Night 14: Saria, Tonkotsu Ramen with Extra Soup
The Late Night Diner is a part of Rhodes Island's canteen. That goes without saying – to whom had anyone ever heard of a diner in the boiler room?
As the name implies, it opens around midnight. There are only a handful of customers at a time.
Operators off their night shift could take an order and bring back to their quarters. Night owls could sit dining-in while leeching off the Diner's wi-fi. The Doctor would come for instant noodles from time to time.
Drinks are in the cooler. Anyone burdened by their own thoughts could take one and chug it down, anytime.
Menu? No such thing exists. What the Chef prepares is what you get. It all depends on his mood of the day.
Welcome to the Rhodes Island Late Night Diner. In here, you might even meet a familiar face or two.
Tonkotsu Ramen, a common staple found in Higashi, with defining traits being rich, milk-white broth, flexible and chewy ramen noodles, with plentiful and nutritious ingredients.
Saria, a common mineral found in Rhodes Island, with defining traits being purposeful in thoughts, steady in action, and excellence in bodily fitness.
The Chef was reluctant at best when it came to making tonkotsu broth. He could trouble the canteen staff on dinner shift for bread, yet the broth would take a whole day to make. Asking he canteen staff was out of the question. So he had to do everything himself. Beast leg bones were rich in marrow, thus suitable for giving the broth its iconic colour. The trotters contained ample amount of collagen and would be the source of the broth's thickness. Ingredients were boiled twice to rid the impurities, then the Chef would shatter the bone using the back of his meat cleaver to ensure the marrow would dissolve faster. Afterwards everything would be boiled in a soup pot with high heat. Removing the scum that floated to the surface, he would turn the heat to medium and let the broth simmer while adding water into the pot very two to three hours. When the broth turned thick and take on the colour of ivory or milky-white, it would be left simmer for longer with low heat till the Diner opens at night.
Still, the Chef could not wait idly by during all this time. He had to prepare other ingredients as we;; as the ramen noodles. Beast belly meat with skin attached would be his choice for meat. He would curl the meat into a roll and tie it up with cotton strings, then braises in water with soy sauce, mirin, sugar and cooking wine, as well as some green onion with ginger to remove the stink. After an hour the meat would grew tender. The Chef would turn off the heat and leave the meat for a bit longer before putting it into the fridge for a better shape. The coddled egg were submerged in a similar mixed sauce till it took on a sepia hue.
Saria came for food when the Chef was about to prepare the noodles.
"Fancy seeing you here, Lady Saria."
Being the former director of Defence Division in Rhine Labs, as well as top operator and researcher of Rhodes Island, Lady Saria was usually occupied by endless plans, fieldworks and many other matters big and small regarding to the function of Rhodes Island. More often than not she would choose the most efficient choices when it comes to food, whether it was milk and sandwich or energy bars. Seeing her in the Late Night Diner could only mean two things – either Oripahy was about to be eradicated on this land, or the Doctor suddenly lost all their sanity while assigning projects.
"We are having tonkotsu ramen tonight." Saria said, taking a sniff and sat down at the counter, " Can I have one with extra soup?"
"Certainly." the Chef said, placing the kneaded dough on the cutting board, "Ladies need their collagen, and Saria needs her calcium. A moment please, it won't take long."
The dough needed to be well-kneaded before it could be made into ramen noodles. This was the only way for the noodle to be flexible and not break apart with just a tug. By his looks, the Chef was not a field combatant. Nevertheless, when he pushed and rolled the dough on the cutting board, one could easily see the well-defined muscles on his forearms. It was the result from working with food, pots and ladles years after years. His muscles gained through intense labour were hard as iron, yet wholly different from the gains through lifting barbells in the gym.
Gazing at the Chef working the dough, Saria was lost in thought. His motion was slow and methodical, but it was as if he was exerting a power worth the weight of a thousand tons. As for Saria, she could put on a pair of boxing gloves and best all her opponents. She could also don her armour and face down the fully awakened Ifirit. She could even break the Arts barrier of the Chief Director of Rhine Labs with her bare fists. But for all of her strength and her Orginium Art, she was powerless when it came to the proper way to deal with a lump of white, soft dough.
Bam. Thump. Bam.
The Chef had already cut the dough into smaller portions and starting to stretch them into noodles. The portions were rolled into a stick. The stick was stretched into a long strip and slapped onto the cutting board. Then the Chef folded the strip and repeated the same motion of stretching and slapping. Flexible strips hit hard on the cutting board. It sounded like war drums. The Chef folded and stretched the noodle more and more, from four times to eight times to sixteen times, till each stick of noodle was reduced to mere millimetres from the original, thumb-like width. Like dropping stones into a deep well, the dry flour on the cutting board was riled up the repeated motion. It flowed up in waves after waves – an exciting sight to behold.
"Do you know, that the Rhine Labs was called "Rhine Seimei" in Higashi. However the Higashi accent makes it sound like "Rhine Siemen", which means "Rhine Noodle-making", like a giant lab complex dedicated for researching noodles." Saria said with a straight face. "They even made posters with Kristen holding a bowl ramen noodle."
The sound of noodles hitting the cutting board slowed down till it completely halted. The Chef, with stretched noodles dangling in between them like a long chain, held them in mid air. He stood there in silence for a moment, then realised that Saria was telling a joke. He stared at her inscrutable face for a long time and finally resumed making noodles, this time with hearty yet slightly hoarse laughter.
When the noodles were made, the Chef put them into a pot of boiling water. To preserve the chewiness of the noodles, he didn't boil them for long. A few munities at best. As for the broth, when it was nearly done he added in some seaweed, sliced onion, shiitake mushrooms and various vegetables to enrich the flavour. He produced a bowl, dripped in some soy sauce and lard, then poured in ladles of the rich, milk-white broth. He placed the cooked noodles in the broth and few thick slices of braised meat on top, sliced a coddled egg in half with a thin string and placed them inside the bowl. Lastly, he sprinkled in some crushed dried seaweeds, chopped green onion and sesame seeds. Thus an authentic Higashi tonkotsu ramen was made.
"Ah, almost forgot. The extra soup." The Chef added another ladle of broth before handling the bowl to Saria. There were no fixed order for where to start with a bowl of ramen. The meat lovers would start with the thick and succulent meat slices. The sweet and savoury sauce had soaked the meat through, with a single bite one could taste both the soft fat and firm lean flesh. If one inclined for soup they could take a spoonful of the rich broth with drops of oil floating on top and take a sip, disregard the scalding heat. What they taste would be the thick, lip-sticking broth with its rich flavour lingering in between their teeth, along with a variety of flavours from the vegetables. For those who prefer sampling the noodles, they would scrutinize its chewiness and flexibility resulted by many a stretching and slapping the noodles went through. Or they could even have a taste of the coddled eggs, savouring its exquisite flavour while feeling the sunset-coloured yolk flowing in their mouth.
The Chef was busy stretching noodles, and did not catch the order Saria finished her midnight meal. When she was about to leave, there was only a thin layer of broth left in the bowl. No matter the need was for energy or calcium, this bowl of tonkotsu ramen had satisfied both. In fact, anything about "Saria would have high calcium food to empower her Arts" were all just rumors. She just wanted to have a taste of the rare tonkutsu broth.
"Don't you want to bring a take-out for Miss Silence?" The Chef asked when Saria was heading out.
"She's still in the lab conducting experiment at this hour. No food or drinks allowed." She shook her head and didn't slow down.
...truly, even diamond was more flexible than her.