Elysion Online ~The Dragonewt and The Summoner~

Chapter 44: Cooking Contest Battle - Fish, Dessert Edition

The fourth category is Ion's favorite fish dish. The blonde-haired handsome man chose Thai poelee.

Poelee is similar to saut, but poelee is steamed and saut is fried. The results were excellent, but it was just an ordinary poelee...apparently the judges' opinions were not taken into account.

The score is all 10, which seems to be a given.

Now it's my turn. I had already decided what I was going to cook. The old man at the fish shop had told me.

"Bake, steam, and boil. Each has its own merits...but Seigo, remember this. Tasting the original flavor of fish is what fish cooking is all about!"

In other words, what I make is sashimi. But that's not all. You've probably noticed by now...I'm going to make a dish that Japan is proud to present to the world and it's called sushi!

The first step is to make sushi vinegar. The ingredients are vinegar, sugar and salt. You can change the taste of the vinegar by adding different amounts. I make two kinds of sushi vinegar, one with the same amount of vinegar and sugar and one with a little less sugar.

The next step is to make sushi rice. First, cook the rice. The key to making sushi rice is to cook it with less water. This is because the sushi vinegar will be added later. Put the cooked rice into a tub, add the vinegar and mix it with a rice scoop. The sushi rice is then finished with another batch of sushi vinegar.

Now comes the real part. The fish is selected and dismembered. The fish I chose were tuna, salmon and sea bream. I carefully selected the ingredients this time. The tuna's fatty tuna and medium fatty tuna are unavoidable and salmon is also a popular material in the tuna class.

And I chose the light and airy sea bream. Since this was a fish dish, I avoided squid, octopus, shrimp, crab and scallops. It's delicious, though.

Let's start breaking it down. I was bold enough to take it apart. I hold up the dismantled pieces to appeal to the judges. What I'm doing is a dismantling show. This is also what the old man at the fish shop said.

"If you make sushi, you can't miss the dismantling show. It's only when the customers are entertained that the food shines"

That's why I chose sushi this time.

The dismantling show was over. After the dismantling show, I started to make the rice. Three times with one hand, I gently grip the rice to make the ingredients. The ingredients were bite-sized: o-toro (fatty tuna), chutoro (medium fatty tuna), salmon and madai (sea bream). I seared each of them with a gas burner. A total of eight pieces were made.

I prepared soy sauce, wasabi sauce, salt and grated ponzu (ponzu is a kind of Japanese sauce made from grated radish) to be used when eating.

The judges' evaluation was dramatic. I wondered if this was how foreigners felt when they ate sushi for the first time. Then they tried the seared version and were even more astonished. It is a wonder of sushi that the taste can change completely just by searing it.

The score was all 20 and I was now in a position to win. I've cornered the blonde handsome man.

I looked at Ion and saw that she was drooling, just like Lily. She noticed my gaze, wiped her drool and turned her head away. I didn't have to worry about it.

The final round was dessert. Lily and the others all had a glint in their eyes at this genre. They are girls after all. Now, what will the handsome blonde make?

The dish he made was crepes. Surprising...I was expecting him to make at least a cake.

Then I'll make a dessert too. However, since I had whipped cream and sauces like chocolate, strawberry and blueberry, the only thing missing from my dish is ice cream.

So I'll make ice cream. The ingredients are eggs, sugar, milk and vanilla extract.

First, make the meringue. Separate the eggs into yolks and whites and stir the egg whites in a bowl. Then add the sugar and mix to make a meringue.

Next, add the egg yolks to the meringue, mix, transfer to a container and refrigerate for one hour. Remove from the container, add milk and vanilla essence while mixing and chill.

Now, prepare the parfait glasses. Yes, the dish you will make is a parfait. The ingredients are aloe, pineapple, banana, tangerine, strawberries, melon, cherries, blueberries and ice cream.

First put the diced aloe, then the ice cream. Next, add diced melon and ice cream again. Add pineapple, then whipped cream. Finally, decorate with bananas, tangerines, strawberries, melons, cherries and blueberries.

This is a deluxe parfait. Let the judges pour the various sauces to their liking.

I win. The blonde handsome man is despairing in front of the overwhelming volume.

And I got all 20. They liked the look of it and the ice cream. If the ice cream didn't exist, the impact would be amazing.

As a result, the cooking contest battle was all mine to win! I did it!

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Author note:

This was the cooking event. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Next chapter, I'll talk about wins, losses and rewards in the cooking event. Look forward to it!