Chapter 1024: Silent Tide

In the Totsuki Resort Hotel's Cooking Room, Broly pushed open the lit Kitchen and saw a striking figure standing in front of a machine.

That machine occupied half a Stainless Steel Countertop; a round-bottomed flask was immersed in a Constant Temperature Water Bath, its body rotating slowly at a fixed speed.

A Condenser extended diagonally upward, and a thin layer of Mist had already condensed on the glass bottle wall before Alice Nakiri; a Vacuum Pump emitted a somewhat low hum from beneath the countertop.

"What are you doing?"

Broly walked over and, curious, struck up a conversation with Alice Nakiri.

"Ah!"

The white-haired girl was startled by the sudden sound from behind; when she turned and saw it was Broly, her heaving, ample Chest calmed somewhat, and she complained, "How do you walk without making any sound?"

"Come on, are you sure you could hear my footsteps while that thing is humming away?"

Broly's walk might be silent, but he didn't conceal his entry when pushing the door open; if there were no machine hum in this Kitchen, anyone could hear it.

"Okay, what do you want with me?"

Alice Nakiri admitted it was her fault and asked curiously.

"Didn't you say to come find you when I'm free?"

Broly retorted.

"Uh————"

An embarrassed expression surfaced on the mixed-blood girl's face; she recalled what she had said when parting from Broly.

And that was actually just a polite formula, just like the set phrase "let's get a meal sometime" — who knew the person would show up at the door tonight.

"I did say that, just didn't expect you to be free this fast————"

Alice Nakiri quickly composed herself and said.

"So, what are you doing right now?"

Broly didn't dwell on the question, but repeated his earlier question once more.

"As you see, I am making 'Silent Tide'."

Alice Nakiri turned sideways, spread her hands toward the rear, revealing the Rotary Evaporator behind her.

Broly saw, inside the flask, some black and some yellow strip-shaped objects.

"What is Silent Tide?"

He asked with some puzzlement.

"It's a molecular gastronomy beverage."

Alice Nakiri answered.

"But hasn't the assignment already ended?"

"Unrelated to the assignment; I just saw the Resort Hotel here has a full set of Molecular Gastronomy Equipment, and didn't want to waste the good opportunity to use these expensive Molecular Gastronomy Equipment for free."

"I see."

"Right, Broly, do you like molecular gastronomy?"

Alice Nakiri suddenly asked.

"Uh————"

Broly pondered, thought a bit, and answered: "I like tasty Cooking, don't care if it's molecular gastronomy or not."

"That's great, as long as you don't reject it."

Hearing this, Alice Nakiri appeared very happy.

"I don't reject it, does that make you this happy?"

Broly saw her Happiness Value rise on the Crystal Palace Panel, and couldn't quite understand the reason for the increase.

"Of course, some Chefs have always held prejudice against molecular gastronomy, believing molecular gastronomy is Cooking without Soul.

They think the Kitchen is a place to make dishes, not a place to do chemistry Experiments, but they forget Taste itself is a chemistry problem.

And when chemistry is involved, the uninformed masses always associate it with Technology and Ruthless Practices and demonize it, saying it's unhealthy and such.

But as long as the dosage of some additives is controlled, molecular gastronomy itself won't cause any health problems————"

Alice Nakiri rattled on, but Broly didn't know how to respond.

"Sorry, I vented some complaints at you."

After a while, Alice Nakiri stopped on her own.

"It's fine, I'm used to listening to others' troubles."

Broly waved his hand, not minding the matter much.

"Right, I invite you to be the taster for my molecular beverage later."

Alice Nakiri clapped her hands and said.

"?"

"You don't want to taste my Cooking?"

"Uh, that's not it."

"Then it's happily decided; once I finish making Silent Tide, you'll drink the first mouthful!"

Alice Nakiri said it easily and naturally, her expression smiling, but Broly always felt a Demon Tail emerging from behind this girl's Butt, swaying left and right.

Thinking carefully, his own Aqua Master and Megumin sometimes show expressions and mannerisms similar to the girl before him.

Exactly — saying there's a good thing, but actually it's a relatively scheming thing, when they want someone else to take the heat.

"Miss Alice, may I ask, what flavor of beverage Cooking is this Silent Tide you speak of?"

"Hmm, let me think, it should be the taste of the Sea!"

Alice Nakiri touched her chin, and in a tone she herself wasn't too sure of, answered the question.

"Why do you use 'should'? Haven't you tasted this Cooking before?"

Broly asked doubtfully.

"Is there a possibility that this dish doesn't exist on the market, but is instead in my research and development phase of molecular gastronomy?"

"Then can I ask, when did the research on this dish begin?"

Broly pursued the question again.

"Tonight."

Broly: "——

Good, on the surface I'm a connoisseur of molecular drinks, but in reality I'm a guinea pig tasting a dish in the development stage.

"Don't worry, I can guarantee that all additives needed for this drink are freshly made tonight."

What is meant by a drink dish where everything is technology and ruthless practices technique, with no traditional handcrafted part at all?

Of course, calling it technology and ruthless practices, but they are all genuine ingredients, using molecular gastronomy equipment to extract flavors, then assembling and piecing them together into a dish.

It's not the same as that kind of technology and ruthless practices cuisine meant to lower costs and pass off inferior goods as good; on the contrary, Nakiri Alice's technology and ruthless practices cuisine has costs that rise in a straight line.

Not to mention anything else, just the molecular gastronomy equipment needed for the molecular gastronomy drink 【Silent Tide】 she is currently making.

Rotary evaporator, high-pressure homogenizer, ultracentrifuge — from nothing to having them delivered, without three million yen as a base, you can't even get started.

"Kelp, yuzu peel, kaffir lime leaves, placed in the rotary evaporator, using low-temperature vacuum distillation to obtain a near-colorless distillate carrying kelp umami and yuzu's cold fragrance.

Seaweed extract, added with sea salt and trace olive oil, pre-mixed with a portion of the distillate, poured into the high-pressure homogenizer to manufacture a semi-transparent, slightly milky nanoemulsion.

Then, freshly shucked oysters together with their shell liquor are pulverized, then low-temperature centrifuged in the ultracentrifuge, taking the topmost clear liquid to obtain a clean, non-fishy, non-turbid marine salty fresh liquid————"

Nakiri Alice introduced what she was making while operating different molecular gastronomy equipment.

"This is lime, sliced extremely thin, placed in a bowl, then liquid nitrogen is poured in for ultra-rapid freezing, thus obtaining light, thin, crisp sour-fragrant chips.

And now, it is the moment to witness the miracle of molecular gastronomy: first inject the nanoemulsion, then add the remaining distillate, drip in a small amount of clarified marine salty fresh liquid, finally put in the freeze-dried lime chips.

The taste of the sea, molecular gastronomy drink 【Silent Tide】, presented to you, please enjoy~"

Nakiri Alice placed a wide-mouthed short cup on the table, then gently pushed it to Broly's front; compared to the identity of a chef, she now resembled a bartender who had just finished mixing a drink.

The thing in the wide-mouthed short cup was dark blue, not very liquid-like, but rather like a piece of solidified sea, transparent and quiet.

However, lifting it up, looking from the cup rim, one could discover the inside was still in a liquid state, semi-transparent, carrying an extremely faint milky luster.

The cup wall was slightly cold, but not yet to the degree of ice, hand-feel temperature approximately around 10°C; on the very top was a piece of freeze-dried lime chip, leaning diagonally against the cup wall as garnish, it was thin to near transparency, like a piece of withered leaf washed ashore by seawater.

Broly took a sip; just as his lips touched the lime chip, it directly shattered, the fragments flowing into his mouth with the liquid, bringing a slight, layered, and not monotonous lime sour fragrance and crisp cool breath.

"How is it, good to drink?"

"Not bad to drink, has a bit of a lime salt water feeling, but more umami than that, and there's yuzu peel fragrance."

"And then?"

"That's it."

"No, your critique is a bit too short, feelings good, so my dish is just MSG-added lime yuzu peel flavored

salt water?"

"I didn't say that."

"Forget it, I'll do it myself."

Nakiri Alice snatched the Silent Tide that still had half a cup left in Broly's hand, sipped it herself, then nodded.

"The first second on the palate is cold, empty, immediately followed by an extremely faint saltiness, not the saltiness of salt, but the saltiness of minerals sun-baked on reefs.

The kelp's umami then slowly emerges, but not the warm umami of Japanese dashi, rather a more clear, cold, and restrained kind.

Then comes the yuzu peel fragrance, carrying the herbal sense of kaffir lime leaves; the oyster's umami hides at the very end, like the fishy-sweetness left on the sand after the tide recedes————"

The young girl spoke the tasting notes lightly; Broly listened beside her in a daze, but couldn't help asking: "Miss Alice, do you also have God Tongue?"

"No, I don't."

"But you tasted so many layers of flavor."

"Oh, this is me making it up, my imagined flavor for this drink."

"Uh, then the actual one?"

"Lime yuzu peel flavored salt water."

Broly: "————"

"Ma, this is after all something you've already drunk, it's normal for the layers to be disrupted; if I were the one drinking the first sip, then it would definitely be the situation I just described."

Nakiri Alice said full of confidence; Broly, on the other hand, found it a bit hard to comment: "As long as you're happy."

"How is it, does this Silent Tide still suit your taste?"

"Passable."

"Then if there were a cup of mixed drink placed before you, would you choose Silent Tide, or mixed drink?"

"Uh, can I speak the truth?"

"That's exactly why I want you to speak the truth, only then is there reference value."

"I choose mixed drink."

"Ah, truly."

Nakiri Alice sighed.

"No matter, this is a newly developed drink dish after all; one day, I believe you can develop it into a drink surpassing mixed drink."

Broly comforted and encouraged this white-haired girl.

"Broly, thank you for your comfort; truly, you are so much more considerate than my original follower~"

"Ah-choo~"

In the hotel room, Kurokiba Ryo suddenly sneezed.

"What's wrong?"

His shared dormitory roommate asked.

"No, just my nose suddenly got a bit itchy."

"Could it be that your family's Big Sister is mentioning you for not going to accompany her in trial cooking?"

"Possible."

"Then why don't you go over?"

"I'm not really into molecular gastronomy."

Alright, actually he didn't want to be a guinea pig, going to taste the new cooking his family's Big Sister had concocted.

"Then I'll continue researching the Silent Tide with you."

", why still research that thing?"

"No, you're not researching it anymore?"

"Well, this kind of molecular gastronomy drink that's more gimmick than taste, just slightly understanding how it's made is enough, continuing to research is just wasting time.

Instead of researching this, better to research changing the form of fresh-squeezed apple juice, right, Broly, your knife skills aren't bad, perfect to help me out~"

Afterwards, Broly accompanied Alice Nakiri to make apple juice spherification, the outer layer was a shell made from cut apple meat, the interior was apple juice pearls made by adding sodium alginate and calcium lactate to apple juice then using forward spherification process.

"When thinking you're eating spherical apple meat, biting down suddenly bursts with juice, absolutely able to scare someone a jump, giving diners full surprise!"

"Eating it is not bad, just like eating an apple full of juice, but I don't feel too much surprise, after all

I'm eating apple meat, apple meat biting out apple juice, always feel this is a very normal thing, to truly scare someone a jump, I feel better to change the apple juice to other juices————"

"Haha, not bad, Broly, you've already preliminarily grasped the true essence of molecular gastronomy's unexpectedness, then what juice do you think to change to?"

"Stinky tofu, surströmming juice————"

Broly subconsciously replied.

"Hiss~"

Hearing this, even Alice Nakiri couldn't help but suck in a breath of cold air.

"You're planning to install a bomb inside the apple meat?"

"Uh, sorry, I was joking."

Broly scratched his head.

"No, I think your proposal is good, make some normal ones, then make some terrible ones, mix them together, this kind of Yin-Yang Cuisine, absolutely able to give diners the biggest surprise————"

Broly persuaded with good words and bad, only then letting Alice Nakiri give up this dangerous idea of inadvertently adding dark cuisine into normal cuisine.

"Anyway, Miss Alice, Erina-sensei allowed me to part-time become your lackey."

"For real? That stingy cousin of mine unexpectedly this generous, willing to share someone belonging to herself?"

"Absolutely true, before coming over, I did ask for her opinion."

"Then what did she say?"

"She was very happy to see me come disturb you."

Broly spoke the truth, disturbing and causing trouble, should also count as synonyms.