Chapter 63: Rice Burger, Once More

Chapter 63:
Rice Burger, Once More

7:30 a.m.

After watching the two elves eat their rice burgers, accept some grilled rice balls, and head home, the master sighed in relief.

Everything turned out okay.

The customers had come way too early. They also couldn’t eat Nekoya’s butter rolls, which was even worse. The master had offered them cold rice, and although the odds were against him, he still managed to satisfy both elves’ stomachs. He couldn’t help taking pride in his work.

Rice burgers, huh…?

As he sat alone in the empty restaurant, the master found himself somewhat disappointed. Elves typically couldn’t handle meat dishes, and there wasn’t much he could do about that.

All sorts of people couldn’t eat certain foods, whether due to religion, culture, or simply taste. It wasn’t uncommon for customers to ask for dishes without particular ingredients.

Still, the master’s personal opinion was that rice burger patties with meat were the most delicious.

Mixed vegetable tempura rice burgers ain’t bad or anything. Still, rice burgers really shine when they’ve got meat in ’em.

That didn’t mean that the tempura rice burgers he offered vegetarian customers were awful. The master had grown up eating his grandfather’s food, so there weren’t really any dishes he couldn’t stomach. He prided himself on never offering customers anything that he personally didn’t consider delicious.

It was just that, as a hard-working, middle-aged man, the master didn’t think mixed vegetable tempura rice burgers were quite enough.

Crap. Now I kinda want one.

He rubbed his stomach gently. He’d done a whole lot of work before breakfast, so he was pretty hungry.

I guess I could make one now, but it’s a little early for something that heavy.

“Good morning, Master!”

I have arrived.

The sound of bells ringing signaled Aletta and Kuro’s arrival. The master greeted them the same way he always did.

“Yo, g’morning, ladies. I’ll be counting on you both today. But first, time to make some grub. Hold on.”

Rice burgers are best served at dinnertime.

He’d reasoned his way to that answer as he looked at Aletta’s big smile. Rice burgers were basically giant balls of rice and meat. That sort of thing was a tad too much for breakfast.

Also, Aletta preferred bread. Apparently, her region lacked easy access to rice. One of the regulars—a samurai-like older man—had told the master that rice was far more common in western areas of the continent.

Aletta would never complain about eating rice in the morning, and she’d surely enjoy it. Still, she reacted much more strongly to bread. Thinking about that had made the master reconsider serving rice burgers in the morning.

All right! I’ll put some time aside for ’em!

With the matter settled in his mind, the master began working on breakfast.

***

Eventually, the sun set, and the customers who’d dropped by for drinks went home. It was time to wait for the “final customer” to visit, as she always did.

“All right,” said the master. “How about we have some dinner?”

“Okay!” Aletta nodded vigorously, having been secretly waiting for those words.

Staff mealtimes at the Restaurant to Another World differed, depending on how busy the morning and evening shifts were.

The folks who could be called Nekoya’s main customers arrived before noon. That demographic was highly diverse in terms of age, gender, and race. They typically sought hearty meals.

Then there were the folks who showed up in the afternoon—nobles wearing beautiful dresses, priests and priestesses with silver and gold sigils hanging from their necks, and even a great, wise mage. They typically dropped by seeking the sweets that the master’s childhood friend, a pâtissier, made.

At night, ogres, dwarves, and powerful warriors came for booze alongside their food. Aletta didn’t find alcohol particularly tasty, but according to some regulars, the stuff in Nekoya’s world was much stronger and better-tasting than any liquor from their world.

The one thing these customers shared was that they dropped by Nekoya whenever they could, which meant there was a massive difference between when the restaurant was busy and when it wasn’t. If multiple halflings visited at the same time, for example, things would be incredibly hectic, even long after the sun had set.

In those situations, staff meals took place whenever they could squeeze them in. For someone like Aletta—who would spend the entire day on her feet interacting with customers—by mealtime, her stomach was completely empty. She could comfortably and enthusiastically eat at any time of day.

“Just hold on,” said the master. “I’m making something right now. Today I have a brand-new dish.”

“Yay!” Aletta smiled.

“Kuro, you’ll have the usual, right?”

Yes. Thank you.

Aletta felt her expectations rise as she watched the master work in the kitchen.

A new dish—in other words, a meal completely unknown to Aletta. She wasn’t worried in the slightest, though. She knew that everything the master made was delicious.

Quite some time had passed since Aletta started working at the Restaurant to Another World. Since then, the master had learned the sorts of foods she liked. Each staff meal was completely different from the one before, and the food was always unbelievably tasty.

So much so that, on occasion, Aletta felt bad that Kuro only ever ate curry.

***

“I’m done! Dinner’s served.”

The cheerful master held a plate of the same food in each hand. He placed one directly in front of Aletta.

She gulped loudly as she watched the master return to the kitchen to grab the curry.

“Wow…! This smells amazing.” Aletta voiced her honest opinion. The scent wafting off the dish was positively tantalizing.

Two brown morsels sat on the white plate in front of her. A flat, round, brownish object topped each. Underneath were assorted ingredients—meat and green vegetables. Beneath those was another flat, round, brownish object.

The two morsels each smelled delicious, and their shape reminded Aletta of a familiar dish.

They look like hamburgers, but…

Aletta was used to hamburgers composed of a meat dish called “hamburg” sandwiched between pieces of bread. A certain group of three boys used to order that dish often, although Aletta hadn’t seen them in some time.

She had even eaten a hamburger during a past staff meal. It was delicious—the rich meat juices mixed wonderfully with the sour red vegetable sauce.

This dish was different, however. The aroma wafting off it wasn’t vegetable sauce but soy sauce. Of that much, Aletta was certain.

Also, the bread’s color was all wrong.

“Yup! These are my special rice burgers.” As if answering Aletta’s internal question, the master introduced the dish, setting curry down in front of Kuro. “They’re especially tasty while they’re still hot, so don’t wait too long.”

The master sat across from the demon girl and put his hands together. “Let’s dig in.”

He immediately grabbed the burger with both hands and took a bite.

“Mm! This is damn good.”

He nodded, satisfied. The exquisite taste reminded him that the ability to immediately make whatever food he wanted to eat was a perk of being a chef.

“Um, thanks, oh god of demons. I offer you my gratitude!”

No longer able to resist after watching the master dig voraciously into his rice burger, Aletta hurried through an abridged version of her usual prayer. She cleaned her hands on a towel, then followed the master’s lead and reached for her own burger.

She picked up the burger with both hands. As she brought it close to her nose, the scent of cooked meat and soy sauce was a shock to her system.

Aletta reached her limit.

Like the master, she took a decisive bite of the burger.

Dewishus!

The moment she bit down, intense, hearty flavors struck her—the aromatic, sweet and salty, biscuit-like outside layers and the meat sandwiched between them.

The flavors combined in her mouth, creating a fierce, savory taste. The meat was strongly seasoned, the fatty beef was sweet and hot, and the sesame seeds gave the hamburger a distinct aroma.

The more Aletta chewed, the more she tasted the green pepper’s bitter flavor, the oranie that had absorbed the meat’s juices, and the fresh leafy vegetables that covered the rest of the ingredients.

The meat’s flavor would have been too strong by itself. However, thanks to the “bread” and greens, as well as the cooked veggies, the entire dish had a single, unified flavor.

Aletta recalled a similar dish she’d become aware of since she started working at Nekoya. This is just like karubidon!

That meat dish had proven a favorite of a wealthy noble girl who dropped by occasionally. (Aletta knew little about noble customs, but even she could tell that the way the young lady held herself differed from the average commoner.)

Does that mean this “bread” is actually rice?

Karubidon also featured meat atop soft, white rice, and its flavor was quite similar. The meat in Aletta’s meal, however, was sandwiched between balls of cooked rice flavored with soy sauce. Even as someone who wasn’t that crazy about rice, Aletta found this particular recipe delicious and easy to eat.

So then, what’s this one…?

Finishing the rice burger that so reminded her of karubidon, Aletta turned her attention to the other morsel in front of her. It looked even more like the hamburgers she was familiar with.

Although there was no cheese in the dish, the flat, round meat patty was undoubtedly hamburg steak. The “bread” was made of cooked rice, as it had been in the last one.

Now that Aletta thought about it, the lizard-legged demon and his human friend who dropped by the restaurant really liked hamburg steak. They usually ate it with rice, which made Aletta think that maybe hamburg steak and rice paired together well.

This is probably tasty, too, Aletta thought.

She took a bite of the rice burger, expectations running high.

Wha…?!

The flavor sent Aletta into a spiral of confusion. This was undoubtedly hamburg steak, yet at the same time, it wasn’t.

The tender meat coming apart in her mouth did indeed pair well with the cooked rice. Raw slices of oranie, likely added as hidden flavor, lay between the rice buns. They added a refreshing heat to the dish, bringing out the teriyaki-flavored hamburg steak’s sweetness.

“Ah, I mixed chicken meat and cartilage into that one,” the master explained, chuckling. “The stuff I ate back when I was a kid tasted like that.”

Aletta’s expression was befuddled. This wasn’t the usual meat the master served at Nekoya but chicken. The cartilage in the patty gave the whole dish a crunchy texture.

The master had added teriyaki sauce to replicate a flavor he recalled tasting when he was just a child.

“In any case, if it doesn’t taste good, then…”

Aletta answered him with silence. She was entirely focused on finishing her meal.

“Well, apparently, that won’t be an issue,” the master said.

Damn, he thought. No matter how many years go by, there ain’t no better feeling than having someone eat food you made for them.

That should have been obvious to the master. Nevertheless, watching Aletta reconfirmed what he already knew. He certainly loved to eat, but he also loved it when other folks ate his cooking.

Once Aletta was finished, he asked with a smile, “So? How was it?”

“That was amazingly delicious!”

Aletta’s words and expression contained no dishonesty. She wasn’t being polite, either. The demon girl was simply voicing her honest-to-goodness opinion.

“Cool, cool. Think it’s good enough to put on the menu?”

Aletta took a moment to reflect on the master’s question before nodding.

“Um… Yes. I think customers would pay good money for this.”

She could already think of a few regulars who would probably enjoy rice burgers.

“I see, I see. I guess I’ll throw it on there, then.”

Hearing Aletta’s answer, the master decided to have the rest of his staff try the dish after the weekend.

Adding new menu items was a regular occurrence at Nekoya. First, the master would serve something as a staff meal and then as a daily special. If the feedback was good, he’d add the dish to the menu. That process was part of how Nekoya worked.

It wouldn’t be long before Nekoya’s menu included the rice burger.