Chapter 115

Aisia, having finished the Napolitan Spaghetti she brought, closed her eyes, savoring the lingering rich flavor of the Napolitan sauce in her mouth.

Napolitan Spaghetti was by no means a mild dish; in fact, compared to the meals she had eaten so far, it was quite strong in flavor.

After finishing a whole plate, the natural saltiness left in her mouth made her crave a glass of water.

Yet, Aisia didn’t want to wash away the lingering taste of Napolitan with water.

It was that delicious.

“Maybe I’ll have another plate…”

After all, Aisia usually refilled her salad three times during a meal.

Despite her slender frame, similar to Mari’s, Aisia had quite the appetite, so having another plate of Napolitan Spaghetti wouldn’t fill her up.

Moreover, as always, Kurt cooked generous portions without skimping, and today, he had prepared four different dishes, making the meal even more abundant.

“Wait, four dishes…?”

As Aisia glanced at the table to refill her Napolitan, she finally noticed the rice cake Kurt had made.

The pure white, circular rice cake was adorned with meticulously crafted white bean paste flowers, making it look more like a beautiful table decoration than food.

“The reaction Serena had to the rice cake was even more intense than Karina’s reaction to the Napolitan Spaghetti. Does that mean the rice cake is even more delicious than the Napolitan…?”

Gulp.

“Serena usually has the smallest appetite among the four of us. If even she reacted like that, how delicious must it be…?”

Of course, there were some flaws in Aisia’s judgment.

Serena’s small appetite was due to her preference for meat, so no matter how delicious Kurt’s vegetarian dishes were, her reaction was bound to be muted. Serena’s excitement was more about the word “cake” rather than the rice cake itself being delicious.

But Aisia, unaware of this, began to fixate on the rice cake at the center of the table.

Thinking about it, its placement in the center of the table seemed to declare itself the star of the meal.

“From its appearance, I can’t even imagine what it tastes like. And the smell is the same…”

Unlike the Napolitan Spaghetti, which exuded a tangy tomato aroma, the rice cake, encased in solid bean paste, had a faint scent, making it look more like a plaster decoration than food.

Its appearance alone wasn’t appetizing…

But having eaten Kurt’s cooking repeatedly, her taste buds were already trained. Just the fact that Kurt made it was enough to make her mouth water.

It was like Pavlov’s dog, salivating at the sound of a bell.

An elf who had lived for over 260 years had, in less than a month, become like Pavlov’s dog, reflexively salivating at the thought of Kurt’s cooking.

Unaware of this, Aisia stared at the rice cake and soon reached out with a fork to take one of the eight slices onto her plate.

She clumsily cut a bite-sized piece from the edge of the rice cake, glancing at Kurt as he ate.

“…It’s softer than I expected.”

The white bean paste, which looked like plaster, gave way smoothly without resistance, and the rice cake inside, though slightly resistant, was easy to cut with a fork.

Though it had some resistance, it was still much softer than Aisia had initially imagined.

“What is this? The white outer part is as hard to imagine in taste as the inner white part… I thought it would be like bread, but from the feel of the fork, it’s not bread.”

She had assumed the inside of the rice cake was some kind of bread.

In her experience, bread wasn’t particularly tasty.

The bread she occasionally bought from human villages during exchanges with the elf village was made from mixed grains like barley or oats, not wheat, and was of low quality.

Moreover, by the time it reached the elf village after days of travel, the bread had lost its moisture and became dry and crumbly.

But unlike the hard, crumbly bread in her memory, the texture of the rice cake was chewy, not soft but not entirely hard either, with a warm steam rising from it.

And hidden within that steam was the savory and sweet flavor of rice.

A subtle flavor she hadn’t noticed when the cake was covered in bean paste and not steaming.

“The aroma… It’s savory with a hint of sweetness. Completely opposite to the tangy and salty Napolitan Spaghetti. But the aroma isn’t that strong.”

In terms of aroma, it was less intense than the Napolitan Spaghetti.

If she had been advised to eat the tofu steak before the Napolitan to avoid overpowering the flavors, perhaps she should have been advised to eat the rice cake before the Napolitan as well.

But Kurt had specifically said to eat the rice cake last.

“Well, I’ll understand once I try it. Why he recommended that order.”

Rather than pondering over it a hundred times, she decided to take a bite.

Nom.

Chew.

Chew.

“The texture… It’s quite chewy, just as I felt with the fork.”

It felt like the tofu steak’s crispy outer layer without the crunch.

Honestly, it wasn’t a texture she particularly liked.

The flavor of the rice cake itself wasn’t strong, especially after the intense Napolitan Spaghetti, making it seem bland.

She began to understand what Kurt meant about the order of eating affecting the taste.

Frankly, it felt like this might be the least flavorful of Kurt’s dishes.

Especially after the Napolitan Spaghetti, which perfectly matched her taste, the rice cake fell short of her heightened expectations, leaving her somewhat disappointed.

“The subtle sweetness isn’t bad, but I think the order of eating was wrong. The texture isn’t my favorite either… Hmm!?”

As Aisia judged the rice cake while eating, she realized her judgment was too hasty.

The slice she had cut was from the very center of the rice cake.

Like a regular cake, the rice cake had bean paste only on the top, except for the edges.

As she chewed, the moment she bit into the white bean paste on the surface…

The sweetness hidden within the white paste exploded in her mouth.

The bean paste itself had very little moisture, so it didn’t steam much.

And without steam, the aroma didn’t spread well.

Moreover, the plain white paste made it impossible for a first-time eater to guess its flavor.

Thus, the concentrated sweetness of honey and sugar in the bean paste was an unexpected surprise for Aisia, who had thought it was merely decorative.

Compared to the sweetness of the white rice cake, the sweetness of the bean paste was on a whole different level.

“This taste… It’s sweet! Too sweet!!”

The intense sweetness was almost like eating pure honey.

The sweetness, condensed from sugar and honey, was artificial and violent, unlike the natural sweetness of ripe fruits.

Just as the ketchup in the Napolitan Spaghetti didn’t enhance the ingredients but was added for flavor, this sweetness was created by adding ingredients to achieve the taste, reversing the usual order of flavor and ingredients.

The only sweetness Aisia knew was the fresh, natural sweetness of ripe fruits.

A moderate, harmonious sweetness that didn’t overpower the fruit’s aroma.

But the white bean paste she was eating had a bold sweetness that almost masked the flavor of the white beans, which were barely noticeable unless you focused.

The white beans seemed to exist only to provide the paste’s texture.

“My mouth… I can’t stop salivating!!”

The intense sweetness made her tongue feel almost numb, but as she continued to chew, the bean paste mixed with the rice cake, balancing into a more moderate sweetness.

“Now I get it! This rice cake is a dish where you adjust the sweetness by combining the subtly sweet, rice-flavored center with the intensely sweet paste that has almost no aroma of its original ingredient!”

Moreover, the initially bland rice cake, which had seemed disappointing at first, began to reveal a savory rice sweetness the more she chewed, adding depth to the flavor.

“The center has a mild flavor with a subtle aroma, while the paste has a strong flavor but almost no aroma and can quickly become cloying. This dish is similar to the tofu steak!”

Thinking this, Aisia began to happily devour the remaining rice cake on her plate.

…

…

…

Creak.

“Ugh… Did I pass out?”

Mari, waking up from her faint, opened her door to find a lavishly set dining table.

And at the table, the other four were happily eating.

“Ah! You’re all eating delicious food without me!”

“Ah, you’re awake? There’s a portion for you too, so come and eat.”

“Of course! Quickly, give me a fork and knife!”

Mari, having regained much of her stamina, energetically sat at the table and began to eat heartily.

Or perhaps, having expended so much energy, she felt even hungrier to replenish her strength.

She grabbed a plate of each of the four dishes and started eating them all at once, without any order.

“The tofu steak is delicious, and this tomato sauce pasta is great too! And what’s this white thing!? It’s super sweet!”

“Ah, that’s a rice cake. I made it specially for your mother using only vegetarian ingredients.”

“Ah, I see! No wonder it’s tasty! …Wait, cake?”

At that moment, Mari froze like a robot whose power had been cut, slowly turning her head to Kurt with a smile on her face but no laughter in her eyes.

“…How much sugar did you put in this?”

“…I didn’t use that much.”

“Not using that much still means you used some, right?”

“Ahem… Let’s talk after the meal…”

“Don’t change the subject!”

“Ugh… The food is delicious today.”

“…Kurt.”

Kurt, rarely avoiding Mari’s gaze, tried to steer the conversation away, but Mari, as persistent as ever when it came to money, relentlessly questioned him about the ingredients in the rice cake.

Finally, Kurt had no choice but to admit that not only did the rice cake contain sugar, but the rice itself was bought at several times the price from another continent.

Hearing this, Mari clutched her head, feeling dizzy, and fainted.

“Ugh… Ugh… Rice cake is banned. Banned.”

Those were Mari’s last words before she collapsed.