(A/N: Here's a chapter after all this waiting. I hope you enjoy it!)
This competition has been hectic lately, meaning not just my shokugeki with Ryo, I had to do a lot of research on Ramen and try to make it right.
I also learned how to make it all from scratch, including the broth, the chasheu, toppings, including the NOODLES. Thing is, I prepped these guys the day before because I learned I can leave them in the fridge for a couple hours, which you can get away with, but leaving them in the fridge overnight is the most preferable way so I did that to keep it as traditional as possible.
I don't want there to be any screw ups because I did 20 hours worth of research and I'm not calling the ramen I'm making authentic, I'm calling my ramen "Japanese inspired".
This is something for me: I'm not calling any Japanese food I make "authentic". I feel like when a gaijin, or foreigner, make Asian food, put random ingredients into the dish and call it authentic, that's not authentic. That's just a damn mixture of everything Asian!
That's right, I'm looking at you Jamie Oliver! I'm not following any of your shit Asian recipes! You can claim that you make authentic Asian food, but spoiler alert, that's food I'd rather feed to the dogs at the animal shelter!
I want every single ingredient to be very correct and not anything that's either Chinese, American, English, Italian or whatever.
Also, for this ramen recipe, I won't be wasting anything in this kitchen, especially in this tournament. That's the main thing I wanna do: maximize all the ingredients I have in every recipe I have in this tournament and show that I can be a great cook when I need to be.
After some time preparing my ingredients, Soma was to battle Alice Nakiri and there are four quarterfinal matches: Souma v Alice, Subaru v Takumi, Ryo v myself, and Akira v Zenji. Of course I'm rooting for Takumi and Megumi because they're my Totsuki-Gun stablemates.
Let's go to the tournament.
A very hard rock song played and it was Soma's entrance music. I thought it was cool.
Urara: 以下の食品戦争は1つの勝利のために予定されています。 初めての紹介：東京、日本、相馬ゆきらさ！ (The following food war is scheduled for one win. Introducing first: from Tokyo, Japan, Soma Yukihira!)
As he was introduced, a happy k-pop theme was playing I knew it was Alice's theme.
Urara: そして彼の相手、東京、日本、アリス・ナキリ！ (And his opponent, from Tokyo, Japan, Alice Nakiri!)
There was a mix of cheers and boos from the crowd. I didn't know she could be quite hated at this school. Urara started announcing that their match's concept was a Bento box? What kind of dish is that?
And of course, Zenji, since his match is in two weeks, he had to get involved and tell me that a Bento box is a Japanese style lunchbox with meats or fish, sides and flavor. That came out of nowhere, so... here's a commercial that I want made:
Have you ever wonder how life can have such craziness? For example, if a paper in my hand is the script to this commercial just doesn't matter anyway, oh, it's gone. Now I don't have anything to read. You know how this came out of my hand? It's because STUFF JUST HAPPENS. Do you have a case of stuff just happening out of nowhere? Well, if you do, dial the number on your screen. It is 1-800-STUFF-JUST-HAPPENS. Someone is waiting to take your call.
Onto the match, Souma Yukihira vs Alice Nakiri was a blast. I gotta say, it's the match of the night, unlike myself vs Ryo, we'll get to that later on, but I wanna focus on Souma's match.
This was intense while Alice had stuff that's been made to her liking and I think that's why everyone didn't like her. Erina didn't as well since she's her cousin, and Souma just used a regular fryer and oven to make his dish.
I gotta say, this is smart because you don't wanna focus on advanced technology to beat a member of the Nakiri family, you need old school stuff to beat your opponent and sometimes, old school always wins.
I have to skip everything about the match because it was really confusing, but the result, it was really surprising because when Alice was going to win by selection, Souma did by layers!
That was a good move, and it won the judges over, especially Grandmaster Nakiri who was a judge. I didn't see that coming. It was original, and to me, that's why it got "Shokugeki of The Night".
We're gonna switch things over get to myself vs Ryo Kurokiba.
When he entered and got to his station to get ready.
Ryo: 来て、あなたの名前！ 私はあなたのために準備ができました！ (Come on, Y/N! I'm ready for you!)
Then, the lights go down as my song starts to play.
I had my Totsuki-Gun towel in my hand as I waited for the first verse to be sung.
I even saw some students actually having some Totsuki-Gun towels that my aunt Sarah had been creating and cheering their heads off.
As the guitar revved up, Ayumi sings, through the speakers...
Speakers: Oshieteyo hito wa naze sagashitsuzukeruno?
Kagirinaku setsunai ashita no
Yume wo!
All of the students started clapping as I was about to make my way out to the arena.
Once the first verse was sung, I went out getting a huge ovation from the students and I saw Erina clapping along and singing to the lyrics, which I thought was really cute coming from her. To show that I see her, I blew a kiss and waved as I made my way to the stage.
I saw Ryo just standing all tough and I didn't really feel intimidated. Instead of using the ingredients that was put in front of me, I'm using the ingredients I prepared the day before, which I had some help bringing them to my station as this is definitely gonna help me advance in the tournament.
Once I got to my cooking area, I looked back at the students who were clapping and just waiting to yell out the line as I clapped with them and pointed at my ear.
I stepped onto my station...
Students: KAZE NI NARE!!!
Urara: 勝者郡のリーダー、あなたの名前の姓、勝利郡のリーダーである彼の駅にすでに彼の駅にいます！ (Already at his station, representing Polar Star Dormitory, the leader of Totsuki-Gun, Y/N L/N!)
The students cheered as I was really looking forward to battling Ryo.
Urara: 競技者、あなたの時間は始まります、今！ (Contestants, your time begins, NOW!)
I pulled out stock pot, 1 egg, some MSG (or umami powder), which is this:
I'll tell you, when the students saw the MSG, they lost it!
They were just shocked and cheering so loud that they knew I've done so much research that I'm really tired after 20 hours, but to hear that positive reaction was definitely worth it.
I brought out 6 coups of water, some ginger root, 3 cloves of garlic, a bunch of spring onions, some dark soy sauce, a bottle of sake, some salt, freshly ground white pepper, and some sesame oil.
Anyway, I got started with the stock by pouring in the 6 cups of water, putting it on a high heat, I sliced up the ginger roots, smashed the garlic, putting it in with the garlic skin on, sliced two scallions into four quarter sized pieces, yes, including the ends with the roots.
Like I said, I'm not wasting anything in this tournament.
After putting it all in the stock, I'm gonna let that simmer for 2 hours, which will have the best results.
During that time, I worked on the chashu, which is pork belly. I basically rolled it up with kite string, seasoned it with a pinch of salt, and I covered it with some dark soy sauce before cooking it in a medium high heat pot.
After cooking the pork belly, it came out to a dark brown which is what I wanted before I set it on a plate, and put it into the fridge for at least two hours to let the color of the soy sauce penetrate through and the fat to solidify.
During that time, I took out a colander to remove excess scum from the stock pot because if I didn't, it would taste nasty, which is something I don't want in this recipe.
After dealing with the scum, I started working on the eggs.
To prepare them, I had to boil them for at least 5 minutes to harden up.
5 minutes later, I took the eggs out of the boiling water and into an ice bath for 15 minutes, which will have them cool down and harden up as well.
15 minutes later, they were cooled down and I took out a little plastic bag, almost a ziplock from back home, I put the three eggs in there, and put 1 cup of dark soy sauce in the bag so the whites on the outside have a very nice brown color and marinate for a few minutes.
A couple hours later, I took the pork belly out and sliced it into round pieces. I saw that they were a little raw, so I took out a kitchen torch to cook em up a bit more while rehydrating the pork and giving it a smokey flavor.
When that was done, I took out my nudes (noodles) and took the plastic wrap off the sheet, and heated up one more pot to cook the noodles.
I made sure that I put out three bowls and chopsticks for the judges because I heard that they'll be going around looking at how I'm cooking the ramen.
I put a couple cups of water into the pot, seasoned the water aggressively with salt, almost as salty as the ocean, and put the noodles in a cup shape colander, put them in the pot and let them cook for 1 and half minutes to 2 minutes.
I heard someone said that all noodles take the same amount of time to cook. I say no. All types of noodles have a different cooking times, ramen as 2 minutes to cook at the very least and different types of pasta vary depending on what they look like, whether it's spaghetti or bow tie pasta, they all have a different cooking process.
As the ramen noodles were cooking, I took the time to remove any more scum from the stock pot, making sure that it didn't look unappetizing for the judges.
I started to add the MSG at the bottom of the bowl to have it expand inside when I put the broth in.
After 2 minutes, I took out the noodles and put them into the bowls and added the stock.
Next, I added the chashu, I diced up some scallions and put them around the bowls, I took out the eggs, split them in half, put them on the side of the bowl, added the salt and ground white pepper, a star ramen cake in the middle for presentation purposes, and my ramen bowls were complete.
When the bowls were on the screen for the students to look at, they cheered their asses off!
That told me they approved of these ramen bowls and I couldn't be more proud about it.
This was a difficult process, but in the end, I'm happy with how my ramen turned out.
When the judges went over after trying out Ryo's ramen, which was a seafood ramen bowl, I hope they like it. I studied this recipe for hours, making sure I had everything right and correct, and I don't want them to feel angry about how this turned out.
I was nervous about it all because I don't know what their reactions are gonna be, you know? My hands were shaking, like, I couldn't even hold it in.
When they each took a bowl and started started eating the ramen with the chopsticks, they all felt the urge to keep eating! They were non-stop eating until 5 minutes later, the bowls were completely empty!
Judge 1: 若い男、あなたはどのようにしてこのラーメンの味をとても美味しくしましたか？ (Young man, how did you make this ramen taste so delicious!)
Y/N: 私がこれを追加したとしましょう... (Let's say I added this...)
I showed the umami powder and the judges were shocked and they didn't know what to think!
Grandmaster Nakiri: あなたはとても完全にすべてを調理しました。 それは路上フード屋台出身のようなすべての味をあらゆる味にすることをどのように管理しましたか？ (You cooked everything so perfectly, the chashu, the noodles, broth, the Tare, the eggs, everything was so well done! How did you managed to make it all taste like it was from a street food stall?)
Y/N: 私は20時間の研究と学習を最善から学びました。 私は私が作った麺が店舗の荷物からではなかったことを確認しました。 私は自分の麺を作りました。 (I did 20 hours of research and learning from the best. I made sure that the noodles I made weren't from a store bought package. I made my own noodles.)
Judges: あなたは何ですか？ (YOU WHAT?!)
Y/N: 私は、ラーメンを作るときに多くの街路食品ベンダーによって使用されているテクニックを採用しながら、これらの麺と炭酸カリウムを作り、家庭からパスタ機を使ってパスタ機を使っていました。 それがあなたがどのようにラーメンを調理するべきかをどのようにしているかをどのようにしていますか。 (I used wheat flour and potassium carbonate to make these noodles and using a pasta machine from back home while adopting the techniques used by many street food vendors when making the ramen. That's how you're tasting the way how ramen should be cooked.)
Judge 3: 私が聞いたことに基づいて、これは私が見たことがないと思った献身の種類です。 彼は自分自身の麺を傷から作り、ベンダーからテクニックを使ってこのボウルを作りました。 (Based on what I heard, this is the type of dedication I've never thought I've seen. He made his own noodles from scratch and used the techniques from the vendors to make this bowl.)
Then the first judge, who was in shock of what I explained to them, said...
Judge 1: 私はこの若い男を私の投票にしなければなりません。 彼はすべてを正しくしました、そして、彼が彼が研究やベンダーから学ぶことのほぼ一日をしたと彼が言うのを聞くことを聞きました、 特に麺を傷から作る、 それは私が前に見たことがない献身です。 あなたは私の尊敬、若い男を獲得しました。 (I have to give this young man my vote. He did everything right and to hear him say that he did almost a whole day of research and learning from the vendors, especially making the noodles from scratch, that's dedication I've never seen before, even from a foreigner. You earned my respect, young man.)
We shook hands as the judges and Dean Nakiri did the same to me as they all voted for my ramen bowl.
Announcer: 準決勝、あなたの名前の姓を移動します！ (Moving onto the semifinals, Y/N L/N!)
The crowd cheered as I was going to clean up, but students came up, telling me that I didn't have to. I made their ancestors very proud and I deserved to rest after all the research and education I had to go through.
I did and thanked them as I walked to the back, just trying to hold in all the emotions I was feeling.
When I got to the back, I broke down crying. I mean, to get the approval from a judge, who's Japanese, and is an expert on the country's food no less, was just the highest honor I've ever gotten in my life, not to mention I earned his respect, which is even more huge.
When I was done letting it all out in private, I went back to my friends, who were just elated and asking me if I was okay, I told that I'd be fine and they were giving me compliments on how delicious my ramen bowls turned out.
After talking with them, Erina came up and just hugged me as I felt weak from the research and how emotional I was about being praised from the judges and her grandfather.
After a bit, I was taken back to the dorm, where I slept the whole day, just waiting for the semifinals to come as I knew who I was going to be facing off, Akira Hyama.