Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 31. There’s Rice
Luna’s eyes widened as she looked at the skewers topped with glossy, sugar-coated strawberries and cherry tomatoes.
The timing was perfect as sunlight was streaming in through the window.
Indeed, natural light in the morning makes food and everything else look especially beautiful.
If you’re into taking product photos, the best time is in the morning.
However, this room had an impressive jungle of cherry tomatoes growing. Cherry tomatoes can get quite large! If you don’t pinch them off, they’ll just keep growing.
Since Luna hadn’t pruned the side shoots nor pinched the growing tips, they were sprawling in a jungle-like manner.
Now that I think about it, I remember helping out at a greenhouse where they grew cherry tomatoes seriously—those plants could stretch up to 10 meters! Taking them down from the vines was pretty hard work…
With that in mind, I set the plates on the table next to the bed.
Luna, unable to wait, carefully slid down from the bed and sat in a chair.
The chair was still a bit big for her. Her feet dangling from the edge was so cute.
I’ll make some tea now, so please wait a moment.
“It’s sparkling!”
Luna’s eyes shone more like grayish aquamarines as she said this.
Yes, the candy-glazed treats sparkle and really stand out. The strawberry mochi had the strawberries on the inside, so the outside was just plain white mochi—less visually striking. But I think it looks chewy and cute like a hamster. Maybe I should have added some chocolate or sesame seeds for eyes.
It’s easier and looks better when you make simple strawberry mochi, cut slits into the mochi, then insert the strawberries, but I prefer the kind where strawberries are wrapped in sweet red bean paste inside the mochi.
Both are delicious, so it’s a matter of preference.
But if I can, I want the person I like to taste the one I like better.
Luna took a bite of a candied cherry tomato, then clutched her cheek with her left hand and kicked her legs excitedly.
Bingo! Yeah, this is a good reaction.
Seeing her express how tasty it is with her whole body makes me smile too.
“It’s sweet, sour, sweet again, and it’s juicy!”
Wow, she’s a natural at food reviews. Luna’s description was spot-on—the sweetness of the sugar combined with the tartness of the cherry tomato, it all works perfectly.
That’s good, that’s good.
The candied strawberries are reliably delicious. Luna’s face lit up with a big smile.
“Delicious!”
The strawberry mochi is probably unfamiliar to her, so she seems a little cautious at first.
But I guess she trusts me, and with determination, Luna took a big bite, then started wriggling her feet again.
Good girl, that’s it.
Just as planned!
It’s delicious, isn’t it, strawberry mochi.
The sweet and sour taste of the strawberries, the rich sweetness of the bean paste, and The chewy gyuuhi that encases it. It’s made with a bit more sugar to keep a soft texture even after some time, so it should still taste good later. Still, when it’s freshly made it is something special.
Whoever first thought of putting strawberries inside red bean paste was a genius. I want to praise them endlessly. I wonder who I should pray to for that.
However, when I tasted it myself, unfortunately, there wasn’t the bubbly, sparkling feeling I was expecting. Why? I just don’t understand.
Why isn’t there that fizzy sensation?
Luna exclaimed with a big smile, “It is so, so delicious!”
Her radiant smile is dazzling.
She really has a lovely face. A happiness that is contagious.
Well, I guess I’ve somewhat fulfilled the task of making “super tasty treats from vegetables.”
Thank goodness.
I’m relieved.
I really hate lying to kids.
Somehow, I feel like being betrayed when you’re little stays with you forever.
Children remember even the small, casual broken promises made by adults.
Even now as an adult, the child in me is still clutching onto promises that were never kept.
And sometimes, these feelings come rushing out unexpectedly.
Probably, the other person has long forgotten about it.
Being able to keep my promise to Luna made the little child inside me smile a little.
Luna ate happily, but given that she had also eaten some of Martha-san’s vegetable dishes earlier, she quickly became full.
“This is a treat just for Luna. If you can’t finish it, you can save the rest and eat it later,” I said.
After thinking about it for a moment, Luna shook her head.
“No, I want to share it with big brother and Martha, because it’s so delicious,”
Wow, what a sweet child.
It almost made me tear up. A kid who can share his delicious food with others is a really good kid. No doubt about it.
“Don’t worry. I’ve set some aside for later,” I assured her, signaling to Jude and Martha-san who were watching.
“I’ll eat some later.”
“Oh, I’m looking forward to it.”
So Luna can relax and finish enjoying her treats later.
After Luna, full and sleepy, was tucked into bed, I decided it was time for a tasting session.
In hindsight, I should have had her try the treats first so I could see how it suited her taste buds before giving them to her, but I really wanted her to have them fresh.
Oh well.
Since I wanted Luna to eat more, I only kept one piece each for Jude and Martha—sorry about that, but it’s just a taste test.
“Is it just sugar on top? It’s really sweet. The sweetness is quite intense. It pairs well with the tartness of the tomatoes,” Martha-san said, examining the skewers carefully as she tasted them.
I think she’s a bit put off.
I used regular refined sugar, because I thought it wouldn’t turn out well unless I used ingredients I’m familiar with, but maybe the type or purity of the sweetness was different from what they’re used to.
But since I boiled it down to the point of caramelization, the whiteness shouldn’t be a problem.
“I just mixed sugar and water, boiled it down and poured it over, so you can make it again if you want. The ratio is roughly 3:1 or 4:1,”
It might be a little sweeter than usual, but it should taste similar.
“The strawberries are delicious,” Jude said, giving the candied strawberries a thumbs up. He has a sweet tooth.
As for the strawberry mochi, both of them looked at it with puzzled faces.
They probably wondered what it was.
I explained, “It’s a foreign sweet. It’s made by wrapping strawberries in a bean jam, then encasing that in a skin made from a grain called rice.”
I don’t know if they fully understood, but I hope the translator does it’s best.
“Rice? Like the stuff mixed into animal feed?” Jude asked.
Yes, they understood “rice,” and yes, it is used for feed in some cases. Maybe it’s a matter of variety or simply that they don’t know how to eat it.
As a Japanese person, I’m honestly happy that there is rice here.
That’s a relief.
This is common for people in the countryside who have relatives or acquaintances who grow rice, I have no memory of ever buying rice myself.
Rice is something you’re given!
That’s what I used to think, until recently.
But lately, many people have stopped farming rice, so the amount of rice you get has decreased.
I had to buy some this year, rice is so expensive…
That’s what I thought when I saw the price of rice at the supermarket. Rice is expensive.
Rice is really expensive, huh…
From my perspective as a buyer, it’s hard not to think so.
But knowing how tough farming is, I also think, well, maybe it’s still cheap.
Just hearing about rice farming makes it sound incredibly difficult—the investment in machinery alone is huge.