I managed to walk to and beat the first boss, the one that likes to puke, within 6 or 7 riceballs. Then I fought 2 times more somewhere near a beach and bugged this other girl for food. Nope, she does not have any. But then when I fought once more ( and ate a riceball ) suddenly she opened up the conversation about more food. I think I wasted a good 20 minutes trying to figure out where to get food by interacting with everything in the village. This includes everything that makes sense from the shop to the ricecooker.