As those familiar with the reference in Japanese I used for the title may be suspecting, it's time to fulfill the promise I made a while ago! More specifically, it's time to talk about cooking, Shokugeki no Soma, and how I went from someone who just enjoyed the series and likes eating to actually giving it all a serious try. Before getting into the meat (pun very much intended) of the matter I suppose I should talk a little bit about my relationship with cooking itself in general, so without further delay, let's get started!
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| The book that started this whole adventure. |
Given some of the previous posts, I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise that, cooking aside, I am somewhat of a food fanatic. What may be more of a revelation is that this was not always the case. In fact, when I was a child I was an extremely picky eater. I hated all soups, most vegetables, and several traditional Mexican dishes like Bacalao and Chiles en Nogada. Concerning this last example, something interesting still happens nowadays: Even though I'm now pretty adventurous when it comes to food, I don't feel like giving those dishes a try; perhaps a psychological hang-up from being forced to eat them as a child. In addition to my former pickiness, there is was a second phenomenon that most people who know me irl are puzzled by: I couldn't cook anything. With "anything" I mean it, not even boil an egg; I used to joke that I could burn water. (Of course, that's ignoring assembling PB&Js, which I've been quite good at for some years.) To be honest it's not that I lacked the talent or common sense, I had just gotten used to all-you-can-eat dining halls back in university (let's go Big Red dining!) or the inexpensiveness of supermarket bentos here in Japan. That and my incredibly laziness. I never really had the need to start cooking myself.
Considering the above, it may be somewhat ironic that I've always liked the idea of cooking. Some of my favorite media are related to cooking actually: TV shows like Kitchen Nightmares or Iron Chef, movies like Tampopo, anime like Shokugeki no Soma (as you probably can tell by now), and even manga like Dungeon Meshi. As the italics suggest, the problem was that while I found the concept itself really appealing, actually going through with it was not. Getting all the utensils, having to buy ingredients and store them, the cleaning afterwards... it all seemed like such a drag that I just didn't even consider it. However, as with most things in this world, it was just a matter of the right combination of things at the correct time to change it all.
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| My hero and inspiration. |
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The actual beginning of this tale took place around the start of 2021 AD. I was looking at anime goods online and I ran into the book that I used as the first picture for this post. As mentioned earlier, I quite enjoy Shokugeki no Soma so I'm always on the look for interesting stuff related to the franchise and I ended up buying this book, mostly because of the illustrations. It may not be evident from the cover, but it also happens to include some of the recipes shown throughout the series by various characters. Having them so readily available, I couldn't help but wonder how they actually tasted... after all, if you're familiar with the series I don't think I need to describe to you how the characters react to most of the dishes. The image below should make the point quickly for those unfamiliar with it.
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| It's actually about cooking, trust me! |
That was the first cause that started putting everything into motion; the second one was the defining event of the last years: the COVID-19 pandemic. To be honest, I've continued having it quite chill so far; as a weeb I'm quite comfortable not leaving my room at all for extended periods of time. In fact, I would say that the total sum has been net positive until now, since I got the time to finally try things I would be too lazy to under normal circumstances; case in point cooking. And so, armed with some willpower, the Shokugeki no Soma book, and after spending quite a bit of money on utensils and ingredients (I kid you not, I only owned 1 knife, 1 spork, 1 spoon, 1 plate, and 1 bowl before), I decided to give a try to the first of the recipes written in the book: The apple risotto with bacon that Soma prepared during the breakfast contest against his dad, just before the Autumn election.
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| What I was aiming for... |
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I suppose there's no better place to start than with the ingredients that are required, so here's the list as it is written and a translation for you all:
Ingredients
- $\frac{1}{2}$ cup of rice
- An apple
- $4$ bacon strips
- $\frac{1}{4}$ of a cup of finely chopped onion.
- $2$ tbsp of butter
- $2$ tbsp of white wine
- $1$ tsp of lemon juice
- Salt, pepper, and Parmigiano-Reggiano to taste
- $1$ cup of water
- $1$ cup of apple juice
- $1$ tsp of granulated vegetable bouillon
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| And here they are in more visual representation. |
The instructions themselves are also included in the picture above, but I won't be translating those; I doubt that the few unfortunate souls who stumble upon this blog are going to be looking for recipes here (do feel free to contact me if you would like giving it a try). In any case, I get the impression they were written for someone with slightly more experience with cooking than me, since they were not as precise as a total novice could have used. Being 2021, my first instinct was to look for Youtube videos on how to cook risotto, and that certainly seems to have done the trick.
Even without the recipe, I'll mention a couple of important things. First, it takes some love to prepare. By love I mean time and attention ofc; letting the rice cook slowly and absorb the liquids while not letting it be too soft is by no means what I would call easy. The second is what Soma himself mentioned in the manga/anime while explaining the dish: it is indeed a crucial part of the recipe to add the apples towards the end of the cooking time to maintain their texture; the apple flavor is mainly due to the juice.
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| I had no idea how risotto is supposed to like so I could only trust uncle Gordon |
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| Bacon on the other hand I kind of gauged by how I usually like it. |
Given that I'm a complete beginner and that I've only eaten risotto on very rare occasions, you'll have to take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt but... the dish was amazing! Perhaps not to the level of losing any clothing item or hallucinating an anthropomorphic apple prince, but still something I was more then happy to finish of.
A vital part of what makes a good risotto is the texture, and my attempt was quite decent in that respect (from what I've read online): It was quite smooth and creamy, but not to the point of being mush. Part of it was due to being very careful with the cooking times and the amount of liquid, and another was the choice of rice. Rather than just use "standard" Japanese rice (the recipe itself doesn't ask for any specific kind), I ended up going for Carnaroli which is one of the recommended varieties for risotto. As for the texture of the apples themselves, the aforementioned timing meant they were only slightly cooked, but still crispy enough to provide quite a nice contrast with the rice.
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| Don't take it from me, take it from the experts. |
As described by Megumi and Isshiki in the manga panel above, the aroma was quite refreshing thanks to the lemon and the apples, something that carried over to the flavor as well. Apple is the dominant one for sure, but it's by no means overwhelming and the onion flavor can also be perceived. By itself it's all good, but what really takes it another level is the combination of the risotto with the umami of a good slice of bacon, the saltiness of the cheese, and the spiciness of freshly grounded black pepper (I followed Soma's advice and added it right away). Not part of the recipe, but since I had opened the bottle for cooking with it, I accompanied the dish with a glass of the Pinot Grigio I used.
This is certainly something I would not have imagined for breakfast, but after tasting it I can say that it would actually work. It's not really that heavy despite the bacon, but quite filling nevertheless. I didn't want to go through the hassle of cooking that early in the morning and so I made it for dinner; I'm happy to report it works just as well for an evening meal.
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| ...and this is how it ended up looking. |
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| Indeed, I did take Cornell's legendary Intro to Wines back in the day. |
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I'll be honest: I didn't think I'd enjoy the process of cooking as much as I did and I certainly didn't think the end result would end up being this good. On Twitter I promised I would write this post a while ago, so by the time of this writing I have actually tried cooking several other things: From super simple noodle dishes like chow mein to hamburgers to authentic handmade tortillas and pasilla chilly sauce (the two latter thanks to being able to buy anything online nowadays and to my mom's recipes). I had wondered if it was just something I would try for a bit and drop just as fast, but it seems like cooking is here to stay.
I don't really intend to turn this into a cooking blog (I promise a math post is on the works!), although food is certainly an important part of it, so I won't be writing about what I try unless there's something special to it... like another recipe from Shokugeki no Soma! I picked the recipe and bought some of the ingredients some time ago, but for one reason or another I haven't had time to give it the necessary focus. Summer holidays are here though, so the time to challenge myself to another Shokugeki has arrived. I won't spoil what it will be, but the image below should give you some idea. Look forward to it!
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| My sense of smell isn't that good unfortunately. |
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