「 Power of Spices 」

( Third Person POV )

"Black Beef Rendang, Padangnese Special." Akira said, stretching out his arms.

Miyazoto and the rest of the class finally see the real appearance of Akira's dish whose aroma spreaded out to the entire room earlier. It is Beef Rendang but it looks a little bit different, unlike the rendangs that had been presented by the other students earlier, it is darker and thicker.

"This!! What do you do to make the color even darker than usual? Is it the water?" Miyazoto said as he took his fork but he hasn't starting to eat Akira's dish yet.

"That's correct, I reduce the amount of water in the pot while gradually and slowly pouring the coconut milk into the simmer, that makes the color darker than usual because of the burning process and thickening the sauce. Enough with the explanation, just try it." Akira said to Miyazoto, refusing to elaborating any further. His dish will speak for itself.

"Hmm... Alright, I'll try it." Miyazoto then using the fork in his hand to take the meat on the plate, and the fork its easily spear through the meat like thrusting a block of butter.

His eyes widened after seeing that.

' Ohhh! Very tender but let's see how does it taste. ' Miyazoto thought, and then when he put that piece of meat into his mouth, he immediately widened his eyes in the surprise spices punch.

"Where is this?" When he opened his eyes he was standing in the middle of muddy rice field and suddenly get strucked by two cows from behind his back.

" Ahhhhh " Miyazoto lost his mind when every spices that Akira put into the dish combined perfectly and punch him on the face with an ultimate blow. It was so rich, bold, and just simply incredible.

The Pacu Jawi tradition, one of the famous Minangkabau traditions, a cow race festival on muddy terrain. The place where Rendang came from.

One of the terrifying things about Akira's cooking when he cook using his headband is that he is able to bring people who eat his food to be transported into an imaginary world of the origin of that spesific dish.

A thing that impossible to accomplished by a chef as young as him. But his dedication to cooking even if it wasn't as high as his to painting, it is still at a level that ordinary people couldn't imagine.

That's why he able to enjoyed the "Storm" in cooking.

"Ahhhhh ~, Spicy, bitter, and savory, everything complementing each other creating such a somplex taste. This is simply amazing!!" Miyazoto's face seemed to be lulled by the taste of Akira's rendang. Its addicting.

"What did you do to be able to reach this taste? Is it the ingredients, yeah, there is no doubt..., there are some special ingredients that don't exist in my recipe, am i right? But I don't know what that is."

Miyazoto said, he still fascinated by Akira's dishes. Continuing to devouring every single meat on the plate.

"Well, from the beginning I didn't follow the recipe that you gave to me at all." Akira said.

" Yeah i know, it taste completely different. Then what do you use as your secret ingredient?" Miyazoto said, still eating and enjoying himself.

"Ahhhh, the texture is amazing, very tender, it melts in your mouth while completely wrapped with tons of spices but still have that rough texture. " Miyazoto said.

Akira who heard that crossing both of his arms and nodded.

"Of course, that's because I'm using brisket."

Said Akira, then someone responded to him, but this time it wasn't Miyazoto, it is white-haired girl with red eyes, Nakiri Alice.

"Hee ~ but isn't Brisket's texture is harder than most part of the meat. If it's true as Sensei said, then surely 2 hours wont be enough to tenderize it especially for Brisket, and if you are cooking it with pinneaple juice, isn't it will damaging the taste of the meat itself?" Alice said while thrusting herself at Akira, her cleavage was also slightly visible.

But Akira is not disturbed at all as he looking at those red eyes and answered her question.

"That's true if i use it as a marinate, it will affected the taste and the meat will become too tender to the point where there is no actual texture anymore."

" Huh? Then you don't rinse the pineapple out of the meat!? " Alice widened her eyes in surprise because that's not how you supposed to use pineapple to tenderize the meat. You are supposed to rinse it before cooking the meat.

" Non! You maybe thinking that its actually ridiculous that i put pineapple paste which can ruin the taste of the entire dish just like that. But you misunderstood what Rendang really is, Little girl. "

When she called little girl by Akira, Alice doesn't look too happy.

" My spices mixture isn't something that will be easily overpowered by a little bit of pineapple. Instead of ruining it, those pineapple will give it a very light tangy taste and natural sweetness from the caramelization process while still doing its job to tenderize the meat. " Akira said. Alice who heard that nodded as she drowning in her own thought.

"Hmmm, so that's how it is. In Pineapple there is an enzyme named Bromelain, which belongs to the Sulfhydryl Protease Enzyme group which can hydrolyze peptide bonds into amino acids in proteins, so it can tenderize the meat. But it also will change the taste of the meat itself, especially if you use a high-quality meat. And in this case you utilize the richness of your spices to not be overpowered by the Pineapple." Alice explaining Akira's technique with scientific language that most students in the class don't know.

That is the expertise of Nakiri Alice, Molecular Gastronomy, a molecular biology science that reviews ingredients from cooking to the molecular stage.

"You are precisely right, little girl," Akira said as he patted Alice's head with an arrogant smile.

Alice who felt her head being touched is annoyed and immediately slap Akira's hand away of her head.

"Mou! It's not polite, and also don't call me little girl!!!"

Alice said, pouting.

"It is what it is, little girl." Akira said, provoking Alice.

"I dont want to talk with you, humph~!"

"Well, but you surely want to try my dish. Here ~" Akira said while holding a fork with a piece of meat on it, trying to put it in Alice's mouth.

"Hey !!! I told you that- * Humm *" Before Alice could finish her words, Akira had put his meat into Alice's mouth with her eyes wide open.

"Eh?"

Alice can only stared blankly at the foreign landscape in front of her, this is a different culture, traditional clothes from an equator country that she doesn't know. One word to describe it is...

Tropical!

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh" Alice felt her whole body is burning hot as she drooped limply and crouched in front of Akira.

"Hah ... Hah ... Hah ... This extra savouriness, you must be putting another ingredients to reach this consistency. How? " Alice said while panting as her hand squeezed Akira's pants firmly.

"Ah ... You realized it, I use my homemade Serundeng." Akira said while showing a jar full of a brown thingy.

"Serundeng, huh... I didn't know it can be used this way." Miyazoto said, holding up his chin. He seems to know what Serundeng is.

"Oh, so that's what you told me to put into the pot before, I thought it was some kind of spice, so it was this thing called Serundeng. Well, is it? " Hojo said.

"Yeah, and also Serundeng is not spice, it is a side dish commonly used as an addition or condiment made from grated coconut and seasoned using chili etc. It can be sweet or spiy depends on how you gonna use it. Its basically a seasoned coconut flakes." Akira explained to everyone, and Miyazoto nodded as an agreement.

""Oh ~"" Everyone making the same faces.

"But that's not all, there is a material that unites all of them because it feels much different from what I prescribe, what is that?" Asked Miyazoto, when Akira heard that he smiled .

"Star Anise!!!" Akira said while presenting a brown star-shaped thing from his pocket.

After standing back on her feet, Alice who saw the object in Akira's hand tilted her head.

"Isn't this just Anise seed?" Alice said, but Akira shook his head and said.

"Well yes but actually no. Star Anise and Anise seed are completely different, although the taste of both is almost the same, but Star Anise is the milder version of Anise seed. Since i just use it to balancing and unifying the whole dish, i use Star Anise." After she heard Akira's explanation, Alice seems to lost in her mind once again.

"So sensei, from A to A+, rate this dish!" Akira said while looking down at Miyazoto.

"I don't know what rate this dish should be, but the certain thing is that this is the best Rendang dish i'v taste in my whole life, maybe giving an A+ isn't even enough to justified the complexity and just how it taste!!! Its a brilliant Spice play, Hyoujou-kun, Miyoko-kun." Miyazoto said,

Hearing that, Hojo smiled while Akira, his hands on his waist and then opened his mouth with a cocky face.

"Of course it is."

________________________

In the hall right now seen two people walking together. The first person is a beautiful white-haired girl, Nakiri Alice and her assistant, a black-haired man with a bored face, and dead fish eyes, Kurokiba Ryo.

"Ryo-kun, what do you think about that transfer student?" Alice asked Ryo.

"Unbelievably Arrogant Bastard, and a good chef," Kurokiba answered flatly.

Alice who heard Kurokiba's answer just smiled and thought.

" A good chef... That's an understatement, isn't it. " Alice said chuckled.

" I guess... "

Alice then smiled while looking at the window.

'Hyoujou Akira, A mystery... his knowledge and abilities isn't something to mess about. This academy is full of mystery. 92nd Generation of Totsuki. '