[Mission] Sweet Genius 5: Sticky Fingers

Kami the Candlemon flew onto stage, dragging Tomomi with his waxy hand. They stumbled past a few of the contestants, as Tomomi apologized left and right with the hand on his neck, anxiety filled with pestering all the contestants before the event even began! When the two reach the microphone, Candlemon lightly pushes Tomomi in front of the microphone. He immediately bows to the audience, "Greetings. I am Tomomi Nakamura, from Kyoto. This is my companion, Kami the Candlemon. We have never professionally cooked a dessert, but we will make the digital world proud!"

Tomomi bowed one more time as Candlemon shot fire from his mouth behind Tomomi, appearing as if his bow caused fireworks behind him. When finished, Tomomi grabs Candlemon by the hand and walks towards the other side of Lilly. He nods at Candlemon thinking, WE LOOKED SOOO COOL! At least, they hope they did.

Nova watched as the others had taken their places before looking at Jimmy and Takara. Given the circumstances, it wouldn't be too hard to throw the competition. Wouldn't be hard to cheat without getting caught either with his link with Sparks. Naturally, Nova was too proud of his abilities in the kitchen to bother with rigging anything. He didn't need flashy effects either. Who needs them anyway? He walked on to the stage, a confident smirk plastered over his face.

"Hello everyone! I'm Nova Ozuka, and this is my first time entering any sort of cooking competition. I can't wait to get started!"

He then took his place with Tomomi and Feliciano. This was the most energetic Nova had been during his stay in the Digital World, and this competition would surely prove to be among the highlights.

((Sorry for the wait. I completely forgotten about this.))

Well that's one way to make an entrance. Jimmy thought as he watched Takara moonwalk back over to the others. Looking at Nova and the other two competitors. This was certainly going to be interesting experience.

He was honestly a bit surprised when the idea for them to join this competition was brought up. He never actually told the others about his previous experiences with this competition. Much less the fact that he actually won at least once. Maybe twice. Why couldn't he remember exactly? Oh well.

Jimmy walked up the stage in a calm and steady pace. "Hello everyone. I'm Jimmy Coulton. And I hope to please you all with the deserts I will be making today." He told the crowd before giving them a small bow. He then turned around and walked over to where the others were.

Yeap. This was going to be interesting.

    This was a display of food unlike any Takara had ever seen. Seriously, what the heck! He almost went into a food coma just looking at all of it! Keep in mind that this was a young man who had been living on scraps and garbage for the past several years. But of course, why should anything less be prepared for his debut as Takara Kureha, Master Chef? Treasure could wait... He had people's hearts and stomachs to win!

    His greatest weakness in this competition failed to stall his excitement. What weakness was that? The woeful inadequacy of his cooking style in this situation. The young man's self made, "Street Style" was primarily based on, finding whatever was usable, wherever you could. In this arena, where nothing was in short supply... What would he make without his usual limited supply? What ingredients would he pluck from the shelves, when he had so many to choose from?

    Knowing Takara Kureha... The answer was probably, "All of them."

    It was time! The timer had started! And with a whole hour to go... Takara was ready for anything! But what ingredients should he grab first!? He paced down the aisles of food, putting on a thoughtful face. A face that was the exact opposite of his real mood. Since when did this particular human ever actually think? Just ask his partner, the poor Hagurumon. Takara Kureha was a man of action! Not so much one of thought.

    From the rows of food, Takara plucked one single piece. A long, skinny, yellow one. This curved piece... It was so familiar looking... But he couldn't say why. He gave it a squeeze. More firm than anything he'd eaten in... A long time. More yellow too. Weird. Hmm... But if it was brown... And less firm... Oh! He knew! It was a banana! He could use this! But that wasn't enough... He needed more! He stuffed the banana in his pocket and kept walking.

    Yes... No, no... Yes, yes... No... The method by which Takara Kureha was selecting ingredients was... Entirely unclear, to anyone who expected any semblance of logic. Which would make sense... Because the only logic he was following, was that of his gut. That thing was too green. It must be a vegetable. Not a dessert. This thing was too powdery. Too small. Too big. Too hard. On the other hand... Anything that he didn't reject, he brought back to his little work station. The poor audience wouldn't have a clue what he was hitting them with.

    And why would they? What could he possibly make with the strange assortment of fruit he had collected? Some manner of fruit salad? But then, what was the cream for? Perhaps an assorted vegetables smoothie? But he had way too much of an assortment for that! How could he ever add all of that... Orange, clementine, apple, pomegranate, banana, pear, mango, grapefruit, lemon... How could anyone use all of those to make something that was actually decent? The crowd didn't know! Takara didn't know either!

    Time was passing. He should probably start cooking. Hmm, how to make this into, a mystery? Ehh, he'd figure that out when the 'special ingredient' was named! For now, time to start cooking! First step in Street Style: Discard the inedible portions! Takara considered his varied and colorful choices. No mold, no stench... Step one done! Next came step two: Mix it all together. Step 3: Heat, if possible. Step 4: Serve and eat! Street Style was so easy!

    He grabbed the biggest bowl he had available. He needed at least that much to work with! Pulling back his sleeves, he tossed a few of his 'carefully' picked ingredients in, then plunged in. No tools, just crushing them into a pulp with his hands. He didn't even wash them first! Every once in a while, he would pull them out, covered in a sticky goo, and toss something else in. No special preparation necessary. Bananas, apples, oranges, all got the same treatment. Skin and all. Every once in a while, he'd throw in a dash of cream and some butter for no apparent reason. What on earth could he be making? It certainly fit the theme of, mystery!

    Oh, but time was coming up for the announcement of the mystery ingredient! Let's take a look at what the other contestants are doing, shall we?

Tomomi looked around at the group rushing to start, however he was quite confident in this round. He never cooked at home, but he always watched his mother if the occasion ever arose. Better yet, his sister-in-law always forced him into the kitchen, and taught him many dishes. "After all, food is the quickest way to a man's heart!" She would tease.

Tomomi listened to Lilly carefully, and overheard "spice things up." Of course, his literal mind picked that up as they might have to use spicy ingredients. His mind went through all of the possibilities of a good spicy dessert dish. When Lilly announced that she was going to leave the timer start a mystery, Tomomi had the idea.

Dango. Dango is the perfect mystery dessert! Sure, you know that it's Tofu and Sweet Rice, but the sauce can be virtually anything! Better yet, a spicy Anko (red bean) sauce would be fantastic!! Tomomi rushes for the ingredients. First off, Mochiko and Tofu were incredibly important, as they were the dish! Tomomi also grabs Bamboo sticks. To kick it up a little, Tomomi also grabs some sugar. Here comes the hard part.

Trying to remember the Anko recipe, Tomomi runs down the aisles, grabbing what comes to mind. He grabs Azuki Beans, soy sauce, Mirin (sugary rice wine,) and corn starch. That's pretty much everything, he thinks. He rushes back to his station to begin the work.

Tomomi frantically brings two pots of water to boil, and starts his Anko sauce by mixing in water, corn starch, mirin and soy sauce. After mixing the ingredients, he covers it to boil. Perfect! Now he can work on the beans and dango. Tomomi quickly grabs the mochiko and tofu, mixing the two vigorously. After they have blended he mixes in sugar, and places the concoction in one of the now boiling pots.

The Azuki beans were always the trick to get right. This took patience and time, two things Tomomi didn't have a lot of at the moment. He gets them to boil, and leaves them for five minutes. He quickly drains them after the five minutes to put them in cold water to boil again. This time, the water wouldn't be above them in the water. The dango started to float, which means they have only three more minutes before they are prepared. Tomomi quickly pours sugar and salt onto the azuki beans, then brings the anko sauce to a simmer.

Those first twenty minutes are speeding by, but thankfully anko dango is a simple yet delicious snack that can easily made. All it requires is a little time management!

Jimmy took the time examine where everything was. It seemed that all ingredients he'd every need were right there. Even some of the more exotic ones unique to the digital world. That was nice to know. He then began brainstorming desert ideas as Lily explained the basics to everyone before revealing todays theme.

"Mystery huh?" Jimmy wondered aloud as he tried to figure out what he would create. Time was ticking however. He couldn't spend long thinking about this.

Then inspiration struck him. Why didn't he think of it earlier? Sure it was kindof simple, but if he could somehow manage to pull this off, then he would have a good making it through this round. It would be a lot of hard work though. He would have to work to the very last second, and even then he might not get it finished in time. Yet he had to try.

With the clock ticking, he quickly began to grab all the ingredients he needed and went to work. The first job would be to get the most of the preparation work done. He quickly began by preheating the oven to the temperature he needed it to be. He then grabbed a mixing bowl, some butter, and some sugar and began beating it. Once he was satisfied that it was blended enough, he added the other ingrediants needed, and continued to work until everything appeared to be well mixed. He then poured the mix into pans he had greased and floured while he was grabbing the ingredients, placing them in the oven. The process itself ultimately took him just over ten minutes. Yet he still had a lot of work to do.

Next he grabbed a selection of fruit. He figured he was only going to be able to make use of four to six different types, so he made his selection carefully. He needed a good variety of flavors that were also able to mesh well together. So he choose to grab some strawberries, some bananas, some digifruit he had grown found of, and some oranges. Then he carefully began prepping each fruit so that they could be juiced properly. All the while being careful to keep each of the fruits seperate from one another. He wanted a variety of different flavors. Not one flavor with all the fruit in it. After all the fruit was properly preped, he placed them all in separate blenders, and began to juice them.

He took the resulting juices into seperate saucepans which he put under low heat. He then mixed the juices with the necessary ingrediants to properly make them fillings. His eye looking over at the clock as it continued to count downward, hoping they would all be done soon enough for him to work on the next part he needed to do. All the while wonderingnwhat the mystery ingredient is going to be and how he was going to incorporated it.

Well...this puts an interesting twist on danko.... Tomomi thought to himself as he stared down his new opponent...frozen food. What to do with this?!

Tomomi is brainstorming as Lilly restarts the timer, and then it hits him. The mystery will be on the inside! Danko is known for being full of just tofu and rice with an alternating outside sauce. But what if he could mix the waffles with the Anko and inject it into the danko? Inverse Danko!

"That's it!" Tomomi yells as he rushes to grab some of the frozen waffles. This works out perfectly! If he can get the waffles to defrost at the same time the Azuki beans were ready, the meal would be completed in less time than needed! He throws them in a pan with water and half a stick of butter, and lets them defrost/cook in the sweetness that is butter while he finishes his prep on the Azuki beans. Basically, these little guys needed three more minutes. While those finished out, Tomomi drains the water from the danko, it's done! Soft, delicate and ready to be injected with anko waffle goodness!

Now that everything was prepped, all that was left was to literally combine the ingredients. Tomomi drains the azuki again, chops up the waffles into basically a pile of waffle mush, and mixes the two with the anko sauce he was prepping. Using a spatula, he folds the ingredients into one another. It's blending so well! After about two or three minutes, Tomomi tastes his concoction. Sweet, slightly savory, and well mixed! Tomomi is a little in shock that it actually worked.

Here comes the hard part. With five minutes left, he has to inject the filling into the dango. If he messes up, he's doomed to failure!