Julia began preparing for the brown vegetable. Elaina stays beside Elaina and observes the process of preparation for the vegetable. She wanted to see for herself what it looked like while being prepared.
First, Julia checked it for anything bad on its surface before she grabbed the knife and started peeling the skin of the vegetable. She does it with great proficiency, finishing the process in no time.
Compared to its brown skin, the flesh inside is white and the sweet smell comes out after the brown skin is peeled off.
"Despite being light, this one is not as soft as I think it would be!" Julia is pleasantly surprised by the vegetable. It's not as bad as she thinks it was before.
Putting it on the chopping board, she looked at Elaina and asked about it.
"Where did you get this one, Sis? I have never seen this vegetable before," Julia inquired.
"Well, it is a new plant I was growing and an experimental one. I don't know what it was but they are seeds that are random for me so I don't know what they would be like once they grow," Elaina explained while trying to ensure that she does not reveal the involvement of the deities about it. She is not ready to tell Julia about the origins of the vegetables just yet.
"Are you sure this is safe to eat, Sis? I don't want to risk cooking something that would potentially harm us, especially since you are pregnant right now," Julia is apprehensive about it.
"Don't worry. This one is safe. I wouldn't be growing this one if it isn't edible. Don't worry since it is fine to consume."
"Alright, if you say so, Sis," Julia still isn't convinced much but since Elaina herself does confirm it, she decised to believe and started to prepare it for real this time around.
She washes it first before putting it back to the chopping board. After a while, she started to chop the flesh thinly, a bit thick, and thickest variant. It was by the request of Elaina to see it fare and taste in these manner since some vegetables does shine their greatest strengths from the way you slice and prepare them before cooking.
Elaina tried to ask the god of farming for some clues or tips in regards to the new vegetable but she only receive vague and not so useful responses. Only one response properly nailed it on what the god wanted her to do with it.
"[Experiment on it.]"
Elaina can only sigh on this as this will be the only way for her to know what this one would be. Just like how the EX02 fruit is bitter, this vegetable is something that she will have to make a trial and error from.
After the little preparations that Julia made, she prepared the portable cooking station and prepared the frying pan. Elaina is nervous on the outcome but she is also looking forward to it, trying to see what kind of vegetable would it be.
"You can go and sit down now, sis. Now you can only wait and see how this goes."
Elaina nodded. She didn't want to have some problems later once she started smelling the cooking food. After all, she heard from others that pregnant women tend to be overly sensitive in the nose while they are pregnant and it might cause some nausea and she didn't want to have that happen. She had enough for the day with more nausea.
She decided to go outside for a while and wait for the food to finish cooking. While doing so, she opened the almanac and started filling the observation notes for the respective plants. She put a little description on the EX03 plant but since she didn't touch it just yet, the observation is limited. As for the EX04, Elaina made some good description on the food for a bit.
As she fill the observation log, she felt hungry. For some reason, just by explaining the observation log and writing them to the Almanac, she felt a sense of being hungry. Some kind of craving to be more precise. However, she can't really pinpoint what it was she wanted. Was it the EX01's fruits? The other fruits? Or perhaps the EX04 vegetable? Elaina doesn't know.
She steeled herself to not act so badly for a bit. Despite the desire to find and taste what she is craving for, she controlled herself and not to get lost at the feeling. No wonder many women throw a tantrum when they can't get what they were craving for, this is very frustrating for her as well.
A few minutes later, Julia calls Elaina, signifying that the dish is finally complete. Hearing this, she suddenly felt like she is about to bolt through and get into the table as soon as she can.
The aroma of the dish is very good. Even though it is a regular stir fry, for some reason, the smell is very appetizing and even thoigh she has yet to eat anything, her mouth is already watering and is ready to indulge to the taste. She never felt like this before, but maybe this is due to the effect of her craving? Perhaps, but she is hungry so she decided to continue on.
The brown vegetable before are in the stir fry. Seeing that Julia didn't remove them, it must have come out great as a result and a great addition to the dish. And so, she started to swallow the food, slowly and chewing it.
But the moment she started to chew, the burst of flavors starts to explode inside Elaina's mouth. And seeing the reaction on Julia as well, it seems Elaina is not the only one experiencing it.
For Elaina, this is the first time that she felt a stir fry had evoked so much emotions for her. Stir fries are not that great on Elaina's palate, it sits somewhere on the "alright" spot for her. However, for the first time, Elaina seems to be shaken by it now. For the first time, Elaina felt ready to throw the food's rank up to the top.
"This is great, Julia!" Elaina exclaimed as she shovels more of the food to her mouth.
On the other hand, Julia is still quite shocked by the taste. It was like she is stunned on it and never expected how great it was. She cooks stir fry for a long time and even she would think that stir fries are alright but because she likes meat most of the time, she doesn't have particular high notes of praise for stir fry. She can only appreciate it as easy to cook and ingredients easy to come by with most of the vegetables she needed are just harvestables there.
But now, she suddenly had the urge that seemingly only been done when she is still eating meat dishes.
"This is Great Vegetables!" Julia exclaimed as she also started to shovel her mouth with mouthfuls of food.