Shokugeki no Imitation Chef

"Huh? That's..." Liu Maoxing couldn't help being taken aback when he saw what Calamus was bringing up.

"Hehe, why are you pretending to be stupid, weren't you with her last night?" Erina sneered from the side, her eyes were full of seductive and dangerous brilliance.

"Ahem, cough, why are you with her... I only stayed in her cooking room for five minutes, and I just tasted her noodles!" Liu Maoxing quickly explained in a low voice.

"Well, you mean to say that she gave you food last night, but you only went in for five minutes?"

"...Why do I think the wording has become more strange? Can you emphasize that it is to order the 'pulled' noodles and go to the 'cooking room' for five minutes?" Liu Maoxing said helplessly.

"Huh?" Erina didn't seem to realize what she said, nor did she realize the difference between the two statements!

"Well, let's not talk about these dirty things, the work she made first seems to be quite different from the one I tasted yesterday... At that time, what she gave me was a 'bowl' of ramen." Liu Maoxing wondered.

"Didn't you say before that when you left, she was still in the cooking room? It must have been improved... and from ordinary ramen to tsukemen, it's just a change in the way you eat it!"

That's right, the reason why Liu Maoxing could tell the difference at a glance was precisely because what he tasted was "one bowl" of ramen last night, but now what Calamus presented to the judges was five servings, two bowls each...

One of the bowls contained the "noodles" themselves, with toppings on top, while the soup was left alone for another night, as if to keep warm, after the soup was served, it was covered with a small bowl.

Liu Maoxing has also recognized it. This is obviously "tsukemen", which can be regarded as a type of Japanese ramen, but the difference from ordinary ramen is that when it is presented to diners, the noodles and soup are separated.

When eating, put the noodles and toppings into the soup and eat...

In Chinese cuisine, there is a kind of Shaanxi noodle snack "dipping noodles", which is somewhat similar to this "dipping noodles" in the way of eating, but the noodles themselves are also in clear water soup with simple side dishes, but when eating , just pass it in a small bowl of red oil dipping sauce.

At the same time, the noodles dipped in water in Shaanxi are usually very wide belt noodles, and there is a long noodle in a bowl. When eating, use chopsticks to stroke the noodle, find one end from the clear soup, and put it in the dipping bowl. You can eat while dipping, even between the dipping bowl and the noodle bowl, there is always a noodle connected...

The tsukemen is to leave the noodles and toppings empty, and the dipping soup placed alone will not be a heavy-flavored red oil dipping sauce, but the same broth used for ramen.

Compared with ordinary ramen, the advantage is obvious, that is, it avoids the mutual influence of soup and noodles together for a long time, destroying the taste of noodles and the taste of soup.

Instead, the soup and noodles are separated, and the form of eating and dipping is used. Some restaurants will also provide equipment for heating the soup bowl, so as to ensure that every bite is the best taste...

Others were still a little confused, wondering why dipping noodles were used in this kind of competition in which the judges scored immediately after the submission?

And Liu Maoxing, who had tasted her "Ramen" before, vaguely guessed some reasons...

"Huh? These are pasta toppings? Wouldn't it be too bland with pasta toppings and ramen?"

"No, I saw her before..."

"Wait...the noodles under this topping are..."

The tsukemen of calamus, as soon as it appeared on the stage, made the judges very puzzled, because in the bowl of noodles and toppings, the toppings were covered with two small rectangular, cake-shaped flour products, and there was a small cylinder The rolls seem to be some kind of noodle products with vegetables!

From the perspective of ramen toppings, it is a bit strange. After all, it is too monotonous to use noodles to match noodles.

However, immediately after their attention, they turned over the toppings with chopsticks, and when they saw the "Ramen" below, they were diverted along with their "doubts"...

I saw that the cooked "pulled noodles" below are not white noodles, or light yellow with more gluten, but a cloudy transparent color!

Compared with normal noodles, it can be said to be translucent, but compared to vermicelli, it is too cloudy, and it is far from the completely transparent "Shadowless Noodle"...

But in the "Ramen Contest", seeing this kind of "noodles" still surprised the judges.

After putting down the chopsticks, you can feel that this thing is obviously different from "noodles" from the feel of the chopsticks!

"Huh? What's that?" Erina wondered, just by looking at it from a distance, Erina couldn't determine the material of this special "noodle".

Of course, she wasn't talking to herself, but she was asking Liu Maoxing who was about to sit here. Erina believed that since Liu Maoxing had tasted the calamus noodles last night, she would definitely know what was so magical about it...

"It is a kind of minced pork and a small amount of glutinous rice flour, kneaded together with sweet potato flour, then rolled into skins and dried, and finally cut into strips and cooked... In Chinese cuisine, it is the same as 'yan skin' Very similar!" Liu Maoxing said.

Yanpi, also known as meat Yanpi, in addition to this kind of minced pork meat, there are also fresh fish and pork belly. It is usually used to make "yanpi flat food", that is, as the skin of dumplings, wontons, etc. Also like now, make noodles directly! That is "swallow skin noodles".

"Minced pork? I see. Plain noodles, vegetarian toppings... Didn't you mention noodles? Unexpectedly, this guy can think of this. The descendant of a 'mere' small ramen restaurant, it's not bad to be able to do this." Painted Rina said pretending to be disdainful.

The successors of these folk snack restaurants with their own recipes and secret recipes usually do not enter the culinary school to study, but are taught by their elders at home.

Because at a young age, you will come into contact with the secret recipes handed down from your family, and then study hard on highly targeted skills...

After the era of "great fusion of cuisines", because the speed of innovation of various recipes is very fast, when the elders reform the recipes, they will also bring the successors together, so that some innovative spirit can be cultivated.

But compared with the same academic schools, most of them have solid basic skills and superb professional cooking skills, but they are inferior in innovation ability...

The "emphasis on soup rather than noodles" such as "Japanese ramen" is a common-sense blind spot for many restaurant players, but Iris jumps out of this blind spot to look at the problem!

That's why she was able to make this kind of ramen similar to "Yanpi noodles" to combine with "Take noodles".

At the same time, Liu Maoxing also felt that the reason why calamus uses "dipping noodles" is not only for the best taste, but also to further evade the rules...

The theme of the competition is "vegetarian soup, vegetarian toppings". It is true that the noodles are not required to be vegetarian, but if you really put "yan skin noodles" into the soup, more or less, there will be a material exchange!

If there is a trace of meat oil flowing into the soup, is it still a "vegetarian soup"?

Liu Maoxing had this question before, but because it was delicious enough, he thought the judges would not care about this small error. After all, this kind of material exchange has very little effect on the soup...

Now using the form of "sticking noodles" undoubtedly avoids the possibility of disputes.

Because until the finished product is delivered, the soup is still vegan, even if it is contaminated with meat, it has nothing to do with the cook...

"By the way, roasted carrot cakes and roasted pepper cakes can be eaten after soaking in the soup, but the fresh vegetable pancake rolls, please don't put them in the soup, it's fine as a snack!" Shiratori Iris reminded.

The so-called "Roasted Carrot Cake" and "Roasted Pepper Cake" are all rectangular, and in Liu Maoxing's words, they are about the same size and thickness as Want Want Xianbei.

The former is to boil carrots with various salty and spicy spices, beat them into paste, knead them with flour, and then press them into the shape of small biscuits...

The latter is pepper, green onion, sesame and salt, which are mixed with flour and kneaded. Both of them are baked in the oven until they are dry and hard!

If you eat it empty-handed, the palatability is slightly poor, but after a little soaking in the soup base prepared by iris, you can immediately show the astonishing umami taste and the crispy texture after absorbing the soup.

Served with minced meat noodles that are completely different from ordinary ramen, the five judges, including Gin Dojima, did not control their food intake for the first time in the preliminaries...

"Is this the blending of minced meat and sweet potato flour into 'ramen'? This kind of soft and chewy texture...and it's not as sticky as imagined!"

"That's right, because the spices have been added to the minced meat, even if I eat it empty mouth, I can still eat a big bowl!"

"Not only the noodles themselves, but also the carrot cakes and pepper cakes. I felt a bit too hard when they were not dipped in the soup at the beginning, but after pressing them into the soup and making them absorb the soup, there is a kind of The urge to ask the boss to add more toppings..."

"This pancake fresh vegetable roll is also good, balancing the slightly greasy taste of the thick seaweed broth."

"I don't know about Hitori Ramen. Has this 'Vegetarian Meat Noodle Soup' been added to the menu?"

Shiratori Iris saw that his "Ramen" was well received by the judges, and he also showed a hearty smile, and said at the same time: "I will definitely suggest that grandpa add this ramen to the menu when I go back. Support me!"

Obviously, I have tasted ninety-seven servings before. Although each serving is just a small bite, I should already feel quite full now. appetite!

Forget about Dojima Yin, it's normal to eat more depending on his size, but the two old men among them have to make people worry about whether they will make it to the end!

"Hahaha, I think it's impossible for your grandpa to refuse... If you really refuse, just add it to the menu of my ramen restaurant!"

"Competition No. 1, contestant No. 98 Shiratori Iris, pass!"

At this time, Erina, who was number ninety-nine, was naturally ready to present the "Ramen"...

At the same time, the judges "thought" that they had done a good job. They tasted the ramen of Erina, one of the top ten elites of Yuanyue Academy, the blood relative of the gourmet devil, and the owner of God's Tongue who is more accomplished than himself in tasting!

However, after Erina presented her "ramen", four of the five judges still stared wide-eyed, and the only calm Dojima Yin also showed a look of great interest!

Because Shiratori Iris, Erina, and Liu Maoxing are No. 98, No. 99, and No. 100 respectively, and the branches of the cooking table are arranged in the order of numbers, and all three of them are in the back row. Therefore, the judges were equally curious about the cooking process of the three of them. On the contrary, the audience saw more through the broadcast screen...

So of course the judges were surprised...

Shiratori iris is served, and it can be seen that it is "tsukemen", which can be regarded as a type of Japanese ramen.

But the things that Erina's dining car pushed up, I can't see any connection with ramen at all...

What Erina pushed up was a cylindrical deep pot with a diameter of about forty centimeters and a depth of thirty to forty centimeters. At first everyone thought it was for her to cook soup!

But now Erina is like this, directly pushing the pot to the judges' table, and then brought the pot to the judges.

That's right, it's just a pot with the handles of five wooden brazing sticks at the mouth of the pot...

"This is……"

"Well, this is my 'Mantianxing Ramen'."

"Huh? Gypsophila? Ramen?"

The judges looked at the five brazing sticks, wondering if they should pick them up...

After all, it was a bit weird to see this scene in the ramen competition. It seems that as long as there are large-scale competitions participated by Yuanyue students, the style of painting will become "weird"?

Originally, they thought Shiratori Iris's "Vegetarian Meat Noodles in Vegetable Soup" had a strange style of painting, but they were suddenly overtaken by Erina's "Gypsophila Ramen" in a weird degree!

Several judges were also worried about whether this thing is a brazier. After picking it up, Erina said, "Huh? Why are you grabbing the noodles with your hands? You should use your mouth to suck it here" or something...

Although this thing looks like a wooden braze, but... it was already very strange to see this in the Ramen Contest, and it seems that it is not impossible to be even more strange!

Seeing that the five judges hadn't moved, Erina couldn't help saying: "Everyone, please taste it quickly! Otherwise, the taste of the ramen will be affected."

"This...do you have any special tasting suggestions?" Masato Asai asked in a different direction.

As the current master chef of "Asai Ramen", one of the first ramen restaurants in Sapporo Ramen Street, Asai Masato never imagined that in his later years, he would ask others "how to eat ramen"...

"There is no special tasting method, and there is no restriction that some toppings need to be dipped in soup, and some don't. Just pick up the wooden stick and taste it! The order does not have to be from front to back!"

"Tch...it must be troublesome to be this guy's secretary, right?" Shiratori Iris murmured Erina to Liu Maoxing in a low voice, and everyone could hear that Erina's last sentence was aimed at her previous "minced meat dipping noodles" of.

It seems that she really thinks that Liu Maoxing is Erina's male secretary?

"Ahem, just to remind you, I'm the ninth seat among the ten heroes, and Erina is only the tenth seat!" Liu Maoxing said.

"so what?"

"So how could I be her secretary?"

"My brother is in the store, and he's helping me too!"

Well, although Shiratori Iris is neither the oldest nor a man at home, but because of his talent, and his exploration and pursuit of ramen, he is now the "hand-picked" successor of Shiratori Hidori!

As for her father and two older brothers, they are no longer in "Nitori Ramen", but are working as chefs or chefs in other star-rated restaurants. Only her third brother is still helping "Nitori Ramen", usually Give her a hand...

"...Erina and I are just friends." Liu Maoxing always felt that it was a bit weird to explain such things to another woman.

"Then why don't you dare to admit in front of her that you approached me last night?"

"I'm not trying to strike up a conversation, but...forget it, anyway, you know I'm not...wait, why don't you dare to admit that I've struck up a conversation with you in front of her, it must be her secretary? How did you deduce this result? "Liu Maoxing asked doubtfully.

"Eh? Isn't it only bosses and employers who care about this kind of thing? Grandpa often criticizes third brother and tells him not to strike up conversations with girls during work!" Calamus said, "I'm very reasonable". .

Liu Maoxing was actually speechless, and at the same time silently supported her in her heart, Erina's description of Calamus... her mind was full of ramen!

And at this time, the five judges were already holding "a piece of ramen" in their hands...

Well, since Erina claimed that it was "Mankysyo Ramen", the judges also thought it was ramen!

On this five ramen sticks, there are five "ramen" that are two circles smaller than walnuts. Some are light yellow and seem to have high gluten ramen, and some are wheat yellow and are initially judged to be Italian durum wheat. Some of the noodles are pure white, two fingers wide, there is also a section of noodles cut with a few knives, and finally there is a section of thick white noodles... Liu Maoxing knows that it is actually rice noodles!

Except for the knife-shaved noodles and the wide noodles, which are two kinds of relatively wide noodles, which are folded and put on the drill, the other noodles are braided into shapes similar to multiple bows or hemp rope knots, and then worn on the drill...

And the five kinds of noodles are also separated from each other, and the interval is six kinds...should it be called "topping"?

If this thing can really be regarded as ramen, then these six interspersed side dishes should indeed be called "toppings"!

Diced matsutake, white radish, tofu, small pieces of Brussels sprouts, thick-looking kelp heads, and a large pitted cherry on top...

When the other contestants saw that the five judges looked like they were going to "cook skewers" in public, they couldn't help talking...

"Is this really ramen?"

"Should... well, can... right? After all, there are soup, noodles and toppings!"

"I think that compared to the minced meat noodles before, Ms. Nakiri's 'Kusharamen' is actually more like ramen. After all, there are noodles and toppings, but I use a stick when tasting..."

"Hehe, I don't think the judges will be very satisfied. This is the 'Sapporo Ramen Contest'. Isn't she too far away from Japanese ramen?"

"That's right, I also think...it doesn't seem to be the case!"

"What, what's going on?"

"Judges, this is..."

All the voices of doubt disappeared after the judges began to gulp, and were replaced by shocked eyes and full of doubts!

Although the actions of the five judges did not look like they were eating ramen at all, the way they chomped and shoveled the skewers was obviously a high admiration for the cooks!