Before Syl entered the bathroom, he asked her about her food preferences. After all, elves were a different race so the expectations could be completely different.
In some Earth media, they were considered totally vegetarian. In others, because they respected plants, they were carnivores instead. So...which was the reality?
Omnivores.
It was refreshing to know they had similar diets, to be honest.
However, she did mention that she liked herbaceous tastes, so that was what he’d focus on.
First of all... he could finally clean the kitchen and his hands properly! Most of the meat was now in his space. He’d treat them later.
It was amazing. There were working faucets, and—like everything—the setup was surprisingly modern despite the aesthetics.
"I don’t know where the water comes from, but... magic , I guess?" he mumbled as he washed his hands and cleaned up the kitchen he had messed up without water earlier, before he started cooking the meat.
Viva, hygiene!
Pang lounged on the sofa. He seemed really lazy, though after knowing his previous forms—which were too big and were at the same time limited to the scope of the territory—Finn could see that this must’ve been a habit he learned from living like that.
For years and two lifetimes, he couldn’t move much, trapped inside a small area. Of course, he would just be lazy.
At this time, the lazy panda looked at him with judgment again. "You know, if you read,
"Eh?" he blinked. "But the stream is a bit farther than that."
"Then there should be an underground river or something la."
"I see..."
"Then...what would happen if the Innkeeper built farther, then?"
"That happens more often than you think, actually," he said. "My second Innkeeper built his Inn near Barren land."
"If so, you’d have to find a way either to redirect some of the natural water sources, or you would have to get it manually, like bucket by bucket or something.
"Then, as long as the water is placed within the scope of the barrier, then the faucets and shower could magically pull water from that."
In those cases, people would simply collect gallons and gallons and place them somewhere, and they’d automatically serve as water tanks for the inn, regardless of piping. This would also inspire him to create rainwater collection tanks in the future, just in case.
"Is the water potable?"
"Yes, la, it’s automatically rid of any pathogens by the time it escapes the faucet."
Cool.
He took a huge gulp from the faucet before he took out his prepared spices and things.
He then cut the meat into the pieces he needed them to be. He was using the kitchen knives, so he was kind of expecting a bit of struggle, considering this was monster meat he was talking about, but it was surprisingly smooth. It was almost like he was handling normal beef.
"My knives had limited damage when I was fighting, how come it works so well now?" he asked Pang, who was now lying on his stomach.
"Kitchen tools work best in the kitchen, duh," Pang said, and Finn shrugged, just taking it as is.
Anyway, Finn narrowed his eyes as he looked at the meat. Although it was less difficult to cut than expected, the fact that it was tough meant that it wouldn’t be easy to eat later on. Not to mention, Syl warned him that while the meat was nutritious, it really wasn’t very good.
Still, Finn, masterchef extraordinaire, was determined to change this perception! He believed that every nutritional ingredient can be handled well!
He thought for a while and headed out, bringing a bowl of the sap with him.
Pang flinched, rolling to the side to give him a look. "Huh? Why are you bringing that here?"
"I want to test something out," Finn said, shrugging.
One of the ways to soften meat. He could tender it manually, or he could marinate it with acids and enzymes like citrus. However, he felt the latter would take a while, and he wasn’t strong enough to do the former.
So he came up with using the sap. It was known to soften the muscles for a set amount of time, after all, and he also knew it’d lose its effects after it evaporated.
It was a bit risky since he didn’t know exactly how it’d react to other ingredients and to things like heat, but he had [Dish Analysis] to tell him whether the finished product would be edible or not, so he wasn’t too worried.
Anyway, he separated the meat into two batches, getting a deep plate with the sap there and placing a few pieces of each meat to sit in it for a while.
For the rest of the pork, er, the brindlejaw meat, for tonight, he rubbed it in the purplestep salt and the powdered peppery sunberry leaves.
Later, he would rub the experimental meat with the same. The spices he had were the basic ones anyway.
"It would be great if I could develop the sauces and condiments here," he mumbled, looking at his prepared spices. Just something to add umami like soy sauce, and something to add acidic taste and brightness, like vinegar, should do.
However, there was still much to learn, so he had no choice but to make do with the plants immediately available to him.
He also added salad with some bacon strips as a side dish and a refreshing fruit juice mix to down everything. It should be tasty but wouldn’t overpower the taste of the actual meal. Fortunately, he had some stocks of fruit in his space. He’d worry about getting new stock later.
At some point while he was marinating, Syl had gone out of the bathroom. She was refreshed and wearing clean clothes, and his hands paused, staring at her pretty face.
"Finn?"
"Dinner will take a while," he said, clearing his throat. "You should recover a bit in your room. I will knock when it’s done."
Syl blinked and nodded, accepting that she indeed needed some rest. Finn’s amber eyes fixed on her door as soon as she closed it.
She had only been here for a few hours, yet he was already able to do so much because of her. For one, having water and beast meat wouldn’t have been possible at all, at least not today.
He must do better to impress the VIP!
He’d stake his status as a star chef!