwarves. Their taste buds are different, and there surely are ingredients that they are averse to due to their culture.
Thus, as a solution to all such problems, Juuzou-san requested Bahra-san to taste-test his dishes, as she is the person over here who is the best at cooking and has the most reliable tongue among all the acquaintances that he has made so far.
“Thank you for waiting. Here is a gratin croquette, and a curry croquette.”
What he’s serving today turns out to be the Japanese’s beloved croquette.
Although this dish did originate from France, it’s become the lead example of a Western dish that has evolved so completely that it’s pretty much an entirely different item altogether.
“I can generally imagine what the gratin croquette is like from its name. But ‘curry’? Isn’t it that dish that you were trying really hard to make the other time but gave up due to not having enough spices?”
“I’m surprised you remember that. Actually, I’ve recently become close with a merchant who’s been helping me look around for spices. Thanks to that, I can now make something like curry, but unfortunately it’s still insufficient to reproduce the curry that I know. But still, I was thinking whether I could make something with it, and this curry-flavored croquette is the result of much struggling and testing.”
“Hahh, I see. Well, I’ve never eaten ‘curry’ before, so I can’t imagine how it tastes based on the name alone.”
Number 2 lead example of a dish that has evolved into something else entirely is curry. However, curry is apparently a name that foreigners made up to refer to stewed dishes in Indian cuisine, so there isn’t any specific dish in Indian cuisine with the name ‘curry.’
While we’re on the topic, the reason why Japan’s completely different curry is so thick is because Japanese back then would eat it with chopsticks, so the dish became like that to make it easier to eat.
Hearing people use chopsticks to eat curry rice might sound like a bit of a mismatch, but if you think of chopsticks and curry don1 then it should make a lot more sense.
Us Japanese like to put everything over rice. It just can’t be helped.
“Let me start with the gratin croquette then…… mm, this goes together surprisingly well. But I think I’d prefer the taste to be a bit stronger.”
“I used the recipe for gratin as is. Should I change it after all, to make it go better with the croquette?”
“No need, it’s already delicious enough. The stronger taste is just my personal preference, and to make a different gratin for the croquette would be extra work. This store is being run by Juuzou alone, so it’d be best to keep the amount of prep work needed to a minimum.”
“I see.”
“But you’d do well to put in more meat. Spring onions are delicious too, but, you know, meat.”
“Sure, sure. You dwarves are always harping on about that.”
“Of course we are. We can’t summon any strength if we don’t eat meat!”
Juuzou-san smiles wryly as Bahra-san replies with a laugh.
“Next would be…… mm. This might be a bit too spicy. But I don’t dislike this spiciness.”
Bahra-san takes a bite from the curry croquette and carefully tastes it while chewing slowly.
“It doesn’t taste bad…… but the taste is losing out to the spiciness. It would be better to make the taste stronger. This time it’s not my preference, but a serious suggestion.”
This time Bahra-san’s expression is slightly disappointed and unsatisfied. Juuzou-san probably had expected this reaction, as he looks a bit down himself.
“As I had thought. I also tried out many things, but I couldn’t find the right balance. Unfortunately, spices happen to be out of my specialty.”
“Despite that, this is still quite edible. But adding it to the store menu……”
Once a dish is known to be not delicious, even if the store improves it later on, customers generally still won’t order it ever again. That’s why the two of them share the same view on not serving less-than-perfect dishes.
“Guess there’s no other choice but to continue probing and experimenting. Since my real aim is curry rice after all.”
“You also mentioned that ‘rice’ before, saying that it’s good but you can’t find it. Did you perhaps manage to find it? Something close enough to your homeplace’s rice?”
“Not yet, sadly. But I’ve heard that there is a new species of rice being grown in Keros, so I’m pinning my hopes on that.”
As it happens, the rice being grown in Keros is exactly the rice of his homeplace, but naturally there’s no way for such specific information to enter the ears of a mere chef.
But it seems that it won’t be far until the Japanese’s soul food ‘curry rice’ is fully reproduced in this otherworld.
The day when Japanese converge on the Dwarven Kingdom is drawing near.
“Fuun. Well, I’ll also help look around a bit through my contacts. Seeing how fixated you are on this ‘curry’ makes me really want to try it.”
“Thank you very much, Bahra-san.”
“Don’t mind it. I’m doing this because I want to.”
Bahra-san’s face while saying this is smiling brightly like the sun, overflowing with humanly charm.
‘Ahh, I really might be falling for her’ thinks Juuzou-san. But that’s only if Bahra-san——
“Oops, got some sauce on my ribbon.”
——was not growing a beard.
“Bahra-san’s braided beard is quite stylish, isn’t it.”
“What’s this out of the blue? You’re making me embarrassed.”
The Bahra-san who says that while running her hands through the beard sprouting from her chin is a maiden indeed. That is, if she didn’t have that beard.
Today, too, this otherworld is at peace.
1Don refers to a large bowl filled with rice then some topping. Whereas ‘curry rice’ usually is served on plates, ‘don’ is always in bowls, so it makes sense to eat the latter with chopsticks.