Chapter 331 (1/2)

The time seemed to pass very quickly as they read books related to alchemy, and it was midday before they knew it.

“Jin, Reinhart, let us have lunch together.”

So said the Empress as she came in.

“Do not expect too much from it, though.”

The food that was actually served was simple but of good quality. Simple yet, hearty, you might say.

However, what was most surprising to Jin, was a dish that looked like rice porridge. Except that it was dark.

“…What is this?”

Jin asked, and the cook who was nearby explained it to him.

“It is a porridge made from nogi seeds. I was told that you have a great interest in them.”

Ahh, I knew it. Jin thought. He had talked about this with the butler the other day, so that’s where he must have heard it.

“Thank you.”

He decided to start with the porridge first. Jin tasted a bite and realized the difference in texture. It was not very thick.

It was clearly a type of rice. It wasn’t particularly long in shape. It was a kind of rice that Jin was very familiar with.

“How is it? I heard that you were interested, and so I tried my hand at cooking some…”

As Jin ate it, he thought of the ways to eat foreign rice. He recalled reading a certain cooking manga once, that was about a newspaper reporter who was rebelling against his father.

“Did you perhaps change the water once when boiling it?”

The manga had suggested this method for cooking foreign rice.

“Yes, that is right. It would become very sticky and drippy if you do not do it.”

Hearing this, Jin decided to ask about the history of eating nogi.

“When did people start eating nogi?”

“Let me see, it was discovered nearly 100 years ago. But I think it wasn’t until the past 20 years that people began to eat it. It was originally used as feed for livestock. Someone must have tried eating it, and so it became food…”

Apparently, horses who ate it would grow much faster, and so it was grown in the western region of the Shouro empire. Someone then tried to eat the grains, which lead to it being used as food for people as well.

And so people would eat the grains, and the horses would eat the rest. They were grown and separated like this starting from around 20 years ago. The cook explained.

“Hmmm…”

In Japan, rice plants were harvested for rice, and so pesticides were used. So of course, they were hardly ever used as food for livestock. But Jin’s curiosity was really directed more to the nogi.

“Do you think it will be possible for me to see this nogi later on? Also, if you would allow me to cook some…”

Jin said this, and the cook then looked to the Empress with a slightly troubled face. But the Empress nodded with an expression of deep interest, and so the cook was forced to agree.

Reinhart was already aware that Jin had once made a delicious dish out of topopo(potatoes), which had not been widely eaten before, and so he had high expectations.

Translations by AsianHobbyist Website

“This is nogi.”