Chapter 201 Case File 3: The Mysterious Dinner Party at Rose Villa (5)
At noon, the Baroness went to the butler and specifically requested a set meal that was not on the menu, a submarine fish fillet sandwich. This must have been because she was so greedy after seeing the pork chop sandwich.
But this was not a problem, because along with the special order, the butler also delivered several tanks of lively fish, one of which was the lamprey that Jiangyou ordered as the main course for the evening, and the other tanks were some common crucian carp, grass carp and black carp.
Even a good cook cannot cook without rice, but if you have the ingredients, everything is easy and you can eat anything you want. Jiangyou fished out a long and fat black fish from the tank and planned to use it to make fish fillets.
Snakehead fish have few bones. After removing the head and skin, you can split the fish along the spine into two intact halves. After removing a few small bones, you can choose the meaty, perfectly shaped parts and cut them into perfectly sized fillets. You can take at most two fillets from a piece of fish, so you can get four fillets from one fish, which is enough for the Baroness.
Fried fish fillets are no different from fried pork fillets. You don’t even need to pound the fish meat. Just marinate it with salt and black pepper, then coat it twice in sequence and deep-fry it.
The finished product is also a very beautiful golden rectangle, which looks very similar to fried pork chops, but the shape is more regular.
The oil used for frying the fish was the rapeseed oil stored in the kitchen. It had to be said that Madame Butterfly was indeed wealthy, and the variety of ingredients she prepared far exceeded the quantity required by Jiang You, enough for the nobles to eat for another three or four days.
The housekeeper gave the fish tanks to the care of the maid, Leila, who was said to be very good at raising fish. With Leila around, Takumi only needed to tell her what kind of fish he wanted before cooking.
"Wow, this is so convenient." Jiang You handed the submarine fish fillet sandwich set to the butler and kept praising: "Cooking here is really worry-free!"
The butler smiled back at her and went to deliver the meal.
The maid effortlessly picked up a tank of fish and said in a mechanical tone, "Then I'll put these fish in the fish pond at the villa..."
Jiang You: "..." Wait? What kind of pond? In this day and age, is there such a high-end and classy thing?
She asked this question out of confusion, and the little maid nodded. "Yes, there is a natural cave beneath the villa, with an underground river inside that connects directly to the sea. The cave is warm in winter and cool in summer, and there is an area of perpetual ice deep inside. The previous owner built an ice cellar, a natural wine cellar, and three or four fish ponds below, with both fresh and sea water. You can raise any kind of fish."
"In the past, we wouldn't have had to buy fish from outside. The fish pond would have been stocked with a variety of edible fish all year round. But the villa has been abandoned for a long time, the fish pond has dried up, and all the fish in it have long since died. The housekeeper had me clean out the fish pond these past few days and replaced the water, so we can start raising fish again."
Jiang You: "..." The life of the nobles was indeed beyond her imagination.
"Then I'll move all these fish to the pond," Leila repeated mechanically. "Do you have any other instructions?"
"Ah, there's no need to move those lampreys," said Takumi. "I'll deal with them later."
"Yes, sir." The little maid obviously had amazing arm strength. She adjusted her posture, put the fish tank in her hand on her shoulder, fixed it with one hand, and picked up another large fish tank with her free hand. Without blinking, she walked out easily.
"...So amazing." Jiang You was amazed. "Is this still a human?"
"No," Vivian said, "that little maid should be an alchemical and mechanical doll made by the Rusman Federation. I once heard that the Delman royal family once spent a lot of money to buy several dolls at once, specifically to take care of the royal children.
"These puppets possess a certain level of thinking ability, immense strength, and some magical abilities, making them capable of cleaning, organizing, and caring for livestock. Their fighting prowess is also astonishing, and they're said to be able to fight the Kingdom's knights to a draw.
"Most importantly, they only obey the orders of their blood-bound masters. They are extremely loyal and unafraid of betrayal. They can even be used to test poisons!"
Jiang You remembered that Polina had mentioned this thing to her before, and she gasped: "Is this the doll that costs nine million gold coins? The royal family bought several at once?"
——How extravagant the former German royal family was!
"...I'm not sure exactly how much the royal family spent. But there are rumors that the German royal family transferred a small mineral vein on the border between the two countries to the Rusman Federation."
—Wow! A mineral vein! This doll is truly not something an ordinary person can afford!
"Wait, so Leila wasn't someone brought in by Madame Butterfly, but a puppet maid that already existed in Rose Villa?" Takumi scratched his head, realizing something. "Does she know about the past events at the villa?"
"We can try asking." Andre's eyes lit up, "Maybe we can get something out of it."
Winston warned, "Don't get your hopes up. If she really knew any useful information, I'm afraid Madame Butterfly would have asked for it long ago."
Vivian was more optimistic than he was. "That's true, but right now we're completely confused and have no idea what's going on. Madame Butterfly has far more information than we do. If Leila really knows something, maybe she can put us on the same starting line as Madame Butterfly."
When Andrei and the others finished lunch, the maid, Leila, returned to the kitchen. The three of them immediately surrounded her and began to ask questions. Takumi Yuu put the empty dishes in the sink, wiped the island table, and took flour and butter from the pantry to start making cookies and puff pastry for the evening.
Tonight's final menu consists of thirteen courses.
Appetizers: Witch Finger Cookies, Spicy Blood Plasma Deviled Eggs, Bloody Eyeball Rose Bouquet (Lychee, Black Olive, Bacon, and Lettuce Salad)
Soups: Chicken Skull Cream Shells, Five-Fingered Peach and Lotus Root Pork Trotter Soup
Side dishes: Golden shrimp rolls/Sausage and vegetable combo, marinated platter, lychee meat, stir-fried octopus tentacles with celery
Main course: Grilled lamprey with sauce, tender grilled beef ribs
Dessert: Chocolate Spider Cookies, Blood Tea Jelly (Rose Tea Jelly)
Of course, in order to avoid the Baron's allergies, Jiangyou does not intend to use any nut products - including peanut oil; and for the Baroness who adheres to pescatarianism, he has to make a separate dish of skull cream fish meat crispy shells and five-fingered ginseng lotus root and lotus seed soup.
As for her salad, the bacon had to be removed, the double combo of golden shrimp roll and sausage had to be changed to a single shrimp roll, the braised platter was replaced with braised kelp and braised lotus root, the lychee meat was changed to pineapple and real lychee, and the tender roasted beef ribs were changed to fried fish fillet... Well, all easy to solve, not a big problem.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
