A rustling sound came from the entrance of the tent.
Maomao opened her eyes.
Chue was back with food. “Maomao-san’s share.”
“Thank you very much,” Maomao said.
Chue set a tallow candle on the rug. It had an oddly delectable aroma, so it might have been made from beef or lamb.
The food was two portions of every dish they had made. There were more including the soup. Chue had set them around the candle. Although the dishes were made from potatoes and whatever ingredients on hand, it felt quite decadent.
Maomao pet her belly. She felt a little peckish after her nap.
“Everyone enjoyed it,” Chue said.
“That’s good to hear,” Maomao said.
“Yes, it’s like their mood improved after eating and drinking.”
They could hear string music and singing outside the tent. Although this was something included for completeness, it was good that the festival was successful.
“I’m going to give my impressions of each dish,” Chue said.
“Please do,” Maomao said.
Maomao and Chue both sat on their knees and looked at the array of dishes.
“First up is roasted potato. As its name suggests, potatoes that have simply been roasted.”
“Yes.”
Roasted sweet potato and white potato. Although, this was cooked under the supervision of the potato expert, so it was more delicious and moist compared to what Chue had sliced up and roasted before.
“Somehow, it’s gotten a nice honey colour now.”
“The white potato is crumbly, but there’s still some leftover.”
“The sweet potato is popular with women and children. The white potato is eaten with butter by the gentlemen.”
“Since butter is made with salt.”
That probably induces the appetite.
“How is this one made?” Chue asked.
“Ah, that one,” Maomao said.
Chue was wondering about the gooey lump. “No one was eating it in the beginning since it had a bad texture. Once Chue-san ate it after putting it on a piece of bread, everyone started to copy.”
“I was also unfamiliar with this dish. Rahan’s older brother made it.”
White potato; steamed, peeled and mashed. The mashed potato was mixed with cheese and smoked meat bits, and seasoned with salt.
“It might taste even better with pepper.”
“Pepper is a bit expensive for commoners, right?”
As they chewed, they moved onto the soup next.
“Who made this one?” Maomao asked.
“There was no soup so Rahan’s older brother improvised. He mashed up the remaining steamed potato, added it to the leftover soup in the house, then added cow’s milk and salt for taste. Then, he sprinkled in some leaves, but what could it be?”
“Ah, those would be herbs. Along the way here, they were growing in patches.” Maomao sniffed deeply.
Chue watched her with a flat gaze. “I heard there was a person who made a fuss about not enough medicine a few days ago though.”
“Herbs are seasoning rather than medicine.” Maomao stated to Chue who had narrowed her eyes. Anyhow, let’s look at the soup. “For something improvised, it turned out well.”
“Yes, I think I’ll try to make this at home later too.”
(Rahan’s older brother is too useful.)
It surely must be because he was a jack of all trades and master of none that it didn’t look like he excelled in anything in particular. In actual fact, he was an extremely handy existence.
“It would have been so good if he were born to a normal family.”
“Yes, he’s an unfortunate man.”
As they drank soup, they spoke about a person they knew without putting out his name.
Another dish was roasted sweet potato that had been mashed, kneaded with butter, then roasted again. The surface had been coated with egg yolk so it had a baked sheen to it.
“The sweet potato was really popular with the children,” Chue said.
“If we had starch syrup, we could have also made candied sweet potatoes,” Maomao said.
Unfortunately, it takes too much time to make starch syrup.
(There’s no maltose either.)
Starch syrup is made out of malt, but that uses glutinous rice. As rice wasn’t available in this region, it probably can’t be made here.
Aside from that, there was a stir fry of sliced white potato, smoked meat and other vegetables. For seasoning, there was salt and a bit of other herbs. Apparently saltiness was a flavour popular with the men.
“Ah, this was super popular with the madams. They asked Rahan’s older brother for the recipe.” Chue picked up a potato pancake with a pair of chopsticks. It was made from mashed white potato mixed with wheat flour. Salt was added and it was filled with cheese before roasting. Since it was cooked in butter rather than oil, it had a savoury aroma. “They seem to like the peculiar texture, and the stretchiness of the cheese from being freshly roasted was also nice.”
Chue bit into the potato pancake. Cheese stretched out from the inside.
“This here, is dairy, and meat… Its strong point, is that you can use it however you like. It’s an extravagant thing in Kaou Province. White potatoes, matches well… with other ingredients.” Chue said as she ate.
“It’s good that it unexpectedly goes well with anything. But it seems fish is no good,” Maomao replied.
Speaking of why, it was apparently for religious reasons. Apparently it wasn’t the case for every single person, but they couldn’t bring out fish.
(Even though there’s a stream nearby.)
It was a waste, but it couldn’t be helped.
When they ate almost everything, Maomao confirmed it with Chue.
She didn’t think that everyone would listen to their speech about ritual and gods. From the start, the ritual pretence was just a ploy.
And speaking of their true intentions…
“Have the villagers developed a desire?” Maomao asked.
“Yes, they’ve nicely developed a taste for it.” Chue sipped her milk tea and smiled.
The biggest issue of this village was its simpleness. The villagers had no desires. If they had some degree of a livelihood, they were satisfied. Even with crop failure, they were able to sustain the bare minimum of their livelihood, so they don’t work.
If one had no worldly desires, they wouldn’t seek for more. They would be satisfied with merely what they were given.
And so, Maomao’s group decided to treat the villagers to dishes the villagers had never seen before.
They made sure to cook dishes that only used ingredients available in the village, that can be made as simple as possible. They weren’t sure if the dishes suited the villagers’ palate, so they gave as much variety as possible.
(So they can eat it whenever they wish if they were to have certain ingredients on hand too.)
Those ingredients, would be sweet potato and white potato.
To say it conversely, if those two ingredients were available, everything prepared at the feast today would have a chance of reappearing once more.
“The village head asked how much can they buy it for, you know,” Chue said.
“How did Rahan’s older brother reply?” Maomao asked.
“That person seemed oblivious about the calculation of that part, so he told him the price with our transportation charge included.”
“That part of him is like his younger brother.”
Was it her imagination that she heard “I’m the one who was born first!” at that moment?
“He was shocked after hearing the price and then fell into disappointment.”
“I can see.”
“And so, Chue-san faced him with a compassionate look like a celestial maiden in a fine performance, and said…”
‘Even if it’s just seed potatoes, can’t you give him a portion at a cheaper price at least?’
(Chue-san understands it well.)
If they were to give the potatoes away for free, the villagers would be getting charity again. The villagers might be hoping that it would be handed to them free of charge. It was important to charge money, even a little.
“And then, if you have potatoes leftover, you can go sell them at the market. If you do so, you can get your hand on salt too, I said,” Chue said.
One of the reasons the dishes were well-liked was because of the copious use of salt. Seasoning used lavishly; that alone would enhance the quality of the dishes.
“Wasn’t it bothersome to grow it?” Maomao asked.
“About growing the potatoes itself, Rahan’s older brother told me that it doesn’t take much labour as long as the planting is finished,” Chue replied.
“Then it’s an issue of cultivating new fields.”
“Yes,” Chue grinned. “The land that Nenjen had just been earnestly clearing every time. It seems it can be grown there.”
The ritual and potatoes got a connection.
“It seems the land was originally used for the fields of other serfs. The plots are merely used for autumn ploughing since he had no extra time to grow wheat. It was just from these conditions that it had been reserved for dealing with locusts.”
“As expected of you, Chue-san.” Maomao gave a round of applause.
“Rahan’s older brother taught me how to process potato seeds immediately. He told me that wood ash is required, but I wonder if the ash here is fine?”
“I think it should be fine.”
The ash in the fireplace was from burning sheep manure. Sheep manure came from grass, so it should be fine.
This part went well. What’s left was the villagers’ motivation and…
(Whether the potatoes will take root.)
The white potatoes will be fine, probably, Maomao thought. The reason they cooked a lot of white potato dishes was because of that reasoning.
As for sweet potatoes, it would be fifty-fifty. Even if they do get returns, it would probably decrease. With that said, if it could be grown without much care, there was merit in growing.
(Since sweet flavours are a luxury.)
The children want to look forward to stuffing their cheeks with sweet potato.
Even if the sweet potatoes didn’t take root, if the white potatoes did, the planting will probably compensate for the sweet potato.
(It’ll be good if it goes well.)
Maomao drank up her milk tea.
