Shokugeki no Soma 94 – Seizing the Season
Souma and Megumi arrive at the busy fish market.
Megumi is pretty excited about it and Souma just gets tempted to look at other fish.
They start talking about how they both frequent fish markets (Souma with his dad, Megumi at her hometown)
Megumi starts talking about how she should be careful not to get in the way of the shopkeepers only to be scolded by one.
That shopkeeper asks where they are from and as soon as they tell him they’re from Tootsuki his attitude makes a 180° change and he tells them Tootsuki buys a lot of things from there.
Souma and Megumi keep looking for pacific saury and end up meeting Ryou and Alice as soon as they find it.
They think it’s a coincidence but Ryou tells them he goes pretty much everyday there, the shopkeepers even call him Ryou-chan
Souma starts chatting with them and Megumi starts freaking out about it.
Souma begins talking about how important it is to be able to discern which pacific saury are the best ones.
Megumi talks about some of the clues to choose a good one like it being plump, its eyes being transparent, and the tip of the mouth having fat and being fresh.
Ryou tells her that you can’t just choose a fresh one as fish start producing inosinic acid after a while (and that gives them flavor) and that the amount produced depends a lot on how it was caught and that a fish that’s just fresh might be too hard.
He also says a lot of experience is needed for that.
Souma starts saying that this theme is a lot easier to test as he’s a lot more familiar and confident with it.
He then picks up a fish that stands tall even holding it from the tail.
Megumi praises his decision and Alice mentions that’s one way to choose pacific saury
Souma says that’s the best fish in that shop.
Ryou takes it from Souma’s hands and tells him that’s not the best and then chooses one that’s a bit smaller.
Souma isn’t really convinced about that and Ryou proposes that they should both make sashimi out of those fishes to see who’s better choosing
Megumi asks the shopkeepers for a place to have the contest the shopkeeper agrees and all the bystanders are amazed that Souma’s able to keep up with Ryou.
After they serve their sashimis the shopkeepers can’t believe those were made by high schoolers and comment on how even their skills are.
Ryou asks Megumi to taste them.
Megumi is surprised and mentions that Ryou’s has a better consistency than Souma’s.
Alice explains that because of the difference between the “rigor index” and the “muscle’s breaking strength” (basically, the consistency is determined by the second but what makes the fish stand firm is the first, the second one decreases drastically after about 5 hours from freezing it and the first decreases gradually after about 10 hours)
Ryou starts lecturing Souma on how you can’t judge just by looking at it.
He then says he can pretty much understand everything about how a fish was when alive and how it was caught and preserved just by touching it.
One shopkeeper even says Ryou’s is pretty much a wild instinct.
Ryou tells Souma that the quality and flavor of ingredients in season is incredibly better than when they’re not and that choosing a not-so-good one can make the difference between two dishes.
He also mentions that he keeps going to fish markets to prevent his senses from dulling and that he’s been doing so for 10 years.
Ryou also tells Souma he’ll never lose to someone who picks fishes with half-hearted knowledge.
The shopkeepers start talking about how Akira also came before and picked a couple of the best fishes without even looking at them.
Souma starts reflecting on how they got ahead of him with how good they’re at picking ingredients and then gets a bit depressed seeing how bad the situation looks.
The End