The Elites. (COTE Fanfic)

2-14

*Hehe... Sorry for the delay. And no, there will be no foodgasms.
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The one who exclaimed that the food was raw was Chabashira-sensei. Her voice was quite loud, but since the venue was quite big, I doubt it was heard by the ones farther away from us. Chabashira-sensei had just realized that her reaction was a bit over the top, so she immediately apologized.

"Ahem. Please excuse my rude and loud reaction." Chabashira-sensei said while giving a bow. While she was doing that, I noticed that Kouenji was busy scraping the food off the plate and into the bin. To be honest, I thought Kouenji was the type to just toss the plate into the bin along with the food.

"Well, it seems like the judges don't like the food very much." The announcer, Mashima-sensei, said.

"Hmph. Even the people who haven't eaten in weeks would spit out something like that." Kouenji said. I wouldn't say they "wouldn't", but maybe they'd hesitate.

"That's one judges' opinion heard, next please." Mashima-sensei said.

"Hmm, in my opinion, it would've been good if it was cooked enough. That's all." Ichinose said.

"I wouldn't necessarily label it as bad since there are still some flavors in it that taste good, but I would label it as lackluster, not only because it's raw, but also because it seems a bit... Hmm, boring?" Hiyori was the one who said that.

"I don't really have much to say since the other judges have already said them." Hoshinomiya-sensei said.

"The same goes for me." I followed.

"Ok, since Hashimoto isn't back yet, we'll be moving onto the next dish. Thank you, Takemoto Shigeru of Class A, you may go back to your station." Mashima-sensei said and the guy named Takeru went back to his station with a nervous and disappointed expression.

"Next up, from Class D, Horikita Suzune, please come to the front and present your dish." Mashima-sensei said and Horikita nodded before walking towards us with portions of her dish.

"Ok, please explain your dish." Mashima-sensei said after Horikita set our portions in front of us judges.

"My dish is Naengmyeon. It is a Korean noodle dish of long and thin handmade noodles made from the flour and starch of various ingredients, including buckwheat, potatoes, sweet potatoes, arrowroot starch, and kudzu. I topped it with sliced cucumbers, Korean pears, pickled radishes, a boiled egg, and some beef. You should be able to taste a subtle flavor of sweetness, tanginess, and savoriness from the soup and toppings. As for the noodles, they should be mild, refreshing, and a bit moreish." Horikita gave a detailed explanation., which actually makes judging the dish easier since I haven't eaten something like this, and the same probably goes with my fellow judges, well, maybe except Kouenji.

[Not sure if I have Korean readers, but if I do and you're reading this. Please correct the mistakes. The same goes for other countries later on. Thank you :)]

"Itadakimasu!" Hoshinomiya-sensei said and, we, the other judges followed in eating.

Hmm... Everything in Horikita's explanation is there so far. A subtle sweetness, tanginess, as well as savoriness. I won't go into detail since my thoughts are just aligned with Horikita's explanation. Though, I'm a bit underwhelmed, I mean, it tastes good, but not the usual from Horikita. Is it because it's not a Japanese dish? It's probably that. But the dish wasn't that complicated since it's just like Ramen and Cold Soba put into one dish... I guess I'll never know.

"It's good, there are no "bad" flavors, it's not raw, everything compliments each other, and your explanation was accurate. It tastes just like that. Buuut~, I'm a bit underwhelmed since we also have noodle dishes here in Japan that are almost the same as this. Well, nonetheless, it's still good." Hoshinomiya-sensei said.