Chapter 256: Cooking with Emilia (2)

"So, it's flour first, then eggs, followed by breadcrumbs. The flour helps the chicken get cooked evenly and helps in preventing it getting burnt. It also helps in seasoning it. The eggs ensure that the crust is intact while frying and also acts as a glue for the breadcrumbs. These breadcrumbs make the cutlet crunchy and it's a nice contrast to the juicy and tender chicken."

Lith explained to Emilia while putting the chicken into the flour, eggs, and breadcrumbs respectively.

Emilia was watching intently and didn't interrupt him. She was getting more and more interested in cooking as Lith continued to explain things to her.

In Lith's previous life, his parents were working and his mother used to make food in the morning. This food was made in large quantities and it was supposed to be had for lunch and dinner as well by Lith and his siblings.

Lith had no choice but to eat whatever was at home. A few years later, his siblings joined outdoor activities where there was food for them and Lith also decided that he'll cook for himself when at home.

Their mother got a bit of load off of her when this happened and she stopped cooking the whole day's meal and only made breakfast during the weekdays.

Lith spent most of his time studying and when he was free, he first cooked food for himself and then spent a bit of time using his phone. He had no choice but to study to have a better future for himself and the only other skill that he had in his previous life was cooking.

Cooking helped him later in that life as he saved a lot of money. He went to a foreign country to study when he got a scholarship and take out was expensive there so he cooked meals for himself and saved money on it.

Yes, it was difficult on him to attend college for six hours a day, study at dorms, do a part-time job as well as cook, but such was the life of a poor student like him in that world.

Lith recalled many things while he cooked and it sure did make him a bit melancholic. It affected his mood and also the tone as he explained things to Emilia.

And of course, this didn't go unnoticed by Emilia. But she didn't call him out for it and just listened to him explain things.

"Alright. So that's two big pieces of chicken thighs ready for frying. Of course, two aren't enough so I'll do a few more and while I do this, Miss Emilia, can you please put some oil in the pot?" Lith's melancholic mood was starting to fade as he got back to focusing on cooking.

Emilia nodded and went to do her work.

Lith finished covering all the pieces of chicken and after washing his hands, he put another pot on the four burner stove to make hot and sour soup.

It was a vegetable soup so there was not much work needed to be done. He just sautéd some vegetables in oil and put in sauces and stirred them for a few minutes. After that, he added water and cornstarch to thicken it and covered the pot.

"Please open the lid of the rice pot and sprinkle half a tablespoon of salt and mix it with a wooden spatula." Lith instructed Emilia, who was standing beside him and watching him put the chicken in the oil.

Emilia nodded and did as she was told to.

"When cooking rice, it's best to avoid adding salt as the curry and the cutlet have salt in them. Rice would be bland but it would taste better that way when the flavors of the curry and cutlet mix in. That's what everyone thinks and makes food. But it's just me who prefers to season the rice a little bit for extra flavor." Lith explained to Emilia with a smile as the chicken was getting fried.

Emilia had no opinion on this and simply nodded in understanding. She was someone who didn't eat food, so it was a normal thing.

Lith then opened the curry pot and spooned a little curry out. He tasted it first to check if it needed something to be added or not and realized that indeed did.

He spooned out a little again and raised the spoon close towards Emilia and said,

"Here, have a taste and tell me what feels less or more."

Emilia didn't think much and simply put the spoon in her mouth and tasted the curry. She tried her best to think what was missing but she couldn't come up with an answer even after a few seconds.

Lith chuckled looking at the spoon still in her mouth and her thinking. He smiled and said to her, "Miss Emilia, the spoon isn't edible, and also, tell me the answer now."

Emilia noticed the spoon still in her mouth and immediately let go of it. She felt a bit embarrassed but didn't show it on her face and said normally,

"I can't think of anything, so I don't really know."

Lith nodded and said, "it's understandable. The curry is missing heat. We need to add more red chilli powder in it. It also does miss a little salt but that's on purpose."

Emilia nodded hearing it.

Lith added red chilli powder to the curry and mixed it well and closed the lid on it. He then opened up the soup pot's lid and tasted the soup with a spoon. It was good, there was nothing that was needed to add more in it. He spooned a bit more and raised it towards Emilia once again.

Emilia knew Lith wanted to have a taste of it and like before, she didn't think much and tasted it. She let go of the spoon this time right as the soup entered her mouth.

Just as the soup was intended to be, Emilia felt the heat of the chillies from the soup and also the sour flavor coming from the different ingredients in it. But, what surprised her was that it wasn't too spicy or too sour. There was also the saltines balanced well with the spicy and sour flavor.

Emilia gulped down the soup and said to Lith with a smile, "it's delicious. The spicy, sour, and salty flavor are balanced well.'

Lith nodded and said, "yes. You must've also noticed that the spicy flavor, although intense, isn't overpowering and too spicy. Wanna know the reason why?"

Emilia nodded with interest.

"It's because I added a little sugar in it. There's a little trick which everybody knows but everybody fails to implement into their cooking. When cooking a sweet sugary dish, adding a pinch of salt enhances the sweetness instead of making the dish saltier. Same applies with spice and sugar." Lith explained with a smile.

Emilia felt amused knowing this. She never would've known that there was so much depth to cooking had she not decided to help Lith with cooking today. She could also correlate these things with many aspects of life and thus her interest for cooking grew more and more as Lith continued.

These things continued until all the food was made and the two stopped the cooking talk after the food was served on the dining table.

Lith and Emilia sat opposite to each other on the dining table and started having their food.

Emilia took a spoonful of curry rice and ate it.

Just as she did so, she felt explosions of flavors happening in her mouth. The food felt the tastiest she had ever had in her life. She closed her eyes and slowly savoured every bite of the simple curry rice.

Lith was looking at Emilia to see what was her reaction. In the end, he wasn't disappointed at all when he saw her show a face of pure bliss. She really seemed to be enjoying it.

He didn't interrupt her and ruin this moment and slowly spooned a little curry rice himself and ate it. As he did so, even he felt surprise as the flavors spread on his palate.

'What happened? Why does it feel so tasty? If I remember correctly, I was never able to make something this tasty back on Earth.'

What Lith didn't know was that it was due to himself that the food became much tastier. Back on Earth there was no magic or special physique like he had currently. There weren't special tools available either for cooking like there were available here.

There were a lot of such factors that went into play as he cooked seriously today and that was the reason for it to become so tasty.

'Is it because of Miss Emilia helping me make it? Hmm... I should cook again, this time, solo, and test it out.'

Emilia opened her eyes after she gulped down the curry rice and this time she forked a piece of cutlet and tasted it.

The piece was very crunchy at the outside and she bit more onto it, the tender chicken just melted in her mouth, causing the flavorful oil of the chicken fat to ooze out and spread all over her palate.

"Mhm~"

Emilia felt so amazed by it that she accidentally let out an ecstatic murmur.

Lith's thoughts were broken as he heard this and he looked at Emilia in surprise. 'She sure seems to be enjoying the food a lot it seems.'

After the cutlet was finished, Emilia tried the soup and it was amazing too but not as much as the cutlet. She then had a sip of sweet iced tea and her palate cleansed. This time, she tried the same things again and this bite felt just as amazing as the previous one.

Lith ate his food quietly and didn't disturb Emilia. Watching her blissful face felt amazing and he didn't want to let her get conscious of her actions and stop.

Within a few minutes, the chicken cutlet on Emilia's side was over and Lith had only finished half the curry rice on his plate, one-fourth of the soup in the bowl and just one chicken cutlet.

He was too busy watching Emilia and didn't focus on his food properly.

He noticed Emilia to run out of chicken cutlet and he could tell that she enjoyed that dish more than any other present on the tablet. He smiled and said to Emilia,

"Miss Emilia, there's more cutlet on the tray."

"Hmm?" Emilia turned to Lith and hummed in question. But soon her gaze fell on the cutlets present on the tray. She wanted to take it but realized that she shouldn't do such a thing. She had her share of cutlet and those were Lith's.

She controlled herself well and said to Lith by shaking her head, "no, it's your share. I can't have it."

Lith shook his head too and said to her, "no, it's fine. Please have it. I insist."

Emilia shook her head again and said, "no, can't do."

Being polite was an angel's innate nature. It was the same as dragon's being prideful.

Thus, Emilia's polite nature took the better of her and made her deny the food Lith was offering her.

Lith smiled and said to her, "Miss Emilia, watching you happily eat the food cooked by me would make me more happy, than me having that. Please, I really insist, have it. There's a lot of other things present on the table for me to eat anyway. Also, it's not like I didn't have the cutlets at all, right? I did taste it too."

Emilia thought about it for a few seconds and nodded. Lith's words convinced her easily.

She took the tray and put one cutlet on her plate. She cut it with a knife and hearing the crunch that was made, she smiled. She forked a piece and ate it. Once again, she made the face of pure bliss and got absorbed into the flavor.

A few minutes later, the two were finished with the food and all this while, they hadn't talked to each other at all as the two were too busy.

One eating, another watching.

Emilia looked at Lith and said with a rare smile, "thank you for the food. It was amazing."

Lith nodded and said, "happy to serve. Also, Miss Emilia, can I ask you a few things?"

Emilia nodded and said, "yes, let's clean this up first and go to the living room and talk."

Emilia was in a very good mood today. All these months, ever since the entrance exam, there was one headache after another that she was getting. It was only today that she finally got a chance to relax and truly feel happy.

It felt very weird to her as well knowing that just some food could make her this happy. Had she known about it previously, she would've ordered some and ate it.

But then again, it wouldn't taste as amazing as this. She had no knowledge or experience related and she didn't know its value. It was the same as someone not knowing what a diamond is and just treating it as a cool looking shiny stone.

After finishing up, they sat on the sofa present in the living room. There was only one sofa so both were sitting together.

Emilia turned to look at Lith and asked, "so what is it that you want to ask, Lith?"

Lith smiled and said, "firstly, I would like to thank you once again for helping me today. I would've fell short on elemental energies had it not been for you."

Emilia shook her head and said, "no need to thank me. It was my responsibility to do so. I am your teacher after all."

Lith then said, "that aside, I feel that within a month I'll be able to break through to Rank 3. But for that, I would need to meditate in the same way as today for the coming month."

Emilia nodded hearing it. She roughly understood what Lith was trying to ask her but didn't interrupt him and waited for him to speak.

Lith then smiled and continued, "I just want to ask, are you free for a month by any chance?"

Emilia raised her eyebrows in surprise as she heard this. He sure was pretty straightforward about things.

Instead of answering Lith directly or saying anything, she first thought about things a bit and then took out her phone to text.

She opened the messaging app and texted Sel. The chat of hers with Sel looked as such:

Emilia: Sel, am I free for a month?

Sel is typing...

Sel: No.