If I only concerned myself with the meals in Village One, Village Two, and Village Three, it might start to feel a bit unfair. Food-related issues were always a quick way to breed resentment, after all. To remain impartial, I wanted to pay close attention to the diets in the Village of the Great Tree, Village Four, and Village Five as well.
Here was a typical day’s meals for one of the high elves:
Breakfast: Freshly baked bread, a fried egg, and a soup packed with vegetables. Lunch: Fruit. Dinner: Bread from the morning batch, grilled killer rabbit meat, wild greens gathered during the day, and more fruit.
This was likely from a day they had gone out hunting. For their midday meal, they usually just grabbed whatever fruit happened to be in season from the fruit tree area. The lack of variety depending on the time of year was a minor concern.
Next, a typical day’s meals for one of the dwarves:
Breakfast: Freshly baked bread, salad, egg soup, and fruit. Lunch: A meat and vegetable sandwich. Dinner: Bread from the morning, grilled fish, and a small amount of sake.
Their breakfast seemed well-balanced, but apparently, it was the exact same thing every single day. Their lunches were more varied because the high ogre maids and the beastman race took turns preparing them. As for dinner, the dwarves didn’t seem to care much about the food as long as they had sake to drink.
A typical day’s meals for one of the lizardmen:
Breakfast: Freshly baked bread and fruit. Lunch: Vegetables and fruit. Dinner: Bread from the morning, grilled chicken, fruit, and a small amount of sake.
It seemed the lizardmen baked the morning bread in large batches to distribute to the surrounding residents. For lunch, they simply ate raw vegetables or fruit. They treated dinner as their primary meal, eating heavily at night before going to sleep.
A typical day’s meals for one of the high ogres:
Breakfast: Freshly baked bread, a fried egg, a salad of village vegetables, and a soup with small bits of meat. Lunch: Tomato sauce pasta, a salad of village vegetables, and a soup with small bits of meat. Dinner: Yakiniku, a salad of village vegetables, a soup with small bits of meat, and a small amount of sake.
Since they had yakiniku that night, I knew exactly how it tasted. It was delicious. For the most part, it seemed they ate the same things I did. The only difference was the salad and soup; when I asked about them, I learned those were standard items the high ogre maids kept prepared so they could eat at a moment's notice. On their busiest days, that was sometimes all they had time for. I really needed to think of a way to improve their situation.
Then, the daily meals of one of Kuro’s children:
Breakfast: Tomato. Lunch: Tomato. Dinner: Tomato.
We had a problem. I didn’t mind that he liked vegetables, but I told him he needed to eat meat as well. He claimed he ate meat on the days he went hunting, but since he was on lookout duty today, he just stuck to tomatoes. I understood the logic, but even so, a tomato-only diet was a bit much. I wondered if he ever ate green vegetables, like cabbage.
When I asked, his tail drooped. Well, I wasn't going to force him.
The daily meals of the phoenix chick, Aegis:
Breakfast: Grilled fish, village vegetable salad, a special tamagoyaki made by the high ogre maids, and fruit (grapes). Lunch: Pork and tomato pasta, wild vegetable salad, and fruit juice. Dinner: Cold broad bean soup, river fish ruibe, a steamed meat bun, beef fillet sauté, unrefined rice, and tea.
...I didn't want to complain, but that was incredibly lavish. Apparently, he ate the rice raw because it was unrefined. He didn't mind cooked rice, but he seemed to prefer it raw. Good to know.
The daily meals of the Fairy Queen:
Breakfast: A sweet bun, sweetened tamagoyaki, and mixed juice. Lunch: Fruit pancakes topped with plenty of whipped cream, and ginger-honey juice. Dinner: Oyako-don, beef fillet sauté stolen from Aegis, vegetable juice, and pudding à la mode.
I wondered if I was spoiling the Fairy Queen a bit too much. Then again, she didn't eat everything herself; she apparently shared some with the other fairies. Still, Aegis was furious about his dinner being swiped, so I told her to stop stealing his food. When she tried to complain, I just mentioned the word "pudding," and she piped down immediately. As long as she understood.
The daily meals of one of Zabuton’s children:
Breakfast: Raw potato. Lunch: Bean sprouts, asparagus, and fruit (apple). Dinner: Raw killer rabbit meat, fried potatoes, and buttered potatoes.
They claimed that while mashed potatoes were tempting, buttered potatoes were the ultimate form. It seemed their diet was relatively balanced overall, so I didn't see any major issues. I was curious who was cooking the fried and buttered potatoes, though. It turned out they were taking the ingredients and doing it themselves. I made sure to tell them to be careful not to burn themselves.
That was the general state of things in the Village of the Great Tree. Aside from a few individuals who needed guidance, there weren't any glaring problems.
In Village Four, Bell and Gou were providing solid supervision. Since the residents prepared their morning and evening meals collectively, everything was fine there. As for Village Five, most of the residents ate at the Village of the Great Tree anyway, so there were no issues to report.
However, I liked the idea of collective meal preparation used in Village Four. I thought about proposing it to the first three villages, but it turned out they were already doing it. For them, eating lunch as a group was the standard.
Wait a second. If that was the case, then what about that one report I heard?
The daily meals of a certain member of the minotaur race:
Breakfast: Pork katsu and cabbage. Lunch: Kushikatsu. Dinner: Katsu-don and vegetable juice.
If they were cooking as a group, did that mean they were serving kushikatsu for lunch? They claimed that kushikatsu was hard to mess up and made almost any ingredient taste better. That might have been true, but it felt like a waste of a group effort to just fry everything on a stick.
...Could it be that the entirety of Village Two had simply become obsessed with pork katsu sauce? They were using a thick, rich sauce made with ketchup, soy sauce, and toasted sesame seeds. It had a bit of a cult following. Even in the Village of the Great Tree, a few of the high elves had started putting it on absolutely everything.
Come to think of it, while Village One was already tasked with making the sauce for the fried foods at Big Roof Shashato, Village Two had recently asked if they could help with the production as well. I suspected I knew why. I decided to send them a gentle warning about nutritional balance, just in case.
On another note, I decided to move forward with the plan to build a dedicated dining hall in the Village of the Great Tree. The civil official girls had been suggesting it for a while now. If a standalone dining hall worked well here, I could plan to build them in the other villages too. At the very least, it would ensure that lunches remained balanced.
Yes, I liked that plan. To be clear, the dining hall I was planning was a completely independent building—separate from both the inn’s dining area and the one in my mansion.