Chapter 100

Daily Special (Part 1)

「Shinobu-chan, a daily special set here please!」

「Two of the same thing here too!」

「Yes~ I have received your order!」

It was afternoon in Aitheria, and lively orders were flying about during peak hours.

The sun was still high in the sky, but Nobu had already opened up shop.

The Grand Bazaar was a bustle of activity in the calm and cheerful spring weather, and Izakaya Nobu, where Hans was working at, was no exception.

「You don’t know how glad I am to eat at Nobu now that it’s open in the afternoon.」

「Yeah, I heard it’s open at the same time tomorrow. Should I drag my companions over too?」

Hans, who was serving the customers, secretly felt happy listening to the conversations of the diners who were happily stuffing themselves with chicken tatsuta age.

It was Leontaine who suggested starting business in the afternoon.

Although a former female mercenary, it seemed that somehow or another, she had become one of the poster girls of Izakaya Nobu.

「Wouldn’t it be nice if one could eat Nobu’s dishes in the afternoon?」

Izakaya Nobu’s reputation was excellent among the gourmets of Aitheria. However, since the shop was small, the number of people they could serve at one time was limited.

The clamor from Hans’ acquaintances for not being able to taste the dishes of Nobu had even reached his ears, even though Hans was just an apprentice chef here.

No matter how delicious the food and drinks were at Nobu, it didn’t matter if people couldn’t eat them.

Since they couldn’t expand the building, increasing the business hours was the next best choice.

With Taisho, Shinobu, Eva, Leontaine, and Hans included, the current number of people was enough to manage business during daytime too.

The goal was to have as many people enjoy their food as possible.

In the afternoon, the menu was limited to set meals and à la carte dishes to shorten the cooking time.

All liquor was limited to one glass per person.

Although deacon Edwin might complain, they would prefer the customers who wanted to drink to savour it properly during regular hours at night.

The decision was made while the Grand Bazaar was celebrating the marriage of the Emperor and Empress. Today was the first day of business with the modified schedule.

Although they had a nervous start, it was a great success overall.

Every batch of deep fried tatsuta age sold like hot cakes.

Although Hans had tasted it before, today’s tatsuta age was still as delicious as ever.

Crunch… crunch… crunch…

The chicken breast meat was marinated in thick sweet vinegar marinade and then deep-fried to a golden-brown. The sweet and sour taste that tickled one’s appetite was irresistible.

Unfortunately for him, the two pieces of tatsuta age that Hans had fried for his meals had, without his knowledge, dwindled to one. Shinobu, Eva, and Leontaine had plundered and divvied it up among themselves…

Tatsuta age

In the set meal, bread (brot) and rice (reis) were served.

Shinobu was a firm believer that tatsuta age was to be eaten with rice. Hans thought it was delicious with either, but Leontaine was with the bread faction.

Although Eva had said they were both delicious in the beginning, after she made a tatsuta age sandwich, she immediately switched to the bread faction.

Oddly enough, there was a small minority of customers who chose bread. But instead of eating it with the chicken, they chose to finish the bread first before slowly nibbling on tatsuta age while drinking.

Taisho, of course, did not participate in such pointless battles. Hans secretly assented to this wise course of action.

「Master, the sun is still high. It’s hardly an appropriate time for a drink.」

「It’s fine~, Hugo. It’s just one cup, one cup! Also, didn’t I say not to call me Master outside the workshop.」

「Do as you please, father.」

Hans’s father Lorentz and his brother Hugo were also enjoying their daily special set meals.

Just a little while ago, this was an unimaginable luxury, as they would’ve been busy polishing a custom-made lens without time for lunch. However, it had quieted down recently.

Hugo’s polished lenses were definitely excellent. Even so, it was a niche market for the few people that had both the need and money to justify such a pricey purchase.

The latest influx of orders seemed to be the handiwork of priest Thomas, an astronomy enthusiast, who had introduced Hugo to his acquaintances, but it died down in due time.

It seemed that the father and son had currently returned to their original glass work because orders were plentiful around this time of the year.

Lorentz downed the ‘Toriaezu Nama,’ looked wistfully at the empty glass, and left the shop with Hugo. It seemed cruel, but rules were rules. No matter what, only one drink was allowed per person.

Hans couldn’t make an exception even though it was his own father.

Besides, Lorentz would probably come back in the evening for more.

The side dishes of the set meals were also elaborate.

Today, there were two sides and one soup. One of the small dishes was Hans’s idea. His idea was to mix miso paste and fresh spring sprouts into an aemono. He remembered Marco, who had prepared a tasty sea urchin dish in a similar manner, and tried to replicate it. Since sea urchin was expensive and couldn’t be stocked up, Hans tried to use miso as a substitute and it turned out rather well.

With the miso, the bitterness of fresh spring sprouts became mellow and soft. When it was held in the mouth, the flavour that ran through the nose was that of wild mountain herbs growing in the spring.

(TL note: aemono = a salad with seasonal items coated in a thick dressing)

Additionally, it was a suitable pairing when drinking reshu, so it would be served as appetizers in the evening. This was his second dish to be accepted onto the menu, following his pelmeni.

The reshu faction was also growing due to deacon Edwin’s zealous ‘missionary’ work. Hans was quite happy to be able to come up with a dish that paired well with reshu.

After a successful test run of the dish, Eva immediately contacted Camilla, her friend and apprentice doctor, and asked her to pick a lot of fresh spring sprouts. Spring was the time for picking medicinal herbs, so all Camilla needed to do was to gather the sprouts at the same time. The remuneration was also shrewdly negotiated, and eventually, a mutually agreed price was arranged.

Eva was much more reliable at finding good suppliers for stocking when compared to Taisho, whose deliveries were sometimes inconsistent.

The other aforementioned bowl contained boiled beans.

The beans were from Marco, the sea urchin lover, who had dropped by yesterday evening before leaving Aitheria.

However, these beans were a problem.