All the food to be tested was ready.
It had taken a little time, but visually, I was satisfied.
“Try them one by one in order and tell me what you think.”
I set the plates of food down one at a time in front of Aris, who was sitting at the table with her eyes sparkling.
Now, first up: hamburg steak.
I crushed tofu that I had completely dehydrated with magic,
then mixed in dried mushrooms and flour in the right proportions to create the texture of chewing meat.
It was similar to an ordinary soybean-meat steak, but with one extra special process.
That was using extremely precise magic to rearrange the structure of the protein, creating the “grain” of meat.
As for the lacking meaty aroma and the greasy richness of fat, I tried to replace them with an intense sauce.
“Th-then… I’ll try it.”
Aris began cutting the steak with her fork and knife.
The surface was brown like thoroughly cooked meat, and it even had the seared char that came from the Maillard reaction.
At last, the hamburg steak entered Aris’s mouth.
Munch, munch, munch……
“……!”
“How is it?”
“Ith sho good!!!!!!”
“Talk after you finish chewing.”
Aris ate the hamburg steak I made in a frenzy.
Cutting it with the knife, spearing it with the fork, bringing it to her mouth.
That sequence of actions grew faster and faster.
“Now, what kind of meat does it seem like?”
When Aris’s forkwork had slowed down somewhat, I asked.
Since I had used a steak sauce from a reliable recipe with no chance of failure, I knew it tasted good.
What I was curious about was how much it felt like real meat.
Aris closed her eyes and seemed to think for a moment, then said to me,
“Ummm…… Beef? No, hmm… pork? Nooo… um… chicken?”
“All wrong.”
“Eh… what could it be… what kind of meat is it…….”
“Does it definitely feel like meat to you?”
“It does feel a bit like meat from a cut without much fat…… but I’m not sure what kind of meat it is.”
“Hmm, so that’s about it.”
This time, I, the expert, took a taste.
I picked up one of the pieces of hamburg steak Aris had cut with my fork and put it in my mouth.
Then I chewed carefully with my eyes closed.
The first thing I felt was the intense taste of the steak sauce.
It was strong enough to cover up even meat of somewhat poor quality with a heavy gamey smell.
As my teeth cut through the structure of the hamburg steak, I felt the grain of meat.
The texture itself felt more like meat than a hamburg steak made from actual minced meat.
It was like a texture somewhere between a raw-meat steak and a hamburg steak.
It was a strange and curious texture that could never have been realized without magic.
But still, to me, it didn’t feel like “real meat” at all.
The problem was that I didn’t know whether that was because I already knew what the ingredients were, or whether the reproduction rate was truly low.
The taste itself was excellent.
But it was ambiguous to call it “the perfect carnivorous experience.”
Since the reason I had asked Aris to taste-test was to judge that,
I continued offering Aris the next dish.
“Now, try the next dish carefully too and tell me what you think.”
“Yes!”
Looking delighted, Aris moved her fork toward the next dish.
This time, it was dumplings.
The filling contained dried tofu and mushrooms, cabbage, onion, green onion, and the like.
Likewise, the tofu and mushrooms were the main ingredients creating the meat texture,
and I had mixed in vegetable oil and bound it together to try to bring out the slightly greasy feeling of meat juices.
Aris picked up a dumpling and put it in her mouth.
Her small mouth chewed the dumpling, and I could see her expression gradually becoming blissful.
“How’s this one?”
“It’sh delishush!!!!!!”
“I told you to talk after chewing.”
“Mm… mmm…… It’s very moist, and I like how chewy it is.”
“What about the texture of the meat inside?”
“It’s totally good! The seasoning seems really well done too, and when I chew it, the meat juices are really…….”
I focused carefully on Aris’s impressions.
She had no idea that there wasn’t even a bit of meat in this.
Just a moment ago, she had said the hamburg steak was like a “cut without fat.”
Put nicely, that meant light and clean; put badly, it meant dry.
But the dumplings were different.
The dumplings I had brought out this time weren’t pan-fried dumplings, but dumplings steamed with vapor.
Naturally, when you bit into the dumpling, the moisture it held inside burst out.
And Aris was naturally describing that as “meat juices.”
After Aris finished tasting, I tried one dumpling as well.
“……!”
Sure enough, unlike the hamburg steak, I could hardly feel any difference from a real meat dumpling.
To begin with, the meat that went into dumpling filling was finely minced, so reproducing the texture was much easier.
Above all, the water that carried the flavor of the seasoned filling and gushed out really did feel like meat juice.
Of course, if one tasted it very carefully, one could tell it was different from a real meat dumpling……
But at this level, compared to the earlier hamburg steak, it felt considerably closer to “real meat.”
“Now, this is the last dish.”
“Yes! Then…….”
Last was tangsuyuk without meat.
Aris looked extremely happy to be able to eat delicious food in succession.
The “meat” for the tangsuyuk had also been made in a method similar to the earlier hamburg steak.
However, I coated the outside in a crisp batter, then tossed and stir-fried it in a sweet, sour, and thick fruit sauce.
In my previous life, there had been arguments between the “dip” faction, who dipped tangsuyuk in sauce, and the “pour” faction, who poured the sauce over it,
but I thought the most delicious way was neither of those, but the “stir-fry” method, tossing it in the sauce and frying it right there on the spot.
Of course, I paid special attention so the batter wouldn’t get soggy even when stir-fried with the sauce.
I chilled the batter and fried it in two stages at precise temperatures so the crispness would last.
“Mmmmm~!”
When Aris bit into a piece of tangsuyuk coated in sauce,
the crisp sound of the batter breaking was clear even to my ears.
“What do you think?”
This time, she chewed and swallowed all the tangsuyuk in her mouth before answering.
“This sauce… the sauce is amazing! It clings perfectly to the crispy batter, and the meat inside is really delicious too.”
“The batter itself is very crisp, but thanks to the sauce coating it, it also gives the illusion of being springy and chewy, right?”
“This is… how should I put it…… Out of the three dishes I ate today, this one is the best!”
“Oho.”
“Can I eat all of this?”
“No, I have to try one too. You can eat all the rest.”
“Really? Waaaaah!”
Leaving Aris rejoicing like a child, I speared one piece of tangsuyuk with my fork and brought it to my mouth.
Crunch—
The crisp texture was exactly as intended.
The sauce clung tightly, coating the tangsuyuk with its sweet-sour, thick consistency.
The texture of the soybean meat inside itself fell short compared to real meat, just like the hamburg steak.
But unlike the hamburg steak, the texture of the batter covered that shortcoming more than enough.
Now I understood why Aris had chosen the tangsuyuk as the best dish of the day.
“Haup! Haup!”
Having received permission to eat all the remaining food,
Aris was devouring the food on the plates in a frenzy.
Good, the test was over.
I had also firmly decided what dish to serve to the elf knight Irit.
“Hey, Aris.”
“Aeuuung?”
Aris had stuffed so much food into her mouth that her cheeks puffed out, and she couldn’t even answer properly.
“By the way, do you feel fullness?”
It was pure curiosity.
She was a ghost, so I didn’t even really know where the food went.
Aris rapidly chewed, swallowed, and opened her mouth.
“No, I just eat for the satisfaction. I don’t get full.”
“Then you could eat infinitely?”
“Eh… probably?”
Oho, this was yet another new fact.
For a moment, I imagined using her as a food waste bin.
“Mm… even so, that’d be a little pitiful…….”
“……?”
“Nothing.”
Aris merely looked up at me with an innocent expression while munching on food.
* * *
On the appointed date, the elf knight Irit visited the restaurant.
“Welcooome!”
The ghost employee Aris greeted the guest and guided Irit to her seat.
“My, are you still using this ghost as an employee?”
“Please wait just a moment for the food you ordered three days agooo.”
“Klaus, you remember my order properly, don’t you?”
Irit lightly ignored Aris’s service,
and asked me, standing by the kitchen.
“Of course. It was the finest meat dish, right?”
“Even if you made it, if I find it repulsive, I’ll spit it out immediately.”
“Sure.”
“And if that happens, close this restaurant and come back to our party.”
“That again?”
I let out a small sigh and asked back.
Just how badly did she want to make me return to the party?
But today, I was confident I could satisfy Irit.
She wasn’t the type to make some underhanded condition and lie that it tasted bad.
Because she was a comrade I had spent more than ten long years with, I knew her well.
“Fine. If you try it and really can’t eat it, I’ll return to the party.”
“Really? No taking that back, okay?”
“Now, the food is coming out.”
I arranged the food to be sent out on a large tray.
The main dishes were tangsuyuk tossed and stir-fried in sauce, and dumplings.
On the side, I had drawn out carrots into long noodle-like strands, boiled them very lightly, and drizzled a savory dressing on top.
The hamburg steak that had been on the testing menu was left out of the main menu.
It was a little dry, and if one had a refined palate, it would be easy to notice it wasn’t meat.
Instead, I combined the tangsuyuk and dumplings onto one plate.
The dumplings were based on steamed dumplings, but I fried only one side of the dumpling skins so they wouldn’t collapse in the sauce.
“Here is your foooood~”
Aris served the food to the table where Irit sat.
Perhaps because she was a ghost, the tray strangely didn’t shake even the slightest with her footsteps.
“This is…….”
“That is the ‘finest meat dish’ I can give you.”
“I know this dish…… I’m sure…….”
“Yeah, it’s tangsuyuk and dumplings.”
Irit swallowed hard as she looked at the food before her eyes.
How did she, a pure otherworld elf, know tangsuyuk and dumplings?
That was because back when I was a party member, I had often made all kinds of modern dishes.
The sight of my comrades and me gobbling down tangsuyuk made with basilisk meat,
Irit the elf had watched while drinking vegetable soup.
And now, that meat dish we had eaten with such tremendous enthusiasm in front of her,
was placed entirely as Irit’s portion this time.
All so that I could convey, in full, how deliciously we had eaten those meat dishes back then,
that excitement and satisfaction, but “without meat.”
Irit’s fork slowly moved toward the tangsuyuk.
There was a delicious crunch as it pierced through the batter.
Then she brought the tangsuyuk to her mouth and took a bite.
“…….”
Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch……
The sound of the sauce-coated tangsuyuk being chewed.
Since it contained no real meat, she, an elf, should be able to enjoy it.
I silently watched Irit eating the food.
I was looking forward to seeing what sort of reaction she would have, what kind of impression she would share about this dish.
A short while later, Irit’s reaction was different from what I had expected.
“…Wh-why, what’s wrong? Is there some problem?”
Flustered, I asked Irit.
Because Irit…… had suddenly begun to cry.
* * *