Everyday Life Starting with Food Wars

Megumi Tadokoro took out her number plate: "I'm in Group B."

Zenji Marui, Shun Ibuzaki, and Ryoko Sakaki are all in Group A.

Miyoko Hojo, Yuuki Yoshino, and Megumi Tadokoro are in Group B.

Besides the Polar Star Dormitory members, Hayama Akira, Kurokiba Ryo, and the others who had just made those threats were also heading towards Group A.

The Aldini brothers, Alice, and Hisako Shinto were walking towards Group B's passage.

"It's about half and half, so let's all do our best and see you in the finals!" Chen Yuxing said, picking up his knife case.

The venue for Area A is located in the eastern annex between the moon and the sky.

Compared to the main venue, the layout here is more compact, with thirty cooking stations arranged in a semi-circle, and each cooking station has the name of its respective contestant on it.

Chen Yuxing walked to his kitchen counter and put down his knife box.

He glanced around and saw that the two platforms on the left and right were occupied by Hayama Ryo and Kurokiba Ryo, with Yukihira Soma directly opposite him.

At 10:40 a.m., the contestants began to check the ingredients and tools they had brought.

Just as everyone was busy preparing, commotion came from the judges' panel at the front of the venue.

The staff brought over several chairs and placed them behind the long table.

"The judges are entering!" someone shouted from the stands.

Leading the way was a little old man with gray hair and a kind smile on his face.

"That's Mr. Kita Shuji! The founder of the Kita Gourmet Club!"

Following him were a middle-aged man with a mustache and a man wearing glasses.

"Food connoisseur Shigenobu Koda! And food expert Shingo Ando!"

Just after the judges took their seats, the last two judges entered, surrounded by bodyguards.

They were two very similar and beautiful women.

They walked to the center and sat down on either side, casually tossing their expensive handbags on the table, then took off their sunglasses and looked at the students competing below.

"Those...those are the Chihiro Natsume and Chihiro Orie sisters?!"

The spectators in the stands gasped.

"The CEO of HUB Food Group, the Queen of Curry, the two who dominate the entire Japanese curry market."

"They actually managed to get such a big shot to be a judge...?"

"HUB's best-selling product is curry, and they actually want us to make curry for these two queens to taste...?"

Chapter 64 begins

"HUB Food Group CEO Natsume Chihiro and her sister Orie Chihiro are said to have developed a Curry Princess product that has sold over 70 billion yen."

"And she's so much prettier in person than in the magazines! It's like our curry is nothing but child's play to her. That's terrifying..."

The contestants' morale was noticeably low, and many of them were trembling as they held their knives.

Of the two sisters, Natsume Chihaya stayed in Group A as a judge, while her younger sister Orie Chihaya turned and left, presumably to Group B.

Chihiro Natsume took the microphone from the staff member, stood up, and scanned the contestants below.

"To be honest, I didn't want to come today."

Chihiro Natsume's first words silenced everyone in the room.

"Curry is a very mature, even somewhat boring, food in this day and age."

"No matter what you do, what you end up serving is just a paste made up of various spices."

"As a curry food business owner, I taste all kinds of curries made by my R&D team every day, so I'm already tired of curry."

"I wasn't particularly interested in the competition among you students."

"However, Totsuki Culinary Academy is, after all, a renowned name in the Japanese culinary world."

"So I hope that you all standing here can let me taste a curry that can excite me and make me tremble."

"Don't make me feel like I've wasted my time coming here today."

After speaking, Chihiro Natsume sat back down and tossed the microphone back to the staff.

The entire Group A venue remained silent for a long time. Chihiro Natsume's words weighed heavily on the hearts of every contestant, and many of them began to break out in a cold sweat. Their prepared strategies were disrupted at this moment.

However, some people are completely unaffected.

Kurokiba Ryo lowered his head and began tying his flame-patterned headband around his head, his aura becoming increasingly ferocious.

Both Hayama Akira and Yukihira Soma took a deep breath, their eyes sharpening and becoming serious.

As Chen Yuxing inspected the various spices on the cooking counter and the casserole pot beside it, an idea came to him.

"At this point, everyone in Group B should be in about the same boat..." he muttered to himself.

The clock on the wall kept ticking.

"Ten, nine, eight..."

The final countdown also came over the loudspeaker.

"Three, two, one!"

"Then... the preliminary rounds of the Totsuki Academy Autumn Selection Tournament shall now officially begin!"

As the competition began, the thirty students in Group A quickly sprang into action, and the sounds of chopping vegetables, frying, and clattering spatulas filled the entire venue.

Chen Yuxing took a breath in front of his kitchen counter, then picked up a cleaver and began to process the prepared ingredients.

A loud bang suddenly came from the kitchen counter next to us.

After Kurokiba Ryo put on the flame-patterned headband, he was no longer listless as he had been at the beginning; instead, he became a rabid, irritable dog.

He picked up a still-living, struggling lobster with one hand, and with one swift cut, the lobster's head and tail separated instantly. The shell was roughly pried open, the lobster meat was thrown into the ice water to preserve it, and the shell was thrown into the oil pan to make soup.

"Hey, hey, hey, this guy's movements are way too exaggerated." Soma Yukihira was opposite Chen Yuxing, chopping onions while peeking towards Ryo Kurokiba's direction.

"You still have the mind to look at other people?" Chen Yuxing didn't even look up. He took out a piece of beef brisket and placed it on the cutting board to cut it into small cubes. Soon, the original large piece of beef brisket was cut into small cubes.

Seeing Chen Yuxing's actions, Soma Yukihira quickly turned his attention back to his own cooking station: "Yuxing, what kind of curry are you planning to make?"

"Hong Kong style curry".

Chen Yuxing put the chopped beef brisket into a pot of cold water, added some scallions and ginger, and then turned up the heat to blanch it.

Just then, a strong aroma wafted from the left.

Ye Shanliang was holding several glass bottles containing different powders.

He simply brought the bottle to his nose and smelled it, then with a slight flick of his hand, he sprinkled the required amount of spices into the bowl.

"Lemongrass, fennel, cinnamon... and holy basil?" Chen Yuxing sniffed it and quickly figured out what was in the bottle in Ye Shanliang's hand.

"Oh? You can actually distinguish the scent of holy basil? It seems I underestimated you."

“Many spices are interchangeable in Indian curry and Chinese curry,” Chen Yuxing replied, putting the lid on the pot. “However, the flavor of holy basil is quite strong compared to other spices. What are you planning to do with it?”

"You don't need to worry about that, I have my own plans." After saying that, Ye Shanliang turned around and began to make other preparations.

Chen Yuxing also looked away. The water in the pot had boiled, and the blood foam from the beef brisket was rising to the surface.

He used a strainer to skim off all the foam, then cooked the beef brisket for another two minutes before taking it out and setting it aside to drain.

"Then came the spices..."

Chen Yuxing took out the prepared spices and mixed more than a dozen spices, including dried chili peppers, coriander seeds, fennel, and cinnamon, according to the proportions. He poured them all together and mixed them.

After doing all that, Chen Yuxing started a new pot, heated it, and added oil.

As the shredded onions, ginger, and jujubes were added, a rich, spicy aroma wafted out of the pot with a sizzling sound.

Chen Yuxing scooped a large spoonful of hoisin sauce from the spice box next to him and put it into the pot.

The aroma of chu hou sauce, which is rich in fermented soybean and garlic flavor, even briefly overpowers the spice flavor of Hayama Akira's sauce when it comes into contact with hot oil.

"What's that? A fermented soybean sauce?" Ye Shanliang sniffed it, frowned, and looked at Chen Yuxing: "Do you add this kind of sauce to curry dishes?"

"I have my own plans too, you'll see soon enough." Chen Yuxing quickly stir-fried the beef brisket with a spoon, and once the chu hou sauce released its red oil, he immediately poured it in.

The beef brisket quickly turned an enticing reddish-brown color after being coated in hot oil and sauce.

Chen Yuxing added a little more light soy sauce along the edge of the pot, making the aroma of the sauce even more intense.

Next, he added star anise, cinnamon, bay leaves, and a few dried chilies to the pot, and finally poured in enough boiling water to cover all the ingredients.

Just as he was about to put the lid on the pot and turn the heat to medium-low to simmer, Chen Yuxing took out a small sealed bag from his pocket, which contained two pieces of dark-colored dried tangerine peel.

Adding dried tangerine peel to the pot during stewing not only removes the greasiness of the beef brisket but also gives it a unique fruity aroma.

It would take about an hour for the stewed beef brisket to finish cooking, and Chen Yuxing didn't rest during that time.

He walked to the food section on the side and took out two fresh mackerel and a grouper.

Back at the counter, Chen Yuxing used a kitchen knife to slice the fish off both sides, then took out a soup spoon and began scraping the flesh along the fish meat.

Soon, piles of fish mud were scraped off, while the fish bones and tendons remained intact on the fish skin.

He put the scraped fish paste into a basin, added ice water, salt, and cornstarch, and started stirring it clockwise.

He kept stirring until the fish paste made a 'splattering' sound in the bowl before stopping. Chen Yuxing then grabbed the lump of fish paste with both hands, lifted it high, and slammed it onto the cutting board.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

He kept grabbing fish paste and slamming it against the cutting board, believing that this would make the fish balls more tender and delicious.

After being pounded for about twenty minutes, the fish paste became very elastic and had a glossy surface.

Chen Yuxing put the fish paste aside, turned around and picked up a small bowl. Inside the bowl were small golden cubes made of sea urchin, cream and curry that he had prepared a day in advance at the Polaris Dormitory.

He picked up the fish paste with one hand and shaped it into small balls. Then, with his other hand, he used a spoon to stuff the prepared sea urchin curry jelly into the center of the fish paste, closed the fish paste to seal the curry jelly inside, and finally scraped it with a spoon. A round, stuffed fish ball was thus made.

Chen Yuxing placed all the prepared fish balls in a basin of cold water to the side.

By this time, more than half the time had passed, and the aroma in the venue had become so strong that it felt somewhat stuffy, with various curry scents permeating the surroundings.

Chen Yuxing also lifted the lid of the pot of stewed beef brisket.

The aroma of meat mixed with the fruity fragrance of dried tangerine peel wafted out. He poked the beef brisket with his chopsticks; it was already very tender inside, but the surface still looked perfectly intact.

Chen Yuxing scooped the beef brisket out of the pot, removed the spice residue, and left the pot of the essence beef brisket soup.

Now it's time to start making the curry.

Chen Yuxing switched to another pot, heated up some oil, and added the remaining shredded onions and minced garlic to the pot to sauté until fragrant.

Then he put in the prepared special curry paste, and added about 30 grams of satay sauce and the previously ground spice powder.

Pour all the stewed beef brisket into the pot and stir-fry evenly so that each piece of meat is coated with the thick curry sauce. Finally, pour in the tangerine peel beef brisket soup, bring it to a boil over high heat, and then simmer over medium heat.

While the curry beef brisket is stewing, put the fish balls into another boiling pot.

The fish balls floated to the surface as soon as they came into contact with boiling water, and the originally pink fish paste turned white, while the fresh taste of fish emanated from them.

After all the fish balls floated to the surface, Chen Yuxing used a slotted spoon to scoop them all out and put them into the ice water next to him to rinse them.

Fish balls will become firmer and more bouncy after being rinsed in ice water.

Finally, put everything into the curry beef brisket pot to absorb the essence of the broth.

Chen Yuxing glanced at the time, adjusted the heat, and began to reduce the sauce.

Some quick-moving students have already taken their dishes to the judges' table.

"Station number fifteen, completed."

A boy walked up to the five judges with his curry pork chop rice.

"I made a special apple curry with pork chop rice, please try it." The boy's voice trembled slightly as he spoke.

Chihiro Natsume glanced at his dishes but didn't even pick up a spoon.

"This kind of curry, just some random fried meat thrown on top, how dare you serve it?" She looked coldly at the student in front of her. "Zero points, next one."

"But you haven't tasted it yet..." the boy said somewhat anxiously.

"Why should I waste my time and put my tongue in discomfort when I can tell at a glance that something tastes awful?" Chihaya Natsume stared at the boy as if he were an idiot.