On the Corner of Hopeless and Hopeful

Meal 12

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Okonomiyaki

Nozomi's demeanor changed and she headed into the kitchen. The other workers understood Nozomi's vibe and left her alone.

"No." Nami said. She got up from her seat and ignored all the stares.

"No?" Nozomi said, turning around.

"I'm doing this for Rosemary not because she asked but because for the past year she took me in and helped me. I was a useless 21 year old who was far away from home. The boyfriend I followed out to the city broke up with me leaving me homeless and broke. Rosemary was the one who took care of me. She taught me how to cook, gave me a job and home. I was able to make friends with the staff and it wasn't just me.

"Every day I see people who were like how I once was entering the restaurant, a restaurant which she named after you, leave with new found hope in their lives. Yes she may have been a bad mother but she meant well. She worked those long hours so she could spend more money on you, send you to places.

"When you left, she quit and started up a restaurant and with all those hopeless people, she's helping them to make up for the mistakes she made with you. If you don't believe me then go visit her. It's been three years. Don't you think you should meet your mom again?"

Nami could see that her words had an effect on Nozomi. She had stopped and turned around.

"I will on one condition, if you can beat me in a cooking competition. If you really did learn from her, then you should be able to beat me in a cooking competition. Is that a deal?"

"Okay, call," Nami shook Nozomi's hand.

"Anna, I need to borrow the kitchen for a bit."

Nami didn't know why she was worried. She was able to go against Rosemary over fifty times. Sure she lost all of those attempts but each time she learned something. How to present better, what to leave in longer, what to take out faster and so on. With Japanese food being Rosemary's expertise, all Nami had to do was make sure she didn't let her confidence get to her.

The kitchen was foreign to her. She had to succeed this one time to help pay back Rosemary who had helped her out so much the past year.

"And begin."

Nami managed to find most of her ingredients and a scale, the only thing so couldn't find was the okonomiyaki flour.

If you don't have any okonomiyaki flour you can always use 100g of regular flour mixed with 75ml of dashi. If you don't have the dashi, use 75ml of water with a teaspoon of baking powder. There's always a substitution and maybe you'll create something better than what the original recipe asked for.

Nami mixed the regular flour with the dashi along with 100ml of water. She set that aside and started chopping her cabbage and spring onion finely. She added those two along with her fillings into the batter and carefully mixed in an egg.

Make sure you don't overmix. Take your time, do it properly and do it once. Never waste any ingredients.

When the frying pan was warm, Nami poured in her okonomiyaki mixture into a circle and on the side she fried some yakisoba noodles.

When you're making okonomiyaki, make yakisoba noodles on the side the same time as the first side is being cooked. Then flip the pancake onto the yakisoba when cooking the other side.

The okonomiyaki was almost finished and Nami ran to the fridge and grabbed an egg.

When the okonomiyaki is in its final stages, break and egg on top and cover the pan for a steam cook. It tastes best with a runny yolk.

Nami cut her final product into four slices and finished with okonomiyaki sauce, mayo, bonito flakes, and aonori seaweed.

"Finished." Nami and Nozomi said at the same time, placing their final product side by side.

The two left the kitchen while the three judges entered for a blind taste test. Fifteen minutes later, the two girls were called back into the kitchen where the winning dish was covered by a cloche.

"I'll cut to the chase. A drum roll please, thank you. And the winning dish was..."

The cloche was lifted to reveal Nami's okonomiyaki. She turned to see that Nozomi wasn't as disappointed as she thought she would be. She ate the last piece of the okonomiyaki and said, "I guess it's time to visit mom huh. I can see that you learned a lot from her."

Nami gave Nozomi a smile and waited for her finish her shift. She figured that Nozomi did want to go back and visit Rosemary but was just to suborn to do so on her own. Maybe Nami and the cooking competition was just the excuse she was looking for.

The trip back was a quiet one. Nami was nervous her mind went all over the place. What if Nozomi and Rosemary fight? What if Nozomi runs away again? What if Rosemary didn't want Nozomi back? What if Rosemary kicks Nami out for doing this? She looked over to Nozomi who started out the window staring at the changing landscape and wondered if she was thinking the same thing.

"Heh," Nozomi let out a laugh.

"What?" Nami asked.

"Fitting isn't it?" She said stopping in her tracks. "That on the corner of Hopeless Street, "she pointed at the sign, "and Hopeful Avenue," she pointed at the other street sign, "lies A Piece of Hope."

It was the first time Nami noticed it and understood why Nozomi laughed. It was fitting as she remembered all the guests in the resturant. They ranged from utterly hopeless to completely hopeful and all they needed no matter where they were on the spectrum was a piece of hope.

"Come on."

Rosemary was about to cleaning the bar, getting ready to temporary close so she could go buy groceries when the bell rang. She didn't look up when she greeted the customer.

"Welcome to A Piece of Hope, what can I getcha?"

"Hey mom, do you have any chicken noodle soup?"

F I N

N O T E

The final recipe can be found in the external link.  While fin has been written, there will be two bonus chapters. Thank you so much for reading this novella. Vote, comment, share and stay tuned for my next work :)