IOCAW V2 C31

Chapter 31: Girls are weak to limited things.

It was soon to be a new year at the Feliformia Kingdom.

In this world, the Goddess nourished the world with water when she created it. The water fluttered down onto the lands as snow, and the year began during winter, just like in Risa’s previous world.

This would be the second time Risa would welcome the new year in this world. On the last night of the year, people usually stayed up to welcome the new year by holding festivals here and there in the cold. It was her first year last year, so she didn’t do anything, but this year she wondered if she could make something for the café.

“Osechi, ozouni, or kagami mochi? But hmmm…”

She thought about food she made for the new year in her previous world, but nothing really stood out to her. In the first place, she wouldn’t be able to make most of them since she didn’t have the ingredients for them anyway. 

Osechi food were types of lucky charms that had specific meanings to each of them, though, so she didn’t think they would be appropriate for this world.

“Ah… there’s also Christmas?”

There was no Christmas in this world. The religion mainly worshipped the Goddess, and there was no savior or saints. Of course, the jolly man in red with a white beard also did not exist.

“Ah, I know! Let’s sell a cake! Mhm, that would be great to do, with limited quantities!”

“Limited” items were popular in this world among the female population as well. There were only two weeks left until the new year, but she would make it somehow. The second she decided, she began to plan.

Thirty cakes on a first come, first serve basis. What to do with the design? Something celebratory would be nice.

Risa smiled from ear to ear as she wrote her plan down in bullet points on paper, huddled in a corner of the kitchen. She muttered under her breath from time to time and nodded to herself. The other employees of the café stared at her from a distance. They could not see Risa’s spirit, Basil, sitting on her shoulder and looking at her notes.

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“To welcome the new year, we are going to have a limited sale of cake!”

After spending the whole day fleshing out her idea, Risa presented her plan to everyone with a “babam!” In her hands were flyers that would be put up around the store starting today.

“Celebrate the new year with a special cake!”

Under the standard catchline was an illustration of a cake and the words “First come first serve, limited 30!” jumping out of the paper.

“Whoa, that looks interesting!”

“That’s great! The words ‘special’ and ‘limited’ really pull you in.”

“Right? Right?”

As she expected, the first to bite were Olivia and Helena. Their perspectives as women were extremely important, as the main target audience of the café was women.

“Are you going with this design?”

Zeke and Alan stared intently at the decorations on the cake in the flyer.

“Yup!”

“Is this a spirit?”

Alan asked as he pointed at the doll figure sitting atop the stump-like cake.

“Yes! When the Goddess created the world, she also created spirits, right? That’s why I made a cake with the forest and spirits in mind. Of course, the model for this little one is my spirit, Basil!”

Risa said as she thrust out her hands towards them, where Basil was sitting. Basil got up and twirled in a circle. However, the other four people could not see spirits, so they did not react much. They knew there was probably a spirit there, but they could not see it.

“Hm, I agree that a cake is a good idea, but are we not going to make something for dine-in customers?”

Alan said as he read the small text, “all cakes are to go only,” on the flyer.

Risa had prepared an answer for that.

“We are making chawanmushi only on New Year’s and New Year’s Eve!”

“Chawanmushi?”

The four employees stared at Risa blankly, unfamiliar with the word.

“Chawanmushi is… well… a kind of pudding that isn’t sweet and has a lot of ingredients in it?”

The four employees only looked even more confused by the images in their head with Risa’s vague explanation.

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The next day was the regular holiday. All Café Omusubi employees were at the store, watching Risa make chawanmushi.

Based on her tests at home, Risa combined the perfect ratio of dashi and eggs and filtered it so the egg mixture in the bowls was smooth with no clumps. The dashi was made by stewing chicken bones. The ingredients for the chawanmushi included mushrooms, chicken, and chestnut-like candied puprons. In her previous world, it was more common to use gingko nuts than chestnuts, but Risa’s mother used chestnuts, so that’s what Risa did. She readied a leaf of Japanese parsley to place on top, as was convention. Unfortunately, this world did not have any paste products, and she did not have any time to make naruto or kamaboko, so there weren’t any in the chawanmushi.

“I’m going to steam this now~”

“Steam?” Question marks were written all over the four employee’s faces, and Risa laughed. She put some water in a wide pot, turned on the heat under it and covered it with a lid. Soon, the water began to boil. She turned off the heat and began to place the bowls with the raw chawanmushi into the pot.

“You’re boiling the bowls, too?”

Zeke asked after watching Risa in silence.

“Actually, you need the bowls to be in the pot so you can heat the chawanmushi with vapor.”

Risa explained, and the four employees murmured their astonishment and understanding.

After she placed all the bowls in, she placed a cloth on top of the bowls so water precipitating on the lid would not drop onto the egg, covered everything with the lid again, and turned the heat on, at weak heat this time.

“And now we wait!”

Risa said, turning to the four employees, and Zeke and Alan immediately began to ask their twenty questions—what was the meaning of the cloth, how long did they have to wait, could the included ingredients be changed… The two of them expressed their curiosity as chefs towards a new recipe very clearly.

In comparison, the female employees were discussing the wrapping decoration for the cakes as asked by Risa. While she joined in their conversation every so often, ten minutes passed and she turned off the heat. After two or three more minutes, she took out the bowls.

While she did test the recipe before, this was the first time she made chawanmushi at the café. However, her worries were unfounded, and the surfaces of the chawanmushi were wonderfully smooth without any bubbles or defects. She placed the parsley from before in the middle of the bowls, and the chawanmushi were finished.

“This is chawanmushi…”

“It really does look like pudding.”

The four employees stared at the chawanmushi lined up on the worktable. Zeke took out spoons, and each person picked up a bowl to try. Alan immediately took a bite of the still steaming chawanmushi and almost fainted in agony from the burn. The others watched him and blew on the chawanmushi before putting the cooled down bites in their mouth.

“The texture is very similar to pudding, but the flavor is completely different. Mm, this is good.”

“It’s so fun to discover ingredients as you eat! This pudding-like texture is really great!”

“Hot hot hot hot… but it’s really good!”

“Small children would be able to eat this too. It seems good for baby food, too. What a kind and gentle flavor.”

They all gave their thoughts, and Risa told them how good it was cold as well.

“It seems really easy to make. We won’t be adding this to our usual menu?”

“Ah… I already made the egg mixture beforehand today, but it actually takes a lot of time, especially when you make the dashi. Filtering the mixture also takes a lot of effort. Besides, it won’t be special anymore if we put it on the usual menu.”

“You’re right. It’s much more attractive if you can only order it for those two days.”

As representatives of the female population who love uniqueness, Olivia agreed to Risa, and Helena was also nodding. 

While they talked about this and that, they quickly ate through the chawanmushi. Everyone really liked the candied puprons sitting at the bottom, and they finished their bowls with great satisfaction. Almost half of Risa’s chawanmushi was stolen by egg-loving Basil, but she was happy that it received praises. She felt some form of nostalgia for the chawanmushi that her mother used to make, and it hit her that she was welcoming another new year.

This would be the second new year she was welcoming in this world, but she hadn’t done anything special last year, nor did she know anything of the culture here. She felt this year was special as she was making plans to welcome the new year. She watched the two new employees as they worked and reflected on how they joined the team.

Then there was Zeke. A year ago, she would not have even imagined dating him. She was still being teased left and right by him despite being older, but she found their relationship fun.

Just like the chawanmushi filled with ingredients, this year was full of events and happenings. There would be a lot of events next year too, Risa thought as she let her mind run away with the possibilities.

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All the food! Yay!!

Osechi are traditional Japanese new year foods, often put in bento boxes like the ones below:

You can read more on some of the more common meanings here on Tokyo Weekender.

Ozouni is new year mochi soup that’s enjoyed with some chicken, mochi, and mustard spinach. According to Just One Cookbook, Eastern Japan uses a clear dashi while Western Japan uses white miso. It’s a very comforting soup with such a gentle flavor. I highly recommend you try it!

Check out the clear-dashi ozouni recipe at Just One Cookbook!

Have you ever seen those mochi stacked like a baby snowman? That’s a kagami mochi!

Read more about it here at Just One Cookbook!

Chawanmushi is apparently called steamed egg custard in English, and it is the best comfort food ever when you feel sick or down on the weather. Hands down. Homemade chawanmushi can be as simple and as complicated as you want. Instead of adding ingredients, my mother opts for an only egg chawanmushi with onion broth (steam an onion in a bowl, tada you have onion broth!) and a small spoon of chicken broth. It heals your soul.

Check out the recipe at Just One Cookbook!

The last recipe in this food-packed chapter is the cake that looks like a stump. It’s the ever famous Yule Log cake for Christmas! At heart it’s a simple chocolate roll cake with festive Christmas decorations!

Recipe and picture from Betty Crocker

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Do you have any food you eat to celebrate the new year? I like to make new year soba as it’s easier and less time consuming than the feast that Chinese New Year requires. Leave pictures and recipes in the comments!

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