Shokugeki no Soma 68

Shokugeki-no SOMA 68

p1
Voice: Begin cooking---!!
Shokugeki-no SOMA
Story: Tsukuda Yuuto
Art: Saeki Shun
Collaborator: Morisaki Yuki
(cutlery) 68 The "Port City" Match
Man: "Ramen".
Man: The noodles, toppings, and the soup,
Man: A noodle dish formed by those components...huh.

p2
Man: ---However, this year's Elite Ten
Man: Chose pretty unreasonably difficult dishes.
Man: Ramen spread explosively during the post-war reconstruction period.
Man: Not only was it cheap and delicious but also easy to buy thanks to the stalls.
Man: But, that was in the past...!
Man: By now, ramen is a part of the Japanese dishes that are exported to the world!
Man: The depth of the flavor and the effort needed to make it
Man: Make this dish something that's far beyond what a mere student can make.
Man: And they told them to think of one in a single night,
Man: Moreover...To present it on such a big stage!
Senzaemon: In other words...This contest tests
Senzaemon: Their flexibility and explosiveness!

p3
Senzaemon: The experience they've gained...And how much
Senzaemon: They can make use of their strengths for this theme---
Voice: We'll bring in the ingredients that were boiled beforehand.
Thought: Kurokiba Ryou...He made a seafood curry on the preliminaries.
Voice: What kind of dish will he present for the main tournament...?
Voice: He took the dashi and is filtering the soup!
Voice: Hm...!?
Voice: Hey, look, the dashi of that soup...

p4
Voice: Isn't it all fish leftovers!?
Voice: Y...You're right!!
Voice: Scorpion fish, conger eel...Flounder, and sea robin!
Voice: In other words...The ramen's base is made of seafood!!
Man: Ho-hooooh!!
Asterisk: Leftovers as in the leftovers after filleting a fish.
Man: The rich flavor of the fish viscera and the ebi miso comes out in plenty!
Man: A strong aroma hangs in the air!!
Man: And it seems he dealt with it splendidly so that it doesn't produce a bad smell...!
Man: I'm looking forward to judge this!

p5
Megumi(thinks): As I thought...!
Megumi(thinks): Kurokiba-kun is using a rich seafood soup...!
Satoshi: That's the overall explanation...
Satoshi: And just one last point,
Satoshi: We will prepare the noodles for you.
Megumi: Eh...?
Satoshi: You're aware that some types of noodles have to be fermented for a few hours, right?
Megumi: Ah...Yes...!
Megumi: The gluten links become stronger and the noodles get a stronger body.
Megumi: We learned in class that, in Chinese noodles case, it serves to get rid of the lye water smell...
Box: *Lye water: This is a special alkaline water solution added when making Chinese noodles, it gives the noodles their particular body and color.
Satoshi: Exactly! Since the match is tomorrow...
Satoshi: We're already fermenting them.
Satoshi: This is a summary.
Satoshi: Choose one out of these and let us know before tomorrow---
Ryou: I...

p6
Ryou: Want to use...This wide kind of noodles.
Satoshi: ...Should I take that as your final decision?
Ryou: It's ok...
SFX: *thud*
Ryou: I already have in mind...
Ryou: What kind of ramen I want to make.
SFX: *thud*
Megumi(thinks): ...No way...In that instant...?
Megumi: ...
Satoshi: Tadokoro-chan...You don't need to hurry,
Satoshi: Just let us know before midnight!

p7
Megumi(thinks): We learned this in class before...
Sensei: The part of ramen where your sense is tested the most...Is the soup!
Sensei: Most of the money for the ingredients gets used up on ingredients for the soup and---
Megumi(thinks): The fact that the administrators are going to prepare the noodles
Megumi(thinks): Might mean they want us to devote on the soup's flavor.
Megumi(thinks): My opponent is...Kurokiba-kun.
Megumi(thinks): He had the same score as Souma-kun on the preliminaries.
Megumi(thinks): Just what kind of ramen will he make?
Megumi(thinks): The noodles Kurokiba-kun chose---
Megumi(thinks): Are elliptical-shaped 3mm x 1mm noodles which have a particular bounciness.
Megumi(thinks): This kind of wide noodles are usually accompanied with a sauce with strong body and flavor...
Megumi(thinks): Which means...Kurokiba-kun must plan to make a rich soup...
Megumi(thinks): In order to counter that---

p8
Megumi(thinks): Maybe...I should make a dish with a flavor strong enough to not lose to it...?
Megumi: Wah...It's already 5...!
Megumi(thinks): Anyway, I have to start making test dishes!!
Megumi(thinks): It's no good...!
Megumi(thinks): Whenever I try to make a rich soup I can't get the flavor to consolidate...

p9
Megumi(thinks): Three things make up ramen's soup:
Megumi(thinks): The "dashi", which becomes the base,
Megumi(thinks): The "sauce", also known as "kaeshi",
Megumi(thinks): And all sorts of "Flavor oils and spices".
Megumi(thinks): If of all these don't match each other the flavor becomes disperse...
Sensei: In some famous restaurants, when they make the soup,
Sensei: They check the fire every two hours and continue boiling the soup for more than 20 hours in total...
Megumi(thinks): Hieeeeeeeh...I-It's an incredibly tough world...
Megumi(thinks): Ugh...What should I do...?
Fumio: Megumiiii!
Fumio: There's a package for you!
Fumio: It's from your home.
Megumi: ......Eh...!?
Letter: Dear Megumi.
Letter: Congratulations on passing to the main tournament of the Autumn Election.

p10
Letter: I heard from the fishermen,
Letter: I can't go cheer for you because of work...But do you best.
Letter: I sent you some of our local ingredients.
Megumi: Mom...
Megumi: Wah...! This brings me back...
Megumi: There's so many ingredients I used back home...
Megumi: ...
Megumi: ---Alright...

p11
Souma: I'm back!
Megumi: Souma-kun!
Souma: Hiya, Tadokoro!
Megumi: Y-You went to the pharmacy...? (cd: Why?)
Souma: Well...There are some special circumstances.
Souma: What about you, Tadokoro? How are your test dishes going?
Megumi: G-Good, I was about to go to sleep.
Souma: Eh.
Megumi: We should sleep early to prepare for our matches...
Megumi: It would be more efficient to do the rest by waking up early tomorrow morning.
Megumi: Souma-kun, you do your best too!
Megumi: Good night!
Souma: Y...Yeah.

p12
Fumio: Fufu...Megumi...
Fumio: Seems to have got some nerve now, too.
Souma: ...
Megumi: I'll take this challenge on...
Megumi: With the ingredients mom sent me!
Yuuki: What's the soup Megumi chose...?

p13
Voice: Those are...Scallops!!
Voice: She took the dashi from canned scallops' abductor muscles!
Megumi(thinks): To this dashi I took from scallops...
Megumi(thinks): I'll add this paitan soup I cooked to remove its bitter taste,
Box: *Paitan Soup: A soup that uses things like chicken bones as its base. It becomes white because it's emulsified in the end.
Megumi(thinks): And boil it once more.
Yuuki: That means...
Yuuki: Megumi also plans to go for a seafood ramen!?
Zenji: No...It's a seafood soup too, but-

p14
Zenji: In contrast with Kurokiba Ryou's rich soup,
Zenji: Tadokoro-san chose an almost transparent graceful soup!
Voice: A scallops' soup!?
Voice: Can she even compete with Kurokiba's rich soup's impact with that!?
Megumi(thinks): It's ok...Calm down.
Megumi(thinks): This will...Surely be fine!
Yuuki: That's right...! Megumi's home is a port city!
Yuuki: Her understanding of marine products is second to none!
Alice: Fufu...How interesting, to think this is a "match between people who grew in port cities" (music note)
Yuuki: Yeah, it's between people who grew in...

p15
Yuuki: Nakiri Alice!? (cd: Why are you here!?)
sd: Whooooa!!?
Alice: Oh my...Can't I be here? I came since I saw some jolly fans.
Yuuki: Hehehe...Aren't these fans great?
Souma: You said...a "match between people who grew in port cities", didn't you?
Alice: That's right, Ryou-kun...
Alice: Was raised together with the sea.
Souma: ...
Ikumi: Oh!? Kurokiba brought another thing out!
Ikumi: Lobster and northern shrimp...Shells? (cd: And a lot of them...)
Voice: Is he using those for the dashi too?
Ryouko: Eh...!?

p16 //this needs a "Shokugeki no Soma is a cooking manga" caption XD
Voice: Wha...!!?
Voice: What is he doing---!?
Voice: He's...Smashing the shells to pieces!?

p17
Voice: What is he trying to do!!?
Voice: Near the fishing harbor...
Voice: On the bar street the sailors gather,
Voice: There seems to be a restaurant that's crowded all the time recently.
Voice: Hmm...I'd like to go there once.
Voice: (cd: Hahaha) You better not go! Some ruffians will strip you of your possessions!
Voice: Alice-sama's gone missing!!!
Voice: It can't be...She went to the bar street in the harbor...!?

p18
Voice: Find heeer!! If something happens to Milady Alice getting fired will be the last of our worries!!
Alice: I came all the way from Japan,
Alice: I must greedily try to experiment all kinds of flavors (music note)
Alice: Is it...Here?
Ryou: ...Who are you? A customer...?
Ryou: We're on our idle time now.
Ryou: Get your meal somewhere else.
Alice: Then, I'll wait inside.
Alice: Wah, this place is dirty!
Alice: That's it! Can you let me give my regards to the chef?

p19
Alice's sd: Ow
Ryou: I won't let you be selfish in here,
Ryou: This restaurant's chef
Ryou: Is me.
Cutlery: There she found a sharp-eyed "boy cook"---!!
Alice: ---?
Shokugeki-no SOMA
(cutlery) 68/End