章 22: Cooking Ekans

Rogue collected the spoils of his victory after Team Rocket fled. James had taken the corpse of his Koffing, but the corpse of Ekans still remained.

Since he still got the corpse of Ekans, Rogue didn't feel that it was too much of a loss. However, he really wanted to get the Meowth so that he could eat it.

"Anyways, let us bring this back to town…" Rogue returned both of his Pokemon back to their Pokeballs and grabbed Ekans by its purple neck.

He wanted to stay here for a longer period of time and capture a few more wild Pokemon, but the sludge on his face was rather irritating. Furthermore, he wanted to spend some time analyzing his first proper battle.

He wanted to ponder about what he could have done differently to have a better chance of a complete victory.

…

"Rogue, you're back." Nurse Joy scrutinized Rogue before continuing: "Looks like you went through an intensive battle."

"Yes, I'm back." Rogue also squinted his eyes at Nurse Joy because she didn't frown one bit even when she saw him carrying Ekans corpse into the Pokemon Center. He's still in awe sometimes about the moral differences in this world.

"Would you like to use the Pokemon Center's public bath to get cleaned up? I'll even lend you the kitchen to cook up your kill. You can use any of the spices and herbs that you want. You may also use the cooked rice if you'd like. Just make sure you also make something for me, alright? My break is coming up soon." Nurse Joy said sweetly as she pointed towards a door to the back of the Pokemon Center.

"Alright!" Rogue looked at Nurse Joy as if he had seen an angel. He wanted to do some proper cooking, but he had yet to buy the necessary utensils. Thanks to Nurse Joy lending the Pokemon Center Kitchen to him, he'd probably be able to make something proper.

Rogue then began to waltz towards the door that Nurse Joy indicated. He wanted to hurriedly clean up before going into the kitchen to cook.

"Oh, by the way, Rogue. Dawn is taking a rest on the second floor in room 2F. You shouldn't bother her yet and just let her rest." Nurse Joy added.

Rogue nodded and thanked Nurse Joy before dropping the Ekans off in the kitchen.

It took him a whole thirty minutes to clean himself before he returned to the kitchen.

During the whole process of cleaning himself, Rogue pondered about what he should make. He had a lot of knowledge about the different types of foods from his previous world, but the list of recipes in his memories is limited.

"Well, let's just start preparing the Ekans and think about it some more." Not knowing which recipe to settle on, Rogue found an apron and knife and began to gut the Ekans and skin it.

After that process, what remained was a slab of meat that was six inches high and a little over one meter in length. Of course, the insides were empty.

"Urgh, so many bones." Rogue sighed after running his finger through the Ekan's meat. He'd prefer it if the meat didn't have so many bones, but it couldn't help that it did.

Looking at the piece of meat, Rogue placed his finger on his chin and pondered. He didn't want to deal with the bone as he ate, so he was just going to slice off all the edible meat from the vertebrae and rib bone.

Cutting off all the meat from the bone is such a tedious task that Rogue almost raged quit halfway through. After all, he had to cut in between EVERY SINGLE rib bone of the snake!

"This dish better be fucking worth it." Rogue cussed as he threw away the bones of the Ekans. It still had some meat in it, but he'd rather not deal with it. He's only able to get one type of item from it anyway, so he doesn't want to keep eating the same Pokemon for too long.

Rogue already had a rough idea of what he wanted to make, so he scoured the kitchen for the ingredients that he needed.

In summary, the kitchen had some ingredients that he was familiar with. For example… oil, eggs, green onions, salt, black pepper… things like that.

However, this world didn't have some things from the modern world. The chili peppers that he wanted to use had to be replaced with the Touga Berries which had a similar spicy factor.

"Alright! Time to cook!" Rogue commented as he found a rag to tie around his forehead like a certain anime character.

Although not the best cook, he had most of the essentials down.

Before he even began to use heat, Rogue chopped up the green onions and Touga berries, ground the snake meat, beat up the eggs, and seasoned them up…

If anyone is listening to the kitchen at the moment, all they would hear is the symphonic thudding of Rogue's hand movements. Strangely, the frigid sound of kitchen activity was pleasantly rhythmic.

Rogue made sure that everything was Mise En Place – Meaning that everything had to be prepared and organized before cooking even began.

It took him roughly five minutes for him to complete the preparations and move on to the next stage.

The beaten eggs were the first to be cooked. While it was being cooked, Rogue made sure to continuously stir it to make crumbly pieces of scrambled eggs.

That aside, Rogue cooked the ground Ekans meat in a similar fashion. Though, it was coated with oil and cooked until it had a layer of golden crust. The original recipe doesn't call for it to be like this since it's marinated in soy sauce, but Rogue preferred the dish done this way.

Once the golden crust was finished, Rogue threw the diced Touga berries into the golden-crusted Ekan meat.

Instantly, a wave of spice wafted up into Rogue's nose.

"Mmmm… this smells good!"

Rogue couldn't help but grin as he indulged in the tantalizing aroma of the Ekans and Touga berries.

He didn't need to cook the Touga berries for long. Just fifteen seconds or so is enough. If he cooked it any longer, he and even Nurse Joy would suffocate due to the spicy steam that would rise in the air.

Hence, he took the meat off the heat and prepared two bowls: One for himself and the other for Nurse Joy. She did mention that he should also make some for her, so he decided to do so.

Inside the bowl, he placed down a layer of cooked rice from Nurse Joy's rice cooker. The rice inside was still fresh and aromatic, marbling like pearls.

On top of the rice, Rogue placed some scrambled and crumbled eggs on one side and the spicy golden Ekans meat on the other.

Right through the middle of both of them, a layer of green onions was placed.

"Rogue Style – Spicy Soboro Don… complete!" Rogue happily looked down on his creation. Just the Pokemon meat by itself is already tasty… so right now, he's dying to taste it.

"Rogue~ I smell something good." At the kitchen door, a head popped out.

It was Nurse Joy!

She had smelled the dish as she was coming to take a break, so her nose led her to the kitchen.

"Ahaha… good timing. You should come here and eat it with me and let me know what you think." Rogue dryly chucked before bringing the bowls to the dining table.

"Thank you," Nurse Joy said before walking over to the table.

As she observed the dish, she couldn't help but salivate. No matter how many times she'd eaten Pokemons before, she couldn't help but drool when she saw the perfectly cooked Pokemon dish. This dish in particular was one that she hadn't tried before, so she was very excited to see how it tasted.

"Go ahead, try it first," Rogue said while keeping his eyes on Nurse Joy's face. He wanted to see her reaction before eating it himself.

Nurse Joy nodded before picking up a spoon and scooping up a spoonful of rice, egg, green onion, Touga berry, and Ekans meat.

She then shoved the spoon into her delicate mouth and began to chew.

And the result… was her moaning in pleasure. The delicate and succulent meat was perfectly cooked, and the Touga berries added a delightful spicy burst of flavor.

"This is amazing, Rogue!" Nurse Joy said with a delighted face.

"Is it?" Rogue asked before also taking a bite.

As soon as the food touched his tongue, Rogue felt his taste buds dance in joy.

The rice was fluffy and cooked perfectly, the egg was cooked to perfection, and the Touga berry added a burst of flavor that was just delicious.

Rogue was finally able to admit that Nurse Joy was right, this was really good food. It's comparable to the dishes that his mom cooked!