The Colossal ‘Ramen’

Still, we had gathered because we wanted to learn the secret behind Taisho’s ramen…

And yet the ‘ramen’ before us did not look as though it possessed anything resembling the charm of Taisho’s ramen at all, which was rather troubling.

When I brought my face closer to the bowl, the powerful aroma of garlic stimulated my stomach… The enormous pile of vegetables atop the ‘Jiro-style’ ramen consisted mainly of cabbage and a sprout-like plant called ‘bean sprouts.’

The towering heap looked bold and impressive if one were charitable, or vulgar if one were not.

The bowl had also been filled nearly to overflowing with soup, which was clouded by emulsified fat.

I first put a large mouthful of vegetables into my mouth.

But… hmm. These so-called bean sprouts barely had any flavor at all. The cabbage seemed to have been only lightly boiled as well.

And no matter how many vegetables I ate, I still could not reach the noodles… My mouth was filled with nothing but bland, watery emptiness.

It was just like the meals back in the elven village. It reminded me of my childhood.

For a while I kept crunching through the vegetables with a troubled expression, but at this rate I would never reach the noodles, so I steeled myself, plunged my disposable chopsticks all the way to the bottom of the bowl, and searched for the noodles that ‘I could not see but assumed must surely be there.’ Then something solid bumped against my chopsticks.

…Huh. Could this… actually be the noodles…?

They were incredibly heavy!

I slowly dragged the noodles out from beneath the mountain of vegetables. What emerged from the bottom of the bowl were extremely thick noodles, stained brown and resembling lengths of hemp rope.

I recoiled in shock.

W-What were these noodles…? They were about four times thicker than ordinary noodles!

Still astonished, I put some into my mouth and—s-so salty!?

The soup was insanely strong!

Coughing, I hurriedly stuffed some vegetables into my mouth. Their faint sweetness enveloped the saltiness, softening the overwhelming intensity… Ah, that startled me!

So these vegetables were essentially there to reset the palate like fish cake and offset the saltiness of the soup…? Though I still felt there was far too much of them.

Hmm? It was not bad, but… at that moment, my impression was that it was an excessive, unbalanced, mismatched sort of ramen in almost every respect.

However, Ren had told us not to leave any behind, and we still had not uncovered the secret of Taisho’s ramen.

There was no way I could simply get up and leave now.

Though increasingly overwhelmed, I slurped down another mouthful of noodles. This time, a huge amount of minced garlic came with them, sending such an intense shock through my mouth that it felt as though something had exploded inside.

I coughed again and fled to the bean sprouts for relief. Then I slurped more noodles, followed the overpowering flavor with a mouthful of cabbage, bit into the quivering fat of an absurdly thick slice of roast pork in between, ate more vegetables when I wanted something refreshing… and repeated the cycle.

And somehow… that cycle… would not let me stop.

Before I knew it, I was doing nothing but repeatedly shoveling noodles into my mouth.

I had become completely captivated by this outrageously ‘gigantic ramen,’ devouring it ravenously at a furious pace!