ITK C429: The Seven Garnishes
So, we talked about adding an appetizer to accompany alcoholic beverages.
But it doesn’t seem to be that serious a problem.
Our farm has produced a variety of goods, and that includes the dish in question.
Edamame goes well with beer.
Cheese goes well with wine.
It seems enough just to add those things, but they can’t go with every drink.
I mean, beer and wine aren’t the only alcohol there is.
For now, I’d like to prepare snacks that go well with sake and whiskey.
I can’t think of any food that goes with whiskey, so maybe we’ll put that off for some other time…
Let’s think of one for sake first.
Sake was very popular at the Alcohol Pavilion’s expo.
If we can prepare snacks for that, I think it’ll solve a huge portion of our problem.
So, I pondered…
…Sake goes with everything, so if we try to find the perfect match, it can actually be quite the puzzler.
Should I take the ultra-easy approach and go with surume (dried squid) or shiokara (salted fish)?
But the purpose of preparing an appetizer is to “dilute” the alcohol.
In that case, something heavy would serve us best.
What about staple food, then?
Oh…
“Oden!”
Oden is a food cart staple.
One of the happiest moments of a drinker’s life is sipping hot sake with oden at a cart on the streets.
It can replace rice and can reduce the amount of alcohol in your body.
And as a result, there’ll be less violent drunks!
“Okay, let’s make that oden to go with sake!”
“Please, saint! To spread the word about my sake, by all means, make that oden or whatever it is!”
Bacchus, listening beside me, suddenly regains his energy.
“Fool!”
“Gah!”
And I send him flying with a lariat.
“How dare you leave this work to someone else? This is your problem. Don’t you want to offer your brews to even more people?!”
At least, superficially.
“So why are you leaving this task to someone else? You do it! Only oden that you made will go perfectly with your carefully brewed alcohol!”
“Ohh!!!”
A wise man changes his mind, a fool never.
My scolding immediately reverberated in Bacchus’ ears.
“It is as you say, saint! Who am I kidding? If I truly care about alcohol, I must also make the food that accompanies them! Alcohol and appetizers are the best of both worlds!”
Yes, good.
“Oh, saint! I have come to my senses! I’m motivated to spread alcohol’s wonder all over the world this time, for sure!”
Hearing that, it’s safe to say Bacchus is back to his usual self.
Very well. Let’s make oden together!
Bacchus is our protagonist for today, but of course, I’ll help out too!
“Oden needs ingredients! It’s a white dish with a variety of ingredients!”
“Oh!”
“Time to get those ingredients! They say that when you have them all, any wish you make will come true!”
Wait. I think that’s not oden.
But anyway, here are the ingredients we need.
- Radish
- Egg
- Kelp
- Konjac
- Tofu
- Chikuwa
- Mochi
“First, get some radishes, Bacchus! Go pull the ones growing in the field!”
“Aye, aye!”
Bacchus dashes into the field.
“Radishes! Pull out the ones growing around here… Huh? Why is it coming out of the soil all by itself? I see two pole-like things at the tip… Feet? Ah, it ran away! Why is the radish running away? Wait uppppp!”
Recently, our crops’ evolution has entered an unknown realm.
While Bacchus is playing chase with the radish, I’ll get on with my work.
Tofu, chikuwa, and mochi are essential ingredients that need to be cooked and processed, so I’ll use the ones I’ve been saving from before.
You don’t just throw them into the oden pot as they are.
By further processing them, they evolve into an oden ingredient.
First, we deep-fry some tofu.
This completes one oden ingredient.
And then, we deep-fry a separate tofu. We then put mochi inside this pouch, so now we have mochi kinchaku.
There are other things that can be made with tofu.
With another plain block, mash and mix in chopped carrots and burdock root.
Roll it up and fry it in oil to make tofu fritter.
Who would have thought it was possible to create such a wide variety of oden dishes just from tofu?
I’m glad I responded to Letasreit’s wish and made some.
…All right, the chikuwa is complete, too.
I had made kamaboko before, so I used my previous experience and ingredients.
Deep-fried tofu, mochi kinchaku, tofu fritter, and chikuwa.
Now we have four oden garnishes!
Furthermore, let’s make konjac.
…Actually, this is the most difficult problem.
I’ve never made konjac before.
It’s pretty basic, but maybe that’s why I haven’t bothered making it.
However, konjac is absolutely necessary for oden.
Even shirataki noodles are made from konjac.
…If I recall, konjac is made from yams.
I’ve seen it a few times around the arc Lup*n raided Zantetsuken.
I can grow konjac potatoes with the Hand of Supremacy and process them, but that seems a bit time-consuming.
I wondered about what to do, but then someone came.
“I am Konjac Mondou, the konnyaku potato spirit.”
“Seriously.”
Even konjac potatoes have spirits now?!
But how? Konjac potatoes don’t grow on trees. Aren’t they called tree spirits because they specifically possess trees?!
“Don’t worry about the details. More importantly, I heard someone got married.”
“Oh, yes.”
That would be Prince Arowana and Puffer, as well as Hendra and Lampeye.
“In celebration of their engagement, I have brought some konjac.”
“A pun?!”
What a nonsensical flow of events for me to obtain konjac!
It’s even cut into fine threads, in other words, shirataki!
There are even konjac balls!
“If you like, I can teach you how to make konjac from scratch in the future. For now, I’ll be taking my leave.”
“T-Thanks…”
To think I’d get konjac without lifting a finger…
At the same time, Bacchus, who had finally captured the radishes, wrestled with the yoschamo and got eggs.
Then, I got some kelp from Platy.
Now, we have all the ingredients.
As they simmer, the pot transforms into a jewelry box, and…!
konyaku: engagement, hence the konjac pun
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