Ch 55 -- It's been a while since I tasted curry
I decided to stay at the "Gryphon's Nest" inn that I was referred to. Having travelled through the Gryphons territory to get here the name of the inn was a little disconcerting but it's a well-known inn hereabouts. It costs 8 silver coins a night with a contracted beast.
There was a beast stable at the back of the building, like the places we had stayed at before, so I asked Fer to go there. I went to my room and prepared to cook. I bought the items I needed for the meal I was planning from the Net Super.
The main item, the Rock Bird meat really needs to marinate for an hour or so but I poked it with a fork so the flavourings penetrate more easily and anyway a shorter time will be fine. In the meantime I laid my futon out on the inn's bed.
If I didn't take care Fer would force his way into this room. I took my satchel which Sui was sleeping in and went down to Fer's place.
"You'll have to wait, Fer."
"I've waited long enough." he growled. "I'm hungry right now."
"Ah, sorry, it's going to take a bit longer."
"WHAAAT--?!"
There's nothing that can compete with a hungry Fer when it comes to drama queens. How tragic! Taking pity on the poor wretch I bought ten fried mincemeat cakes from the Net Super for him.
"Dinner-?" Oh, Sui had woken up. I gave her five mincemeat cakes as well.
"Eat these for now, you two and just be patient."
Right then, it's going to be broccoli for a side dish. Chop the broccoli into the right sized-pieces, wash it in cold water and then boil it with a little salt. After it's cooked drain it and let it cool. If you don't drain the broccoli straight away it will get soggy as the water cools. Why broccoli you may ask? Well, I like it obviously. I always make it as a side for this kind of main dish which tonight is going to be tandoori chicken.
I opened up the filled plastic bag which I had prepared up in my room. It had plain yoghurt, grated garlic and grated ginger (from tubes) and salt and pepper and curry powder, along with Rock Bird meat which I had poked with a fork to make holes in it before massaging it. I fried it in olive oil in a really hot frying pan so both sides were scorched and I served it with broccoli and plenty of mayonnaise.
"It's ready-"
Fer and Sui were right beside me in an instant and started eating.
"This has a curious flavour but it's really tasty." muttered Fer.
"Yes, Sui likes it too."
Spicy hot curry may be unknown in this world but it's delicious anyhow. I bit into the tandoori chicken.
"Ummm-!"
When you want to eat curry you REALLY want to eat curry. Since I'm not a true gourmet I cooked the sort of curry I eat at home. This meant using two different types of curry roux. One of them is my regular choice, the other is something different like a new product on the market. I feel that it makes the curry taste richer somehow, it's just the way I like it.
Thinking about how I made curry I wanted to eat more of it. Should I make more curry? Fer and Sui will eat as much as I can make so it'll be fine. I can always grill some Rock Bird steaks for them if they complain.
"Aruji, seconds please-"
"Me too."
Yeah yeah. I'll cook more tandoori chicken for you. I'll have seconds too, that curry taste is so comforting after so long. The broccoli and mayonnaise was delicious too. Next time it will be curry rice.
* * * * *
After returning to my room and putting Sui on the futon to sleep I thought hard about my future.
First I want to establish my position in the Adventurers Guild. It's where I can get monsters dismantled properly and collect the meat and I can't keep on getting deregistered. However the G rank qualification period is only one month and if I feel like travelling anywhere that's likely to take longer than a month.
So should I try and level up to rank F in the Adventurers Guild here while I'm in this city? I'm finally in the Leonhart Kingdom which seems stable. I want to travel a lot but I'm in no rush. If I get to F rank I'll have three months before losing my registration, not one so even if I was travelling around I'd still stay registered.
OK, I'll hang around here for a bit and work hard to get to F rank. Luckily because I got to know Lambert-san and everyone in 'Phoenix' I've got good connections in this city which will come in handy.
Since I wasn't really planning to be a real adventurer I don't know exactly how to raise my rank though, so I think I'll go to the Adventurers Guild tomorrow and ask there. I expect I'll have to take a number of requests like searching for medicinal herbs and such over the next month.
Poor me, it's not like I want to become a real adventurer.