Food Wars: My adoptive mother is Nakiri Managi Chapter 047

What kind of ingredients can be considered top-tier?

Facing this question, Erina’s answer might be: French foie gras, Japanese Wagyu beef, Italian Parmesan cheese, Korean ginseng, Australian champagne crab, Spanish Iberian ham…

However.

Chu Yang, on the other hand, believed that.

Ingredients have no distinction of high or low, expensive or cheap.

Every ingredient, its taste is unique, with its different cooking methods.

Just like the saying in “A Bite of China”: The most high-end ingredients often require the simplest cooking methods.

As long as the ingredients are fresh, their taste will definitely be fresh, lively, and full of life, and such ingredients can be called “high-end ingredients.”

…

“Incomprehensible.”

“The ingredients used are all simple, but why can they satisfy my God’s Tongue?”

“Even… make me crave for more?”

Swallowing, Erina, who had come back to her senses, couldn’t help but feel lost!

Perhaps it was because she came from a prestigious family in the Japanese culinary world, or perhaps it was because she possessed the God’s Tongue ability, which led her to grow up in a luxurious culinary environment from a young age, only exposed to top-tier ingredients and exquisite dishes.

This made her develop a strong sense of distance and superiority towards the simple dishes eaten by ordinary people every day.

In her eyes.

Dishes like egg fried rice were completely “unworthy.”

And those who could make these home-cooked dishes were also “unworthy” chefs!

Even, in her perception, commoner dishes often lacked refinement and delicacy, unable to satisfy her ultimate pursuit of gourmet food.

For example, in the original story’s transfer student assessment plot, when Yukihira Soma made a seemingly ordinary fried rice, she didn’t even taste a bite before announcing his failure.

Although she did eat a little bit later, she still disdained it!

Perhaps.

The roughness and simplicity of commoner dishes.

In her opinion, it was a blasphemy against the art of cooking.

With her God’s Tongue, she was actually more willing to pursue noble, exquisite, and complex dishes.

Only such dishes could touch her God’s Tongue.

But!

Years of persistence and dedication.

Were completely defeated and collapsed in front of this Dragon Dumpling dish!

…

“Indeed.”

“The quality of ingredients can affect the taste level of a dish.”

“But is preserving the original flavor of ingredients the highest realm of cooking? I somewhat disagree with this view.”

Chu Yang said indifferently.

Hearing this, Erina’s expression changed, and she stared deeply at Chu Yang, feeling an indescribable taste in her heart.

She wanted to refute, but then she thought that what he said seemed to be right!

“The pursuit of cooking should be to choose appropriate methods to process ingredients.”

“When the original flavor of an ingredient is very delicious, we can try our best to preserve it, such as steaming a whole crab or blanching shrimp.”

“But when part of the taste of an ingredient is unpleasant, we should selectively preserve it, such as blanching beef and mutton before cooking, or removing the internal organs of fish and adding ginger shreds to remove the fishy smell before steaming…”

“And when ingredients collide with other ingredients and can stimulate more rich flavors, one should not hesitate to combine them in cooking.”

“For example, braised dishes choose to add sugar and soy sauce, (braised dishes) choose to add various spices, French cuisine chooses complex sauces based on stock, and molecular gastronomy chooses to reassemble ingredients at a more microscopic level…”

“In short, what I’m saying is to ‘choose the appropriate method,’ not ‘choose the best method.’”

“An ingredient cannot have only one cooking method, and there is no such thing as ‘best.’”

“Let’s talk about the shrimp in front of us.”

“It can be blanched, or seasoned with salt and pepper, baked with Portuguese sauce, pan-fried with butter, or even made into tempura, or even Dragon Dumplings.”

“But between them, who is more (high-class)? Aren’t they all still that same shrimp?”

…

After speaking.

Chu Yang slightly raised his head, looking at Erina, a faint, unreadable smile on his face.

Erina, on the other hand, unnaturally averted her gaze. She suddenly realized that she wasn’t as noble as she had imagined, nor could she see the essence of ingredients as thoroughly as everyone said.

“Any ingredient.”

“Cannot deceive my God’s Tongue.”

“Good and bad, noble and lowly, indeed cannot be clearly distinguished!”

“Just like tremella, in ancient times, it was a rare tribute to the emperor, listed among the eight treasures.”

“Later, with the development of artificial cultivation techniques, tremella became widespread and is now a common ingredient for soups!”

“However, similar types of ingredients in different countries and regions, different climates, and different breeding and cultivation conditions will definitely have significant differences.”

“The reason why one can’t taste the difference is simply because they haven’t eaten enough!”

“Take beef, for example. Japanese A 5 Wagyu beef is definitely much better than ordinary beef.”

“Therefore.”

“I still believe that.”

“Every ingredient has its most delicious moment, and the shorter the distance to that point in time, the more top-tier it is!”

Erina did not directly answer Chu Yang’s point of view, but instead said somewhat defiantly.

…

“Some people will stand on a high ground of original flavor and criticize many heavily flavored dishes as ‘taste bud degeneration’.”

“Is such behavior just to make oneself seem very high-class?”

“However.”

“This kind of criticism.”

“Is similar to constantly shouting ‘tradition’ and ‘craftsmanship’ to criticize industrialization.”

“The premise of preserving traditional craftsmanship is that tradition is essence, not dross. The premise of preserving the original flavor of ingredients is also that the original flavor is delicious, not off-flavor.”

“Insisting that a pot hammered 36, 000 times by hand is more high-class than a pot made by an industrial machine is putting the cart before the horse.”

“Similarly.”

“Not based on the actual ingredients and characteristics of the cuisine.”

“Only to elevate one’s own high taste, is actually not high-class at all.”

“In my opinion, this is a very low ‘food police’ behavior!”

“Ancient Chinese sayings about cooking often mention the principle of ‘making tasteless things flavorful, making flavorful things stand out, and removing miscellaneous flavors’.”

“Therefore, every dish has its unique characteristics and features. Why must we label it and then start comparing its superiority?”

“Isn’t this overgeneralization, incompleteness, unscientific, and even… malicious!”

“Huh?”

“You… you…”

Erina’s heart was like surging waves hitting the shore, unable to calm down for a long time.

Grandpa, I finally understand why you personally arranged for such a person to be a Totsuki lecturer!

He.

Is simply… my nemesis!

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