kscans

Chapter 93 - Chapter 8: Second Half, Soft Power

"See? I told you so."

"I really, really wanted to believe that was just a joke, Rilka."

"Wh-what's wrong, holding your head like that?"

I called out to Sherry. This was a little awkward. I'd made her count her chickens before they hatched regarding the demand for beans.

"No, it's nothing. I thought I was finally starting to understand you a little, Vinder, but I guess I was wrong."

Rilka was looking at Alfina, who was dressed in one of our employee uniforms. No, this is a rare occasion. It's a pretty special sight... It was no use. Remembering the scene at the Belmini residence, I gave up on making excuses.

"Um, what was it again, Rilka?"

I turned to Rilka, ignoring the frozen Sherry.

"I was asked to deliver something from Plural-senpai. Here, it's cherimoya made with yellow sugar. And this..."

Rilka placed two jars in front of me.

"What are these?"

"Our company's prized cream and butter. I thought you might need them for the anko sweets. Was that too forward of me?"

"N-no. This is perfect timing, thank you."

I'd been on the verge of giving up just a moment ago, only to be revived thanks to Alfina.

"Um, Sherry said she was bringing something Vinder asked for."

"R-right. What are you going to do with this?"

Sherry placed three small jars before me. A complex aroma wafted from them.

"You asked before if I had any bitter herbal tea, remember? Wasn't it to go with the yokan? Oh, and don't expect much from the one on the far left. It's, how do I put it, more like medicine than a herb."

I remembered. I had mentioned something like that when I heard herbs were considered vegetables. But I'd been so absorbed in the smooth bean paste that I'd forgotten all about it.

◇◇

"This is delicious."

"Yeah, really. It's like ice cream."

We were eating the cherimoya from Plural. Thanks to the sugar, the sweetness was crisp and clean, making it feel closer to the version from my past life. The fact that it was chilled by the weather was also a bonus.

That said, honey has its own distinct flavor, so it was debatable whether this was a dramatic improvement.

"Ice cream?"

Alfina blinked. Whoops, things like ice cream don't exist here.

"No, wait, ice cream..."

I muttered the name of the dessert from another world again. That's right, the base doesn't have to be a baked good. Ice cream would have plenty of impact, and since it's cream-based, it should suit the palates here.

The method is simple, as long as I can get my hands on some ice. It's white and beautiful, and the contrast with the black anko might even appeal to their sense of aesthetics...

"No, that won't work."

I imagined spooning anko onto plain white ice cream and shook my head. At best, people would just say the ice cream is better on its own. I could try to ride the novelty of the ice cream, but that would just make the anko feel like an inferior addition.

"You should give this a proper evaluation, too."

Sherry poured a green liquid from a teapot. It was the third type, following one similar to genmaicha and another to mugicha. The one she told me not to expect much from. But I was stunned by its color and aroma. It was green tea.

"Ah, this seems like it would pair best with the sweetness of the yokan," Alfina said. At the time, the taste of the anko had just sparked an idea and I blurted it out without thinking. I'd thought it would be an even higher hurdle to clear than the anko itself.

"Well, it's not like we can create a whole new tea just for yokan, so this doesn't solve the problem. It isn't cheap, either. It's a herb that can only be harvested during a very short period in early summer, and where it's grown, they grind it into a powder to use as medicine."

Come to think of it, tea was first introduced to Japan as a medicine. Both tea and anko originally came from abroad. The Japanese refined them into the tea ceremony and wagashi.

"Refined into wagashi, but..."

"Ricardo-kun?" "What's wrong, Vinder?"

The Japanese people took things from other countries and developed them in their own unique way, refining them to a level that could only be described as Japanese-style. Yokan is a prime example of that. But the modern Japanese food culture I knew didn't stop there.

"Sherry. This tea leaf, this herb, can you get it for me in its powdered medicinal form?"

"We're a vegetable market, you know. W-well, I suppose I can manage a small amount."

"Please. There's something I need Rilka to get as well. Not just the cream..."

I asked the two of them for the ingredients for a new recipe.

Alright, time for a second shot at my Japanese-style venture. I'll show them the true power of Japanese soft power.

◇◇

I had made ice cream once in elementary school science class. It was an experiment to lower the temperature with salt and ice. I'm sure it was my teacher's extra effort that turned it into ice cream instead of just popsicles. I'm sorry to say, but I don't remember it being very delicious. It had a coarse flavor, overwhelmingly eggy. It was probably missing some vanilla extract.

However, the method is simple. I'd be in trouble if someone asked me to bake a cake, but I can handle ice cream.

The ingredients are just heavy cream, milk, sugar, and egg yolks, all mixed together. The biggest challenge was the ratio of cream to milk. After trying different combinations, I found that increasing the cream made it softer. It was probably an issue of water content.

At times like these, I'm grateful for Rilka, who can get ingredients at wholesale prices. Dealing with heavy cream and storing milk would have been a real hassle without her.

"Alright, give it a try. Be quick, it melts fast."

I placed a small scoop of the white ice cream on a dish. Rilka did as she was told, quickly putting it in her mouth and wincing at the cold. But a moment later, her expression softened.

"Wow. As the daughter of a dairy company, it's a bit humiliating not to have known a flavor like this. When you first added salt to the ice, I honestly thought you'd lost your mind."

Good, the ice cream recipe is set.

"I had them grind it as finely as you asked."

At the perfect moment, Sherry arrived with a green powder. I vaguely remembered how to make matcha from a display I saw in a Kyoto souvenir shop on a school trip. The process involved steaming the leaves and then grinding them with a stone mill. Apparently, the powder Sherry had acquired was made in a similar way.

"Alright, time to prototype the main event."

I poured milk and heavy cream into a bowl using the ratio I had just decided on. I went easy on the sugar and mixed in some black sugar as well, since it was going to be colored anyway.

"Are you really sure it's okay to put medicine in a dessert?"

Sherry looked at me dubiously.

"I'm just using a 'herb' for flavor and color. That's perfectly normal, isn't it?"

I grinned. With this, the base for my anko dessert was complete.

◇◇

"Vinder. I'm busy with the yellow sugar. I'm heading back as soon as this tasting is over," Plural said, his mind clearly elsewhere.

"I promise you won't regret it today."

As I spoke, I pulled a metal canister from the rock salt and ice. I opened the lid and served its contents onto a white plate. The green was a bit paler than I would have liked, a compromise based on the opinions of Rilka and the others. Apparently, too much of it made it smell medicinal.

"Here you go, Vinder-san."

Natalie brought over the coarse anko. I arranged it next to the ice cream, about a third of the ice cream's volume. The bright green of the matcha and the black of the anko. That alone was a bit dark, so I added a dollop of fresh cream. On top of the cream, I drizzled the molasses that was a byproduct of making the yellow sugar.

"A frozen dessert, I see. It's quite beautiful..."

Plural's eyes grew more serious. You could call it 'Matcha Ice Cream with Anko and a Dollop of Fresh Cream'. It wasn't a purely Japanese sweet like yokan. But as something to represent Japanese soft power, there was nothing more fitting.

"Well then... Hmm, huh... ngh. Th-this is!"

Plural tried, and failed, to feign composure. The moment he swallowed, he looked up to the heavens. Then, as if to warm his chilled mouth, he took a sip of tea. He pressed a hand to his forehead and leaned his arm on the table.

"This green frozen dessert... what in the world is it?"

"It's nothing particularly special. Just heavy cream, milk, and sugar frozen with ice, and flavored with a herb."

"I see. The cream and anko are connected by the bitter herb. You once unified the one-plate lunch with the aroma of yairu fruit. This is the same concept, I take it..."

The three-color combination, the cold texture, the aroma of matcha. It uses various senses to create an impact. And then, there is the miraculous combination of East and West, bridged by matcha. In other words, the goal is for people to enjoy the collaboration between ice cream and anko.

The matcha flavor itself is unfamiliar here. In addition to using a smaller amount, the matcha aroma helps to cut through the richness of the ice cream. If real vanilla or chocolate existed here, I might have lost.

"Wh-what is this amazing flavor? This is unbelievably good. The anko and cream mixed together..." "To think it would match the flavor of anko so perfectly."

Vinaldira and Natalie exclaimed in delight.

"What can I say? I'm astonished. If you had something like this, you should have brought it out from the start."

"Haha, I didn't even think of it until everyone helped out."

And it shows another one of Japan's special traits, I added in my mind.

They say the word 'yokan' originated from jellied mutton broth. After being introduced to Japan, it supposedly evolved into its current form to suit the Japanese aversion to eating meat. This avoidance of meat was influenced by Buddhism, but I think Japan's native views on life and death also played a role. Yokan and anko originated in China, Buddhism in India. One could say that in Japan, they became wagashi, which developed alongside the tea ceremony, whose own roots lie in Zen.

Taking things from abroad, changing them to a degree that can be called unique, and then 'refining' them further is a key characteristic of Japanese culture. Economically speaking, you could call it the same power that allowed Japan to take the world by storm with its cars and electronics.

Of course, I respect the ancient peoples of China and India who created the originals of yokan, anko, and Buddhism. But it wouldn't be a crime to take pride in the ancestors who achieved such refinement. In fact, it would feel like a crime not to. Even if they are my past life's ancestors.

Of course, the geography of being a Far Eastern island nation was a major factor. If Japan had been just a little closer to the mainland, it might have been completely absorbed by Chinese civilization.

And another power emerged at the dawn of the modern era. The fusion of Eastern and Western culture in Japan. Anpan is a famous example, but I believe matcha ice cream is the ultimate one.

It was precisely because they had already refined Eastern culture into a distinct Japanese style that they could fuse it with Western culture without being consumed by it. After all, you can't just combine two foreign things and expect them to work well together.

It's pretty interesting, isn't it? How the cultures of the East and West blended so exquisitely at the farthest eastern edge.

"What about the cost? You're even using ice."

"Regarding the ice, we might be able to lower the price a little thanks to that new carriage, but this item is mainly for promotion, to let people experience the appeal of anko. So, please work on increasing the production efficiency of yellow sugar by summer, when we'll actually start serving this. I have a few ideas for that, at least."

Honey, cream, sugar. The production efficiency for all of them can be increased with centrifugal separation. I'm thinking of standardizing the windmill mechanism we use for beekeeping and boosting its efficiency with bearings. I'm counting on Noel's hard work for that.

"Be sure to patronize our company for the cream, milk, and eggs."

"Leave the herbs and beans to me."

Rilka and Sherry promoted their family businesses.

"If this improves the reputation of anko, we might even be able to sell yokan eventually," I said to Natalie and Vinaldira. I hoped that with a gateway like ice cream, more people would be willing to bridge the cultural gap.

"Promotion, huh. If it were summer now, this would have been the perfect dessert for Her Excellency the Grand Duchess's request."

In my old world, people ate it even in the dead of winter. Here, it could be seen as harassment.

"That's true. It would have been the best possible promotion. Well, I'll leave that part to you."

When all is said and done, I'm still completely reliant on the knowledge of my predecessors, but I think I've at least managed to fulfill my role as an angel investor.