Chapter 85

Ch 85 — Sweet and Sour Chinese Miso Stir-fry with Eggplant

I bought cloth bags and bottles at a general store before I returned to the inn to start fulfilling Lambert-san's wholesale order for delivery the next day .

Once I got back to my room I opened Net Super and started buying soap, 10 packs of 3 cheap soap bars and 10 packs of 3 rose-scented soap bars . After that I bought 10 large refills of rinse-in shampoo, 10 large refills of regular shampoo and 10 large refills of conditioner . Each refill pack would fill three of the glass bottles I had bought from the store . I also bought hair wraps . Each pack of hair wraps would fill two jars so I bought 15 packs . I had to buy 30 jars from the Net Super to put the hair wraps in .

I put all of the items in my Net Super cart and clicked on "Buy" . The total came to about 30 gold coins . Once I had fed the required coins into the Net Super screen a large cardboard box appeared in front of me .

I started with the cheap soaps, removing each bar from its other-world packaging and putting it in a cloth bag, 30 pieces in all . I did the same with the rose-scented soap . After that came the rinse-in shampoo, decanting each refill pack into three of the glass bottles I had bought from the local store before corking each one . That made 30 bottles of rinse-in shampoo . I did the same with the shampoo and conditioner refills .

"Fuuu, thank goodness that's finished . " I muttered, looking at the 90 bottles and 60 cloth bags lined up in front of me . I looked in the box again and noticed there was still more items left . "Oh, there's still the hair wraps to do . " I opened the packs and put four hair wraps in each of the 30 glass jars I had purchased from the Net Super .

"Well, I finally finished . " I sat back, relieved . "The smell of soap and shampoo though, it makes me want to take a real bath, not just wipe myself down like I've been doing since I got here . " When we got paid for the Mithril Lizard's subjugation I was going to buy a bathtub and have a proper Japanese soak .

Looking out of the window, I saw it was began to get dark . "Is it that time already?" Dinner, I decided . I picked up Sui's bag and headed down to the beast stables .

* * * * *

I was in the mood for a feast . I decided to start off with ground meat, an easy and tasty dish . Going to Net Super I bought tubes of the sweet-and-sour Chinese miso that I've used before, that's what I needed for Chinese-style sweet and sour stir-fried ground meat . Oh, and eggplant too .

I cut up the eggplants about 2cm square in their skins then fried them in a pan until well-done . I added the minced meat (three parts Bloody Horn Bull beef and seven parts Orc General pork) and kept frying until it browned nicely . Cooking for Fer and Sui I added lots of ground meat . I put sweet-and-sour Chinese miso in a small amount of water and mixed it thoroughly then added potato starch to thicken it before adding it to the contents of the frying pan .

Really tasty . I served up Fer and Sui's portions over rice because it's especially delicious when you eat it that way .

"Here you are . " I put the bowls out .

"Well, that smells good," said Fer, drooling .

"It really does -" Sui-chan agreed . The two of them started to eat .

"It's delicious when it's sticky like this . . . " Fer mumbled .

"Yes Yes-" Sui agreed . The potato starch makes the sauce thicker, you see .

Watching them gobble down the sweet and sour stir-fry I'd made I realised it wasn't going to be enough for those two . What else . . . hmmm, I had some cheese-filled chicken cutlets ready in my Item Box .

"Still hungry? Here, eat this . " I passed over some chicken cutlets .

"Oh, it's the tasty food with white stuff in the middle . Sui likes the white stuff-" Sui seems to like cheese, doesn't she? I decided I'd cook more dishes using cheese when I got the time .

"Seconds . " ordered Fer as he finished his stir-fried sweet-and-sour Chinese miso ground meat over rice .

"Sui also wants more- . " Oh, Sui-chan, too? I fed them some more cheese-filled chicken cutlets while I made another two servings of sweet spicy Chinese miso stir-fried ground meat rice bowl .

"They're ready . " I said, handing over the the freshly-cooked stir-fry . While they were eating that I made some more Chinese sweet-and-sour miso stir-fry just for myself, cutting back on the amount of meat to just a cup-full .

I took a mouthful . . . the fried meat with sweet and sour sauce plus the eggplant made a delicious combination .

"Seconds here . " Fer ordered . Shouldn't that be thirds? Whatever . Okay then, I pulled out some more cheese-filled chicken cutlets from my Item Box .

"Sui wants to eat something different this time, the ground-up fried meat filled with white stuff-"

"That's hamburger with cheese in . Is Sui wanting to eat that?"

"Yup . It's delicious, full of white stuff-" Sui really likes cheese .

"Well, just a little . " I fried up some cheese-filled hamburger for her .

"Thanks, Aruji-" Sui-chan is definitely cute . Of course when Fer smelled the cheese-filled hamburger I cooked for her he wanted some too so I had to do it all over again and then when I smelled it myself . . . I made mine with ketchup, mixing it in the frying pan with the juices from the hamburger then I took a bite . Cheese-filled hamburger truly is Justice! Gulp .