My Childhood Friend And Cooking

According to my childhood friend, “food cooked somewhere special sells surprisingly well, even if it’s a little odd,” apparently.

I mean, maybe that flies at a school culture festival, but at a serious, grown-up-run event an odd dish would normally just get torn to shreds… or so I gather whenever I look online. And this childhood friend of mine, one Sakura Ayuri, was busy entertaining exactly that kind of faintly smug notion… well…

“There’s all sorts of stuff here…”
“Isn’t there kind of a lot besides just potatoes?”
“That part’s… I wonder why, huh.”

Just before noon on a day off, the usual same-year crowd had gathered at Hina’s place. Ayu had apparently arrived ahead of us, and Sumire and I, who’d met up and come together, had just been told to stand by.

“Hina told us to wait in the kitchen, didn’t she?”
“She did.”

As for why we were doing all this, the reason was simple. The culture festival was creeping closer, our class had settled on what to run for it, and today we’d gathered at Hina’s to practice. That was the shape of things.

“Welcome, and thank you kindly for coming!”
“Ah — Ayuri, Hina.”
“Oi, dummy. Why’d you go and prep a whole bunch of other stuff besides the potatoes that are the entire point?”
“My deepest apologies, for a spread as humble as this.”

Ayu and Hina had turned up in aprons, bowing low. Hina was acting normal enough, but why exactly was Ayu smirking like that?

“Well, see, our class settled on a ‘jaga-butter’ stall for the culture festival, right?”
“So it turned into a ‘let’s try making a little of it at my place, since I’ve got a pressure cooker~!’ kind of thing~.”
“But as Hina and I planned it all out, we went, ‘for a snack it’s kind of heavy all around, and it’d be hard to make in bulk too, wouldn’t it?’”
“So the two of us decided — let’s make a whole lunch with jaga-butter as the main~.”
“So everything besides the potatoes is a side for the main, got it.”

I took another look at the table. Beside the potatoes sat ground meat, a bag of pre-cut salad, and various other odds and ends.

Huh. Was today shaping up to be a fairly ordinary cooking day after all?

“By the look of it… are we making hamburg steak?”
“That’s right~ today’s lunch is Western-style~.”
“Hamburg steak sounds like more work than jaga-butter, though.”
“Well, see, four girls in the flower of our high-school years gathering just to munch on nothing but potatoes is kind of… y’know?”
“Right, right — since we’re here, let’s make it a fun, tasty cooking time~. Fii-ight~!”
“Yeah!”

◆◆◆

“Okay, first let’s make the hamburg steaks!”

Besides, jaga-butter ultimately just comes down to gouging out the eyes and steaming the things.

“First up~… we mince the onion~.”
“On it!”
“…You’re holding that knife like it’s the most natural thing, Ayu, but… are you even the type who cooks regularly?”
“Almost never! But this counts as a kind of experi—”
“I’ll do it.”
“Whyyy?!”

I mean, it’s scary, okay? Ayu’s not exactly nimble-fingered, and it’s plain as day that watching from the sidelines would keep me on edge the whole time.

I somehow coaxed the pouting Ayu into surrendering the knife and claimed her spot for myself. It’s not as though I cook much either, but I’ve got surer hands than Ayu, so at least I’m the lesser evil.

“…Done. Can you fry this up for me?”
“You got it!”
“…Sumire, could I ask you to?”
“Whyyy?!”
“Uh… I don’t mind, but… is that okay?”

I mean, it’s scary. She’s all wound up, so she’d fry the thing with needless violence and end up burning herself on a flung fleck of onion, this one.

— Sizzle…

“Ooh, nice sound.”
“Fry it until it goes golden~.”
“Mm.”

See, one way or another she seems to be having fun, so it’s fine. …Right, while my hands are free, I guess I’ll get started digging the eyes out of the potatoes.

◆◆◆

“Next up, making the patty mix~.”
“This time for sure!”

…Well, a job that simple would surely wrap up without incident, so I really had nothing in particular to say…

“Okay, let’s crack the egg~.”
“Okaay!”
“Hold on a sec.”
“Again?!”

It’s not dangerous, not in the slightest, but… I happen to know this one comes with a different problem entirely.

“Ayu, weren’t you awful at cracking eggs?”
“Th-that’s not true, you know?”
“That gyudon place, the other day.”
“…”

— Twitch.

“You botched cracking the topping egg and got shell mixed in, remember?”
“I-I’ve grown since then… you get nowhere without piling up experience…”
“Really? Everyone’s going to eat this, you sure about that?”
“…Yes. I’ll have Hina do it…”
“Okaay, leave it to me~.”

Honestly, even I’d started to suspect I’d been a touch overprotective up till now, but this really was a separate matter. Maybe Hina had been quietly worried about it too; she cracked the egg deftly, one-handed, and went straight on to kneading the mix… no, wait, couldn’t we at least let Ayu do the kneading?

◆◆◆

“So far the only job I’ve gotten to do is washing the potatoes, though.”
“There, there… it just means everyone treasures you, Ayuri…”
“That may be so, but the way I’m being handled is how you’d treat a little girl, isn’t it?”
“…That’s not so.”
“Then why are you looking away? Hm?”

While Hina shaped the patties she’d kneaded, Ayu kept busy giving Sumire a hard time. She’s been handled this way forever, in home-ec cooking labs and the like, so I figure she could stand to just accept it by now. Though for her, it’s probably that self-conscious sense of being an “adult” that’s the sticking point.

“All right, let me ask — have you cooked anything lately, Ayu?”
“Well asked! As it happens, I made ramen the other day!”
“Not cup ramen, or the frozen kind?”
“That’s just boiling water or nuking it in the microwave! There’s no way I’d call that cooking, not here of all places!”
“Just so you know, dried noodles or fresh ramen — it’s no different.”
“…”
“Now it’s Ayuri looking away…”

Figured as much. Even at my house we’ve been making that since grade school… my big brother, that is. At my place, whoever makes the ramen gets to pick the flavor, so I’ve actually never made it myself; not that I care all that much either way.

“Okaay, shaping’s all done~ You’re not gonna let me grill them either, are you~.”
“She’s sulking…”
“Then I’ll do it.”
“Booo.”

Ignore, ignore. Ayu’s the one who dreamed this whole thing up and paid for the ingredients in the first place, so she may as well own it and lounge back like some bigshot.

“And for that very Ayu, I’ve prepared something like this~.”
“Ooh! What is it, what is it?! Leave it to me!”

Quick to bounce back, huh. Did she want to cook that badly…? Maybe I should’ve at least let her handle the onion-frying, I think now, too late, as I grill the hamburg steaks.

“First, into a bowl~, some cold milk~.”
“Mm-hm, mm-hm.”
“And then, Fruiche in mixed-berry flavor~.”
“That’s just mixing!”

Yep, knew it. Behind me, as I worked the hamburg steaks, Ayu’s retort rang out.

“That’s no different from the ramen-making you just dissed — if anything, it’s even easier!”
“I didn’t exactly diss it, though.”
“You know how they say~? Cooking is science! Isn’t it wondrous, how just mixing it with cold milk makes a tasty dessert~?”
“I’m telling you, it’s just mixing!”
“Whoa there, whoa.”

Hina, unruffled as ever; Ayu, all worked up; and Sumire, chiding that very Ayu. This isn’t even the kind of cooking that needs four pairs of hands to begin with, so naturally someone’s always going to have time on their hands… has this one already forgotten that?

“I-is there… is there anything else I can do?!”
“Sorry, Ayu~ the pressure cooker I do want to keep an eye on myself, as the one in charge…”
“I’m going to plate the salad… would you rather do this one, Ayuri?”
“…I’ll do the Fruiche…”

In the end Ayu agreed to make the Fruiche… well, that at least feels a shade more like actual cooking.

◆◆◆

“Booo… it’s good…”
“Glad to hear it.”

The cooking wrapped up without a hitch… but Ayu, never having gotten to do the jobs she wanted, had been pouting the whole time. She’d gone “booo, booo” so much I was half-tempted to wonder whether she’d finally turned into a pig.

“Sorry, Ayu~. It’s not that we kept you from cooking to be mean, you know.”
“I knoow… everyone worried because I’m clumsy…”
“That’s not the reason, though~… well, I mean, that’s part of it, if we’re being honest…”
“Huuh? Then whaat’s the reason~?”

Munching her salad like some herbivore, Ayu pressed Hina for the reason.

“See, ever since the new term started, Ayu, you’ve been working hard at all kinds of new things — the part-time job, the jogging, and so on, right?”
“I’m only doing those because I want to, though.”
“But but — it’s a fact that you’re working hard, right~? So we wanted to pamper you a little, even just a bit… isn’t that right~, Gin?”
“Nghk… huh, me?”

I hadn’t expected to get dragged in out of nowhere, so it caught me off guard; I swallowed my vegetables barely chewed, and now the back of my throat felt a little off.

“So that’s why you were the first to snatch away Ayu’s jobs, Gin~. We couldn’t help hopping on board too~.”
“…Yeah, that’s right.”
“Really? Hina and Sumire, sure, but you, Gin, looked like you weren’t thinking anything at all.”
“Watch the rude remarks, you idiothood friend.”
“You’ve finally gone and stopped being a childhood friend…”

…No, well. Right from the onion bit at the very start, I’d snatched the job away without a single thought, purely on a vague hunch that it looked precarious… so Ayu’s guess was dead on the money, honestly.

“Even without the pampering… everyone gathering like this, and Hina even lending us her kitchen — at this point that’s already more than enough.”
“All I did was ask my mom~. The reason our school life is so much fun is thanks to you, Ayu, always dreaming up all these things for us.”
“Huh, really? …Then I guess that’s… okay?”

…This is kind of embarrassing, somehow. I hadn’t actually set out to pamper her this time, but the sentiment itself is something I vaguely share too.

“…Yeah, okay, then I’ll take it that that’s how it is today!”
“Mm-hm, mm-hm.”
“In exchange, leave the dishwashing to me, got it!”
“Ah, that’s banned too.”
“I can handle dishwashing just fine, surely?!”
“Kidding, kidding.”

In truth it’s only the cooking itself that Ayu isn’t allowed to do; I know full well that, left to her own devices, she’d manage well enough.

And so it turned into a day off spent over a fun, happy lunch like that.