133: Lunch

I thought that despite visiting several stores for roast meat and several pastry shops, they wouldn’t eat a lot for lunch.

Oh, how wrong I was.

Liane had found a restaurant just outside the main market. From the outside it didn’t look like much; there was a sign saying lunch specials on it: a Buvul fillet, served with garlic grass butter on a bed of puréed tuber. There was spatchcock grumfel, served on a bed of herb-roasted vegetables.

They alone sounded amazing, but the smells coming out of the restaurant were divine. Baked herbs, butter, perfectly cooked meat, a hint of smokiness, and despite the quiet exterior, when we entered we were hit with the sound of people having fun and eating their meals. It was absolutely packed!

“Greetings! Table for three?” a small lady wearing an apron said, appearing in front of us.

Liane nodded. “Right this way!” she said, leading us through the crowded room. Almost every table was full.

The lady gestured to a table where we all sat down and handed us a thick piece of parchment with more items on it. I was overwhelmed with the choices, but in the end I settled on something that looked very interesting…

Seared roc, served with a red wine sauce and a bed of wild mushrooms.

Rocs, I had learned, were one of the large mountainous birds that, despite living on a mountain, preyed on fish from the ocean.

Micca went for the spatchcock grumfel, and Liane went with something I really wasn’t expecting: a plate of crown snails, served with a thick garlic butter sauce, with a side of fried tubers.

Finally, Liane ordered a jug of whatever fresh juice they had available, which ended up being a local berry blend, served ice cold.

Looking around, I tried to take in everything. Most of the customers were adventurers, but everyone appeared to be enjoying their meals. From the seats we had, I could just see the window to the kitchen. Inside, there looked to be five people cooking. I was reminded a lot of the temple kitchen, but it looked far more organised.

I was completely enthralled by the meals that were constantly placed in the window before they were carried out to the tables. I hadn’t even touched my juice yet; Micca and Liane had been talking about which shops they’d be going to next.

Eventually it was our turn as the meals came to the window. The bowl stood out as it looked to be piled high with thorny shells.

The waitress carried all three plates and placed our meals in front of us. All three smelled amazing, but Liane’s looked strange. It was a giant bowl full of snail shells, but the garlic and butter aroma was mouth-watering. It even caught Crisplet’s attention, who had come out of the brazier, giving the surrounding tables a fright.

Micca’s spatchcock grumfel looked to be perfectly cooked. There was a pristine golden-brown colour all over it, but what really stood out were the roast vegetables underneath. The herb smell from them was so strong I could practically taste it from here!

Finally, my own. It was a fist-sized piece of roc meat that was sliced up. It looked to have a perfect caramelisation on the skin, making it almost crispy. On top, there was a silky smooth, deep red sauce, and it was all sitting on a bed of what looked to be four different mushrooms.

I took my fork, taking a bite of the roc with the sauce.

This sauce was the best thing I had tasted. It was rich, savoury, with a hint of bitterness, but with an unmistakable fruitiness to it as well. The roc was perfectly cooked, still juicy and incredibly tender. The mushrooms—well… again, I never knew mushrooms could taste so good.

They appeared to be sautéed in a garlic grass butter and herb mix, and they were not too soft.

Looking up from my own meal, I saw that both Liane and Micca were equally loving their meals.

“Good, isn’t it!” Liane said, using a pick-like tool to pull the meat out of the shell before dipping it into the garlic butter and taking another bite.

“So good,” I agreed.

Micca said nothing, just nodding.

“You should try one, Trev!” Liane said, holding out another snail.

I really wasn’t sure about it. The shell was fairly large, with black thorns coming off it. It looked rather dangerous from the outside, and really off-putting.

“Oh, c’mon. Don’t worry about their appearance; you’re a chef! Chefs should try everything once, right!” Liane said with a grin.

“Fine. How do I eat it?” I said, taking the shell she was offering.

After a short demonstration from Liane, I pulled the meat out from the shell, and it did not make it look any better at all.

“Right, now dip it in the garlic butter and take a bite!” Liane said excitedly.

I figured it couldn’t taste bad with that much butter, so I did as I was told, taking a bite. My first taste was just garlic grass and butter. The snail itself had a small amount of chew to it, but I expected far more; it was surprisingly tender.

The meat itself had an almost saltiness to it, but it was a flavour like nothing I’d had prior, so I really struggled to compare it to something. I quickly took the other half into my mouth.

The second bite confirmed that I really did like it, despite its appearance.

While I’d been eating the snail, Liane helped herself to a small piece of my meal. I felt that was fair, and to be honest I was just surprised Lily hadn’t shown up in the middle of the restaurant demanding a meal herself.

“Do you think they’d sell me a meal to take with us so I can give it to Lily?” I asked quietly.

Liane shook her head. “They don’t let you take it away. I mean, you could probably store it and leave the plate, but I don’t know that Lily will be that fussed. If you’ve not been paying attention, she really is not worried about any cooking besides your own, and only begrudgingly eats food not cooked by you when you give it to her.”

Micca nodded, putting the bone she had been gnawing on down.

“She’s right. I tried to feed Lily several times while you couldn’t move in the city, and she wouldn’t touch any of it,” she said.

Liane added, “And the few times I’ve seen you give her something you’ve not cooked yourself, she’ll normally nudge it a bit and eat it very slowly. That said, if you were to cook these meals yourself for her, I think she’d absolutely love it!”

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For the rest of lunch, I was trying to think of how I would replicate the meals I’d eaten here. The snails seemed the easiest; I imagined I would just need to steam them, then finish them with garlic butter.

The grumfel looked to be just about butchering it correctly, removing the backbone and flattening it out to cook across a grill. The roasted vegetables also seemed simple—it was just finding really good herbs and then cooking them properly—but I had no idea how they made the outside of the tubers so incredibly crispy while the inside was perfectly fluffy and soft.

When it came to my own meal, I had seen Geo make a red wine sauce before, and in our testing I couldn’t infuse a stew that had it. However, there was nothing stopping me from making the red wine sauce separately, making the main meal, infusing it, and then just pouring it on top like they had done here.

Once we had finished eating, Liane paid for the meal and we made our way back to the market, now feeling incredibly full. The first store we came across was one selling cooking equipment, and it had everything from enchanted knives and pots to portable cookers.

I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, but the items I picked up right away were a pie tray that looked to hold six small pies. This would be amazing for the pastries that everyone loved to eat.

I also got a proper lid for my stock pot, with the store owner grumbling that I had likely been scammed since normally you get it as a package deal.

I also purchased a metal grill sheet, and lastly I discovered they had several mini barrels. It was the same size as the one currently holding the regular honey, and it would be perfect for liquids I wished to save. I purchased all five that he had.