Food

Chapter 20 20. Food

What should be the signature dish of a Japanese restaurant?

Sashimi, sushi, tempura?

In 2075, although these traditional Japanese dishes can still be synthesized from strange and wonderful ingredients, their appearance is so different from the original that they can only be placed on the menu as non-signature items. In Night City's Japanese restaurants today, only one type of Japanese food is truly popular.

Grilled chicken skewers.

Jack ordered twenty of these things made from synthetic meat, which looked more like grilled meatballs than chicken skewers, and strongly recommended that Karl and Oliver try them.

While Karl was still wondering what exactly these chicken skewers were made of and whether they were even edible, Oliver next to him had already grabbed one and started eating. Watching him devour the meatball piece by piece, he seemed to find the grilled chicken skewers very much to his liking.

Hesitating for a moment, Karl, thinking that he would have to eat bugs sooner or later anyway, picked up a chicken skewer and bit into a meatball, chewing it slightly.

"Ugh."

He spat it out.

It wasn't that Karl was wasting food, but the impact of this thing was too strong. The moment he ate it, Karl felt his lips and teeth protesting, and his stomach twitched. His body was warning Karl that this thing shouldn't be ingested, so he subconsciously followed his instincts and spat it out at the first sign of danger.

How to describe the taste of this thing? If Karl had to describe it in two words, he would say disgusting. In three words, very disgusting. In four words, super disgusting. And if he added a bit of vulgarity, it would be fucking disgusting.

Overall, the taste was similar to the cheap, starch-filled hot dogs that Karl used to eat as a child, the kind that even dogs would refuse, mixed with the taste of sawdust. The seasoning was also very strong, like chewing on a wad of shredded chili paper soaked in soy sauce and vinegar. It was just unimaginably disgusting.

Oliver and Jack, who were enjoying their skewers, were stunned when they saw Karl frowning and spitting out the chicken meatball he had just chewed. Both of them immediately thought of a scene similar to those depicted in movies.

This thing is poisonous?!

The two of them immediately stopped eating and became vigilant, but Karl's words after spitting out the food calmed their newly raised alertness.

"This thing is too disgusting!"

"Disgusting?"

Staring at Karl's chicken skewer, which looked no different from theirs, Jack looked at Oliver, and Oliver looked at Jack. Both of them saw confusion in each other's eyes.

Aren't these chicken skewers pretty good? Why does Karl say they're disgusting?

Could it be that there's something wrong with Karl's chicken skewer?

With this thought in mind, Jack picked up the chicken skewer that Karl had taken a bite of and ate a piece of the meatball himself. After chewing it a few times, a puzzled expression appeared on his face.

"This, is it disgusting?"

"This, isn't it disgusting?"

Listening to Jack and Karl's words, Oliver took the chicken skewer with only one piece left from Jack and bit off the last meatball. After chewing it a few times, he also showed the exact same expression as Jack.

"This, isn't it good?"

Looking at Jack and Oliver's expressions, Karl roughly understood that they had become accustomed to this kind of inferior food with excessive seasoning to mask the taste. He couldn't accurately describe how unpalatable this thing was, so he could only sigh and say, "Compared to real chicken skewers, these synthetic meat skewers are terribly disgusting."

"Real chicken skewers?"

Oliver just assumed that Karl was joking because the chicken skewers at this restaurant didn't suit his taste: "That stuff violates Night City law. Since the bird flu outbreak, Night City has banned poultry-related meat. If you want to try something new, we can secretly find some on the black market, but that stuff is very expensive."

Jack, however, saw something different in Karl's expression and words. He opened his mouth wide, somewhat incredulously saying, "Karl, judging by your expression, you wouldn't have actually eaten real chicken skewers before, would you?"

"Of course, that's why I'm making this evaluation."

Karl said, "Anyway, I don't want to touch these chicken skewers anymore. Get me something else. Eating this stuff is torture for me."

"Eaten real chicken skewers, and so disgusted with these synthetic chicken skewers..."

Oliver now believed that Karl had really eaten chicken skewers before. He recalled that when he treated Karl to his first meal, Karl only wanted to eat vegetarian food: "You wouldn't have been some young master from a corporation or something, would you?"

"Would a young master be stuck with a Lexington right now?"

Karl waved his hand and called the waiter over, asking her to get him something else to eat.

Then, in front of Oliver and Jack, who were eating and watching, like a food relay, Karl would only take one bite of each dish before putting it down. The accumulated, uneaten food was taken by them without complaint and eaten, almost piling up a small mountain in front of them.

"Stop, stop, stop, Karl."

Seeing that if Karl ordered any more, his and Jack's stomachs would burst from being so full, Oliver quickly stopped Karl from ordering the entire menu.

Oliver's cheeks twitched slightly as he looked at Karl, who still seemed unsatisfied, and sighed, covering his forehead: "Fried pork cutlet, sushi, sashimi, Japanese curry, and a bunch of other things, young master, you've almost ordered the entire menu. Haven't you found anything you like?"

"You definitely can't blame me for this."

Karl said helplessly, "None of these things are edible. I'm just glad I've been eating Chinese cold noodles these past few days, or I'd probably starve to death first."

"I'm really getting more and more curious about your original living conditions, Karl."

Jack rubbed his already round belly: "Not just chicken, you've eaten pork, beef, and fish before. What kind of environment did you live in?"

"Probably one where real meat was available to eat..."

Sighing, Karl set his sights on the last dish, ochazuke.

Fortunately, the ochazuke didn't disappoint Karl. Finally, there was something he could eat.

As he ate the ochazuke, Karl felt a bit pessimistic.

After eating all this, he was still eating meatless dishes. If this continued, would he really only be able to eat vegetarian food in the future?