As the topic of matsutake mushrooms came up, the conversation inevitably shifted to Japanese ingredients. Or rather, it took the form of me and Kaori-san asking Neun-san various questions.
[Heehhh…… So eels do exist here huh. I don’t think I’ve seen them……]
[Eels are actually specialties of Archlesia Empire, not the Hydra Kingdom, so even though you may have some difficulty finding them, you can generally find eel kabayaki and other eel dishes at stalls. It’s just, they were rather minor…… so they can be somewhat rare.]
At Kaori-san’s question filled with curiosity, Neun-san responded with a wry smile. In this world, I suppose eels might be considered some kind of B-class gourmet or something. In the first place, rice consumption is minor in this world, so eel kabayaki, which goes perfectly with white rice, isn’t that popular.
However, although it’s a minor food, it seems that there are some restaurants that cater them, so I would definitely like to try them myself.After talking like this for a while, Neun-san suddenly seemed to have remembered something.
[Ahh, come to think of it…… This may seem like advertising, but would you be interested in this, Kaori-san?]
[That is…… soy sauce and miso…… Ahh, you also have tofu.]
[Yes. They’re products that are handled in the store I oversee……]
[Eh? Neun-san, you have your own store?]
The three items that Neun-san took out of the magic box and laid out were soy sauce, miso and tofu, all of which were properly packaged and looked, just as Neun-san said, like marketed products.
However, I had never heard that Neun-san had her own store. I did hear how she was supplying kanji calligraphy works to one of Kuro’s stores but……[Yes, actually, the sales of the calligraphy works I started selling after getting advice from Kaito-san were quite good, so Kuromu-sama suggested that I could try supervising various Japanese products in a dedicated store, and she provided a store for me. I think she was being considerate of me though, knowing that I usually worry about my lack of income from work.]
[I see…… However, indeed, when it comes to handling Japanese items…… if it’s supervised by the fussy Neun-san, the quality of the goods seems like they’d be quite high.]
As expected of Kuro, I guess. She just readily handed a store to Neun-san. That said, it certainly is difficult for Neun-san, with her position, to work with other trading companies, and I think it’s good she took that into consideration.
And so, Neun-san is now promoting the products she deals there to Kaori-san, who deals in Japanese set meals……
[Yes, I may have been a layman, but I have been improving my soy sauce and miso for nearly 1000 years, so I have confidence in their taste. As for the tofu, with the help of Ein-sama, I’m confident they have improved more than the other two. This is a sample, so if it’s alright, would you like to taste it?]
[Then, since you’re offering…… Ahh, they’re amazing! These are really tasty! They’re all much better quality than what I have here in my restaurant. I would really like to stock up on these.]
[By all means, we’re also in the midst of expanding our business connections as well…… I usually leave business connection development to others since I can’t really appear much in public, so I will arrange for someone to come here later, and you can discuss with them the price and other matters at that time.]
[Yes! We’re in your care!]
It seems that Kaori-san also liked the items made by Neun-san, as their discussion about purchasing proceeded in a very realistic manner. Well, it seems they eventually decided that detailed discussions were scheduled for later with someone on Neun-san’s side handling it in her stead, but at that moment, something occurred to me, so I decided to inquire about it.
[Speaking of which, Kaori-san’s restaurant handles tofu too, right? Doesn’t that mean you also source them from somewhere?]
[No. I couldn’t find any trading companies that make and sell tofu, so I learned how to make them from Shige-san and produced them myself. However, since they’re something created by a layman, their texture and taste are lacking…… I’ve been wanting good tofu, so I’m really happy about this discussion!]
Just from the fact that Neun-san previously asked me about how to make tofu, it’s clear that tofu wasn’t in circulation in this world before. Now, it seems that Neun-san is selling them in her store, so there’s a possibility that they’d be circulated in the future……
I hadn’t paid much attention to the tofu in the miso soup at Kaori-san’s restaurant, so bringing up the topic made me wonder where she was getting her tofu from, but it seems that she was making them herself.
However, it seems that Kaori-san really only made tofu for her restaurant, so combined with the fact that her restaurant is located in Friendship City, a place Neun-san intentionally avoids, it’s not surprising that Neun-san didn’t know about the existence of tofu in this world until she met me.
Even so, gathering with people from the same homeworld and having various conversations like this which leads to new discoveries is quite fun. While it’s likely that Neun-san’s expertise in Japanese ingredients surpasses ours, given that she has lived in this world for over 1000 years, we still had a very lively conversation.
<Afterword>
Serious-senpai : [In a sense, it’s ironic how tofu exists only in Friendship City, which is outside of Neun’s information-gathering area…… Shigenobu seemed like he’d only make enough for his family…… if she had asked Alice, wouldn’t Neun find out how? No, but Kuro did say how it was difficult to make contact with her in the first place back when Kaito wasn’t in Trinia…… Either way is difficult for Neun to get info on tofu huh……]
