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I washed my hands after our return from our grocery shopping trip and put on my apron. Likewise, Kon was geared up in his special coverall apron. With him as my trusty assistant, we began making desserts with plum syrup.
I decided to start with making shiratama dango.
Pour shiratamako into a mixing bowl. Add water in small increments while stirring slowly and thoroughly. Scoop up a suitable amount of the resulting mixture into your hands and roll it in your palms until it becomes a round, bite-sized shiratama dango. When you have a perfect sphere, press hard into the middle of the dango with your fingertip. This will make it easier to cook the dango all the way through.
Repeat this process until you’ve depleted all your shiratamako mixture. During this step, put your squashed shiratama dango into a pot of boiling water you’ve prepared in advance as you go. When cooked, they’ll bob to the surface of the water. Scoop the cooked shiratama dango with a slotted ladle and transfer it into a bowl of water. Once all the shiratama dango are cooked, you can move on to the next step.
Wash your selection of fruits. Peel them meticulously one by one and cut into bite-sized chunks.
This was a rather strenuous process because one of my fruits was a watermelon, but once the fruits were cut up, the remaining steps were simple. And so, I braced myself for the toughest part and worked tirelessly with utmost effort, borrowing the help of Kon’s tiny hands whenever possible. When I was done, I piled our fruit chunks into a large bowl and covered it with plastic wrap. All that was left to do for the shiratama dango fruit punch was to add plum soda and shiratama dango to these fruits.
Next up was plum sherbet.
For sherbert, put your ingredients into a container like a bowl and chill it in the freezer before taking out and mixing thoroughly. Then, you chill it again before taking it out to give it a thorough stir. You have two options: either stir it periodically so that it doesn’t freeze into one big clump, or you can use some kind of tool to grind the large clump of ice at the very end.
I’d stored my plum sherbet mixture in the freezer when I’d woken up this morning and had mixed it after breakfast, mixed it before I went away to brush my teeth and to go out shopping, and was mixing it now that I’d come back. Thanks to my frequent stirring, the ice had become a sherbert-like paste consistency, so my job with this menu was done for now. I left it to rest in the freezer until all our participants assembled.
As for plum syrup and yogurt, it was extremely simple. You only had to transfer plum syrup and yogurt into some kind of container—even a preserve jar would do—and mix it. As for noshi ume, we had our stock from yesterday. For plum soda and plum sour cocktails, the preparations were equally effortless. In one preserve bottle, I poured plum syrup and sparkling water. In another, I poured plum syrup, sparkling water, and a selection of fruity vinegars, such as apple cider vinegar.
Peeling all the fruits and cutting them up had been somewhat exhausting, but even so, preparing this dessert party was much simpler than my usual endeavors. In fact, I felt like it was too simple, because I’d finished cooking in the blink of an eye.
I waited for Techi to wake up and for Rei to show up.
Techi had been awake for breakfast with a healthy appetite, but after washing her face and doing her morning rituals, it appeared that she’d fallen asleep almost immediately after our departure for the supermarket. Even now, she was still sleeping in. Rei should be here any moment now, but he was still nowhere in sight. I could only patiently wait for those two to make their way here.
But that was when Kon, who’d been restless and fidgety on the kitchen counter, began to take action—his patience must have run out. He started by taking off his coverall apron and folding it up neatly. Then, he fetched a glass bowl and spoon from the cabinet and held them in both hands as he stared unblinkingly at me. His eyes were pleading and shining with stunning hope and anticipation—how could I ever say no to him?
In order, I carried the bowl of fruits, the bowl of shiratama dango, and the preserve bottle of plum soda onto the low table in the living room. I sat down at my designated seat and lifted the serving ladle before calling out to Kon, who’d was also at his seat and gingerly holding up his glass bowl with both hands.
“Now then, my first customer, Mr. Kon. We have oranges, grapefruits, watermelons, pineapples, kiwi fruits, strawberries, and a cantaloupe. Which one would you like to have, sir?” I asked dramatically.
A radiant smile bloomed on Kon’s face. He peered into the mixing bowl, then confirmed the size of the smaller bowl in his hands, then glanced at the mixing bowl again. Though he knew he was being reckless, he must have fallen into temptation, because he chirped cheerily, “Everything, please!”
Giving him a big nod, I went on to arrange one or two pieces of every type of fruit onto his bowl, followed by two shiratama dango. For the finishing touch, I gently poured on the plum soda.
There was already the tantalizing aroma of fruits shrouding us, and now, the sharp, bright aroma of plums was added to the mix. The soda popped and fizzed noisily. Fruits of every color glimmered under the light like jewels.
It was as if there was an entire miniature world within the glass bowl, and Kon stared at it intently. He gingerly placed it on the tabletop, held up his spoon resolutely as if he were going into battle, and yelled “THANKS FOR THE FOOD!” in a voice that was much more powerful than all his other greetings before his meals. Almost immediately, he went after the shiratama dango fruit punch with plum soda.