Chapter 49: Steamed Pork Buns

Chapter 49:
Steamed Pork Buns

Western Cuisine Nekoya was tucked away in a corner of the bustling shopping district. On days that it was open as the Restaurant to Another World, things got quite busy.

It all started in the morning when the restaurant door connected to the other world. That’s when prep began.

The master had recently brought on two new workers, Aletta and Kuro. After they arrived, the three of them would eat breakfast together before starting on some light cleaning and kitchen prep for the day.

Customers rarely showed up this early, so for a time the restaurant was fairly peaceful.

But as soon as noon rolled around, business started to pick up.

Customers from all over the other world started to arrive in search of the master’s delightful dishes.

To the outside observer, this looked like any weekday at Nekoya; orders flying to and fro as Aletta, Kuro, and the master made their way around the restaurant, trying their best to keep the customers satisfied.

Once noon had come and gone, peace once again settled over the Restaurant to Another World.

It wasn’t as if there never were any customers during this block of time—just that the ones that did come in were generally looking for desserts and sweets, not hot meals.

Unlike the rest of the menu, the majority of the desserts and sweets came from the bakeshop just above Nekoya. They were delivered to the restaurant early in the morning, no prep required.

That being said, there were some desserts and snacks that the master made himself. Things like chocolate parfaits, pancakes, crêpes, and even potato chips were items that the master prepared on his own. As for the rest of them, he simply paired them with appropriate drinks and brought them out to customers. In general, this part of the day was used as break time, prep time for dinner, or a lunch break for the master and Aletta.

As evening rolled around, things got busy once more.

All manner of customers who had finished a long day of work swung by the Restaurant to Another World.

Once again, orders flew to and fro, many of them for alcohol.

A lot of the customers who stopped by at this time of day were looking to get their hands on “otherworldly alcohol” they couldn’t get at home.

These customers drank and drank, ordering all kinds of snacks to go with their booze.

After sundown, quiet settled upon the restaurant once more.

Apparently, it was normal for folks in the other world to hurry to bed once the sun set. There were fewer visitors during this time of day than any other. However, there were some customers who only came at this time. There was even one specific customer who always appeared just before closing.

***

One Saturday, the master came face-to-face with one of those rare afternoon customers.

“Thank you so much, Ms. Haruko. You didn’t have to.”

In the back of the restaurant, the master bowed his head to the woman named Haruko. She had come to deliver news about a recent neighborhood meeting, along with a bag of goodies.

“Now, now, no need to thank me. My husband might be busy right now, but I have all the free time in the world. Those haven’t been steamed yet, so make sure and do that before you eat them… Oh, but more importantly, are you sure it’s okay for you to be talking to me here, Mako? You have work today, right?” Haruko asked the master. She had a worried expression on her plump, round face. Since she helped in the kitchen, she wore no makeup.

While they held different jobs, they were both workers, and Haruko was concerned that she might have interrupted the master at an inconvenient time.

Haruko was married to the master of the “Laughing Dragon,” a Chinese restaurant that also called the shopping district its home.

The Laughing Dragon had opened just after the end of the war, and its current master was the second to run the place. Like Nekoya, it was one of the oldest restaurants in the area.

Since they were old neighbors, the previous master of Nekoya had got along well with the family who ran The Laughing Dragon. His grandson did as well, but in a slightly different way.

“No, no, it’s absolutely fine,” said the master. “My customers around this time are all after that guy’s cakes, so I’m not actually that busy. Plus, the new girls I brought on recently are way more adept than the student part-timers I usually hire.” The master could sense Haruko’s concern, so he answered with a smile.

“Is that so? I’m glad to hear it.” Haruko smiled in return.

Her round face was warm and gentle. It was easy to imagine that she must have been adorable when she was younger. And yet there was something about that smile that caused the master’s expression to harden ever so slightly.

The master’s old wounds felt like they would start bleeding at the lightest of touches, even now.

Haruko looked upon the master’s expression and smiled sadly.

“…You know, I still think of you as my own son, Mako.”

If things had been different, he likely would have been the third master of The Laughing Dragon, after all.

But there was no going back. There was no recovering from that loss.

“Well, then. I’ll be on my way… I do hope you drop by and say hello to Natsuka sometime… She can get quite lonely, you know?”

Haruko couldn’t help but bring the topic up—even if she knew that her words were like a curse that chained the master down.

And so the sun set; it was time to close up shop.

“I shall return,” said the final customer of the day, exiting the restaurant with her giant hot pot in hand.

“Have a careful journey home! Thank you very much,” called the master.

“Thank you very much!” Aletta followed.

Farewell, Kuro said.

They were officially closed.

“Phew…” Aletta let out a light sigh, relaxing her muscles.

“All right! We’re done for the day,” the master said. “All that’s left is cleanup. Hang in there, ladies!”

“Yup!”

Understood.

They both replied with smiles on their faces. In this line of work, a smile was important.

“Excellent. That’s what I like to hear. As a reward, how’s about I make you two a little evening treat?”

“Wow, are you sure?”

Really?

Aletta’s cheeks lit up. They had already found time for dinner earlier in the evening, but that just meant she was starting to feel a wee bit hungry again.

“See, I actually got it as a gift, and there are way too many for me to eat alone, so…” the master replied bashfully.

The gift he’d received was portioned out for a high school boy with a bottomless pit of a stomach. The master was long past the age when he could down that much food by himself.

It wasn’t the sort of snack he could hold onto for a few days either, so he figured it might be nice to make his two workers happy.

“It’s gonna take a little bit for me to steam them up real good, so could you two finish wiping the tables in the meantime?”

“Okay!”

Yes.

Aletta was now in a brighter mood than usual.

***

While she and Kuro cleaned the dining room, the master got to steaming.

“All right, that should do it.”

The moment he took the lid off of the steamer, the sweet smell of wheat filled the air.

“Master hasn’t lost his touch, I see.”

The aroma alone was enough to put a smile on his face, as he mused aloud to himself. In front of him were the pure white loaves that he’d first eaten as a young boy.

They were The Laughing Dragon’s secret best menu item, a food that was only available during the cold winter days. Office ladies and businessmen on the way home from work always stopped in to buy a few to go.

“Ain’t nothing like a good steamed pork bun around this time of the year,” the master said, nodding to himself as he lined up the buns on a big dish.

***

The master called out to Aletta and Kuro, who had finished wiping down the tables. The three washed their hands and sat down together.

What are these?

“Are they some kind of…bread?”

Aletta cast her gaze down at the white lumps on the large plate.

It appeared that the master’s evening snack for them was a round white bread with a pointed top.

I wonder what it tastes like…

Aletta had no idea what she was looking at.

“Ah, these are steamed pork buns. There’s meat packed inside of ’em, and they’re delicious,” the master explained to the girl curiously examining the plate. He picked up one of the six buns lined up on it.

After peeling the paper from the bottom of it, he split the bun in two and took a bite.

“…Yeah, dang good.”

The filling was loaded with meat juices, but it didn’t all come oozing out after a single bite. The savory filling combined with the gentle softness of the bun and spread over his taste buds.

Mm, I’ll never be able face off against Master with my Chinese food skills.

The master was fully confident that, although he had improved his skills since his high school days, it would never be enough to beat his master.

This thought left him simultaneously happy and a wee bit annoyed.

“Thanks for the food!”

After watching the master dig into his pork bun, Aletta felt her stomach start to rumble. She picked up one of the buns.

It was warm to the touch.

Not so blisteringly hot as to burn her hands, but not cool, either. The warmth filled Aletta’s palm.

So the master split his in half…

Aletta followed in the master’s example, dividing her bun in half. It was at that very moment that the sweet smell of bread and filling wafted upward. It was the scent of steamed meat.

This was more than enough to make her mouth water. Aletta dug her teeth into half of the pork bun.

Ah, it’s so soft.

That was the first thing Aletta noticed.

It was completely unlike any of the bread she was accustomed to. It was almost as if it were only made of the white of the bread.

The dough was ever so slightly moist, and it smelled faintly of wheat. To Aletta, this thick layer of the bun was more than delicious enough to be its own delight.

But the true star of the pork bun resided within the bready exterior.

The diced pieces of fatty pork, the green oranie added for flavor, some kind of yellow, crunchy substance, and diced mushrooms all fused together, cooked over flame.

And all these various flavors soaked into the soft, white bread, blending harmoniously together.

Aletta smiled, offering her impressions as she finished off her first pork bun.

“This is delicious!”

It’s not as good as chicken curry, but it’s still very good, said Kuro.

“Right?”

The master rarely praised his own cooking—well, in this case it had just been steaming—but he agreed with Aletta.

“C’mon now, keep on packing them away! Oh, and these go great if you add a dash of vinegar soy sauce or mustard after the first bite.”

The master smiled, offering this seasoning advice to his employees as they dug in. It was the same thing Haruko had once told him and the other part-timers so many years ago.

***

And so Aletta found herself walking home through town that night.

Those pork buns sure were tasty…

Winter nights in the royal capital were always chilly. But thanks to the sturdy coat she’d gotten at the secondhand store and the pork buns in her stomach, Aletta could barely feel the cold.

It was winter, and she was as happy as could be.

Aletta hurried down the house-lined street, clutching a mincemeat sandwich for her employer and a box of cookies for her employer’s little sister.