Everyday Life Starting with Food Wars

Tadokoro Megumi couldn't help but laugh at their reactions, then quickly covered her mouth.

"This is the main competition after all, so Soma shouldn't bring out that kind of culinary disaster, right..." Ryoko Sakaki hesitated halfway through her sentence.

“This time it should be different,” Chen Yuxing said, defending Soma. “I participated in the tasting of all of Soma’s dishes this time.”

Everyone turned to look at Chen Yuxing.

"So what kind of dish is it?" Miyoko Hojo asked curiously.

"It's hard to describe. I can only say that, in terms of appearance, it really looks like Soma Yukihira." Chen Yuxing looked at Soma Yukihira below with a complicated expression.

Just then, the spotlights between the moon and the sky shone brightly once again.

Kawashima Rei changed into a new outfit and walked to the center of the stage.

"Sorry to keep you all waiting! The final match of the quarterfinals in this autumn selection competition is about to begin!"

"The judging panel remains the same. Let's introduce the two contestants from each side!"

"First of all, let's welcome the young Italian from the famous Italian boutique Trattoria Aldini—Takumi Aldini!"

Kawashima Rei pointed to the passage on the right.

Takumi then emerged, dressed in his signature white chef's uniform, holding his half-moon cleaver Mezzaluna in his right hand and flashing a cool gesture to the audience with his left.

Meanwhile, Isami was waving the Aldini family flag in the stands, cheering him on.

"Second place goes to Soma Yukihira, a transfer student from Polaris Dormitory who scored a high score of 93 in the preliminary round!"

From the passage on the left, Soma Yukihira also rushed out. He tied the white cloth strip he usually wore on his hand to his head, and he looked very energetic.

"Yukihira! Yukihira! Yukihira!"

When Soma Yukihira came out, Yuuki Yoshino was already standing on a chair waving a banner.

Daigo Aoki and Shoji Sato held up the banner poles on either side of each other.

"Hey Yuuki, could you lower it a little bit? Holding this up with your arms outstretched is really tiring," Daigo Aoki complained.

Chapter 80: The Attack of Takumi

"Yukihira! Yukihira! Yukihira!"

When Soma Yukihira came out, Yuuki Yoshino, along with Daigo Aoki and Shoji Sato, started waving banners on either side of him.

Grandma Fumio helped Yuuki look after Kamo-no-suke. Tadokoro Megumi, Sakaki Ryoko, Hojo Miyoko, and Mito Ikumi sat together, all looking at the stage below with some nervousness.

Takumi stood in front of the kitchen counter, dressed in his classic white chef's uniform, looking as radiant as a knight about to go into battle.

“Soma Yukihira!” Takumi looked at his red-haired opponent and said seriously, “Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for this day?”

"Huh?" Soma Yukihira tightened the white cloth strip on his head, moved his wrists, and looked at Takumi with some confusion.

"Ever since the freshman ceremony, I've always wanted to have a serious competition with you and Chen Yuxing."

Takumi reached out and gently stroked his crescent blade: "Ever since I was defeated by Chen Yuxing and you at the beginning of the semester and during the dormitory training, I've made a lot of improvements."

"I've always been thinking about when I can have a fair fight with you again and finally beat you."

“Now, my chance has come.” He raised his crescent-shaped blade and looked at Yukihira Soma: “I’ll start by defeating you, and then I’ll defeat Chen Yuxing in the finals!”

"Hahahaha!" Soma Yukihira wasn't annoyed by Takumi's declaration; instead, he grinned and laughed. "Quite the fighting spirit, Takumi! But you'll have to get past me first!"

"This time the challenge is squid." Takumi sheathed his knife and turned to walk towards his food storage. "After that defeat, I've put in a lot of effort on this. I'm definitely not going to lose this time!"

“What a coincidence, squid is also the ingredient I’m most skilled at and use the most.” A glint flashed in Soma Yukihira’s eyes. “The dish I’m preparing will definitely surprise you.”

The two went to their respective cooking stations to begin preparations, while the five judges took their seats.

"Therefore, I hereby declare the match—"

Kawashima Rei, standing on the stage, raised her hand high, then swung it down heavily and shouted.

"Let's begin!"

Takumi moved quickly. He first took out six still-fresh squid from the prepared ingredients and slapped them on the cutting board.

Then he picked up the boning knife and precisely cut into the junction of the squid's head and body.

With just a simple pry, the squid's transparent cartilage and internal organs were all pulled out. Then, Takumi turned the squid tube over and scraped off the inner membrane with the back of his knife.

The entire process was very clean and efficient; all six squid were processed in less than five minutes.

He discarded all the useless internal organs of the squid, and used his crescent blade to quickly chop the tentacles into rice-grain-sized pieces.

"Wow, that knife is so fast! It's like it was made for this kind of food!" Many students in the audience were envious of the crescent-shaped knife in Takumi's hand, wondering if they would have the chance to get a similar kitchen knife.

Takumi poured all the chopped tentacles into a large bowl, then took out a piece of Italian bacon, chopped it up, and added it to the bowl.

After adding those two ingredients, he sprinkled in some freshly grated Parmesan cheese, black pepper, pine nuts, parsley leaves, and a handful of breadcrumbs. Finally, he poured in some extra virgin olive oil and an egg and mixed it all together.

After adding olive oil and tossing, the rich saltiness of the cheese, the oily aroma of the pine nuts, and the fresh taste of the parsley are all enveloped, giving off a mixed aroma.

"Oh? Is this going to be Italian-style stuffed squid?" Shigeno Kuraki on the judging panel had a bright idea: "Using squid tentacles as fillings to re-stuff the body is a very good idea."

On the field, after the fillings were prepared, Takumi stuffed them back into the squid tubes and sealed the openings with toothpicks.

He then heated the pan, poured in olive oil and minced garlic and sautéed until fragrant.

One by one, the sealed squid tubes were dropped into the pan, sizzling as they went. Takumi used tongs to flip the squid tubes back and forth to ensure that each side was fried perfectly.

The surface of the squid tubes quickly tightened and changed color under high temperature. At the same time, the filling expanded as it heated inside the squid tubes, making all the squid tubes look very golden and plump, emitting an enticing aroma of seaweed.

Just as the squid tubes were almost done frying, Takumi brought over a bottle of white wine, opened it, and poured about a cup along the edge of the pan.

"boom!"

Along with the brilliant flames brought about by the evaporation of alcohol, the slight fishy smell that might have lingered in the squid was completely gone, leaving only a strong aroma of alcohol.

After doing all this, Takumi added the prepared tomato sauce and black olives and simmered it over low heat.

"This set of fluid movements is truly impressive to watch," Jiro Ono couldn't help but praise as he watched Takumi's performance.

After preparing the main course, Takmi didn't stop. He took out a new cutting board, poured flour and eggs on it, and started kneading the dough on the spot.

"Huh? What is Takumi going to do? Make noodles on the spot?" Daigo Aoki asked the people around him, his head full of questions.

"Is it freshly made handmade pasta?" Marui Zenji looked at Takumi's actions with some surprise and replied, "While fresh pasta is great for absorbing excess sauce from the stuffed squid, is there really enough time? It seems like there really is..."

"What's Soma doing over there?" Shoji Sato asked, craning his neck to look towards Soma Yukihira's cooking station while holding up a banner.

But the next second, his expression froze. No, not just him, everyone in the Polar Star Dormitory except Chen Yuxing, including Hojo Miyoko and Mito Ikumi, was stunned.

On Soma Yukihira's cooking counter were several cleaned squid. No problem.

However, the strange things that Soma subsequently escaped from were quite problematic.

A small jar of peanut butter, a small box of strawberry jam, and a large lump of fermented sourdough.

He took out the squid livers, put them in a small bowl, and mashed them with a spoon.

The squid's liver is green, and when crushed, it has a disgusting fishy smell. The audience near Soma Yukihira frowned upon smelling it.

Soma Yukihira then poured an equal amount of peanut butter into the crushed squid liver.

The rich sweetness of peanut butter and the fishy smell of squid liver collide, causing an unknown chemical reaction that produces an indescribable, eerie odor.

But that's not all.

He opened the box of strawberry jam again, scooped out a large spoonful, and without hesitation, mixed it directly into the bowl of indescribable stuff.

"F***ing! What is he doing?!"

"Strawberry jam...peanut butter...squid innards...it looks so disgusting..."

"Is this really something a human could eat? I feel like my eyes and nose have been contaminated..."

"What a culinary disaster! No, how could anyone make something like this in a competition?!"

The audience became enraged at the sight, and if they hadn't been empty-handed and it wasn't a competition, they would have thrown things at Soma Yukihira.

Meanwhile, at the Polar Star Dormitory, Shoji Sato's face was turning increasingly pale: "I seem to have suddenly gained a new memory... that memory tells me... not long ago, Daigo and I seemed to have eaten a similar dish made by Soma... and the result was... Daigo and I passed out on the spot... and we had diarrhea for several days..."

"No! Please, Shoji! Stop talking!" Aoki Daigo covered his face in anguish.

"Hey! You two, give me a break first—" Yoshino Yuuki was struggling to hold the banner by herself when she suddenly noticed that Yukihira Soma in the audience had made some new move: "Look! Soma seems to have added something to that thing again!"

Yukihira Sosuke, sitting in the audience, was adding a small spoonful of salt, soy sauce, and a spoonful of dough to the strange mixture and stirring quickly.

As he stirred, the ingredients that were originally unrelated or even mutually exclusive began to slowly blend together.

Soma Yukihira then took out a small, sealed jar, poured the strange mixture into it, and tightened the lid.

“Soma is fermenting.” Ibuzaki Shun, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke up.

"What?" Everyone in the Polaris Dormitory turned to look after hearing this.

“The liver of a squid is rich in protein and amino acids. If controlled properly, it can mix with the sugar in the jam and the yeast in the dough to produce a umami reaction similar to the fermentation of fish sauce,” Marui Zenji added, as if he knew something. “However, the time for the competition is limited, and under normal circumstances, there is not enough time for fermentation.”

“What about Yukihira…” Mito Ikumi looked at Yukihira Soma below with some worry.

"Don't worry, Chuangzhen has his own solutions, you can see." Chen Yuxing pointed to the audience.

At this point, Yukihira Souji put the jar into a pot of warm water. He controlled the water temperature at around 35 degrees Celsius and then added a little salt to the water. This temperature is when the yeast fermentation activity is strongest.

“But the fermented product made by this method will be very unstable, right?” Miyoko Hojo frowned as she watched Soma Yukihira’s operation. “If the temperature deviates, it will lead to the proliferation of miscellaneous bacteria or insufficient fermentation speed, and then the fermented product will be ruined.”

“Yes, it’s a risky move, but we have to trust Soma.” Chen Yuxing said, staring intently at the stage below, “He put in a lot of effort to make this move stable, and the sauce made from squid liver is very delicious, even though Soma added a lot of other things…”

"A fermented sauce made from squid liver?" Jiro Ono, sitting on the judging panel, asked with some surprise, realizing what Soma Yukihira was planning to do.

"Did you see something, Mr. Ono?" asked Shigeno Kuraki, who was sitting next to him, curiously.

“Yes, there is a technique in traditional sushi that involves fermenting squid liver with other ingredients to make a sauce similar to ‘shiozaki’.” Jiro Ono squinted and looked intently at Soma Yukihira below the stage. “That student was using a similar technique, but in theory, this technique requires a long period of low-temperature aging, and it should be almost impossible to complete in a short time.”

“I can understand squid liver, but peanut butter and strawberry jam are really hard to describe.” Shigeno Kuraki also looked at Soma Yukihira with a somewhat subtle expression: “These three things are too chaotic when combined. I can’t even imagine what the final taste will be like. But it seems that the contestant named Soma Yukihira is quite confident. I hope he can bring a special surprise.”

"That's what I was hoping for too." Jiro Ono smiled but didn't reply.

Meanwhile, Takumi's stuffed squid was in its final stages. He cooked the handmade spaghetti, scooped it out, and poured it into the pot of stewing stuffed squid to absorb the broth.

The noodles became translucent after absorbing the bright red seafood broth, and the squid tubes in the pot, after soaking up the broth, turned from their original brownish-red color to an enticing amber.

Takomi rolls the pasta into a pretty bird's nest shape at the bottom, makes a few cuts on the stuffed squid and leans it diagonally on one side, sprinkles a layer of Parmesan cheese on top, adds a few basil leaves, and finally pours the broth over it to finish.

"Please enjoy, judges, our Italian-style squid-stuffed pasta in broth."

Takumi, carrying five dishes, walked confidently to the judges' table.

The dishes on the five plates gleamed enticingly under the light.

The squid tube's outer skin perfectly coats the sauce, and the cut surface reveals the tempting filling inside.

The bird's nest-shaped pasta, paired with a bright red broth, exudes a hint of white wine sweetness.

"It gets full marks in both appearance and aroma."

Looking at the perfectly stuffed squid pasta in front of her, Shino Kuraki nodded in satisfaction to show her approval. Then she cut off a piece of squid tube and ate it with the generous filling on it.

The next second, the chewy texture of the squid tube's outer skin contrasted beautifully with the soft filling inside.

"good to eat!"

Zang Mu Zi Nai's eyes widened; the sweet and sour taste of the tomato broth removed any fishy smell the squid might have had.

The savory bacon and cheese in the filling complement the chewy squid tentacles, creating a delicious and balanced flavor. The pasta at the bottom also perfectly absorbs the essence of all the ingredients, making every bite a taste of the Mediterranean.

"It's amazing..." Kinjiro couldn't help but exclaim. "The noodles are very chewy, and the stuffed squid is prepared perfectly. Eating it feels as comfortable as feeling the sea breeze."

In the judges' minds, they seemed to be in a sunny coastal town in Italy, with the azure Mediterranean Sea stretching out before them. The sea breeze carried the aromas of cheese, white grapes, and tomatoes, caressing their bodies. They sat in an open-air restaurant, enjoying a delicious seafood feast while listening to the distant sound of an accordion. The warm, pleasant sunlight shone on their faces, making them want to immerse themselves in the moment and never wake up.

Chapter 81 Dark Squid

"What a dish with a traditional Italian flair!"

Commander-in-Chief Senzaemon Nakiri put down his fork and smiled slightly, and then the familiar scene unfolded again.

"Thorn-"

The commander-in-chief's kimono ripped open again.

"It's happened again! The Captain's clothes have ripped open for the fourth time in this competition!" Kawashima Rei shouted excitedly, "Takumi's stuffed squid also caused the Captain's clothes to burst open—"

But she stopped before she could finish speaking.