The sauce only tasted like sauce.
I was a salt person.
Because the true enthusiast always chooses salt. It allows you to enjoy the taste of the ingredients. Ultimately, you arrive at the conclusion that salt is the best.
However, sometimes when eating grilled chicken skewers with salt at a food stall, I would think:
... Sorry, but it's just not the same without the sauce.
First, what exactly is sauce?
Well, in Japan, the main ingredients used in sauce are pretty standard. Let's take yakitori sauce as an example.
The essential ingredients for yakitori sauce are soy sauce, mirin, sake, and sugar. The ratio of mirin, sugar, and sake can vary quite a bit, but the most indispensable element among them is soy sauce. I could firmly assert that without soy sauce, you cannot achieve the taste of the sauce.
Yeah. Soy sauce. Indeed.
Next, let's talk about the recipe for soy sauce.
The primary ingredients are soybeans, wheat, and salt.
Huh? You'd think this might be doable, right? I thought so too. Although there are no straight-up soybeans in this world, there are beans with a similar taste.
But there's something missing as a secret ingredient.
That's koji mold.
... Koji...?
Well, it's basically the same as natural yeast... microorganisms necessary for fermentation...
This stuff only exists in places like Japan, Southeast Asia, and other humid areas.
... End of story!
I can't make soy sauce! Automatically, I can't make the sauce! Let's just drop this conversation! Alright, moving on!
Seriously, what is it about soy sauce? When you try to recreate Japanese cuisine, soy sauce inevitably stands in your way.
Not that I'm a Japanese cuisine supremacist or anything. I've adapted well enough not to desperately hunt for rice or miso in this world.
But simply because I was Japanese in a past life, the repertoire of dishes I want to make is biased towards Japanese cuisine. Without soy sauce and miso, I can't even make decent soups. Can you understand this frustration? I had no choice but to become fervently enthusiastic about the religion of worshipping salt.
Incidentally, you can't make miso without koji either, so I can't even drink miso soup. It's crap. Though it's not nice to talk about crap when discussing miso. It really is just waste.
Why aren't koji and soy sauce more universally available?
If digging in rocks can produce rock salt, shouldn't digging in a desert release a geyser of soy sauce? Couldn't it be possible that when you punch a Pike Hopper in the gut, what it spews out, which reeks like hell, is actually soy sauce?
Oh, how I craved to lick some sauce. I wanted soy sauce so badly.
I was steadily preparing for fishing, yet the recipe to follow through afterward was feeble. I longed to eat sashimi, sashimi.
But wishing for the impossible wouldn't cause a rain of soy sauce to pour down.
If it's not available, then I, as a capable guild member, had to strive and be creative with what I had.
And so, I decided to look for seasonings in the market.
「Discoveries in Exotic Cuisine!」
「What's that?」
「From now on, we're going to scour the market for trade goods flowing in from all places... and find tasty seasonings!」
Raina, Ulrika, and I headed to the market.
Not the shady Black Haze Market filled with knockoffs. We went to the proper, bustling market.
「... When you said we were going to buy things necessary for fishing, I didn't expect seasonings.」
「I'm actually looking forward to it! I heard a lot of goods from other places have been arriving recently, right?」
「I think what we already have is sufficient...」
「No, it's not! That's not the right mindset, Raina! The richness of food comes from experimentation! You have to try various things while you're young!」
「I'm already an adult, though...」
Keep quiet, Raina, you're not an adult, not even in a hundred years. Well, maybe not a hundred years, but you're at least 2 or 3 years early.
「Anyway, we'll try every potential seasoning, and if it's good, we'll buy it!」
「... Mongrel-senpai, why are you so fixated on seasonings? I mean, I understand for fish and stuff...」
「I want something for fish dishes, yes. But mainly, it's because I want to recreate the taste of my hometown as much as possible.」
「Oh... Mongrel's hometown...」
If there's no soy sauce or miso, there are substitutes.
There's substitute soy sauce created in Japan, or fish sauce, or garum. By gathering such condiments from different parts of this world, we should have something useful for when the time comes.
Most importantly, seasonings can be preserved. It's not a loss to buy them, after all.
「... Got it! I'll do my best to find the seasonings Mongrel-san needs!」
「Oh, you're really pumped, Ulrika! I'm counting on you. I'd like to consider your taste preferences as well.」
「... Well, if that's the case, I'll do my best too.」
And so, we started our exploration of the market.
There were more unfamiliar fruits and dried goods, which were tempting, but we held back the urge to grab those and focused on finding what we were after.
There was a plethora of powdered items.
Herbs, spices, and other flavorful substances stood out. Liquid seasonings were seldom seen, maybe due to the challenges of transportation.
The occasional liquid seasoning we tasted generally resembled shotturu or fish sauce. While it had umami, it also had a fishy taste.
Honestly, I wasn't well-versed in fish sauce or something like Nuoc Cham.
I couldn't imagine how the taste would change when heated with alcohol, sugar, and other ingredients.
Raina and Ulrika tasted it too, but they didn't seem to rave about it. They were particularly unaccustomed to the strong smell.
「Mongrel-senpai, you're just buying spices.」
「But it's not what you initially aimed for, is it, Mongrel-san?」
「Well, yeah. But I thought they could be useful, so I bought them.」
What I added to our load were powders and dried spices.
They were strongly aromatic, so while they wouldn't exactly make curry, they would still enhance meats flavorfully.
... While searching around, the thought that maybe I should just compromise with this crossed my mind.
Would I ever find the seasoning I was seeking...?
Everyone on the staff was about to give up... when suddenly!
「Oh, oh, this is...!」
「! Did you find something, Mongrel-san?」
「Dried seaweed!」
Though it wasn't shaped like kelp, it resembled a large Yatsude leaf, revealing it to be a type of seaweed.
The surface, as if dusted with salt, was faintly white. Tapping it with my fingernail revealed a thick and rigid texture.
「It's preserved seaweed from the Federation. You rehydrate it in water and then grill it to eat. I've never tried it myself, though.」
「Rehydrate with water, then grill?」
「They say it has a taste similar to meat. I'm not sure if that's true or not.」
Similar to meat? I couldn't imagine, but does that mean it produces enough umami?
Anyway, as long as it's seaweed, there's no problem. It should work as kelp stock! ... Probably?
「That sounds interesting, sell it to me.」
「Sure, they're tied into bundles, so you'll have to buy them in lots of ten.」
「Then give me thirty.」
「Oh, that's helpful. I'll give you one for free.」
「Thanks!」
With that, I acquired ingredients that would bring me closer to the taste of my hometown.
「Is that what you were looking for, Mongrel-san?」
「Yeah. Back home, I ate similar things, so I think it will be fine.」
「That's great, Mongrel.」
「Thanks to both of you. Oh, is there anything you'd like to buy? If you're making a big purchase, I can carry them for you.」
「Really? Then there are some things I'd like to ask for the clan house.」
「Me too!」
Thus, I obtained some spices and what looked like kelp.
I didn't find a substitute for soy sauce, but... well, I could make do with a suitable sauce from this world.
For a while, I'd be able to immerse myself in creating dishes with new ingredients.