I Was Possessed By An Unknown Manga

“I knew it, so I prepared in advance.”

Having quickly finished a bowl of the pork and bean sprout stir-fry, I took the second bowl offered by Senior Fuma to taste the next dish.

This time, it was a seasoned bean sprout salad.

The bean sprout salad, seasoned with salt, soy sauce, and sesame oil, had a very savory aroma.

The crunchy texture, salty taste, and nuttiness of sesame oil created a pleasant harmony.

After a bite of rice, I then tried the miso soup with bean sprouts.

It was ordinary miso soup, but the crunchy texture of bean sprouts offered a different charm than the usual soybean paste soup.

‘This is the expected taste so far.’

Delicious but not special, a common taste available anywhere.

‘Senior Fuma’s final dish is bean sprout teppanyaki, maybe.’

It’s simply stir-fried lightly blanched bean sprouts with the secret black sauce that had a great flavor in the pork and bean sprout stir-fry.

It was a simple dish that almost feels wrong to call food, but the aroma that stimulated my nostrils revealed it to be a dark horse.

Gulp.

“I made a lot, so eat and eat again.”

Senior Fuma said that while offering a mountain of bean sprouts coated in black seasoning.

I said “I will eat well” and took a generous amount with my chopsticks and put it in my mouth.

“…!”

It was delicious.

I wasn’t sure if I should say this, but it tasted even better than meat.

The unique crunchiness of bean sprouts, the sweet and salty secret sauce, and the lightly applied smoky flavor perfectly combined.

Unlike meat, which could feel heavy and burdensome if eaten continuously, bean sprouts didn’t bring a sense of fullness, so I kept eating.

As I quickly ate nearly a third of the piled bean sprouts on the plate, the Vice President and Minami, watching from the side, put the bean sprouts in their mouths with tense expressions.

“!!!”

Both of them, as if entranced, started to devour the bean sprouts with expressions as if they had discovered a new world of taste.

It was scary.

As the son of a formal restaurant, it was truly a fearsome dish.

Catching two birds with one stone—taste and cost-effectiveness.

Seeing the three judges’ reactions, Senior Fuma proudly puffed out her chest, and the President bit her lip, seemingly a bit anxious.

But soon, returning to her usual confident expression, she thrust the black fan she always carried towards us, who had just finished tasting the bean sprout dishes, and exclaimed.

“Now it’s my turn!”

Following Senior Fuma’s surprisingly powerful bean sprout full course, the President brought out a four-person hot pot dish.

Of course, Senior Fuma, who lived alone, didn’t have such a large hot pot dish at her house, so it was all purchased on the spot from the mart.

The President’s cooking, with a hot pot dish (2000 yen) and an electric induction cooker (10000 yen), already exceeded the budget compared to Senior Fuma, whose total ingredient cost didn’t exceed 2000 yen.

But the real start is now.

About 5000 yen worth of bonito flakes, shiitake mushrooms, kelp, and anchovy powder were used to make the broth, and various vegetables and mushrooms grown by eco-friendly farming methods, along with high-quality tofu and yuba, cost about 3000 yen.

Finally, 900g of A5 grade wagyu beef for shabu-shabu (13000 yen excluding tax).

To make the shabu-shabu dish in front of us, about 33000 yen was spent.

It was a significant amount for just one meal, but unfortunately, the President, born rich, was not aware of that.

“Start lightly with vegetables and mushrooms, then tofu and yuba,^[ED/N: Yuba is a Japanese ingredient known as tofu skin or bean curd skin.] beef, and finally finish with porridge or udon.”

The President said so and handed us each a plate.

Senior Fuma swallowed her saliva, seeing the pinkish beef, but didn’t take a bowl, perhaps due to pride.

She seemed to be planning to eat after the judging was over.

Then, we began eating the shabu-shabu as per the President’s instructions.

Generally, shabu-shabu and nabe (Japanese hot pot) were similar types of dishes.

Both involved dipping various vegetables and ingredients in hot broth, then finishing with porridge or udon.

However, the meat in nabe was usually somewhat seasoned, while shabu-shabu was about tasting the natural flavors of the ingredients.

First, I tasted the broth.

“Mmm…”

An involuntary sigh.

There was no MSG, but the use of good ingredients gave it a dizzying umami flavor.

Then, I tasted a bite of the enoki mushroom soaked in the warm broth.

“Ah, ah.”

The chewy texture, different from meat, stimulated the appetite.

Next were the vegetables and tofu.

The vegetables and tofu, softened in the broth, dissolved easily with the touch of chopsticks, requiring one to bring the bowl to their mouth to eat.

Sipping it with the warm broth, the sweetness of the well-known vegetables and the nuttiness of the high-quality tofu used were felt simultaneously.

Next was the yuba.

Japanese yuba is quite sweet, unlike Korean yuba.

I was honestly surprised when I first ate it, but now I’m somewhat accustomed to it.

I took a bite of the yuba, which paired well with the light broth flavor.

Although made from the same soybeans, yuba had a completely different taste and texture than tofu, which was its charm.

“So, it’s time for the main character to make an appearance….”

As the Vice President muttered, Minami, who was eagerly devouring the shabu-shabu, nodded vigorously.

The A++ grade wagyu sirloin was something not typically eaten in an average household.

The wagyu sirloin, rolled up just right and not too thin or thick, was dropped into the broth.

1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds.

I counted the time internally, retrieving the meat from the broth just before it was completely cooked.

“Whew, whew.”

I wrapped the steaming meat in the completely softened cabbage and perilla leaves and dipped it in soy sauce.

Then I took a big bite.

‘…Delicious.’

Was this the taste of capitalism?

The broth had good ingredients and was added with good vegetables, and I was able to eat good meat.

I was lost in the flavor of wagyu spreading throughout my mouth.

I didn’t expect such a difference in taste, even with the same beef.

All the beef I had eaten until now seemed to have been merely imitations.

In the heat of the moment, I blanched the wagyu in the boiling broth until I was reasonably full, then finished with some udon noodles.

The shabu-shabu prepared by the President was a perfect course meal in a different sense from the bean sprout full course prepared by Senior Fuma.

Because it allowed me to experience the start and end in one bowl.

That was also the charm of shabu-shabu.

Anyway, having tasted both dishes, all that was left was to make a choice.

I looked at the Vice President and Minami.

Both of them seemed to have already made up their minds.

We announced the results of the judgment to the two, who were waiting with tense expressions.

“The person we chose as the winner is…”

“Argh! It’s frustrating! I can’t believe bean sprouts can taste this good!”

“Ah, it’s been a long time since I’ve had such delicious beef.”

This was the evaluation of the two, tasting each other’s dishes after the final result was decided.

Since we had already finished our dinner under the guise of judging, we simply watched the two of them enjoy their dinner face-to-face with contentment.

“I’ll hone my culinary skills more and definitely win next time!”

“Haha, it’s good to be ambitious, President.”

Senior Fuma was the final winner of the cooking contest, as decided by me, the Vice President, and Minami.

While the President’s cooking was not bad, the decisive factor in the victory was the presence of the bean sprout teppanyaki.

Firstly, it had overwhelming cost-effectiveness.

Compared to Senior Fuma’s dish, which could be made with just a bag of bean sprouts and a bit of secret sauce, the President’s shabu-shabu cost almost ten times more, excluding the hot pot and induction cooker.

And the bean sprouts were just too delicious.

The fact that a vegetable available for 100 yen felt tastier than meat was as good as declaring the game over.

For a big eater like me, cost-effectiveness was an undeniable factor.

Anyway, thanks to their competition, we had an unexpectedly delicious dinner, and not wanting to overstay our welcome, we decided to leave.

Until the end, Senior Fuma awkwardly attempted to tempt me with, “If you ever change your mind, let me know, Kim Yu-seong,” but I managed to smoothly avoid it thanks to the President’s interference.

On the way back home.

Since we were going in the same direction, I got a ride in the President’s limousine and asked her a question.

“By the way, how do you know Senior Fuma?”

The President answered with a face that still looked somewhat upset.

“We’ve been in the same class since the first year. We’re not particularly close, but we exchanged greetings. Though I won’t do it anymore from tomorrow.”

That seemed to be the case.

It was a day when I learned about the President’s limited personal connections and saw a new side of her.

And the remaining ingredients were deliciously consumed by—no, not the staff—but by Senior Fuma.

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