落とし穴４４堀：海の幸 (Part1)
### Pitfall 44: The Bounty of the Sea
*As the title suggests, this will be a bit of a "food porn" chapter. Prepare yourselves.*
**The Bounty of the Sea**
**Side: Yuki**
Under the summer sun, we played with all our might in the azure sky and the deep blue sea.
I joined up with Seraria, Labyris, and the group that had gone offshore with the jellyfish. I rode dolphins with Aslin and Firia, swam with Tori and Riel, helped teach Jessica—who, as it turned out, couldn't actually swim—and was cornered by Eris and Cleena. I went for a stroll underwater with Rurua, Shera, Kirue, and Samantha, and went gathering seafood with Milly, Ratz, Deryu, and Kaya.
In short, we did a lot of things.
And, well, no matter how high your level is, if you play that hard...
"Ugh... I-I’m so hungry..."
"Ria, you’re being pathetic."
Even as Jessica said that, her own stomach let out a loud growl.
"Jessica, you’re hungry too, aren't you?"
"I-It can't be helped!! I practiced swimming so much!! But I can endure it!!"
She said that desperately, trying to explain herself to those of us around her. It’s rare to see Jessica get so flustered.
"Well, calm down. It’s not like it’s an emergency, and feeling hungry is a sign of good health. You don't need to be embarrassed."
"That's true, isn't it?"
"Ugh... Ria, you really need a bit more feminine grace..."
Jessica covered her face with both hands, shaking her head from side to side, her side-tail swaying.
...Feminine grace, huh?
Hmm. It doesn't bother me personally, but I suppose Jessica has her own image of what it means to be my wife.
Ah, it’s probably because she couldn't swim. Since everyone else taught her, and she’s a knight by trade, she likely felt a blow to her dignity and pride.
"Well, not that it’s just because Jessica’s stomach growled, but we’re all hungry, so let’s cook something with the ingredients we gathered. I’ll take the lead. Most of these are ingredients you’ve never seen before, right?"
"Yes. Please, Yuki-san."
"…I only know how to boil octopus or make takoyaki."
"How does one eat this long, thin, white octopus?"
"Nufufu, this looks like it could be the seed for a new business venture."
It seems they gathered ingredients left and right under the guidance of the Sahagins, but they clearly didn't know how to prepare them.
I mean, if you just wanted to eat, you could just grill them, but then there would be no need for me to show off my skills. I should serve dishes worthy of a summer sea.
Of course, I’ll make the standard seafood dishes, too.
Now, being enthusiastic is fine, but since there are nearly twenty people to feed, if I made it all by myself, the sun would set before I finished. And they’d gathered a mountain of seafood to match that headcount. Just scaling the fish alone would take over an hour...
"So, as you might expect, the usual kitchen staff won't be able to keep up, so I’d like everyone to help. Well, if you find gutting fish too difficult, I won't force you."
I said that, and while I expected some of the princesses and others to opt out, everyone participated. I could understand Seraria doing it—she’s been on the battlefield and mentioned that field rations and foraging were second nature—but I didn't expect Rurua or Shera to join in. They were raised in greenhouses; even if they’ve seen fish fillets, taking a knife to a fish with those bulging eyes is a different story...
Even in Japan, there are housewives who can't bring themselves to cut a whole fish.
...The reason I can do all this is, well, because I did some survival training when I was younger. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have survived. There was no good food around! Like, in the middle of the jungle!!
But, let’s leave the past behind. It’s coming in handy now, so let’s call it even.
"Alright, first, let’s start with the basics of gutting a fish."
For now, we returned to the cottage and I gave a demonstration on the table while explaining. Seeing is better than hearing, but seeing *and* hearing is obviously the best.
First is *nojime*, or bleeding the fish, which is necessary to maintain freshness. Usually, with large fish caught in the open ocean, if you don't bleed them, they develop a fishy odor and the quality drops. You bleed them at the base of the tail or between the gills and the pectoral fin, depending on the size.
Ah, since these are incredibly fresh, we’ll just gut them as is. None of the catch is that huge.
Next, how to tell a good fish. Since these were just caught, there’s no need to be picky, but look at the eyes. As the saying goes, "dead fish eyes"—you should always check the eyes first. Fresh fish have clear eyes; bad ones are cloudy. There are other ways, like checking the gills or scales, but that’s enough for now.
Now, to the actual gutting. First, you have to remove the "exterior"—the skin, or rather, the scales. If you don't remove these, it’s impossible to eat. Some fish don't have scales and use a slimy coating instead; for those, you just rub them with salt. That’s a cooking method that wouldn't have been used in medieval Europe, where salt was precious.
Back to removing scales: you wash it with water first. Fresh water is best, but seawater is fine. The purpose of washing is to clean the fish and remove pathogens, though it’s impossible to get it to zero, so we’ll just rely on our immune systems.
Next, remove the sharp fins to avoid injury.
Finally, the scaling. Using a knife from the tail to the head is basic, but the world has convenient tools called "scalers." I handed them to my wives, and the former adventurers and the two maids, who knew the hassle of fish preparation, praised the tool highly.
...They were happy with the peelers, too; it seems I don't have the luxury of making these kinds of convenient tools.
Once the scales are off, you can finally gut the fish. Whether you remove the gills depends on the dish, but since this is a bit—how should I put it—casual, we’ll just chop the head off entirely. There are many ways to do it, but a simple hack is fine. It’s the easiest.
Next is removing the innards. Some are edible, but I don't recommend it, as the flavor can be strange, or they might contain undigested fish or insects. Since the head is off, you can open the chest from there or slit the belly.
Now, we finally move to the task of filleting the meat. This includes the "three-piece fillet" method. The commonality in all filleting is separating the meat from the bone. The famous three-piece fillet refers to taking the fish head-on and dividing it into the right side, the center spine, and the left side. You cut off the remaining rib bones afterward, though unless it’s sashimi, we usually just leave them in.
Back-opening or belly-opening are other ways to remove the spine, often used for small fish like smelt. Since the texture of small fish isn't affected much by anything other than the spine, once you remove it, you can just grill and eat them as is.
Once you’ve reached this point, all that’s left is to use the fillets in your cooking. Of course, they’re delicious as is, so you could just dip them in soy sauce and eat them.
"Oh, this is delicious."
"Narjia-san, did you bring sake!?"
"Of course!! Ah, this is great. Fresh-caught fish is the best!!"
Seraria and Milly were... and for some reason, Narjia-san was there too.
Well, whatever. Sashimi and sake are a natural pairing.
"Alright, that’s about all the fish gutted. Kirue, are the shellfish okay for sand-purging?"
"Yes. I’ve had them sitting since last night, so that should be sufficient."
"Um, Husband? What is sand-purging?"
"I’ve never heard of that."
It seems Rurua and Shera were hearing it for the first time.
Well, I suppose I just think of it as common sense because Japanese people eat clams and such so often.