Shokugeki no Souma Episode 9 Discussion

Tlahuizcapante said:
And who, for your opinion, made better dish - Souma or Aldini? I do not like fish, therefore Aldini's dish is more appealing for me. But for those who feel the same for two dishes - which is better?

shanimebib said:


It's difficult to say this. Remember that both duck and river fish (freshwater wish) carry raw smell that is difficult to overcome in that short time (as shown in the anime) in the first place.

Duck is a different ball game altogether compared to chicken in the fact that the fibers are harder and it usually takes an awful lot of effort to just pluck the feather roots as well if not steamed. I have prepared duck myself many times and it's not as simple as chicken as you need to steam it if you want to take the root of the feathers off (which remains there deep in the skin and sometimes in the flesh unlike a chicken). Secondly, due to the hardness of the fiber, you may need to keep it marinated with wine, curd, vinegar or lemon juice etc. (each leaves a different taste and used for different types of cooking and removes the raw smell) for a while to actually pull of the dish the Aldini brothers managed within an hour. You cannot grill the duck meat in high temperature because of the way it is. Duck meat (if not marinated) takes 2-3 times the time it takes chicken to be tender. The idea that they used only breast meat doesn't help very much. As for Uruka, which worked out well for the grilled duck, I dunno about that. Never heard of it, so it's a mysterious ingredient to me.

As for the fish, the only real option they had with the little time on their side was to grill it so that the raw smell is removed. The reason people like fillet in general is because of the fact that they don't have to deal with skin which is the source of smell and difficult to process. To completely remove the smell, you need to wash the fish with cold salt water or cold water mixed with lemon juice several times (depending on the size and type of the fish as each has their own level of smell). And it usually takes time. The problem with not washing it as part of the initial processing is that you'll have to grill it slowly until the raw smell is removed but in the process you lose the tenderness of the fish-meat as the water content within the fibers are evaporated. Other ways to prepare fish before grilling is to use ginger paste which helps removing the smell. What Souma and Megumi did was quite fantastic as they came up with the idea to use the crumbs as a cluster that soaked the smell out of the fish and worked as a shield to keep the fish-meat from losing its tenderness as well. Since the cooking was done in high temperature and in a short duration of time, it served the purpose. But it really amazed me that they did all of that in just 15 minutes. Not to mention the sauce they came up with. I would definitely try preparing it sometime not because it was easy but probably the taste would be unique.

It's hard to pick between the two but I think I will give extra points to Souma (and Megumi, not just because she is so cute! haha) because they changed their approach halfway and still came up with a great serving. He is really special. :)

DatRandomDude said:
The humming part was really nice.

Mathias2001 said:


But not in this challenge, like I said, it has nothing to do with Souma. Souma really starts to affect her affect the next miny arc but in this challenge, Megumi did it alone

TAMinator said:
everyone is so fking cute in this anime i feel like i need to punch a cement truck to regain masculinity

yoite- said:
The twins has been working in Aldini for 8 years and they were 10 in that time. So they were 2 years old. Somehow I doubt that's true.