Chapter 59: Sake-Steamed Clams

Chapter 59:
Sake-Steamed Clams

Before he got to cooking them, the master made sure that today’s special menu items were clean and completely sand-free. And he did a taste test, just to be sure.

“Mm… That’s good.”

He nodded his head, savoring the taste. Then he turned to Aletta.

“Could you bring this upstairs for me?”

The master handed the tray to his employee. Balanced on it was a deep dish piled with today’s special appetizer, along with another plate of freshly baked bread and butter.

“Of course! I’ll be right back!”

Taking the tray from the master, Aletta got into the magical transportation device known as an elevator. (In her eyes at least, it was magical.) After working at Nekoya for such a long time, she was accustomed to operating all of the restaurant’s strange devices.

It was late afternoon on a Saturday. Leonhart, the bar on the second floor, would be open for business soon.

Around this time of the day, Leonhart’s master often placed a dinner order, before he set in for his long evening shift.

He typically ordered whatever struck his fancy—but whenever this season came around, there was one specific dish he always went for.

The master of Leonhart was fond of sake of all types. And so it made sense that the dish he craved had this specific alcohol as a key ingredient.

“Ah, I know. I’ll bring this out for appetizers today—since I already made some and all.”

The master knew of some customers who loved this stuff.

“Those little old guys’ll probably be thrilled.”

The “little old guys” in question were some gentlemen of small stature—who could potentially drink the master out of business if they tried.

The two of them hadn’t been by the past few weeks, but the master had a hunch that they’d probably be dropping in soon enough. And ten years in the business meant his hunches were usually correct.

***

The dwarf artisans, Gard and Guilhem, climbed the paths of the mountain. Though it was deep into the spring, snow still layered the ground.

“My word, it’s cold up here!”

“C’mon, quit your bellyaching. We’re almost there!”

Even if it was the middle of the spring, they were on top of a mountain, and dressed for it, too. The two dwarves wore thick-muscled armor and bearskin coats. They were sweating as they trekked along, and still they were freezing.

“It’s finally nice and clear up here! If we let this chance go, we’re gonna be miserable, ya hear?!” Gard cried out.

“I know, I know!” Guilhem nodded. “Why’s it gotta snow on every single damned Day of Satur?! I was starting to consider switchin’ from the Lord of Fire to the Lord of the Sky!”

It had been a full twenty-one days since they’d had a chance to sample the booze at the wonderful place beyond the door.

In the winter, Gild and Guilhem always went out of their way to climb the mountain in search of “that place.”

Like most dwarves, they were willing to persevere through cold, snow, and wind if it meant getting their hands on some delicious drink at the end of it all.

That being said, today they were facing a perilous climb. If they traversed the mountain during a snowstorm, their lives would be at risk. Even the dwarves—so tough that they were said to be born from stone itself—were not invulnerable to the dangers of a mighty blizzard.

And much as they loved delicious drink, it wasn’t worth sacrificing their lives over. In the afterlife, they’d never be able to partake in the holy liquids ever again.

Due to fierce snowstorms, the pair had been forced to give up on their visit on the last two Day of Saturs.

***

But today, the sky was as clear as it was blue.

The perfect Day of Satur.

And so the two dwarves happily shouldered their bags, put on their heavy coats, and began the long trek up the mountain.

“Ah, I can see it!”

“Aye, we’re finally here.”

After they’d been climbing for a time, Gard and Guilhem came upon their destination: a small, sturdy building made from stone, a layer of snow coating its roof.

The two dwarves had worked together to rebuild the place, using a winter path rarely traversed by others.

“C’mon, hurry your boots!”

“Stop rushing me!”

The pair entered the building with a loud gulp, heading straight for the tough steel door in the back, so heavy that it would have taken the strength of multiple average humans to pry open. This door opened to a room so small that there wasn’t even enough space for someone to lie down.

Yet once every seven days, a mysterious second door appeared in this tiny room.

“All right! Let’s go!”

“Aye! That delicious otherworldly booze be waiting for me!”

Pushing past the metal entryway, they came upon an oak-wood door decorated with an image of a cat. Gard put his hand to the brass knob and turned it.

Bells rang out suddenly and then were hushed just as quickly as the pair walked through.

In the warm, brightly lit dining area beyond the door, the dwarves dashed over to an open table and sat their buns down with such ferocity that the chairs trembled beneath them.

“Three mugs of beer, stat!” they cried out in one voice.

There wasn’t anything quite like a cold beer enjoyed in a warm room. After climbing the freezing mountain, it was just what the two dwarves needed.

They each downed two beers in what felt like a single breath. Then Gard and Guilhem took their time on their third drinks while perusing the menu. The first thing they decided upon was what drink they’d indulge in next.

“Let’s see… After a cold beer, nothing beats something warm.”

“Sounds to me like hot sake is the way to go. The only problem is that it comes in such a small quantity.”

The pair of dwarves settled upon a warm drink brewed from rice, an incredibly important beverage on the Eastern Continent from whence they came.

They’d downed their icy beers to quench their thirst, but after the freezing trek up the mountain, that just made them colder. What they needed now was a warm drink.

“Then what to eat…”

“That’s the question, my friend. Hey, little lady! What appetizers do you folks have today?!”

Gard remembered something he’d learned as a regular at the restaurant: Hot sake paired better with fish rather than with fried food.

Appetizers were dishes prepared specifically for customers of the Restaurant to Another World who liked their drink as much as they enjoyed a good meal. The appetizers offered changed from day to day, which meant that you could try something new every visit. The dwarves had made it a point to start ordering some whenever they dropped in.

“Oh, today’s appetizer is sake-steamed clams!” Aletta was familiar with the dish, so she explained further. “Clams are a type of shellfish—the master boils them in sake!”

“Oh! Don’t that sound good?!”

“Then we’ll have that! Two plates for each of us, little lady!”

Clams boiled in sake. There was no way the dwarves could hear that and not be tempted.

Aletta smiled; it seemed like the waitress instinctively knew they’d want some.

“Understood! Those’ll be right out!”

Cheerfully accepting their order, she headed back to the kitchen.

A short time later, she returned.

“Sorry for the wait! Here are your sake-steamed clams. Um, the master said that the soy sauce over there pairs well with them! Please take your time and enjoy!”

Before Gard and Guilhem were large plates piled with clams, a small ceramic jar of sorts filled with hot sake, and some small ceramic cups for drinking said sake.

“Ah, the time has come!”

“If this ain’t enough, we’re probably gonna order more! Just a heads up!”

Gard and Guilhem called out to Aletta as she ran off to deal with the other customers. They turned to the pile of food in front of them.

“So this stuff’s been cooked in sake, eh?”

“It definitely smells like it! But I don’t smell alcohol!”

The two dwarves inched their faces closer to the strange shellfish.

They were smaller in size than oysters, but they were all opened up, stacked atop one another in the deep dish. Diced green herbs were spread across the topmost layer.

There was a scent of melted butter wafting from the dish, as well as the faintly fruit-like aroma of sake.

However, the burning scent of alcohol itself was nowhere to be found, perhaps as a result of the heat.

“Let’s hurry up and eat!”

“Aye yo!”

The pair gulped loudly in response to the aroma wafting into their noses and began on their food journey.

In their left hands, each dwarf held a hot jar of sake. Thanks to their thick, tough skin, they had no problems holding the piping hot container. With their right hands, they attended to the shellfish.

Dwarf teeth are tough as they come, but that didn’t mean Gard and Guilhem were going to crunch through the clams’ exteriors. The dwarves brought the shellfish to their mouths, only slurping out the insides.

“Mm! Delish!” they yelled in unison, nodding furiously.

The fresh shellfish meat was dripping with the butter and sake broth.

It had only been seasoned with salt and some basic spices, which allowed the briny taste to really shine.

But most importantly…

“This’ll go damn amazing with hot sake!”

“Aye!”

Certain of this course of action, the two dwarves proceeded to alternate between bites of shellfish and sips of sake.

They tossed each finished shell to the side before reaching for the next. Then, with the savory clam flavor on their tongues, they both took measured drinks of the hot sake.

“Whew! That hits the spot!”

“There ain’t nothing like drinking hot sake while eating something cooked in sake! This is the best!”

The combined experience was everything they could have dreamed of.

The faint fruity sweetness of the hot sake, still warm with the flavor of alcohol, heated the dwarves’ cold bodies as it traveled down their throats. There, it fused with the herby, savory flavor of the shellfish. It was a totally novel dining experience—like drinking a savory alcohol.

Alternating bites of food and sips of booze was a technique the two dwarves had learned from an old seishu-loving samurai from the west. In this case, it turned out to be just the ticket.

It wasn’t long before Gard and Guilhem devoured the clams, finished off the soup, and guzzled down all the hot sake.

Just as soon as they had, the next round of hot sake and clams showed up on their table. And so the friends picked up their feast where they left off without missing a beat.

This was an increasingly common phenomenon at Nekoya these days.

“Oh, shall we try that thing the little lady mentioned?”

“You mean that soy sauce stuff? Aye!”

The dwarves doused the new plate of hot clams in the dark sauce before resuming their food journey.

“Oh, this soy sauce totally changes the taste!”

“You’re right. It really makes the flavor stand out! When it comes to seafood that ain’t fried, soy sauce is the way to go!”

The soy sauce brought back a strong, salty taste to the diluted shellfish flavor of the clams. Soy sauce paired magnificently with seafood in general. Sake-steamed clams were no exception to this rule of rules.

“I can’t get enough! I just want more!”

“There just ain’t enough on one plate! Hey, little lady, keep the clams and sake coming!”

Before Gard and Guilhem had even emptied this plate, they were making their next order.

***

It was their first feast at the Restaurant to Another World in exactly twenty-one days. And so the pair of dwarves celebrated their delicious new discovery loudly and happily, a party that extended well into the evening.