Volume 2 Snippet 2.3

Volume 2 Snippet 2.3

3 The Taste Of Showa

「Wow, a large strawberry！」

「That’s quite the specimen ain’t it. 」

Strawberry picking season had finally arrived in Ortem.

「This year’s harvest is quite good.」

「But is this time of the year generally strawberry season?」

「This type of strawberry is usually picked in March.」

Haruna agreed with the elves and together they arduously continued their strawberry picking.

As they picked Haruna observed the somewhat larger than usual strawberries and couldn’t help wondering about the taste.

「How about ya give it a try?」

「Is it okay if I do?」

「Strawberries taste better as soon as they’re plucked from the bush after all. 」

At the elf’s suggestion Haruna took a bite. The taste was mild compared to Japanese strawberries but it had an overall tasty juicy balance of sweetness and sourness.

「It’s delicious!」

「That’s great.」

Haruna ate three more strawberries and continued the harvest. While doing so she tried to come up with other uses for the strawberries.

It looked like they had enough to feed not only the entire village but also the three neighboring clans. It seemed to her that it was a waste to only eat the strawberries in their raw state.

Perhaps she could use them as a base for condensed milk. Or maybe she could freeze them for later. She could also use them for cake decorating. If she had adzuki beans on hand she could also try making strawberry daifuku but she wondered whether the strawberries would be compatible with sweet white bean paste.

A myriad of dishes floated across her mind. Compared to the sweetness of Japanese strawberries these ones were quite bland so she would have to compensate with some seasoning, it would be a chance to show off her skills. She thought of this throughout the entire half of the day as she intently harvested the fruit.

「You sure helped us a lot.」

Thanks to Haruna they had completed the harvest earlier than expected.

「Here, take this.」

The elf handed over two overflowing baskets of strawberries to Haruna.

「Huh? This much?」

「Yup. This year we had such an abundant harvest that even after sharing it with the other tribes we’ll still have a lot to spare.」

「But…」

「If you insist, in exchange ya can show me how to make some delicious dishes with these.」

At the elf’s proposal Haruna finally agreed to accept the strawberries. If thanks to her cooking instruction their eating habits were able to improve Haruna was definitely willing to teach.

「Okay! I’ll try to make a lot of dishes! 」

「If ya don’t have enough lemme know and I’ll bring ya some more. There’s still so much left. 」

「O—kay! 」

She met the elf’s hopeful gaze and headed toward the house she was staying at. Around this time Hiroshi and the others were still engrossed in developing a counterplan against the Mana-eater. She decided to fashion up a meal using the strawberries by the time they got home for dinner.

「Hmm, what should I make? 」

Food-loving Haruna held a fresh strawberry in her hand as she cheerfully thought up some recipes.

「Hm~……」

It seemed that none of them were suitable. She looked down at the simple strawberry snacks. There was a sherbert clad in condensed milk, cupcakes, and crepes. Each of them were samples made with short potions.

「Rather than ordinary, there’s nothing interesting about them. 」

None of them were bad. All she could think of were snacks that she hadn’t made at the ‘simple is best’ elf village. But Haruna wanted to make something else.

Later while she desperately wracked her brains over the matter she was preparing to boil some jam when suddenly from the corner of her mind an idea suddenly appeared. Jam bread. A type of bread stuffed with jam. To be more specific, the type of bread with cheap jam mixed with gelatin.

「I remember long ago hearing about a type of snack that had gelatin and used cheap jam…」

That keyword was all Haruna needed to quickly and accurately resurrect the memory. As always, when Haruna wanted to remember something she would no doubt remember it. This occasion was no exception.

「That’s right! It’s from one of grandpa’s stories back when he was a kid! 」

From there on the memory came tumbling down rapidly. Her paternal grandfather had told her about a snack that was popular in the Showa era. If she could give the strawberry flavor a vintage flavor then wouldn’t she be able to replicate the snack?

「Alright! I’ll give it a shot! 」

As soon as she made her decision she began to experiment. First she needed cheap strawberry jam mixed with gelatin and butter cream. She also took the opportunity to use the ingredients back from when she made cupcakes to bake a light even castella.

「I wonder if I got the jam right. 」

Despite its cheap quality the jam was peculiarly delicious; it seemed to have a quirky flavor. She left the jam out to cool and shortly after, she took out the castella from the oven. She then proceeded to prepare the butter cream. When finished, she thinly spread the cream onto the castella and then did the same with the jam.

「It’ll be finished after I roll it up. 」

She had made a jam roll, a rare nostalgic snack from long ago that had suddenly been overshadowed by the popularity of roll cakes.

「Hm, what was it like again? 」

Back then it was popular for snacks to be sold in individual packaging, so she thinly sliced the jam roll and took a bite. Because Haruna’s palate was accustomed to high quality ingredients the jam bread’s taste was undeniably cheap but nevertheless was likeable.

「I wonder if it tastes like the ones grandpa used to eat when he was a child. 」

Since she had never eaten the original snack she wasn’t able to determine the accuracy of the flavor. Her grandfather’s sense of taste must’ve deteriorated by now so perhaps it would even be difficult for him to judge. Despite the fact that she had never eaten it before she found the jam roll somewhat nostalgic. Satisfied with her creation, she decided to implement a Showa flavor into the evening meal as well.

「Hey, this tempura looks like it came right out of a manga. 」

「When I think about it, it isn’t often when one eats two shrimp tempura over a bowl of steamed rice. 」

「Usually when you order a shrimp tempura set at a restaurant they’ll serve you a full bowl. 」

「It’s plain but I kinda like it. 」

Everyone was voicing their opinion about the large shrimp tempura that had been simply laid on top of their bowls of rice. This type of bowl had been served during a time when shrimp tempura was considered a high class ingredient.

Combined with the rise in aquaculture and rise of the yen’s value, the price of shrimp had dropped and had become widely accessible. Afterwards, because restaurants that serve tempura increased their stock as well as their variety of tempura lively bowls brimming with tempura became commonplace.

「To tell you the truth I tried to recreate a Showa flavor. 」

「I see. So what about those fried prawns? 」

「I had a lot of batter left over so I was playing around with different cooking techniques. And yet I still had batter left over so I also made something donut-like. They’re not exactly shaped like a ring though. 」

「Somehow, I’m getting a bad feeling about this…」

While saying that, Tatsuya took a bite out of the fried prawns. The prawn’s fried husk let out a crunch as his teeth sunk in. But, the inside was hollow.

「What’s this?」

「It’s fried shrimp tail. I worked really hard on replicating that hollowness. 」

「You were playing around making unnecessary complex imitations weren’t you…」

「Well from what I’ve heard, Showa era fried shrimp tails hadda deeper cra-crunch sound ya know? 」

「Ah, maybe. 」

Haruna voiced her intent to improve on that detail. While observing Haruna’s serious face, Makoto shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. She wasn’t sure if Haruna had always been like this or if Haruna had become like this at Hiroshi’s influence. She had noticed that once Haruna had an idea she would go to town with it. However, because the things she made were mostly plain random, she reached the conclusion that perhaps both Haruna and Hiroshi were silly individuals cut from the same cloth.

「So, Haruna. Where’s the torso? 」

「I cut it off and mashed it in with the rest of the hot pot paste ingredients. 」

「If you were going to put it in the hotpot wouldn’t it have been better if it was joined by the head and tail too? 」

「It’s troublesome to take off the shell after boiling it so I just cut it up into pieces. 」

Haruna responded by voicing an opinion the majority of people shared concerning fried shrimp. When cooking shrimp or crabs the processing of the shell often caused a number of problems.

「Ah, by the way I also made a Showa style jam roll? I think that’s what it’s called. 」

Everyone tilted their head in wonder at a plain sounding snack they had never heard before while finishing their meal. The simple meal had only two shrimp tempura so it wasn’t enough to fill their stomachs. One could almost say that it looked like a dish intended for someone on a diet. But nevertheless it was still Haruna’s cooking. The oil from the tempura didn’t drench the rice making it an overall satisfying meal.

And then there was dessert.

「There are times when you can even be comforted by a cheap snack like this huh. 」

「Well, there are also times when you are able to crave just about anything. 」

「Haruna, good job. 」

「I can’t get enough of this cheap flavor. 」

The strawberry jam seemed to be an overall hit. However, the dish Haruna was most proud of was the donut-like fried prawns, but that’s a story to solely be contained here.