I am practicing in Tokyo

Chapter 100 Oden must be cooked with care

On the evening of the second day, Fujii stood in front of the closed oden shop, frowning and looking at the closed iron rolling door. Yesterday's oden tasted good, and he had planned to buy another batch.

"Grandma Nengdeng, do you have a day off today? It's rare!"

He murmured to himself and was about to turn around and leave when a drunken young woman stumbled from behind and fell down in front of the iron rolling door. She was wearing a high-end dress, and her appearance and temperament matched that of this old and lonely little house.

The commercial street is out of place.

"It's just Kiku Masamune's sake, I can still drink...a lot, vomit!"

This woman was so unreasonable that she vomited all over the floor in front of Noto's shop. Fujii couldn't bear it. Even if she wanted to get drunk, she shouldn't be in front of her shop, affecting other people's business.

"Miss, please get up and go home? Do you need me to call a taxi for you?"

He patted her shoulder and reminded her kindly.

"Young master, this is my home. Here is the key, have you seen it? Little ghost head."

The drunk Noto Kiko took out a bunch of keys, held them in her hand, and showed them to Fujii.

"Are you a relative of Noto's mother-in-law? A niece or something?"

Fujii shook his head. Having such a debauched junior is a bad thing for the kind and kind-hearted Noto mother-in-law, right?

"Ah, yes! I am...Miko Noto, her niece, Aunt Noto. She has returned to her hometown in the countryside. I am visiting the store these days."

After vomiting, Noto Kiko's energy recovered a lot. She slept in a five-star luxury suite last night, so she was not sleepy. After she regained consciousness, she began to make up her life background. It only lasted three days anyway.

No! It's been two days.

She opened the iron rolling door with the key in her hand. When Noto Kiko pulled up the rolling door, Fujii helped her and easily raised the rusty rolling door.

"Thank you, Fujii-kun."

Noto Kiko subconsciously said, this is how she usually calls Fujii when she comes to buy things.

"Do you know me? Grandma Noto told you?"

Fujii felt strange, he had never seen this woman before, although after taking a closer look, she did look a bit similar to Granny Noto, especially her eyes, especially when she looked at him after waking up.

"Hi! Yes, you're here to buy oden, right? I'll cook it for you right now."

Noto Kiko sensed something was wrong, even though Fujii would never have dreamed that she was actually Noto Kiko, so she quickly changed the subject.

The making of oden is not complicated, and it is even easy to promote and popular because of its simplicity. However, Noto Kiko's mind was empty and her hands became clumsy. She made a grimace and remembered the words of the smiling salesman.

"You should need this. In exchange, I will get your excellent cooking skills."

Do you have to start from scratch with the cooking skills that you rely on to make a living?

After all, Noto Kiko has lived for decades, so she can still bear the price. She turned her head to look at the waiting Fujii tree with a slight apology and said sorry.

"I'm very sorry. I got confused after drinking. I don't know how to cook oden at all."

I knew that your hands didn't look like you were cooking often.

It was no surprise to Fujii that the young Noto Kiko's fingers were green and tender, and she looked totally untouched. She must have never cooked before, right?

Noto’s mother-in-law is not here, so if she runs the store, the sign will be destroyed!

Today is Friday. If there are only two days, he can still help with the cooking. Noto's mother-in-law always deliberately charges less when he buys oden. She is still a very good person, and she can also make money as a part-time job.

Noto's mother-in-law lives alone and relies on this small shop to make a living. Even if it closes down, it's better than asking this woman to come and see the shop, right?

Looking at this unreliable woman, Fujii opened the cooking skill on the gold finger panel.

"Cooking skills; LV3/81%."

You can also practice your cooking skills and get some free attribute points.

It's a pity that as a high school student from an island country, he has never worked a day job, which makes him feel like his life experience is incomplete.

Thank you for my great mercy.

Fujii took one last look at the overwhelmed Noto Kiko, rolled up his sleeves, and asked.

"I know some cooking skills. After you eat the oden I made, let's talk about the price of working during the two days when Noto's mother-in-law is away."

"Huh? Is that so?"

Noto Kiko said in surprise, do you think she is stupid? Here to cheat her out of salary? Could a seemingly good boy like Fujiiki turn out to be such a salary thief?

After her body became younger, her thinking became much more lively than before, and she no longer had the slow thoughts of an old woman.

After washing his hands, Fujii took out two large white and tender radishes, about the thickness of an adult's upper arm, from the kitchen refrigerator behind the counter on the first floor.

Wash the daikon as well, pick up a kitchen knife and quickly slice them into standard three-centimeter-thick discs. Hold the edge of the rotating disc and use the blade to peel off the skin with one hand. This action makes Noto Kiko nervous.

Open your mouth, then cover it to avoid losing your composure.

I feel more skilled at cooking than I did before! How did he develop such cooking skills?

Although her cooking skills were gone, Noto Kiko's vision was still there. After Fujii finished processing the radish slices, she heated up a pot of hot water and deep-fried the semi-finished fried food in the oden until golden brown, and the aroma of the food was overflowing.

, the smell made Noto Kiko's stomach growl as she just emptied the five internal organs temple.

"Want to try it?"

Fujii picked out two meatballs of slightly inferior quality, put them in a bowl and handed them over.

"Thank you, Fujii-kun."

Her body became younger and her appetite became bigger. Noto Kiko clasped her hands together, took the bowl respectfully, and squinted her eyes bit by bit to taste it like an old lady.

The ingredients and kitchen utensils are the same, but why does his fried food taste better than mine?

Noto Kiko was puzzled, and Fujii looked at her strangely. He was obviously a young man, but he looked like an old woman while eating. He was a strange guy.

If you want oden to be delicious, knife skills and heat alone are not enough. Fujii opened the iron bucket containing the soup stock, scooped some with a long ladle, and drank it.

It’s close to the production level of LV3 professional-level cooking. In terms of the positioning of a small store, it’s already pretty good.

He commented objectively that if it wasn't delicious, he wouldn't buy it again the next day.

But that’s not enough, it can be even more delicious!

Once he makes up his mind to do something, he won't do it half-heartedly. This is true for football and baseball, as well as kendo and cooking.

The oden shop has quite a rich reserve of ingredients. Granny Noto has been making oden with all her heart, and the whole process is made by hand as much as possible, instead of buying the finished product and heating it to fool customers.

Find two palm-sized pieces of dried bonito, a large handful of shiitake mushrooms, a few kelp strips, and the oden base package.

First, crush the shiitake mushrooms one by one with your hands, then crush the kombu (kelp head) and add it. Put it into the gauze bag together with the dried bonito. Fill it fully, turn it over and seal it with a string. It is cooked in advance.

The water is also half boiled and thrown into a large iron pot with six liters of water along with the base packet.

"Is there any secret to adding dried bonito?"

Noto Kiko asked in confusion after watching Fujii's fluent operation.

"It's just to enrich the taste, there's nothing special about it."

Fujii answered truthfully, turned around, picked up the boiling water bottle in the kitchen, and poured it into the basin containing the fried food he had just fried. This step was to remove the oil. It was a routine operation for professional chefs. In fact, the difference in cooking skills lies in a

It’s all about the small, inconspicuous details.

Then cut bamboo rings (a food that looks like young bamboo shoots), konjac slices, and white radish slices all three centimeters thick. Use a kitchen knife to peel off the water chestnuts. In the food culture of the island country, water chestnuts are not very good.

I mean, this is not to improve the taste, but to do as the Romans do.

Next, lightly make a half-deep cross in the center of the white radish slices. This step is to make it easier to cook and absorb the flavor of the stock.

Put the completely processed white radish slices into the pot separately, and add a small handful of rice. This can make the boiling point higher and the white radish slices have a softer texture.

After all the ingredients were prepared in advance, the water surface of the soup stock began to boil. Fujii didn't stop for a moment. He tasted the soup stock with a long spoon, shook his head, found an unopened bottle of Kiku Masamune's ten-year brew, and poured it into the soup.

Take about 50 milligrams.

"Wait a minute, that's almost 10,000 yen worth of wine!"

Noto Kiko's 6 million yen dress was what she wanted, but when she saw her old wine collection being wasted like this, she couldn't help but step forward and grab the bottle, hold it in her arms, and complain sideways.

"You will lose money if you do this!"

(End of chapter)