The Other World Dining Hall (WN) Chapter 49

TN: To make it frank, I love mapo tofu. But the one I love is the authentic one complete with the tongue-numbing Szechuan pepper. The mild j.a.panese one however I only tolerated when there’s no option available at that time.  X(

Mapo Tofu

On Sat.u.r.days, Nekoya offered meals for employees that went to work on Sat.u.r.days.

In the morning was a very ordinary dish in j.a.pan, mostly something with bread and soup.

During the day, the usual meal that was available to customers was served with a purpose to remind what the dish in this restaurant tasted like.

From evening until closing time, depending on which entrance the customer came from, the food served at this time would change depending on the owner's whim.

…Since it was on whim, the food that was served may not be what was usually offered by the restaurant.

For example, if the owner used materials that he made as a hobby, or using an ingredient he received as a gift.

That day was also such a day.

Late at night, after giving the beef stew to the last customer as usual, the owner decided what to make with the remaining ingredients.

What remained were tofu and minced pork, along with spring onion.

(…Un. I'll make that.)

After he decided what to cook, he started to cook as soon as possible.

He quickly chopped the spring onion and cut the tofu.

He poured oil onto his favourite well-maintained wok, stir-fried the ground pork and quickly seasoned it.

There was no waste in his movement, and the material instantly changed on the wok.

(…Unexpectedly, it doesn't become rusty. This skill of mine.)

The owner thought such thing and smiled wryly.

In the past, the owner aimed to become a chef that specialized on Chinese food.

Nowadays, the owner who lost his parents to a car accident was an old man…

While inheriting the restaurant from his grandfather and doing a job of serving "the people from other side", he used to shake his wok every day during high school.

Because of that, he sometimes wanted to make Chinese food.

Even now, the Chinese restaurant where he once worked at was still prospering, so he did not make it for customers and only occasionally made it as employee meals.

Fortunately, the owner's skill of making Chinese food had not decreased; it was still popular among the chefs who came to visit this restaurant.

[…Yos.h.i.+, like this.]

He scooped the finished dish, tasted the reddish tofu and nodded.

It's a bit less spicy than the owner's preference, but this was fine considering the person who would eat this.

He quickly arranged the dish on a plate and placed it on a tray with a bowl of white rice.

[Ou. It's ready.]

He said so and lifted the tray.

[Yes! Thank you very much!]

After cleaning and was.h.i.+ng her hands, Aletta's eyes were glued to the food that the owner brought while replying.

With the appet.i.te of youth, her eyes were filled with antic.i.p.ation while her stomach was grumbling.

If Aletta had a tail, it would be wagging for a while.

(…Looking at her, she seems like a dog begging for food.)

Thinking a little bit rudely, he arranged the dishes in front of Aletta.

[Etto, what is today's dish?]

While smelling the aroma of the red dish full of onions and chopped green onions, Aletta asked curiously.

As it was a dish that was not served to customers, it should be a dish that was only made for employee meals.

The unique scent of drifting spice stimulated her empty stomach.

…She had no idea what kind of dish this was, but it looked delicious.

[Ou. Today's mapo tofu.]

The owner told the name of the dish while arranging a bowl of rice and a large bowl of the day's remaining miso soup.

[Yos.h.i.+, let's eat. Today's Chinese food is spicy.]

The owner urged Aletta to eat the food that he practiced to make in the olden days.

[Well then, let's eat.]

[Yes! …Demon G.o.d, thank you for the food today…]

The owner and Aletta prayed to their respective G.o.ds and picked up a spoon.

She gently scooped up some of the red food.

(Etto, today's dish is "Chinese", the owner said so.)

Thinking that, she looked at the owner eating mapo tofu in front of her.

It seemed that other world's cuisine was divided into several categories.

To Aletta, everything was "otherworld cuisine", but it seemed to change with the way it was seasoned.

When she thought about it, the customers who came to this restaurant came from different places (including those that were not humans).

People who lived in the Kingdom where Aletta resided had slightly different cuisine preference from people of the Empire and the Princ.i.p.ality, and the people from Western Continent who occasionally came to the Kingdom had completely different preferences.

In addition, the regular customers who had dark skin strangely said "those who had culture are different from people of both continents".

…Although the owner who was willing to hire her with exorbitant amount of money was the strangest existence to Aletta, she didn't mind it too much.

In Nekoya, food that she usually served to customers like miso soup and katsudon were called "j.a.panese food".

And "Chinese food" was the food that the owner made as employee meals once a month, they were often spicy.

…Because the spiciest food like "curry rice" was considered Western food, she was not confident with the cla.s.sification.

However, since there was a high possibility of it being spicy, she taste-tested it first.

(U… it's spicy after all… but it's tasty!)

She slowly chewed to ascertain the taste.

First, it looked as spicy as it looked. The inside of her mouth felt hot.

At the same time, she tasted meat. Apparently there was plenty of minced meat.

The greasy minced pork gave out large amount of meat juice and added meat flavor to mapo tofu.

And the tofu that was the main ingredient of the dish seemed to enclose the taste.

The tofu itself had little to no taste, but that was why the sauce was thick and spicy.

(Un. Let's eat this with rice.)

While enjoying the taste of green onions included in the mapo tofu, she scooped some rice into her mouth.

As Aletta expected, even with tofu, the strong flavor of mapo tofu fitted well with rice.

When she chewed, the tofu contained the flavor of the spicy sauce and meat juice, and when she added rice, its sweetness would join mapo tofu's taste and became even more delicious.

She guessed this dish was meant to be eaten with rice.

She watched the owner directly poured some mapo tofu over the rice and eat both of them at the same time with confidence.

(But then the problem is…)

If she did so, the rice would be finished before the mapo tofu.

[…I'll have a second bowl of rice. Aletta, do you want more?]

And the owner asked Aletta as if he antic.i.p.ated it.

[Yes, please!]

Aletta nodded to his offer.

She finished her work and wrapped herself up with an old coat that she prepared for winter, and today she was preparing on her next journey for her employer that was unable to go to otherworld dining hall while carrying a can of cookies for her employer's sister who came frequently recently, Aletta walked at an unpopulated street during the night.

(Although it's winter, somehow it's a little warm.)

Thanks to the warm water she drank when she was eating, her body was warm even though it's winter.

While feeling happiness and satisfaction about that, Aletta rushed to her employer's house which was also her workplace.

TN: Aletta really is cute. And I can totally imagine her with s.h.i.+ny eyes and wagging dog tail.