This was the first time I heard Shirley speak so clearly. And beckoned by the two girls’ voices, Dargan suddenly raised his head.
“That ain’t all. This could also be considered a menu, right, Weinder?”
Dargan grabbed my shoulder. You’re putting too much strength into your hand, dammit! That hurts...
“...A menu?” Ruston asked.
“That’s right. Look, we’ve got the specialties of each shop lined up here, but the portion is still small enough that it makes you want just a bit more.”
“...So the guests who eat this will order more of what they like from the individual shops?”
Ruston came to an understanding from what Dargan said. In any case, he looked like a complete meathead, but he really had it together up there. I guess that was to be expected from the future proprietor of a company. But I would at least like him to stop crushing my shoulder.
He was exactly right. This was a combination platter meant to stimulate the appetites of our customers. Furthermore, it served as an introduction to the main specialties of each shop. It was an edible menu.
“An edible painting and a menu... I’m somewhat displeased at how the main attraction of the dessert is sitting in the back, though...” Plura still seemed to have complaints, but at least he wasn’t rejecting the idea anymore.
“It’s certainly an amazing concept. It’s both pretty and refined, so the young noble ladies will likely accept it, but...”
“Mm, we’re serving all this at once...?”
Now that the visual impact had settled down, Lilka looked somewhat worried as her eyes began wandering over the food on top of the dish. Shirley also started getting anxious right next to her.
“Let’s try eating it first.”
Well, let’s answer any doubts by verifying the taste. All the merits so far were promotion related. However, the main priority of this still had to be its quality as cuisine. Everyone stretched their hands towards the plate and took a bite of everything in toothpick-sized portions.
“Each individual dish is good, but it’s not enough. I guess that’s fine, though, since it’s kinda the point...” Dargan commented.
“Since we’re quickly moving from dish to dish, the tastes conflict with the palate.” Plura added.
“Our vegetables have no presence...” Shirley muttered anxiously.
Standing before the now-empty plate covered in sauce from each dish, everyone calmly voiced their opinion.
Back in my student days, I’d done something similar; I bought a bunch of side dishes from the supermarket and lined them up on the table of my cheap apartment as a full course meal. It wasn’t anywhere near the definition of luxury, though. I just had croquettes, fried chicken and such with half-price seals on them. Setting that aside, I did take one thing away from doing that: lining up a bunch of ready-made dishes does not a full course meal make.
Naturally, what we had here weren’t side dishes. They were all the specialty goods of each company. No wonder the individuality of each one backfired as a whole. It’s possible that they could compensate for this using their abilities. However...
“We should suppress the taste of the meat a little more. It’s obstructing the delicate taste of my mousse.”
“Au contraire. Your mousse is just too damn rich.”
“The tastes of the aspic and pudding don’t conflict, though.”
“...Mm. I guess it’s the texture or something? They kinda overlap.”
It wasn’t easy to reconcile. If anyone here were to deny their own specialty, the Food Court would shatter into pieces like a fallen plate.
Right, let’s just have everything join together with a neutral entity. I made a request of the one in charge of the baguette, who was staying out of the conversation, to hand me my secret weapon.
“Did you bring what I asked for?”
“...It lacks acidity when compared to a lemon, and the scent is also quite plain, just so you know,” Ruston said as he handed me a small yellow fruit.
I actually found it rather amazing that he was able to procure this on such short notice. Mia began arranging another one-plate lunch atop a clean plate, as I cleaved the small rugged fruit in two with a knife. I then dribbled a few drops of juice from the fruit on top of everything on the plate. The nostalgic scent of a faint sourness tickled my nose.
“How’s that gonna change anything?”
“Please have a taste.”
“Huh? It’s somehow easier to eat now. Is it just from the scent? It’s not even that strong.”
“Certainly... It’s lacking compared to a lemon, but it’s also that much more refreshing. This is quite...”
All four of them looked at the taciturn schoolboy.
“It’s a fruit called junos; one that we handle on extremely rare occasions.”
Back in the other world, it would be called citrus junos, or yuzu. Both its taste and scent were quite refreshing. It bore a remarkable resemblance to the yuzu I’d had in Japan. I found it by coincidence in the archive and had only jotted down a memo about it at the time, but it came in handy at quite an unexpected time.
“A whole sense of unity popped up outta nowhere.”
“Normally, we would be adding lemon to our mousse. There’s no mistake in that choice, but thinking of it from the perspective of this plate as a whole... Tch, it works.”
“Won’t this work with just a few more small adjustments?”
“If we add the zest to my aspic...”
The members began discussing things on the premise that yuzu would be used. It seemed that using the scent to give the plate a sense of unity was a success. Now I could leave the remaining adjustments to the experts.
“Thanks for preparing what would be most suitable, Ruston.”
“...I didn’t know it had such an all-purpose use, though.”
Now one final problem remained— how would a normal customer assess this, as opposed to specialists in cuisine?