First Meal - Baked Potato (3)

Looking down at the baked potato in front of him, he could see some things with it that he recognized.

There was a golden sheen over it that he recognized as melted butter which was one of the reasons why he had ordered this dish in the first place.

When he had been younger, his family wasn't rich since they were a family of farmers, but his mother had always made sure that they would have enough extra crops to allow them to raise a cow. This cow was the secret to her baked potatoes that had been the favourite of this researcher for the first eighteen years of his life.

That secret was that she always used the milk to make cream which she turned into butter.

When the butter was spread over the potato while it baked, it gave the potato a rich and creamy texture along with a hint of saltiness after it was finished baking.

Butter wasn't a rare thing, but for poor farmers like them, it was not something that they could have regularly.

His mother had always made sure that there would be butter for his baked potatoes and he knew just how hard she had worked to make sure that there would be butter available, so it had always created a warm feeling in his heart whenever he had her baked potatoes.

Even the neighbours all praised her baked potatoes when they shared them on special occasions which always created a sense of pride in his heart. After all, as his mother's son, naturally he would be happy when his mother was praised.

These were the parts of the baked potato that he could understand, but there were also parts of the baked potato that he couldn't.

The part that he had taken from the potato was a piece from the side which only had butter infused into it, but there was a part right in the center of the potato that had things that he couldn't make up.

There was a pile of white creamy substance right in the center and atop that pile of creamy substance were some pieces of pink meat.

He could naturally tell that the white creamy substance was cream, but that confused him even more.

The cream that he knew of was a sweet tasting dessert that was made by whipping the higher fat layer of milk after it was skimmed off from the rest of the milk. It was very sweet and had no place being baked with a potato at all. Rather, just thinking about the mix of the savoury taste of the potato and the sweet cream almost made him want to vomit.

However, when he took a sniff of the cream, there was no sweet smell at all which surprised him. All he could smell was the savoury smell that came from the baked potato itself.

The more he looked at the cream that was placed on the baked potato, the more he became curious as to what it really was.

Finally, the researcher couldn't hold back his curiosity anymore as he took a big piece of the baked potato with the cream and a few specks of the meat on it.

Speaking of the meat, that was another thing that had confused the researcher.

Meat was something that he was familiar with since it was the one thing that still hadn't been replaced by pills and pastes yet. So it was the one thing that he was still studying in his lab.

However, since he worked with meat, he was very familiar with how raw meat looked like.

The pieces of meat that were on the potato were just as pink as raw meat, but the texture didn't seem like that of raw meat which made him doubtful.

As a scientist, he naturally had the curiosity of one and he couldn't endure that curiosity in the end as he decided to take a bit of these strange ingredients. He scooped some of the potato underneath, making sure that there was also some cream and meat that was placed atop it before bringing it up to take a bite.

He tried taking a sniff of the contents in his spoon, but the only thing that he could smell from it was the scent of the meat. It was a strong meat scent along with the smell of salt.

This was something that he had smelled before, it was the scent of jerky, which was dried and salted meat. However, as far as he knew, jerky didn't have this kind of texture or smell.

Even if most food had been replaced with pills or pastes, meat was one of the few things that hadn't been replaced. However, to make it more accessible for most people, the only meat that was usually available was meat that had been processed into jerky since it was easier to store.

However, when the meat had been turned into jerky, it turned into something that was brown and hard without much taste to it, which was why most people didn't enjoy it. Still, it was better than the alternative of eating pills and paste made of beans that tasted like sand, which was why people still ate jerky.

But this meat was completely different from anything he had ever seen before.

That smell, he couldn't help giving a gulp before putting it in his mouth.

The moment that he did, he found that there wasn't the sweet taste that he had expected from the cream, but rather there was a slight sour taste that complimented the rich taste of the potato with melted butter atop it.

The more he chewed, the more the flavours spread across his mouth.

However, with the third chew, he noticed that there was something else that was added to the mix. It wasn't a bad taste, but rather it elevated the overall taste to another level.

It was the taste of the meat that had been present. The moment that he chewed into the meat, it released its juices.

Yes, the meat was juicy!

It wasn't like the jerky that he had tried before, rather it was a meat that was filled with umami and saltiness that complimented the full taste of the potato. It was like an explosion of flavour had just appeared in his mouth.

He couldn't understand it at all.

After all, normally when you make jerky, it was made by letting the meat dry in the sun. Sometimes they would rub salt over it to make it dry faster, but the jerky would turn out dry and hard in the end no matter what.

He had never seen meat that had been preserved like this before…

However, his confusion wasn't enough to stop him from continuing to eat.

After that first bite, he couldn't stop himself as he took a second bite with the same amount of cream and meat atop it. It was the same as before, but somehow it was different as well.

As he continued to chew, he realized that it was because of the first bite. The lingering tastes in his mouth helped enhance the taste of the second bite, making it even more delicious.

He continued like this, stuffing more and more bites of the baked potato into his mouth, but as he ate, he started stuffing the bites into his mouth faster and faster. He went so fast that he accidentally burnt his tongue and he couldn't help taking a sip of the water beside him.

When he did, he realized something.

The water, the lumos water, wasn't just to help clear the palate before the meal and increase one's appetite, it was also to help rinse the mouth of any residue taste to allow the diner to enjoy the full taste of the dish.

He never thought that the juice of the lumos fruit would have this kind of effect, but the moment that he took a sip of water, he felt the residue taste in his mouth disappear. The next bite that he took after that sip of water gave him the same taste as his first bite, allowing him to fully enjoy the taste of the baked potato again.

It didn't take long before he finished off the entire potato.

The way he ate created quite a bit of noise, but no one around him minded at all because they could all remember their first time eating at this restaurant.

When he finished, he couldn't help looking down at the plate in front of him before raising his hand to call the waiter.

When Yami came over, he said, "Can I get one more, no two more baked potatoes?"

Seeing the excited look on the face of the researcher, Yami couldn't help revealing a smile before saying, "Alright, please wait a minute. I'll put your order in now."

The researcher gave a nod before turning his head back to the menu.

The dishes listed on the menu had ingredients listed under them, so he wanted to see just what the cream and meat used in the baked potato were.

Sour cream?

Parma ham?

What were these things that he had never heard of before?

The main reason why the researcher had never heard of these terms was because of the difference in food research in these worlds.

For example, take the jerky in the researcher's world versus the ham in this world.

In the researcher's world, they had only developed dry curing the meat instead of continuing to develop their techniques until they came up with wet curing. Dry curing would be enough to store the meat, but it also made the meat lose all of its juices unless there was a marinade added that would help give it flavour. It wasn't like wet curing where the moisture was kept in the meat to a certain extent.

It didn't take long before another two baked potatoes were brought out to the researcher at the same time.

He didn't mind this at all since he wanted both of them at the same time because in the end, there really wasn't much to each baked potato since it was just a single potato each time.

He quickly finished off the two baked potatoes and then leaned back in his chair since he had stuffed himself.

As he sat there leaning back in the chair, there was a sparkle in his eyes as if he had just discovered a whole new world. It didn't take him long before jumping out of the seat and heading towards the door, but he was stopped by Yami before he could leave.

Yami glared at him as she said, "Are you trying to dine and dash?"

The researcher was surprised at first, but then he realized his mistake and quickly shook his head as he said, "No, no, no, I just forgot. How much is my bill?"

Yami looked at him with a bit of doubt before saying, "It's eight silvers in total."

The researcher looked at Yami with a confused look on his face for a bit before saying, "Silvers? I only have Rubis on me? Do you take that?"

Yami repeated, "Rubis?" Then after thinking for a bit, she said, "Alright, come up to the counter with me and we'll take care of that."

The researcher was surprised to hear this, but it wasn't like he could just run without paying. Especially after he had seen what Yami could do when he had first entered the restaurant.

He followed her up to the front where there was only a single register waiting.

Yami went behind the register and tapped a few buttons on it before a figure appeared.

"9000R."

Now this was a figure that the researcher was more familiar with, but when he saw it, he couldn't help being surprised.

"It's only nine thousand Rubis?"

He wasn't surprised because it was expensive, but rather because it was too cheap.

The ingredients used would be worth at least twenty thousand Rubis and if it was back when they still had restaurants, cooking at this level would be worth at least a few hundred thousand Rubis.

To put it into perspective, when converted into Earth currency, nine thousand Rubis was only around eight dollars. Each baked potato cost around two fifty and then adding in tax, it was around eight dollars.

Yami didn't say anything in response to this and just waited for the researcher to give her the money.

After a short period of being surprised, the researcher took out several bills with the denomination of one thousand on them and handed them over to Yami.

She just put the bills into the slot on the side of the register and then they disappeared with a ding before a receipt was printed out.

She ripped out the receipt and handed it to the researcher before saying, "You're all settled up. Please come again."

The researcher turned to leave in a daze, but then he turned and asked, "What is that door that appeared in my lab? Why did it appear there?"

Yami gave a shrug and said, "Our door appears wherever it wants to, but once it does, it'll appear once a day."

The researcher revealed a pleasantly surprised look as he said, "Then I can have the baked potato again?"

Yami revealed a smile when she heard this and she said, "Yes, you can have the baked potato again." But then she pointed at the table by the door and said, "But next time, don't do anything dumb like that. Also don't forget to take that with you."

The researcher turned to look in the direction she was pointing in and saw his gun on the table. He couldn't help shaking his head with a bitter smile, but he still said, "I won't next time."

Yami gave a nod before saying with a smile, "Then we look forward to your next visit."

The researcher gave a nod with a smile in return before picking up his gun and walking out the door to appear back in his lab.

After the door closed behind him, it started fading until it disappeared without a trace, as if there had never been a door in his lab.

The researcher stared at where the door had been in a daze for a bit before turning to sit down at his lab bench, losing himself in his thoughts.

After a while, his eyes suddenly lit up again as he muttered to himself, "Maybe there is something special about food after all."

Without another word, he stood up and headed out the door into the bright sunshine.

It was said that from that moment forth, there was a gourmet revolution that swept across the land of Mechol.

It was from that moment forth that the father of food pills, Louis Pasteur gave up the study of food pills and started studying different ways to prepare and preserve food.