Chapter 673

Chapter 673

TENKEN 673 Curry Soup

「Little girl. Welcome back」

「Nn. I'm back」

Fran was facing an old man at the cooking guild.

He is the food critic who helped us last year. I don't really like his vibe that makes me remind of Kaibara-sensei though. (1)

Well, it seems that it was only me who thought of him as someone who had taken care of us while Fran perceived him as a rival.

I could tell that by the expression on her face as she faced the man with a scowl.

I'm sure they have acknowledged each other in their own way at the last cooking contest though... Well, it can't be helped since they are not the type that will act all familiar with each other.

The old man's name is Mecham. He is a bigwig in the cooking guild. (2)

「Then, what's your answer to the proposal I made the other day? You have given it some thought, haven't you?」

「Nn. I'll set up my stall too」

「Would you go with curry again this year?」

「Nn!」

「Hohou! How interesting. A year has passed since then, and the number of restaurants serving curry dishes has exploded here in Barbra. The advantage of being a rarity has already faded, you know?」

「Fufun. Master's curry is not just any curry, so it's no problem」

「Well, I'll be looking forward to it then」

「I'll make sure everyone recognizes that curry is the best food in the world in this year's cooking contest!」

Actually, we had arrived in Barbra yesterday, but the cooking contest had already started.

I didn't think we would be able to participate in the contest in time, so after showing up at the cooking guild, we had planned to devote ourselves to buying food and studying cooking, butーー.

The stall we set up last year, the Black Tail Stall, has become a legend as the original curry food stall, and it seems that the contest organizer has been flooded with inquiries about whether we would be participating in the contest this year.

What would happen if they found that Fran was just playing around buying and eating without setting her stall? I could foresee that the cooking guild would be blamed for that.

Hence, the cooking guild begged Fran to help them.

"Just for a day! Can you please set up the Black Tail Stall for one day?" he begged.

Fran thought that her buying and eating spree was important, but she also thought it was important to spread curry cuisine to the world. Since they only asked her to open the stall for a day, she decided to accept their request.

「Then we'll set up the place the day before the final. We could also provide you with staff and supplies」

「Okay」

And just like that, we got involved in the cooking contest again this year, though, not as a contestant...

「Master, what kind of curry should we serve?」

『Umm, let's see...』

It had to be curry. Fran and the customers were expecting it, and there was no reason to go for something else.

But if possible, I wanted to make it different from last year. Curry bread would be fine, but would curry rice work for this year?

「Last year's curry rice was no good」

『That's last year. But maybe we could use it this year』

Last year was a struggle for us. There were a lot of things to worry about, like profitability and sales volume. But this year was different.

We won't be related to the main contest, our stall would be a sort of exhibition this year, so we don't have to worry about the profitability.

「I see」

『In other words, we don't even have to worry about the cost or anything! Even a super luxurious curry is allowed!』

Rather, a dish with a special appeal that is hardly profitable will be more appreciated.

「Let's make something awesome then!」

『Something awesome, huh?...』

「We'll use the best meat to make the best curry. Let's make the kind of curry that will make everyone want to eat nothing but curry!」

How frightening. But that might be good too.

Since the end of last year, we have accumulated a great amount of magic beast's meat from the Plains of the Demon Wolf. We probably even have enough meat for 10,000 servings by using the low-ranked magic beast's meat alone.

I've always felt reluctant to throw away something edible, so I've been kind of hoarding it, but I never thought it would come in handy here!

Our main problem is rice. I wonder can we prepare a lot of it now?

We should ask the cooking guild and go with curry rice if we can get rice.

That's what I thought, but...

『I never thought there'd be so little rice...』

「Nn」

We searched all over Barbra for rice, but found very little. Not that there was no rice at all, but there was a lot of old rice, and to be honest, it did not suit our needs.

Originally, the largest importer of rice was the Kingdom of Belios. The Kingdom of Belios, which has abundant water and is slightly colder than the Kingdom of Kranzel, is said to have been a major rice producing area. Their climate is probably similar to the Tohoku region in Japan.

This month, however, the supply of rice from there has dropped drastically. This was probably due to the disturbance caused by the great magic beast.

The Kingdom of Belios had their own way of storing the rice they harvested, from which they exported a little each month.

This would allow them to provide high-quality products, and in the event of any domestic incidents, they could cancel exports and secure food.

And then there was the big incident last month, which led to a decrease in the exports volume.

『We have no choice. Let's think of an alternative』

But I don't want to make the same curry bread as last year. It's too boring.

「Would using roux no good?」

『Roux, huh?... Wait, maybe we could make it into soup?』

Let's make it a curry soup. If we make it filling and satisfying, we should be able to make it work! I think we could use more meat too.

「Meat-filled curry soup」

「Woof!」

Drool began to flow from the corners of Fran and Urushi's mouths. It seems they couldn't contain themselves anymore just by imagining it.

Now that I have the approval of the curry-loving duo, let's try this.

===TLN====

(1) Yuzan Kaibara, a famous gourmand who tries to sabotage his rival in Oishinbo (1983), a manga about cooking.

(2) Need help! Can anyone check what the previous TL group used for his (Mecham) name.