First Problem: Malnourishment
Dinner that night, was a sad soggy salty soup.
How have these people NOT gotten atherosclerosis yet?
Myne listed down all problems here.
A very filthy house.
People don't know the value of bathing. Or doing the laundry. Can they not spare one single day to clean up?
And the food. Even Edo Era people can do better.
She sighed.
She recovered some of her energy back. She used it to gather all dust from the ceiling, walls, floor, the bedding, under the bed and furniture, objects in the room AND herself in the bedroom.
She collected a small mound enough to be...5kg of dust.
She was appalled.
She used what's left of her magic to chuck it out the window...
'HEY! WHO DUMPED ALL THAT DUST ON ME HUH?!' someone yelled in outrage. 'YOU WANNA START A FIGHT?! WHO DID THAT?!' followed by a cacophony of angry swear words.
Oops...
Welp, not like the man will ever know who did...
At least, the bedroom is clean now. She cannot do a thing about the grime on everywhere, including herself.
She sighed.
Using Telepathy, she watched her family have dinner next door.
It seems that they live in an apartment that has seven floors. They live on the fifth floor. A 1SLDK with a twist.
1 large bedroom where two double beds are. One for parents, one for their kids. Beds are pushed together so there's lots of space!
The kitchen becomes the living room when not cooking meals.
The storeroom is dedicated to survive winter. Tuuli collects firewood and wild edibles. Should autumn come, everyone will butcher livestock and process preserved meat.
That's how it works here.
In winter, families make handicrafts to sell for extra income or weave fabric on looms to make into new clothes.
Now that Myne got the gist of peasant living, she can only sigh.
Her body needs help. A lot of help. Seriously. Her body is malnourished.
She joined her family the next morning, able to walk though her body wobbled and stumbled a bit due to being a technical cripple all her development years.
'Oh, Myne! You OK now?' Gunther asked his daughter eagerly because this was the first time she's out of bed since she was born!
'I'm OK now dad...this is a little weird being painless for once...' said Myne sheepishly. 'I hope this goes forever.' she said as she tried to climb up the crate Tuuli sat on, but she was as small as a toddler, Tuuli had to help her up.
'We hope so too Myne. You're in bed all your life.' said Tuuli. 'You have fevers as long as I remember.'
'Well, she managed to finish dinner last night, it must have helped in her recovery.' said Effa happily as Myne inwardly stiffened.
That salty thing? Surely not!
Breakfast was bread and that salty hotpot thing.
Here, it's natural to boil the vegetables till soggy, and throw out the resulting soup while keeping the soggy, tasteless things behind, then flavor the...soup...with salt or vinegar.
That's no way to get healthy now, is it...?
That's it.
Once she gets some of her power back, she'll study all vegetables and fruits of this world.
xxx
It was a long wait.
A month-long wait.
It was also a month of plenty, as Tuuli happily brought home bounty her baskets were full of goodies. She harvests wood in the morning, food in the afternoon till gate closing.
Myne who cannot go out stayed home. She swept the floor with her own efforts and cleaned where she could, before tiring easily. Hello atrophy!
'What on earth is this?!' Effa squawked as she found a mound of dust by a kitchen corner.
'I swept the floor but I had no idea where to throw them after...there's nowhere to throw it away.' Myne deliberately amped up being a kid like how japanese girls do it.
'Oh dear...I'm thankful you cleaned where and how you can but remember you just recovered from illness!' Effa gently chided as she shoveled out the dirt and chucked it out the window.
'Yes mom.'
'Is Tuuli back yet?'
'Not yet...'
It seems when she arrived, it was summer.
Summer yet it wasn't sweltering hot.
Japanese Summers are atrociously-hot yet summer here is mild in comparison.
During that one month since feeling better, Tuuli taught her about stuff she brings home.
Weird-looking, but taste is the same as that of earth goods as she subtly used psychometry on everything she touched. However, nutritional content is VERY HIGH. High enough to give a person RDA percentages of everything a human body needs, 100%! The taste of veggies are also their own condiments. Very flavorful. Their juices also give color to soup, not just taste.
But whoever taught them their...cooking skill regarding making vegetable soup, should be shot between the eyes.
She'll show them.
'Mom, can I try cooking? As in you'll do what I wanna do if I had been taller?' Myne piped up. 'I watched you and Tuuli do it but I wanna try even if I can't do the work myself.'
'Eh? Sure dear. So it's...technically your turn to cook dinner then!' Effa smiled, happy that her youngest is enthusiastic to do things. 'So what will you have me do?'
Myne told her mother how she wants it done...but WITHOUT the scalding.
'Eh? Not scalding them?!'
'Well, I'm the cook...and I'm too weak to do scalding so let's pretend~' said Myne with a playful smile. 'Once you see the froth, carefully remove them. I think they're the reason for the scalding but once removed its probably not needed to throw everything else out...then just a pinch of salt. Let's wait for it to cook.'
Most vegetables here, are aromatics and root crops. Leafies are hardly seen if only because they're so expensive only the rich and nobility eat them. They only ever get the red lettuce called Vel. That's it.
Tuuli brings home mushrooms which is very great as they pack a wallop of nutrition and umami. Then they would put in one Lage leaf, the counterpart to Basil leaf of Earth.
Its fragrant! The soup is also colorful now! Ready to serve alongside black bread!
Soon, Gunther and Tuuli came home with her harvest that's usually used for breakfast and lunch the next day.
'Ohhh! Smells good!' Gunther sniffed.
'Myne cooked today though I did the work.' said Effa. 'She told me how she wants things done, so let's see Myne's cooking.' she said as she served food on the table.
'Somehow the soup seems different...its smells so nice.' said Tuuli, her mouth drooling. 'What did you have mom do, Myne?' she moaned as she and their father looked very eager to eat now.'
'Well, taste it first, then I'll tell you.' said Myne smugly.
'Let's try out Myne's cooking! Let's eat~' and they all took a mouthful of soup...
'UWAAAA!'
It's DELICIOUS, Effa, Gunther and Tuuli gasped out.
'This is good! What'd you do Myne? I've never had such soup!' Gunther exclaimed, overcome by the deliciousness of the first spoonful of soup.
'It seems scalding deprives us of this deliciousness dear.' said Effa. 'Myne told me not to scald the soup to pretend it's her work and she's too weak to do the scalding process.' she began. 'But with the frothy stuff appearing which is reason why we scald the food, she said we carefully get rid of the froth without throwing the first boiling out but it turns out we're also throwing deliciousness out with the froth! I can't believe it!' she moaned in dismay.
'Well, it was what was taught to us for years...it was our common sense all our lives.' said Gunther, scratching his head. 'It's been this way for ages. Well, since it's wrong all this time, let's enjoy doing things right if it'll get us such good food!' he said cheerfully.
'Yeah!'
The mood was very high, and they all ate as much as they could, effectively dosing themselves with nutrients they're denied of for so long.
Maybe she and Tuuli will grow up better after this?
Thus a life of deliciousness began, as she mastered cooking of this world's unique foods by just through psychic touch. She now became Family Chef, even if either Effa or Tuuli do it for her. They follow her instructions and introduced different types of hotpots.
Heh.
The rest of summer is spent with delicious hotpots.