Chapter 7: Nakiri Mana's Satisfaction (Patreon)

Even so. That gesture. It tarnished the dignified image of a noble young lady.

But it was that unconscious lick that let her fully grasp the supreme secret hidden in Ramsay's char siu rice!

---

"Oh!" "It's onion!"

The words slipped from Mana Nakiri's lips in a soft murmur.

A sharp, pungent scent still lingered at the tip of her nose, shooting straight to the crown of her skull. Her brows drew together faintly, and her ragged breathing slowly settled.

The next instant, she looked at Ramsay standing before her.

Her eyes brimmed with bewilderment and fierce curiosity.

"You used fresh onion, raw, minced it into a fine paste, and spread it right over the scalding teriyaki char siu sauce!" "When I leaned in close to the dish just now, that vivid, nose-stinging bite shot straight up my nasal passages and numbed my tongue in an instant. But there's one thing I just can't figure out."

---

Then she pressed a fingertip lightly to her lower lip.

Carefully, step by step, she replayed the flavor that had just crossed her tongue.

"Fresh onion is fierce, yes, but the teriyaki sauce underneath is still scalding hot. With the onion minced that fine and spread across the surface, the sauce's residual heat alone should be enough to steam it half-cooked!" "And." "Once onion is heated." "That cold, sharp pungency fades dramatically, replaced by a mellow, sweet, cooked flavor!" "But." "When I tasted it." "The onion's fresh, tongue-stinging bite hadn't faded in the slightest. It kept all the sharp edge of raw onion!" "I'm genuinely curious, and genuinely baffled. Wrapped in scalding sauce, how did you lock in the onion's original character without letting a drop of its aroma or pungency escape?"

---

Ramsay heard her out.

He smiled faintly, then slowly raised his right hand and turned it palm up.

A single plump green pea lay in his palm, a bright jade color, glowing with a soft sheen under the lights of the counter.

Mana Nakiri's gaze fell on the pea. Her pupils contracted sharply, and she froze on the spot. "A green pea? That's impossible... I tasted this dish carefully..." she murmured to herself.

"My God's Tongue." "From start to finish, it never caught even a trace..." "Of that distinctive pea aroma!" "Could it be..."

She was every bit the top gourmet her God's Tongue made her. Within a few short breaths, a bold idea she had never heard of before took shape in her mind!

---

Ramsay had ground green peas into a smooth purée.

Then he had spread it evenly over the scalding teriyaki sauce as a natural insulating barrier. It shut out the sauce's heat and protected the raw crunch and bite of the onion above.

Watching shock and sudden understanding surge through her eyes, Ramsay knew she had already seen through the trick in his dish.

He couldn't help laughing again.

"It seems Miss Nakiri has seen through my method." "I did use green pea purée as an insulating layer, to block the residual heat of the teriyaki sauce. Your God's Tongue truly lives up to its reputation!"

Then he rolled the pea between his fingertips and went on to explain the trade-off. "A green pea has a mild flavor on its own. Spread in a thin layer over the sauce, the strong onion pungency above would completely swallow its faint taste!" "So." "Even for a God's Tongue diner." "I figured you shouldn't be able to detect it." "I never meant to highlight the pea's flavor at all. In this dish, its only job is to serve as an insulating ingredient!"

"Mm!" "You've tasted it." "So you should know what the core of this Sorrowful Rice is." "It's the salty, rich honeyed sweetness of the braised char siu, set against the shocking, fresh heat of raw onion. Two extremes colliding and blending. That's the flavor I wanted to present!" "So, Miss Nakiri, now that you've tasted it, what do you think? I hope this dish didn't disappoint you."

Ramsay's gaze was clear as a spring, and he waited quietly for her judgment.

---

A moment of silence passed.

The numbing sting of onion still lingered on the tip of Mana's tongue.

After a long while. She parted her lips. And, seriously and sincerely, she told him what she truly felt.

"It has been a long time since any dish stirred my God's Tongue to such an instinctive thrill!" "Truly." "This dish of yours... mm..." "Sorrowful Rice, was it? It really did give me an experience unlike any I've had before!"

She paused, and her voice carried both praise and cool objectivity. "I've never seen a dish with such a bold trade-off, one that deliberately sacrifices the presence of one ingredient just to set off the unique edge of another!" "The char siu." "The braising time." "You controlled it perfectly." "Fat and lean melt together, tender and never dry in the mouth. I can clearly taste how much effort you put into braising the meat." "The most striking part is the finish, that sudden blast of pungency!" "For a moment, I went blank." "It was full of unexpected delight." "And using the sharp sting of raw onion to keep stirring the diner's senses, even drawing out tears of reflexive sourness. That approach is novel and original!"

---

But. Then. Her tone turned severe and blunt.

She pointed out the dish's flaws without any attempt at hiding them. "But just as you said yourself." "One dish may dazzle, but as a chef your overall fundamentals are lacking, and many details aren't polished enough." "The green pea layer is spread a little thin, so the insulation suffers. A bit more thickness, and the onion's fresh heat would hit harder and last longer!" "And." "The starch used to thicken the teriyaki sauce." "You added slightly too much. The sauce is thick and heavy. With less, the texture would be smoother and lighter."

When she finished, she delivered her final verdict. "But I won't throw out a dish that shook my taste buds over minor flaws." "All told." "I'm very satisfied with this meal." "Your Sorrowful Rice truly gave me a wonderful surprise!"

Having heard Mana Nakiri's fair, objective appraisal, with its strengths and flaws laid out plainly, Ramsay nodded and accepted every shortcoming she had pointed out.

He knew full well. His weaknesses were glaringly obvious.

His deeper understanding of ingredients and his command of cooking technique were far from thorough.

And the reason this Sorrowful Rice had such a striking touch of ingenuity was only the practiced feel he'd built up over years of repetition!

---

When it came down to it. This dish wasn't his own creation.

He had merely borrowed a classic idea from a predecessor, presenting someone else's gift as his own.

Even though he had studied and refined it countless times since childhood, he knew in his heart that compared to the original Sorrowful Rice by Stephen Chow, the God of Cookery...

Mm! The gap between them. Was nothing short of heaven and earth.

That he'd been able to make Mana Nakiri, a woman with the God's Tongue, sit up and take notice today was thanks entirely to the brilliance of the original dish's concept, plus the solid practical skill he'd honed through years of effort, which held everything together!

Had he served her any other dish, without such a mature and ingenious framework to fall back on, he'd probably have met a completely different verdict, one full of nothing but flaws!