E? Heibon Desu yo?? Chapter 7

In a short while, I’ll turn eight years old.

 

In a few days we’ll conduct a moderate birthday party with only those close to the family invited, among those my friend Miina is also invited.

It’s just that I’ve also got some worries.

 

Mother has recently not been feeling well...

 

She is always drowsy, and her body is listless.

When asking a physician close to us, the advice given was that if it continues like this, to rest without strenuous activity.

Because of that, we thought it best if she withdrew from the birthday party, but when we said this to her she gave us an angry look and declared that because this is an important day where Liliana draws 1 year closer to adulthood she’s absolutely partic.i.p.ating.

 

Even though we are n.o.bility, because we’re poor mother does most of the housework.

At the very least she’s going to organize the servants and give them directions.

If free, she can help the one in charge of something that takes time, in one way or another she will work.

 

If that mother isn’t able to work now, if I don’t help then who will!

 

I’ve decided to help with the housework.

To start with I wanted to help with light work, but I haven’t really been able to help since they just say that it’s too dangerous for children.

In my previous life I lived in a fatherless family, so mom had to work a lot to support us, that meant that inevitably I did the housework.

I have confidence when it comes to housework because of this!

 

And above all, there’s a challenge I want to take up.

 

That challenge is cooking.

 

The basis of a typical meal in this world are beans and bread with vegetable soup, the meal is then complemented with other ingredients depending on the time of year. Typical side dishes are grilled meat with sauces, cheese with sausages, omelettes and things like these.

 

For me who’s from another world where we commonly eat food from various styles of cooking, I’d prefer some more variation.

Thankfully the foodstuff of this world has the same texture and taste as my former world.

That doesn’t mean that there’s something like the supermarket in this world with convenient access all year round to all ingredients.

Hoping for that much is doomed to fail, yep.

Too bad.

 

In this world the art of cooking consists of baking, simmering, boiling, frying, dressing vegetables and pickling.

However, there exists many more culinary techniques, right?

 

Yes, this time I think I’d like to challenge myself with steaming.

 

Truthfully I’ve been wanting to try kitchen work for a while, but so far the kitchen has been a forbidden area for me.

Because of that, I went with tears in my eyes and asked the head chef, could you please make this.

That’s when I encountered a problem.

 

I couldn’t tell him any precise measurements.

 

Rather than the method for making it, there was no simple way of telling how much ingredients should be used, so he couldn’t make it.

In recipes they often write vaguely, how much is “just a little”?

The correct amount is how much you can grab by pinching with your thumb and index finger, but since questions like these came with all ingredients, it turned troublesome.

Because wasting foodstuff is sacrilegious, in the end I gave up.

The head chef was so apologetic, he made me feel guilty and it’s a bitter memory.

It seems the time for revenge has finally come, though!

Don’t underestimate one of the three great human desires.  

(Tn: food, s.e.x and sleep. The three cornerstones of human behaviour according to ayurveda apparently.)

Of course, I’m going to satisfy that desire.

 

After the unknown quant.i.ty affair, whilst attacking father with my certain death attack I pleaded for him to craft a certain thing.

Well, the outcome was as expected.

Your sacrifice is needed in order to enrich our culinary experience, dear father.

 

Finally, the completed cookware is ready to debut.

The cookwares are too much for me to carry myself, so I’ve already had it carried to the kitchen.

The kitchen is not in the mansion, but in a different building.

Fire is used when preparing food, so if the worst case scenario happened the house is separated to reduce the risk of the fire spreading.

Well, since the mansion isn’t built out of stone but of wood it’s understandable.

However, for the general populace having the kitchen inside the house seems to be common sense.

Certainly, not everyone can afford to own several houses.

Okay, I’ve arrived.

 

Upon arrival, the head chef looked at me with worried eyes.

 

[Young miss, this is a place where we use fire and knives, so it’s dangerous. Would you allow me to take care of those tasks?]

[Head chef, I don’t intend to stand in the way of your duties. Today, mother is feeling unwell and is bedridden… Luckily, her appet.i.te is the same as always, so I want to feed her tasty food, in order for her to regain her strength faster… I want to help you make that tasty food. Can I?]

 

With a despondent appearance I looked up at the head chef with teary eyes.

 

[Besides, even one more helper will make it quicker, right? Come on, please…]

[If you promise to let me handle the stove and knives, I will let you do as you wish.]

[Understood! Thank you so very much!!]

 

While saying that, since the kitchen table is too tall, I stood on a convenient stool, confirming the presence of the cookingwares and recipes.

 

[Today’s menu is chinese dumplings and steamed meat dumplings. In addition we’ll have stir-fried vegetables. With these cookware and the papers with instructions called recipes, anyone could do delicious cooking. However, can one create the correct texture of these dumplings dough simply by reading the recipe?]

 

Truth is, I wanted to know if the chef could follow the instructions of the recipe simply by reading it, so I asked him to prepare it before I came.

With only the power of children kneading the dough would take too long, and the dough of chinese dumplings needs to ferment so it had to be allowed to sleep for a while.

In order to create this dough, I told him of the menu in advance, and since he has been making for a very long time he immediately understood the stir-fried vegetables, yet he’d never heard of anything like the dumplings so at first he felt uneasy about it.

But with my pleading, promising that it’s tasty, he reluctantly decided to take the challange.

I’m thankful, head chef.

 

[This is the requested dough.]

 

Inside two bowls were the doughs of the two different types of dumplings.

Yep, the amounts perfect too.

Simply by reading the recipe he’d been able to make some good doughs.

Thank G.o.d.

 

To make chinese dumplings’ you originally add sugar, but this time I tried doing it without.

 

The dough can be made even without sugar.

Anyway, I mustn't think too much about why I didn’t add any sugar to the dough.

What I’m talking about is that, nothing other than that we are a poor n.o.ble house.

Being poor is sorrowful, isn't it...

 

No good, don’t think about it, Liliana!

Time to get fired up and make this thing!!

 

[Thank you very much. I will do the steamed dumpling so head chef, I leave the chinese dumpling in your hands.]

[Certainly!]

 

I precisely split the prepared dough, then covered them in damp towels.

 

The divided pieces of dough were shaped into rods, then divided again.

 

Those parts were then put on plenty of flour, whereafter they were turned into round wrappings with a rolling pin and the wrappings were then also covered with damp towels.

This was then steadily repeated.

 

The head chef seemed to be very interested in the new style of cooking, while following the recipe he was also preparing the filling for the dumplings.

 

Because to create the filling you had to use the kitchen knife, that job was stolen from me.

It couldn’t be helped since I’d promised though.

Haah, the wrappings are complete.

Even from just doing this, at my age I used a significant amount of stamina.

In order to not get covered with flour, I wiped my sweating forehead with my right arm.

 

[Young miss, I’ve brought the dumplings fillings.]

 

Just in time, the head chef brought the fillings in a big jar.

 

[Thank you very much.]

 

After giving me the jar, the head chef returned to overseeing his other work, quickly finishing it.
As expected of an elite of our house’s few workers.

He’s good at his job.

 

Well then, let’s wrap these dumplings.

I made a ring with my thumb and index finger on my left hand, stretched the wrapping of the dumpling so it became like a pouch then put lots of filling inside, then flattened the filling.

 

At first the work of wrapping the dumplings was enjoyable however, it’s painful but if there’s too much you grow tired of it.

No no, I shouldn’t think like that!

Because no matter how much I think about it, it won’t grow less tiresome.

Throwing away the wicked thoughts, I earnestly did nothing but concentrating on wrapping those dumplings.

Then finally, before my eyes a load of dumplings were completed.

Yep, I managed to persevere.

I tried to puff up my chest with pride.

 

When looking at the head chef’s side, it seemed like he’d started steaming a large amount of dumplings.

 

I also asked father to make the steam baskets properly.

 

In order for the wrapping not to stick to the basket, I painted my dumplings with oil that I had lined up.

 

[Head chef, please also steam these meat filled dumplings.]

 

Because to steam something, you have to use fire.

Unfortunately, this is as far as I’m allowed.

For the stir fried vegetables, the only thing I was allowed was to wash them, after all.

 

[Young miss, allow me to do the rest. The only thing left is the steaming, and while that happens I’ll prepare the stir fried vegetables. By all means, feel free to wait in your room.]

[I’m at least going to clean up after myself. Also, as the one who asked for this I want to watch it till the end.]

 

In the end I wasn’t allowed to clean up either with it being too dangerous as a pretext however, I pa.s.sed the time while listening to his opinion on the new cookware.

The head chef said that he he was intrigued by the new cooking style and was looking forward to tasting how it came out.

[Okay, it feels like a good time now. Please carry the dishes to mothers room.]

 

In our house the rule is for the family to eat together.

Recently, mother has been bedridden, so the food has been carried into her room and father and I ate at her side.

Sometimes father is away on inspections and can’t attend lunch with us. Today however I confirmed this morning that he is doing deskwork.

 

[Certainly! I’m sure the lady will get well quickly from the young miss’s cooking. ]

[Thank you. Todays cooking, later I want to hear your opinion as well, okay?]

 

The ones eating this food, won’t be our family alone.

Our employed servants as well as our serfs and the ones tilling our fields will also have this distributed to themselves.

 

That’s why I decided on the easily distributed dumpling for the menu.
That’s why we made enough for a big pile.

I can’t wait to hear everyones impressions.

 

While cheerily walking towards mothers room from the separate house, father was already inside her room, flirting.

 

Because it is as usual, I don’t hesitate and also trespa.s.s.

 

A short while later, the food arrived.

Upon seeing the food for the first time, both mother and father seem very interested.

If we only had green tea this would be like yum cha, yet forget green tea, there’s not even black tea in this world.

(Tn: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yum_cha if curios.)

I’d also really like to increase the variation among beverages.

 

[Father, mother. The one who came up with todays meal was me. This biggest one is called a chinese dumpling and this tiny one is called a steamed meat dumpling, I decided to try heating the food inside cookware with water steam. The rest is called stir fried vegetables. Please tell me your impressions.]

 

[Food that you came up with Liliana, I looking forward to it.]

Liliana has worked hard in place of mother, huh. I’m grateful. Then, let us thank the forest for this harvest, let us eat.]

[Thank you, Liliana. Let us thank the forest for this harvest.]

[I’m glad that it pleased you. Let us thank the forest for this harvest.]

 

After saying the prayer used in these parts, the two firstly took a chinese dumpling each and ate it like you would bread.

They probably thought it was related to bread.

I thought they both stopped for a moment, and the eating continued in silence.

 

Ehh...  Does it taste that bad I thought, and decided to eat one chinese dumpling myself.

 

Yep, it tastes like a chinese dumpling.

It was substantial and filling, and above all else the filling with melted cheese, the fillings combination with the melted cheese was exquisite.

 

...Yet, why are those two silent?

For the people of this world, are the tastes of my former world unpalatable?

 

[Father, mother. Was it not palatable? I’m so sorry... ]

 

Then the two finally raised their heads, and looked at me.

 

[Liliana is a prodigy, isn’t she? This food is incredibly tasty. The wrapping covering the filling is also plump and mellow.]

[Liliana, this is a revolution in the culinary arts! The history of food will have a new page added!]

I’m happy for their praise, but aren’t they’re overly grandiose, well done keeping a straight face saying that.

 

[I’m glad it’s palatable. Please also try the steamed meat dumplings.]

 

This time mother and father advance towards the steamed meat dumplings.]

They had a wondrous look on their faces as they looked at it for the first time, before taking a bite of the steamed meat dumpling.

 

[It’s incredibly juicy and tasty, isn’t it?]

[The moment I ate it the meat spread, and the good taste concentrated in my mouth.]

 

Ufufu, it seems so.

The steam causes the shape of the meat to crumble, while not destroying it’s taste, these are cookwares that make the best use of the raw materials.

What’s more, the nutrition is mostly kept so this cooking style is very healthy.

 

The two smiled while eating the food.

Having a smiling face at the dining table is a very joyous thing.

To me, those smiling faces are the flavor of happiness.

The final seasoning for a good meal.

 

The food was eaten in the blink of an eye and with a pleasant feeling a new desire rose within me.

 

[Father, mother. From now on, is it okay if I help with the food?]

 

There’s a great deal of other types of food that I want to try doing.

Especially noodles.

I really want to make pasta.

Unfortunately, in this world there aren’t any noodles either.

Probably, this is because of the fork.

Forks are commonly used however, forks only have two teeth.

Like this, there’s no way they’d be able to eat noodles, right?

After all, there’s no way to entwine them.

Chopsticks don’t even exist.

Therefore, I think that even if in the past someone came up with noodles, it probably didn’t take root and was forgotten.

I also asked father to create forks with four teeth, and I’m currently in the middle of waiting for them.

When the revised forks are completed, I’ll make some pasta.

And then I’ll use these forks and with all my might wreath the pasta around it.

 

That day, I unanimously earned the right to help with the food.

 

Then, several days later at the birthday party, mother threw a bomb at us.

 

She didn’t literally throw a bomb at us, okay?

 

[The present I give to Liliana is this.]

 

While saying that, mother hit her own stomach with both hands with a smiling face.

 

[Liliana, you’re going to get either a little brother or a little sister.]

[Eeeeehhhhh---!]

 

Wait, didn’t this surprise even father? Mother!!

 

[Aren’t you glad, Liliana?]

 

No no, I’m happy, it’s just the way you told us shocked me so much, mother.

 

[Alice, is what you just said the truth?]

[Oh, Louis. Are you also unhappy?]

 

Saying that, mother looked timid.

 

[How could I not be happy? With not only a cute daughter like Liliana, but you’re also going to give birth to one more child, I can’t feel anything but grat.i.tude towards you.

 

Whilst saying that, he hugged mother tenderly, and kissed her on the cheek.

 

Yes.

They’re at it like usual, those lovebirds.

Yet, I’m also happy so I decided to join them, and burst in.

 

I’m going to get either a brother or a sister.

 

I’d recently thought that mother had been unwell lately, so mother had been in the initial stages of pregnancy, apparently that’s why she always looked drowsy.

Apparently she had asked the medical doctor to keep it secret because she wanted to surprise us.

 

[Liliana, happy birthday! It seems you’re getting a brother or a sister. It seems there was no problem with the lady either, isn’t that nice?]

 

Miina was grasping my hand with a smiling face and was happy with us.

 

[Huh, Liliana. Your hand is hurt!]

[Ah, I hit myself slightly with the knife when I was working in the kitchen.]

 

Well, it’s just a scratch, so it’ll heal in no time.

Of course, since I was a self-alleged housewife, even though it’s been a while the fact that I cut myself still came as a shock to me.

Since I did it behind the back of the head chef, I’d been keeping it hidden though.

By looking at Miina, she seemed so sad that it almost was like she herself had gotten hurt.

 

[Liliana, I’m going to heal it for you. I beseech thee, may Liliana’s wound be healed.]

 

Miina folder her hand over the wounder hand and I felt a slight warmth.

When Miina grinning removed her hand… Huh, how mysterious.

What was there was a hand without the slightest scratch.

 

[Eeeeeh---!]

 

Miina, what did you just do-----!?