Chapter 6: Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

Chapter 6:
Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

Thomas Alfade, the former proprietor of the Alfade Company, was said to have been that company’s savior.

The Alfade Company was one of many old companies in the most prosperous of all cities on the Eastern Continent, the capital of the Kingdom. Its lineage had its roots in the very first Kingdom that was wiped out so many moons ago.

The Alfade Company primarily did business in all sorts of wheat products, specifically noodles. While wheat noodles were easy to store for extended periods of time as long as one kept them dehydrated, they barely had any flavor to them unless they were boiled in a large amount of water. This had made them unpopular with the masses. Thomas was responsible for elevating said wheat noodles, once thought to be nothing but peasant food, to a genuine staple of any noble’s dining table. He built the Alfade Company into the Kingdom’s most prominent trading empire.

The secret to Thomas’s success was the number of different sauces he invented. There was the typical sauce made of wheat and milk, adored by many. But then there was also the one made from fermented fish sauce, largely found in nations by the sea on the Western Continent, and mushrooms, stir-fried together. There was also the bold sauce popular in the trading ports of the west that used salted fish eggs, as well as the new spicy sauce made of chili pepel powder.

Alfade’s sauces changed the way people ate noodles. No longer did they settle for simple toppings like salt, cheese, honey, or herbs. They now desired Thomas’s sauces and the noodles that came with them. This was how the relatively small Alfade Company eventually became a massive presence in the Kingdom, with Thomas himself being heralded as the “Genius of Culinary Innovation.”

But Thomas knew he was no genius. He had just been lucky. In the darkness of the storage room where he kept his wheat was a mysterious black door that he just happened to come across while he was still in the business. The shop on the other side of that door opened some thirty years ago to the people in this world (though it had apparently existed for over fifty years), and that was when Thomas began visiting it once every twenty-eight days not as a customer but as a merchant.

Thomas had recently stepped down from his position as the head of the business and left it to his grandson, opting for a quieter lifestyle. However, he made a promise with the previous master of the shop. For as long as each of their respective businesses continued to stay open, they would continue to trade with one another. Since Thomas had quite a bit of free time on his hands thanks to his new lifestyle, he prepared to head beyond the door on the Day of Satur.

“All right, this should be everything,” Thomas quietly said to himself after confirming that everything the master ordered was in the trusty bag he’d used since he was a young lad. The door in the room he was in appeared only on the Day of Satur and could only be used once. As soon as the door was shut, or three hundred seconds passed, it would disappear, not allowing further entry. The other customers informed him that that was the rule of the door to the Restaurant to Another World. This was why he always made sure to check that he had everything he needed before turning the knob.

With everything in place, Thomas turned to his grandson, whom he was taking with him for the first time.

“Shall we, Sirius?”

“Is this door really connected to another world, Grandfather? I agree that it’s quite odd to have such a splendid door in our company’s old storage room, but still…”

Thomas’s grandson and now head of the business, Sirius, wore a confused look on his face.

“I don’t blame you for doubting me,” Thomas laughed.

While adventurers who traveled the world or elves well studied in the ways of magic might not find the idea so odd, Thomas and his grandson were but simple businessmen. It sounded like nothing more than a fairy tale to the average human. The only people who would believe that such a thing existed here were the kind who spent their days with their heads in the clouds.

“You’ll see when we get there. Fear not. While it is another world, it’s not altogether different from our own. Most importantly, you could say that the Alfade Company is deeply indebted to the shop beyond this door.”

Thomas placed his hand on the brass doorknob and turned it. The door opened, accompanied by a familiar ringing.

“Indebted to…? What sort of shop is it?” Sirius asked his grandfather as the older man was already moving to enter the doorway.

“A Restaurant to Another World.” Thomas made his way into the establishment in question, stepping away from the darkness of the storage room and into the well-lit interior that greeted him.

“Welcome… Ah, Thomas! Hold on just a sec.” The master had just finished cleaning the tables with a wet rag. There were no other customers in sight, just the sounds of a pot boiling in the kitchen. Thomas made it a habit to try and visit the restaurant early before any customers came. He didn’t want to disturb the patronage.

“Mind if we sit down while we wait?”

“Of course not. I just finished cleaning that table, so feel free to hunker down. By the way, who might this be?”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Sirius, Thomas’s grandson. Thank you for everything you’ve done for him.” Sirius smiled and politely bowed his head to the master, the mark of a good merchant.

“I’ll be bringing him by with me every now and then, so I hope you don’t mind.”

“Not in the least! So you’re his grandson… You do look a bit like Thomas when he was younger,” the master replied.

Thomas’s relationship with this restaurant started nearly thirty years ago, so he was more than familiar with the current master, having known him since he was just a young boy. On the flip side, the master knew Thomas well as one of his grandfather’s regular customers. The two men shared not just a strong business relationship but friendship as well.

“Wait just a moment, and I’ll get you two some coffee.” The master retreated to the back.

“Coffee?”

“A kind of tea from this world. It’s black and quite bitter, but once you get used to it, it’s delicious. It even gives you energy.” Thomas gave his grandson a brief explanation of the drink while happily watching the young man look around the restaurant’s interior.

“Curious, right?”

“Yes. So this is really a different world?” Sirius cast his gaze at the unfamiliar objects decorating the restaurant.

“Indeed it is. Take a good look around. You can tell that the decor and overall layout all deviate from what we consider customary.”

“I see… You’re right.” As a merchant in the capital, Sirius had laid his eyes on all sorts of goods. He knew from instinct that his grandfather’s words made sense.

The first thing that stood out were the bright lights. Even if powered by magic, they should have been slightly dimmer. Then there were a plethora of beautifully shaped glass containers. After looking more carefully, the container with black liquid in it appeared to be transparent but wasn’t actually made of glass. Nor was it ceramic. His grandfather was right. Sirius wasn’t in a foreign nation but a completely different world.

“Sorry to keep you waiting. Here are your coffees.” The master set down two cups of fragrant black liquid in front of them, along with a small gold pitcher filled with milk.

“Many thanks.”

“You’re quite welcome. I’ll go grab the proceeds.”

The master once again disappeared into the kitchen.

“Shall we? Sirius, could you pass me that blue pot… The sugar’s inside of it.”

“Oh, of course. Wow, this sugar is incredibly high quality. It’s pure white!” Sirius passed along the small pot of sugar, and Thomas took two spoonfuls of what would undoubtedly be considered the highest quality of sugar that the Alfade Company sold, mixing it into his coffee.

Thomas always had his coffee with two spoonfuls of sugar and no milk. Over his many years visiting the restaurant, this was his favorite way of indulging in the beverage.

“Mm, delicious.” The older man sipped his coffee. He’d heard from another restaurant regular that far across the ocean in the Desert Nation was a similar sort of drink. The white sugar with its pure flavor and the uniquely scented coffee’s slightly sour bitterness fused into one, spreading throughout Thomas’s mouth and leaving a sweet, sharp aftertaste behind on his tongue.

Along with the sensation of relief settling through his body, he also felt newly energized. Being given a cup of coffee for free was secretly one of Thomas’s favorite things about coming here.

“Come now, drink up before it gets cold,” Thomas urged his grandson. “I recommend sugar and milk. It’ll be easier to drink down that way.”

“Okay. Here goes…” Sirius added two spoonfuls of sugar just like his grandfather, and after taking a sip, added some milk.

“I see… The sour and bitter flavors really make for a unique taste. This is quite good.” The lightly sweetened coffee put a smile on the young man’s face.

The cost of acquiring sugar made from sugar cane in the south had dropped significantly since the war against the demon race came to an end many years ago, allowing for safe travel and trade with the Western Continent across the ocean. That said, it was still an important product worth many silver coins. Pure sugar could even cost as much as medicine.

The Alfade Company had deeper pockets than your average noble family’s enterprise, but they tended to not spend on anything that wasn’t economical, so there were few chances to enjoy something as sweet as this.

I guess he’s still a kid at heart if sweet things make him that happy, Thomas thought. He watched with a smile as his grandson reacted to downing the hot coffee in one gulp. Due to being born into the Alfade Company, Sirius lacked certain merchant qualities that one would normally have to learn through hard work. That said, he was both a quick thinker and knew how to best utilize the people around him. Thomas was quite proud of his grandson. After a period of time enjoying and finishing the otherworldly coffee, the pair were approached by the master, who held a silver box.

“Sorry to keep you waiting. These are today’s proceeds from the restaurant. May I take that bag?”

“Yes, of course. While you handle that, I’ll count this.” Thomas handed the master the empty cups and large bag he’d brought with him.

“Thank you kindly. I’m going to head up top for a moment.”

Thomas watched the master go upstairs before turning his attention to the silver box in front of him and opening it.

“Wow, there are eight old elven silver coins in there.”

“Mmhm. That’s the usual.”

For some reason, every time Thomas came to retrieve the box of earnings, there would be these silver coins present. Normally, one would have to be a noble family to even have these in their possession. Either that, or they’d have to be an elf themselves, or an adventurer who went digging through elven ruins. The production of these coins had ceased more than a millennia ago, which meant they were the highest value currency a person could get their hands on. This box contained eight of those coins, forty-one silver coins from various locales, and nearly seven hundred copper coins.

In this silver box was the Restaurant to Another World’s entire earnings for the month.

“Hm, interesting. The earnings are a bit higher than last month’s.” Thomas used his sharpened merchant skills to estimate the general amount in the box.

“Wait, this is the restaurant’s earnings?” Sirius asked.

“Precisely.” The master gave his earnings to Thomas every single month. “And that bag he took is my payment.” The contents of the big bag were what he gave the master in exchange for the coins.

“You mean the ingredients?” said Sirius.

The items that Thomas had brought included high-quality foodstuffs that only the Alfade Company could get their hands on. It also had ordinary goods one might find at a market, like wheat flour, common meats, and various types of vegetables. The bag also contained goods that had been carried across the ocean from other countries, and even monster meat delicacies that hunters and adventurers put their lives on the line to procure. The deal Thomas had with the Restaurant to Another World was that he would provide the shop with these kinds of ingredients, and in turn he would acquire their monthly earnings.

“Exactly. Well, occasionally he’ll ask for healing medicines and the like, but generally speaking, I sell him ingredients.”

“Huh.” Sirius nodded his head in response. This was the sort of deal that absolutely made sense to the number one food provider in the kingdom, the Alfade Company.

“But what does he do with that stuff? That’s not nearly enough to supply this kind of restaurant.”

As far as Sirius could tell, the Restaurant to Another World’s monthly earnings were somewhere below ten gold coins. If this place was only open once every seven days, that meant it was making around two gold coins a day. There was no way the amount of food that someone as old as Thomas could carry was enough to last the entire month.

“Oh, that’s for the master himself to eat, apparently.”

Thomas had the same question for the previous master when he first came to him with the deal. That was his answer.

“He eats them? The gentleman who was just here?”

“Correct. His predecessor did the same. He says he uses them to research flavors.”

The amount of food in the bag simply wasn’t enough to feed all of the restaurant’s customers, and according to the master, even if it was, there was a “sanitation” problem, whatever that meant. That’s why he ate it himself. He and his predecessor called it “research.”

“What’s that mean?”

“I don’t know much about how chefs think, but…” Thomas gave a simple explanation to his confused grandson. Long ago, the master had told him why he wanted ingredients from their world.

In the Restaurant to Another World, humans from Thomas’s world were considered guests. The master normally dealt with customers from his world, a place called “Japan,” so all of the meals were designed for their sense of taste. Luckily, there wasn’t a huge disconnect, but it was still a bit different.

In order to make sure he could make dishes that would please people from the other world, he experimented with their ingredients and figured out what would suit them best. This was how the master went about fine-tuning his dishes for their palates.

“He goes out of his way to do all of that?” Sirius looked baffled by Thomas’s explanation. Truth be told, he couldn’t quite understand the value of going to all that trouble, considering the master’s monthly earnings and the fact that he was only open once a week.

“Well, apparently this whole opening once a week for our world thing is kind of like a hobby to him. As long as he can feed his customers good food and make them smile, he’s happy. That’s one of the things about him that’s exactly like his predecessor,” Thomas explained as he chuckled.

In retrospect, the previous master also consider cooking both his job and his hobby. It had been thirty years since the Restaurant to Another World opened its doors to Thomas’s world. He was more than aware that one of the reasons the place was so beloved even now was because of the hard work that both masters put into running the place.

“Everything looks good. Thank you so much.” Holding two menus in his hands, the master came back to their table.

“As always, I’d be happy to treat you to whatever dish you’d like. You as well, Sirius.” He placed the menus down in front of the pair.

“Then I’ll get the usual. Let’s see, a large order of spaghetti with meat sauce. Will that do for you, too, Sirius?” Thomas didn’t even have to open the menu to order.

“Yes, sir. I’ll leave it to you.”

“Got it. That’s two large orders of spaghetti with meat sauce.”

With a nod, the master returned to the kitchen in the back and soon re-appeared holding the goods.

“Here you are.” He placed down two large plates of noodles in front of the men. Next to those were shining silver spoons and green tubes of some kind. On top of the noodles was a bright red sauce with plentiful amounts of shredded meat mixed into it.

“That’s the ticket. You really can’t have spaghetti without meat sauce!”

To Thomas, spaghetti with meat sauce wasn’t just a dish he enjoyed eating at Nekoya. It was the beginning of everything. In the last thirty years, the number of noodle dishes around the world had grown exponentially. There was a time when he ate all kinds of pasta dishes in search of better tastes, starting with the neapolitan, a pasta that could hold its own against spaghetti with meat sauce. But at the end of the day, his true goal remained this dish.

“Wait a second, Grandfather.” Meanwhile, Sirius had realized that he recognized the dish in front of him. He asked his grandfather for an explanation with a troubled expression on his face.

Thomas said but one thing. “Come now, you’ll understand once you take a bite. You’ll see. Now let’s dig in before it gets cold.” He picked up the glistening silver fork next to the plate and pressed it into the pasta, mixed it together with the meat sauce, and gulped before taking a bite.

Delicious. Thomas treated himself to this meal quite frequently, and yet his first response was always the same.

The first sensation to hit him was that of the meat stewed in the sauce. Its flavor was truly something special. One could tell that the cow this tender, savory meat came from was carefully raised not to till the fields but so that it could produce the best taste possible. The high-quality, fatty pork was similar. These two great tastes came together and spread like a wave throughout Thomas’s mouth. Each of these meats on their own would be delicious if cooked the normal way, but mincing and stewing them together produced a singular taste unachievable by themselves. Normally, mixing was a tactic used to hide the bad taste of cheap meat that was on the verge of going bad, but by using only high-quality ingredients, it gave birth to an altogether new flavor.

Wrapped around that high-quality meat was the core of the meat sauce, a vegetable from the other world that most closely resembled stewed marmett. Its flavor was the foundation of the entire meal. Thomas thought back to some ten years prior, when he excitedly discovered a food made from dried marmetts in a tiny country most folks in the Kingdom had never heard of. Stewing and crushing them into a liquid brought out the marmett’s sweet, tart taste and savory quality. This bright red sauce complemented the meat wonderfully, bringing out the latter’s dormant flavors.

Thinly sliced mushrooms, crushed and roasted nuts, plus oranie sauteed in oil along with a variety of different herbs… We’ve still got a long way to go.

Thomas took his time savoring the noodles and then let out a breath of air. When was it that he became capable of recognizing the complex number of ingredients that went into this sauce?

When he was still but a young man and discovered this restaurant, the first time he ate the previous master’s spaghetti and meat sauce, he devoured it in one go. Thomas knew that it was delicious, but he couldn’t put into words why exactly it was. That was the impact the dish had on his young mind. It was so incredible that it made him doubt whether the noodles his family sold were even really for eating.

“Hm. So, what do you think, Sirius? How does the pasta from another world taste?” Thomas asked his grandson, who was still holding his mouth in disbelief after a single bite. He eventually snapped back to his senses.

“How is this restaurant selling dishes we’ve yet to release to the public?!” Sirius had recognized this flavor.

It tasted much like marmett sauce.

Marmett sauce was made from a vegetable that they had gone through great pains to consistently produce in the Kingdom. They spent money on bringing farmers over from a fairly unknown, tiny country, and had them work together with scholars to solve the problem and create an environment in which the marmett could be cultivated.

The Alfade Company was planning on releasing this “new” sauce to the public during the summer. What Sirius took a bite of mere moments ago was extremely similar, except that its flavor was even more polished than their own product’s.

“Wait, don’t tell me…” Hit with a realization, Sirius immediately looked at the restaurant’s menu and its list of dishes, carefully reading the descriptions next to them. He finally understood why his grandfather considered himself indebted to this place.

“Grandfather, did you…”

“Precisely. I’m no Genius of Culinary Innovation. That title means nothing. I just desperately wanted to eat this kind of food on our side of the door.” Sirius’s grandfather confirmed it all, grateful that the day had finally come when he could let the heavy weight off of his shoulders.

Thomas Alfade was a merchant. Regardless of his motivations, being a merchant meant selling something if one felt it would be profitable to do so. That was how the glory of the Alfade Company came to be.

“Shall we continue?” Thomas reached over and grabbed the green tube, and one of the glass containers filled with red liquid.

“This green tube contains cheese grated down to a powder. Sprinkling a bit of it over the sauce mellows the taste. This red liquid is called tabasco sauce. It has the spiciness of pepel and the sourness of vinegar. It really brings out the flavor of the meat sauce.”

Thomas knew this was the first time his grandson would be eating any of this, so he carefully explained each element to him. Little by little, he carefully put both the cheese and tabasco sauce on his own pasta. Part of what made spaghetti with meat sauce such a fantastic dish was how one could adjust it to their own liking.

“Be careful at first. If you put too much of either on top, you’ll ruin the flavor.” The older man thought back on his own screwups.

First, he poured a dash of tabasco onto the meat sauce and took a bite. Doing so added a kick of hotness to the sour marmett and the savory meat. Adding too much would make even the strongest man’s eyes water, but just the right amount highlighted the other flavors of the dish.

Next, he added a touch of grated cheese. This, too, had great chemistry with the flavor of the marmett, boosting its deliciousness. However, putting too much of it on top would make the dish powdery, with the flavor of the cheese overpowering everything else. After carefully adding the right amount of both to the dish, Thomas spun some spaghetti and meat sauce around his fork and took a bite.

I really should look into selling these at the company… Ha ha, what am I saying? I’m already retired!

The combination of cheesy, sour, and spicy flavors blended with the savory meat sauce to create a new experience from the one before. As usual, Thomas found himself tremendously satisfied. In fact, it was enough to make him forget that he already retired from the business. After snapping back to his senses with a laugh, he switched into customer mode again and dug in.

“Hello! You’re open already, right?” Behind Thomas came the voice of an early customer.

***

After finishing their meal and enjoying another cup of coffee, Sirius and his grandfather exited the restaurant. As the door behind them closed, it immediately vanished into thin air. They were once again alone in the dark storage room.

“Grandfather…” Sirius seemed lost in thought as he opened his mouth to speak. With the door gone, it was almost as though everything that had happened was nought but a dream. However, the reality was that in exchange for the large bag of ingredients they had carried on them, they now had a bag filled with coins. The aftertaste of the meat sauce still lingered as well. It wasn’t a dream.

It was reality. Sirius was at a loss for words.

“One can only go to that place once every seven days,” Thomas explained to his grandson, clearly enjoying his reaction. “I’ll be going there once every four weeks, but feel free to go as much as you’d like.”

The older man was stepping down as a “customer.”

“Are you sure?” Sirius couldn’t help but lick his lips, the remaining flavor of the meat sauce filling his mouth. He was beginning to understand the meaning of his grandfather’s words.

“But of course. I’m sure the master wouldn’t mind having you there as a customer and not a business partner.” The older man reluctantly nodded his head. Thomas, already well into his later years, recognized as a merchant that it was about time to leave things in the hands of his young, capable grandson.

“Thank you, Grandfather! Oh, geez. I wonder what I should try next…”

Thomas narrowed his eyes and looked at his grandson. There was no doubt in his mind that the young man was going to visit the restaurant again in seven days time. Perhaps Sirius would accomplish his old goal of reproducing the noodle dishes from another world. Thomas himself had only managed to do so for less than half of them.