Chapter 3: Tofu Confront

When we last left off…

挑戦者 }K{ 鉄人

ブロック ・スレート VS 森本 正治

TOFU CONFRONT

"ALLEZ CUISINE!" Kaga boomed.

~料理の鉄ポケット~

The Gong of Fate crashed, sending both chefs on their way.

"Bang a gong, we are on," Fukui said, "and the men with a brisk pace from the get-go, eager to get their paws on today's theme, tofu…and Doc? Should be an interesting battle with a rather common ingredient on the stand today…"

"Yeah, and as you can see, we've got a few different types up there," Hattori, the culinary expert, added. "The two coagulated types are momen, which is more firm; and kinugoshi, which is silken. And then the ones in the baskets are of the uncoagulated variety, which is really, really soft."

"All right, and both men, now making their way back to the floor with their share of tofu, and before we get too carried away with this, let's introduce our guests for today's battle: first, you know her well by now, she's been with us ever since Battle Number One, Celadon City Gym Leader Erika Aoyama."

"It's a pleasure to be here, again," she giggled lightly as she bowed.

"Aoyama-san, what do you think of today's theme ingredient?"

"Tofu…yes, it's one of my favorite foods. I have it all the time, love it, it's healthy, so I'm definitely looking forward to what they'll cook up today."

"And I understand," Fukui continued, "that you've tasted the challenger's cooking before?"

"Yes, that's very true," she replied. "Whenever we have a meeting amongst just us Kanto Gym Leaders, he cooks for us all the time. He's a wonderful cook, and I always wanted to see how he'd do here. So I'm very eager."

"All right, well, enjoy today's battle, I know I don't have to tell you that."

"Thank you."

"And we also have another frequent guest to Kitchen Stadium, though he hasn't been here in a while, Professor Samuel Oak. Long time no see, sir."

"Hello! Good to be back."

"Last time you were here was about seven months ago, for the Prawn Battle, wasn't it?"

"Yes, and I must say, my lab work has gotten the better of me lately. I always can count on the show to feed me well," he said, laughing. "I haven't eaten since lunch yesterday!"

"Well, you should come here more often, if that's the case!" Fukui joked.

"Yes, I always look forward to this menu-less restaurant," Oak replied. The broadcast box erupted in laughter.

"Well, you can eat up in about fifty-eight minutes, Professor. Nice to see you again."

"Thank you."

"And, as always, our commentator, Dr. Yukio Hattori. Doc?"

"Always a pleasure."

"Now, Professor, I'm glad you're here today, because it appears our challenger has enlisted the help of his Pokémon as his assistants."

"I'm glad you brought that up, Fukui-san," Oak spoke up. "Brock brought with him his Vulpix, the little red fox-like creature you see there. And the boulder with two arms you see doing some mixing is Geodude."

"OK, I'm still trying to figure out how that rock creature moves, but that's not terribly important right now," Hattori said, chuckling. "What does matter is that the challenger's…Geodude, was that its name?"

Oak nodded.

"Right, Geodude has a mixture here, and it looks like shaping up to be a sauce. The base for this is gochujang, or Korean hot bean paste."

"Fukui-san!"

"From the floor, Shinichiro Ohta, go!"

"I have some comments from Challenger Slate regarding today's theme ingredient, tofu, and he said, 'Couldn't have picked a better theme, I love tofu, use it all the time—I came up with over 20 tofu recipes just for my cookbook!' He seemed full of confidence!"

"Wow, over 20 recipes for his book!" Fukui exclaimed. "Hey—win or lose today, I'm already impressed. We'll see if any of them make the cut here in Kitchen Stadium today…"

"And Fukui-san?"

"Go ahead!"

"Some comments from Iron Chef Morimoto about today's theme ingredient: he said, 'It's a very common ingredient, you can definitely do a lot of things with it, which is good—but at the same time it's very tricky given who I've got on the other side, so I have to step things up big time today!'"

"All right, thanks Ohta, and the Iron Chef able to recognize a good opponent when he sees one," Fukui commented. "And check this out…some protein already out on the challenger's side, and some other things?"

Brock was already breaking down a very fresh slab of beef into small pieces. Once he finished with that, he grabbed a couple of cloves of garlic, minced them, and set them aside. He coated the beef with a red powder before throwing the whole thing, garlic and all, in a small wok.

"Fukui-san!"

"Go!"

"In the challenger's wok are Kobe beef slices coated in kochukaru, or Korean hot pepper powder, garlic, and sesame oil."

"Thanks, big fella, that's looking good already," Fukui responded.

"I can smell it from here," Oak sniffed. "That's gonna be hot."

"Got that right, and now, over on the other side, Iron Chef Morimoto dropped…uh, something into that pot of boiling water…"

"Blue crab, I think that was," Erika said.

"Ah, yes, you're absolutely right, there's the close-up, he's got those boiling away…"

"Fukui-san!"

"Yes!"

"Hattori-san brought up the challenger's Pokémon assistants a while ago, and Iron Chef Morimoto heard that and said, 'I still will never understand how these creatures work,' even though he's been here for five years already."

"Thanks, big fella, and Morimoto should know the drill around here by now, a challenger is allowed up to two Pokémon to assist him during the battle, and speaking of Morimoto, some more fish on his side..."

Morimoto had some toro, or fatty tuna sliced on his side. He put that aside and broke down a white fish (fluke, Dr. Hattori said it was). He set the sashimi cuts aside and then moved over to the firm tofu, throwing that into a mortar-and-pestle bowl with some chopped ginkgo nuts.

"Oh, look at the challenger!" Oak piped up. "I see some tofu has already hit the heat…"

"That it has, Doc Okido…Doc Hattori, any ideas where he'll go with this?"

"Little too early to tell, I think. But if you'll notice, the pot with the red stuff in it—I think that was the sautéed beef with the garlic and chili powder from earlier."

"Maybe we'll get a floor report on that a little later…meantime, swinging back to the other side, looks like Morimoto has even more tofu on his side?"

"Fukui-san!"

"Yes, Ohta?"

"This is NOT tofu the Iron Chef has on his side, but fresh mozzarella cheese," Ohta replied.

"Now, that's just cruel," Erika joked, causing everyone else in the broadcast booth to laugh. "It's a tofu battle, and he pulls out more soft white stuff to work with? That's a cruel joke to play on us, he knows we can't tell the difference from here!"

"FIFTEEN MINUTES HAVE ELAPSED."

"That might be an even more cruel joke," Fukui tacked on, "as a quarter of the battle is already gone—"

"And Fukui-san?"

"Yes?"

"Regarding the red contents of that pot you were wondering about earlier, it is indeed the beef, garlic, and chili powder simmering in some plain water, though he's now added the soft tofu and some zucchini to that."

"Oh, OK, so it's like a Korean tofu stew," Hattori said. "Great idea, great approach."

"Right on, Doc, and Geodude is dutifully stirring away…"

"He'll probably add something else to this, I'm sure. If you notice, the challenger is actually drawing on a lot of Korean influences today—"

"Doc, Doc, check this out, the Iron Chef's got a torch," Fukui interrupted.

Morimoto was torching the surface of some small blocks of firm tofu, which were coated with sesame seeds.

"Oh, OK, he's doing that to caramelize the sesame seeds onto the tofu, which will also give the outside of the tofu a harder texture while keeping the softness inside," Hattori realized.

"It'll be an interesting combination of textures," Erika added.

"Indeed, and now, back to the other side, Challenger Slate—"

"Something doesn't look right," Erika said as Brock seemed to be struggling with the heat controls for the stove. He turned one knob, waited a few seconds. Nothing. He turned a second knob, waited a few more seconds. Still nothing.

"Vulpix, c'mere, girl," he called to his Pokémon. The red fox left her mixing bowl and trotted over to Brock's side, helping him figure out the controls.

"Fukui-san!"

"Take it!"

"Some bad news on the challenger's side—it appears the other two burners on his stove have malfunctioned," Ohta reported.

"Uh-oh," Oak and Hattori crooned.

"What's he going to do now?"

~料理の鉄ポケット~

On the kitchen floor, Brock left Vulpix to fiddle with the controls and checked on Geodude and the stew.

"Looks good, buddy, hold off on the stirring for a bit," he said as he jogged to the pantry to retrieve some vegetables.

What would go well with the gochujang…? he thought, grabbing as many ingredients as he possibly could. His arms were filled with vegetables, and ungracefully slapped the garden collection onto the cutting board near Geodude's station.

"Think you can chop these up for me after I wash them?" he asked. Geodude gave him a thumbs-up, leaving his spoon in the pot as he floated over to the cutting board. "Good," he replied. "After you're done with them, coat them in the gochujang and toss them into the pan with the tofu. OK? Go for it, 'Dude."

Brock gave Geodude a hearty slap on the back after delivering him the washed vegetables, and after checking on Vulpix's mixing bowl (which contained the beginnings of a tofu crème brulee), he jogged back over to Vulpix, who was still struggling with the stove knobs.

("Screw it,") she finally said. After telling Brock to move the pan, she took aim and fired—literally—at the stove burners underneath, causing a substantial flare-up (and eliciting a rather loud "WHOA!" from Fukui in the process). When the flames finally died down (and after Brock checked to make sure his eyebrows didn't burn off), the burners were lit.

Mental note: let Vulpix have whatever treat she wants after this is all over, Brock thought. He splashed some olive oil into the pan, sliced up some firm tofu into flat squares, and tossed those into the pan.

"Good girl," he said, "now go put that bowl into the fridge for me, OK?" The little fox did as she was told.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Morimoto was still a little shaken from the burner mishap in Brock's kitchen. His focus slightly bent out of shape, he inquired to his assistants if the foamer was on the ice and if the soft tofu/cream cheese mixture was in the fridge.

"THIRTY MINUTES HAVE ELAPSED."

"Shut up…!" Morimoto shouted, in English, to no one in particular. "I'm on schedule," he barked, then laughed it off. "On schedule, on schedule…"

"Sounds like Morimoto's a bit perturbed at the 30-minute mark being announced," Fukui piped up, not having a clue as to what the Iron Chef just said. "Although now he's laughing…OK, now I'm just confused. Uh, anyway…now, look at this, he's got the crabs out of the water from the top of the battle. Interesting pairing, don't you think?"

"You know, believe it or not, it works," Hattori chimed in. "It's not something that's seen terribly often, but the textures complement each other nicely. I think he wants the tofu to absorb the juices from the boiled crabs, so it'll be a texture technique more than anything."

"You can't deny he's got great presentation, serving it in the shell like that," Oak piped up.

"Fukui-san!"

"Go!"

"Yes, if we could swing back to the challenger's side for just a second, you'll notice he has zucchini, carrots, Chinese broccoli, cabbage, and pumpkin all chopped up and in this frying pan, and this is in addition to the tofu he had here earlier."

"Thanks, big fella, and was that the gochujang he just added to that?"

"Yes it was!" Ohta replied back.

"OK, got it…what do we we think, stir-fried vegetables and tofu in hot bean paste, is that a typical approach?"

"It's not terribly complex, that's for sure," Erika piped up. "I've actually seen him do this before, so I know it's good."

"But it's pretty commonplace in Korea," Hattori added. "They usually do this with rice, and they call it bibimbap there, so…I guess this is a bibim-tofu?"

"Hey, whatever works, right?" Fukui replied. "Now, back to the Iron Chef's side…he's got a broth of some kind over here and a wide variety of plates as well, what could this be about?"

"Well, you'll notice he's got dried kelp leaves over here, and he's also got the sashimi from earlier on, but I honestly have no idea where he's going with this," Hattori said.

"Well, what about this," Oak piped up, "he'll put some tofu in a broth with the kelp and serve everything else separately?"

"Actually, that's not a bad idea," Hattori replied, "because from the looks of all the things he has out on his side, there's just too much going on for it to be one dish."

On the other side, Brock had moved onto another different dish, this time with a wok with some tofu and a very red mixture in it.

"Fukui-san!"

"Go!"

"Perhaps we missed this earlier on, but the challenger appears to have had his rice cooker going this entire time and it just finished!"

"Well I'll be! We missed that entirely…"

"Oh, OK," Erika piped up. "If it's rice, and tofu, that can only mean one thing, right?"

"Judging from how red Brock's wok is, I have a feeling I know what it is too," Oak added.

"Mapo-dofu!" Oak and Erika said in unison.

"OK, well, that explains why the wok is so red," Hattori said.

"C'mon, Doc, you've seen it here plenty of times before, I'm surprised you didn't pick up on it earlier!" Fukui playfully ribbed at him.

"Eh, I'm having a bad week, apparently…"

~料理の鉄ポケット~

"FIFTEEN MINUTES TO GO," came the time call. Both sides appeared to be in total control near the end of the battle.

"…we swing back to the challenger's side now, little under fifteen minutes to go, and what's he got going here?"

Brock was in preparations for his fifth dish, which he had dreamed up only a few seconds before. He had taken a few slabs of the momen tofu, cut a thin line across the top, and formed a pocket in some of the tofu cubes. Those had just come off the grill, and Brock was stuffing them.

"Fukui-san!"

"Take it!"

"The challenger is stuffing snow crab and caviar into these tofu pockets—this is the firm type he's using, and they've been grilled before they've been stuffed."

"So this'll be served as-is?" Fukui surmised.

"I don't see what else he could do with it…" Erika mused.

"Garnish it with something, I dunno. Oh, take a look at what the Iron Chef is doing!" Hattori said, distracting the panel. Morimoto had taken some of the softer tofu and, using some different fish from the tuna and fluke he had out earlier, made sushi—but had replaced the rice with tofu.

"Interesting approach he has here…that's a good use of the theme," Oak added.

"Yeah, this guy's so great in the presentation. I think that's mackerel and yellowtail he has out on that side, right?" Hattori asked.

"Hey, you're the expert, how come you can't tell us?" Fukui playfully jabbed, to much laughter in the booth.

"TEN MINUTES TO GO."

"All right, ten minutes left, the final stages of this battle are beginning to wind down, and plating has begun on the Iron Chef's side, he's got some rather elaborate boxes out on his side…"

"Well, those'll earn presentation points from me!" Erika chimed. "Those are beautiful bentos he's using…"

"Iron Chef Morimoto, he knows the drill by now, can't just make it taste good, but he knows it also has to look good…challenger Slate looks like he has some plating materials out as well, though I don't think he's actually doing anything with them yet…"

"You're right, but those look like rice bowls, I would bet that's for the mapo-dofu," Hattori added.

"Can't have mapo-dofu without rice, or you'll burn your tongue right off," Fukui quipped, "and now, back to the Iron Chef's side—oh, hey, look at this! It's like an ice cream cone or something…"

Morimoto had taken the foamer that had been chilling from very early on in the battle, taken an ice cream cone, and sprayed some of the mixture into the cone.

"Oh, look at that!" Erika squealed as Morimoto also covered the cone in rainbow sprinkles. "It's just like cake and ice cream!"

"Fukui-san!"

"Take it!"

"You might notice a slice of what appears to be cheesecake next to that ice cream cone you were getting excited about," Ohta reported, "and you're right—this is the tofu and mozzarella cheese mixture the Iron Chef had earlier in the battle."

"Thanks, big fella—"

"TEN MINUTES TO GO."

"All right, 10 minutes left, we are entering crunch time in Kitchen Stadium!"

~料理の鉄ポケット~

Brock sprinted back to the kitchen, juggling several different kinds of plates and bowls in his hands. He took a quick look at the clock—seven minutes, twenty-two seconds.

Plenty of time to plate my four dishes, I think, he thought as he began laying out each plate. He called to Geodude to bring him anything he made that was currently contained in a pot, and to leave said pots by the bowls.

He took up a ladle and called Vulpix to take her mixing bowl out of the fridge.

"FIVE MINUTES TO GO."

"We're gonna have to hustle, you two," Brock called out hurriedly to his Pokémon. "We're keeping good time, just pick up the pace a little bit."

On the other side, Morimoto was in total control of his plating—his four dishes looked resplendent on their respective plates. As he was putting the final touches on the tofu bentos, he hadn't noticed one of the pots simmering on the stove beginning to bubble over.

"THREE MINUTES TO GO."

"Mo-san!" Omae, one of his assistants, finally shouted at him. "Careful, the pot!"

The Iron Chef glanced at the pot, which was now violently bubbling. The broth contained inside was now beginning to cascade down the side.

"Aaah! Chotto, chotto…" Morimoto leapt to the stove and frantically turned the heat down. "It's OK," he finally said when the broth calmed down. "It's fine, just got a little too hot."
He turned his attention back to the bentos after telling Omae to put the heat back on—but on very low.

"Is everything else plated?"

"Hai, we're good!"

"Then come help me with these!" he shouted back, gesturing to the bentos that were about half-finished.

"ONE MINUTE TO GO."

"All right, the final sixty seconds ticking down in this tofu battle," Fukui commented. "Challenger Brock Slate, one of the most well-known trainers in this country, now trying to prove his worth as a cook in Kitchen Stadium…he's written cookbooks, so he can talk the talk, but can he walk the walk?"

"THIRTY SECONDS TO GO."

"Iron Chef Morimoto, trying to stay on the winning path he's held onto for the last nine months…it surely hasn't been easy against this tough challenger…"

"FIFTEEN SECONDS TO GO."

"Both sides putting the finishing touches on their dishes, they better hurry now…"

"TEN SECONDS TO GO."

"Ten seconds left, it looks like they've been in total control…"

"FIVE SECONDS."

"Final seconds ticking down…"

"THREE."

"TWO."

"ONE."

The Gong of Fate crashed as both chefs wiped the sweat from their brows, their work complete.

"And THAT'S IT!" Fukui roared. "The cooking's done, the Tofu Battle is OVAH!"

I sincerely apologize for not updating in as many months. For those who haven't read my Iron Chef Symphonia stories, battles are—as you've probably guessed—long and involved processes to write. I have to make sure the ingredients are right, the preparations are right, the lengths of time are more or less accurate. On top of that, the commentary has to sound right in my head. I'm not sure why this one took so long…maybe it's because there's literally a million things you can do with tofu.

Hope you enjoyed the battle…but there's more! We need to find out who wins, after all!