Ch.275275. ‘That’ Monstrosity

By the grace of Titan Philemon, the agricultural deity of the Dawn Empire.

Two blessings have been bestowed upon them that now sustain the Empire. They are called meat fruit and grain fruit.

These two crops, which stubbornly grow regardless of how terrible the environment may be, have become the essential foundation for improving the Dawn Empire’s food problems across generations.

Thanks to this, the Dawn Empire now boasts an incredibly abundant food supply comparable to that of some Earth’s fraud map (America). In such a blessed environment, it would be strange if food culture didn’t flourish, and indeed, the Dawn Empire’s current food culture shines brilliantly.

I’ve already “observed” the development of snack culture, specifically bakery-related culture, so I’ll skip that. In fact, the Empire’s food culture has naturally developed around abundant meat, thanks to those meat fruits.

A 500g beef tenderloin fruit costs only about 2,000-3,000 won (₩) in Korean currency—an absurdly low price—and despite being cheap, the quality isn’t poor but rather exceptionally good.

Thanks to the thin skin covering its surface, the meat maintains its quality without moisture loss for extended periods. With such high-quality meat flooding the market at dirt-cheap prices, a heavenly situation has unfolded where meat-based culinary culture couldn’t help but flourish.

Lard (pig fat) has entered the cooking oil market previously dominated by olive oil, and for a while, the Dawn Empire’s dining tables were ruled by dishes where meat was simply added whenever something didn’t taste good enough.

Now that wasting meat is no longer a concern, creative chefs’ adventurous spirit has led to all kinds of grilling and aging methods being devised and tested. Through this process, they’ve developed so rapidly that they’ve caught up with Earth’s steak culture in just two years.

Almost every meat cooking method, except for sous vide which no one has thought of yet, has been experimented with. Additionally, wolf beastkin who migrated from the northern territories of the Dawn Empire have enthusiastically embraced the abundant meat and spread their homeland’s food culture.

This slow, indirect cooking method called “barbecue” in the wolf beastkin language has been influenced by the Dawn Empire’s abundant food resources. Various spices are added during the meat-grilling process, and the use of all kinds of new ingredients has quickly made it quite popular.

The southern region of the Dawn Empire, being adjacent to the coast, has also developed a rich seafood culture. Particularly as meat became common, seafood gained status as a premium ingredient, leading to tremendous development in seafood cuisine.

Beyond simply grilling, methods such as frying, stir-frying, boiling, seasoning, aging, and steaming have been widely developed, with all manner of seafood ingredients being distributed under the name of “premium.”

However, the most significant influence on all this culinary development was something else—

“Pietro! What are you doing?! Use grain fruit flour, not wheat flour!”

“I-I’m sorry, Master!”

It was precisely the grain fruit flour—similar to wheat flour but somehow different—used in various flour-based dishes.

Given the grain fruit’s characteristic of having no distinct flavor and thus being strongly influenced by surrounding ingredients, mixing this grain fruit flour with wheat flour effectively doubles the quantity.

Particularly when making grain fruit powder, it’s often thoroughly dried to remove moisture, which creates a component that catalyzes and maximizes the subtle umami flavor of the grain, producing a unique taste when mixed with wheat flour.

All kinds of flour-based dishes were being born at this moment.

※ ※ ※

The most popular flour dish in the Dawn Empire is pasta—a type of noodle made by shaping and drying kneaded grain fruit-wheat flour dough into various forms.

These range from shapes similar to what we commonly think of as noodles to shorter but distinctively shaped forms, and even flat sheet-like forms or irregular shapes resembling dumplings.

Various sauces are paired with these noodles—from those made with tomatoes from the New Continent or cream mixed with various seafood or meat, to those simply using oil or cheese, or those utilizing milk, eggs, or spices mixed with well-boiled noodles.

Given its characteristic of combining ingredients that can’t help but taste good, pasta naturally spread primarily through casual restaurants selling single dishes. This dish, which grew more popular by the day, was originally a type of combat ration.

In the era before meat fruits had skins for long-term preservation, dried noodles were created to provide more diverse food to soldiers who had been subsisting on grain fruits and pemmican.

Thanks to its characteristic of being storable for 2-3 years once made, this meal used on the battlefield spread to the general public through discharged military cooks—that was the beginning of pasta.

Meanwhile, unlike pasta which originated from military combat rations, this next food had civilian origins from the start. It’s so popular within the Dawn Empire that there are specialized restaurants dedicated solely to it.

That food is pizza—quite popular, as if proving that the Dawn Empire is indeed the true successor to the Roman Empire.

It’s a dish made by flattening chewy flour dough, topping it with tomato sauce and cheese, adding various ingredients, and baking it.

Having become virtually the representative food of today’s Dawn Empire, the people’s pride in it is immeasurable.

And since the people of the Dawn Empire are certainly more tolerant and flexible than those pathetically weak fighters from wherever, they have the decency to call all diversified forms of pizza “pizza” as long as they don’t recklessly violate the traditional name.

Thanks to this, as long as the combination of broad flour dough, sauce, and cheese is maintained, it’s generally treated as pizza… but perhaps because of this?

Everything began with a certain Wendigo man who immigrated to the Dawn Empire from the New Continent.

This Wendigo—resembling a reindeer beastkin but actually a distant relative of elves—originally came from the northern part of the New Continent but moved to the warmer central region to manage a fruit farm…

“Ah, nooooo!! My, my faaaarm!!!”

The problem was that this fruit farm was completely destroyed by a hurricane that hit the New Continent.

Having lost the farm he’d devoted his life to building in an instant, the Wendigo writhed in deep despair and eventually made the impulsive decision to immigrate to the Dawn Empire—

“…Huh?”

The restaurant he opened by scraping together all his remaining money became unexpectedly popular, which became a turning point in the man’s life.

The restaurant specializing in cuisine from the Wendigo’s homeland in the northern New Continent gained popularity for offering exotic dishes within the Empire, and in no time, he became a celebrity in the port city and enjoyed life as a promising chef.

So, having finally regained some comfort, one day the Wendigo was devising a new menu item for his restaurant when he recalled that a fusion dish—a hamburger steak set with baked hometown fruits—had been quite popular.

‘…Oh, shall I try something?’

Thus, inspired by such dishes, the Wendigo took the Dawn Empire’s representative specialty, pizza, and topped it with baked fruit from his homeland farm—

And so, a sinful creation appeared in this world… the Wendigo called it “pineapple pizza” for the hometown fruit topping.

This dish, with quality bacon and cheese topped with pineapple pieces, matched the Wendigo’s palate so perfectly that he made it his restaurant’s new signature menu item with great promotion.

And so, on the grand first day of sales:

“Guaaaaargh!”

“W-who created such garbage waste?!!”

“H-heresy! This is heresy! The work of a heretic!!”

With various explosive reactions, pineapple pizza was finally unleashed upon the world, becoming a new trigger button for the people of the Dawn Empire.

Of course, no matter how developed private property rights may be, since tolerance for food culture had been established as a cultural norm in the Empire, the Wendigo man didn’t face death threats or anything like that.

Rather, people came to try it once out of curiosity about what could possibly cause such reactions, and while treated as bizarre food, it took root in the Dawn Empire as something resembling a… specialty.

“Aaaaargh!! Oh God, why such a sin!”

“Thisisadreamthisisaliethisisadreamthisisaliethisisadreamthisisalie…”

‘…It tastes good though? Is it really worth having a seizure over?’

Of course, even as a courtesy, it couldn’t exactly be considered well-regarded.