Isekai Nonbiri Nouka

Dark hot pot (yaminabe).

Participants bring their own ingredients and put them into the pot without anyone knowing who added what.

Whatever you grab with your chopsticks, you must eat.

Up to that point, it is just an unusual hot pot, but people abuse the rule that you must eat what you grab and throw in things that are not suitable for a hot pot.

It is not a meal so much as a game.

Personally, I think playing with food is wrong, so I have no intention of allowing a dark hot pot in the village.

The villagers also feel uncomfortable about wasting food, so no one suggests doing a dark hot pot.

Perhaps because of that, a Great Tree Village original version of the dark hot pot was created.

Its name is the Light Hot Pot (hikarinabe).

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Light hot pot.

It is a hot pot where everyone around the pot draws one lottery ticket each to decide an ingredient.

Chinese cabbage and cabbage can be added freely.

Otherwise, there is a risk the pot ends up with no vegetables at all.

From a nutrition standpoint, I want everyone to eat vegetables.

For hot pot, that means Chinese cabbage or cabbage.

As for the type of broth, it can be decided after all the ingredients are revealed.

This is because I want every combination of ingredients to be enjoyable.

Also, white rice and finishing udon are free to add.

Depending on the luck of the ingredients, the hot pot might not be very filling.

This is a precaution for those cases.

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And so, tonight’s dinner was a Light Hot Pot.

Everyone reacted with joy or disappointment as they drew their lottery slips.

Some pots turned into fish, fish, fish hot pots, while others became vegetable, vegetable, vegetable hot pots.

The one with a well balanced selection of ingredients was at the Demon King’s table.

Unusually, the Demon King had good luck and secured pork from Village Five.

For reference, Beezel, who was sharing the same pot, drew tofu.

Yuri got a set of green leeks and white leeks.

Frau drew a salmon fillet.

You could say it lacks excitement, but it is better than ending up with a strange hot pot.

I definitely prefer a well balanced one.

……

That said, the ingredient chosen by my lottery slip was bean sprouts.

I do not dislike bean sprouts, so that is fine.

But Loo, who was sharing the pot with me, also drew bean sprouts.

For a moment, the image of a bean sprout hot pot crossed my mind, but Tier drew scallops and the High Elf Ria drew shrimp, so we were saved.

Thank you.

Ah, no, bean sprouts are tasty too.

Yes.

I really like bean sprouts.

All right, I am going to eat the scallops and shrimp too.

Make sure you leave them for me.

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After we finished the hot pot, dessert was served to those who wanted it.

Today’s dessert was ice cream made with great effort by Ice, the ice monster.

It seems they went through many rounds of trial and error to achieve a smooth texture.

The flavors were green tea, black tea, vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, orange, and milk.

The oni maids put a lot of thought and care into it.

Thank you.

It is delicious.

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A relaxed after-dinner time.

I discuss the family restaurant menu with the civil servant girls.

……

Since we just ate, it is hard to think about food.

「We should have thought about this while we were hungry」

That’s true.

「Ah, but about the hot pot earlier, I thought it might be something we could bring into the family restaurant」

Hmm, the Light Hot Pot?

But hot pot is already on the menu, right?

「Yes. But that is a single-person hot pot. We thought it would be good to have a hot pot everyone can enjoy together」

I see.

「Also, with hot pot, if we give them the ingredients, the customers do the cooking themselves. That should reduce the workload for the staff」

That makes sense.

Hot pot works well if the customers do the cooking.

Grilling on a net or barbecue might also be good.

「Since the concept is family, wouldn’t it be better if families can enjoy it together like that」

Yes.

But what about the Light Hot Pot?

If a family goes out to eat together and has bad luck with the lottery, ending up with poor ingredients, wouldn’t that cause trouble?

「About that, how about preparing a normal hot pot and adding one extra ingredient by lottery? That way, even if the lottery goes badly, they can still enjoy it」

Oh, that’s good.

Wait, should we do that for the Light Hot Pot in Big Tree Village too?

「I think the Light Hot Pot in Big Tree Village is fine as it is. The residents enjoy it in their own way, and it gives them something to talk about」

Hmm.

Well, we can decide that while listening to the residents’ opinions.

In this Light Hot Pot, Youko and her daughter Hitoe, along with Yoru and Klim from the hot spring area, shared the same pot, but their ingredients turned out rather sad.

King oyster mushrooms, king oyster mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, enoki mushrooms.

King oyster mushrooms are tasty.

Enoki mushrooms are tasty too.

But if you ask whether they can be the main part of a hot pot, they feel a bit lacking.

The four of them quickly moved on to the finishing udon, turning it into a mushroom udon hot pot.

Those four might be happier with the one-extra-item system.

I asked them.

「It’s fine as it is. Next time, we’ll hit meat!」

「I agree with Mother」

「Changing the rules just because we lost」

「Keep it as it is」

Quite the fighters, aren’t you?

But I understand that they do not want it changed.

For now, we will leave the rules as they are.

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Civil Servant Girls 「If the concept is family, isn’t a single-person hot pot a bad fit?」

Village Chief 「P-please make it a place where even one person can enter casually」