Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 20 20. Food
What should the sign of a Japanese restaurant be?
Sashimi, sushi, tempura?
In 2075, although these traditional Japanese foods can still be synthesized with strange materials, their appearance is so different from before that they can only be listed on the menu of Japanese food that cannot be considered a signature dish. In today's Japanese restaurants in Night City, there is only one kind of Japanese food that is the most popular.

Grilled chicken kebabs.

This synthetic meat looks more like grilled meatballs than chicken skewers. Jack ordered twenty skewers right away and strongly recommended Carl and Oliver to try it.

While Carl was still wondering what the chicken kebab was made of and whether he could eat it, Oliver, who was sitting next to him, had already picked up a skewer in one hand and started eating. He was eating one meatball at a time and seemed to be enjoying it very much, as if the grilled chicken kebab was very much to his taste.

After hesitating for a moment, Carl, thinking that he would have to eat insects sooner or later, picked up the chicken skewer, bit off a meatball, and chewed it a little in his mouth.

"Well"

He spat it out.

It’s not that Carl was wasting food, but the impact of this thing was too strong. The moment he ate it, Carl felt his lips and teeth protesting, and his stomach twitched. His body was warning Carl that this thing could not enter, so he subconsciously followed his feeling and spit it out as soon as he sensed the threat.

How do you describe the taste of this thing? If Carl were to describe it in two words, he would say it's unpalatable. If he were to use three words, he would say it's very unpalatable. If he were to use four words, he would say it's super unpalatable. And if you add a bit of uncivilized taste to it, it would be really fucking unpalatable.

The overall taste is similar to the starchy, low-quality ham mixed with sawdust that Carl ate as a child, which was disliked even by dogs. Moreover, the seasoning is very strong, just like chewing a ball of chili paper soaked in soy sauce and vinegar. It is so unpalatable that it is beyond imagination.

Oliver and Jack were eating their delicious food when they saw Carl frowning and spitting out the chicken meatballs he had just chewed. They were both stunned for a moment, and then the first scene that came to their mind was a scene similar to the one in the movie.

This thing is poisonous?!
The two men stopped eating instantly and became alert, but the words Carl said after spitting out the food made them lower their alertness.

"This thing tastes so bad!"

"It tastes bad?"

Staring at Carl's chicken skewers that looked no different from theirs, Jack looked at Oliver, and Oliver looked at Jack, and both saw confusion in each other's eyes.

Isn't this chicken kebab delicious? Why did Carl say it was unpalatable?

Is there something wrong with Carl's chicken kebab?
With this thought in mind, Jack picked up the chicken skewer that Carl had taken a bite of and stopped eating, and bit off a piece of meatball and started eating it. After chewing it twice, a look of confusion appeared on his face.

"Is this unpalatable?"

"Isn't this unpalatable?"

Listening to what Jack and Carl said, Oliver took the only piece of chicken skewer left from Jack, bit off the last meatball, and after chewing it for a few times, he showed the same expression as Jack.

"This isn't bad to eat, is it?"

Looking at the expressions of Jack and Oliver, Carl roughly understood that they had all become accustomed to such low-quality food with added seasonings to change the taste. He was unable to accurately describe how inedible this thing was, and could only sigh and say something.

"Compared to the real chicken kebabs, these synthetic kebabs taste terrible."

"Real chicken skewers?" Oliver thought Carl was joking because the chicken skewers in this restaurant didn't suit his taste. "That stuff is against Night City law. Ever since the bird flu outbreak, poultry-related meat has been banned in Night City. If you want to try it, we can sneakily get some on the black market, but that stuff is very expensive."

Jack saw something different in Carl's expression and words. He opened his mouth wide and said in disbelief: "Carl, looking at you, you haven't really eaten real chicken skewers before."

"Of course I'm commenting on this after I've tasted it."

Carl said, "Anyway, I don't want to touch this chicken kebab anymore. Give me something else. Eating this is really torture for me."

"I've tried real chicken skewers, but I hate these synthetic chicken skewers."

Oliver now believed that Karl had really eaten chicken skewers before. He recalled that when he invited Karl to the first meal, Karl only wanted to eat vegetarian food: "You were not a big boss of the company before, were you?"

"Would the young master take a Lexington now?"

Karl waved his hand, called the waiter, and asked her to get him something else to eat.

Then, in front of Oliver and Jack who were eating and watching, Carl would only take a bite of the food each time and put it down, just like serving food. The accumulated, uneaten food was taken to their side by them without any disgust, and it almost piled up into a small mountain in front of them.

"Stop stop stop Carl."

Seeing that if Carl ordered any more, his and Jack's stomachs would burst from all the food, Oliver quickly stopped Carl from ordering the entire menu.

Oliver's cheeks twitched slightly as he looked at Carl, who was still not satisfied. He covered his forehead and sighed, "Deep-fried pork chops, sushi, sashimi, Japanese curry and a bunch of other things. Master, you've almost ordered the entire menu, and you haven't found anything satisfactory yet."

"This is definitely not my fault."

Karl said helplessly: "None of these things are edible. I am just glad that I have been eating Chinese cold noodles for the past two days, otherwise I would have starved to death."

"I am really getting more and more curious about your original living conditions, Carl."

Jack touched his round belly and said, "Not only chicken, you have eaten pork, beef, and fish before. What kind of environment did you live in in the past?"

“Probably just eat any real meat you want.”

Sighing, Carl aimed at the last dish, the rice with ochazuke.

Fortunately, the tea rice did not disappoint Carl, and he finally had something to eat.

While eating the rice soaked in tea, Carl felt a little pessimistic.

After eating so much, he still ended up eating meatless food. If this continues, he would really have to eat only vegetarian food in the future.

(End of this chapter)