Ramen-5

August 19, 2012

1 year passed.
There was a ramen competition nationwide. One of the big TV companies planed this event. The rules were simple. Any customers could vote to their favorite ramen for the period of this competition, 2 weeks, using their phones or PCs.
From the beginning, the cook's ramen got a lot of votes and the other famous ramen restaurants were following him. But later in the competition one ramen got a lot of support and the number of votes were increasing day by day. The name of the ramen was 'Simple Ramen'.
A TV crew was broadcasting in the guy's ramen restaurant. The reporter shouted into the TV screen, "Have you ever seen this type of strange ramen? I'm sure you haven't. This is an absurd idea about ramen but somehow attractive and tastes...." The camera shifted to the ramen. The soup of the ramen was transparent like water, there were no other contents except the noodles themselves in the bowl. It looked foolishly simple.
The reporter asked one of the customers. "How is the taste?" The middle aged woman said, wiping sweat from

her face. "Very good. You might think that the taste is plain from its appearance but it is somehow complex. I bet you would like this." The reporter asked another male customer. "I heard this special noodles dish contained ground ingredients in it. Did you know that?" The customer said, "Did I know that? Of course I do. The chef opened his recipe on his website!" He explained that in the noodles there was ground onion, carrot, celery, chicken and soy sauce. And so the noodles themselves had a flavourful taste and the soup could be simple, just the mixture of water and salt, it was special mineral salt though.
After the broadcasting more customers came to his restaurant, it was kind of a battle field. But the time left was too short for the guy to reach the top. At the end of the 2 weeks, the guy's ramen was in the third place. The cook and another ramen restaurant would proceed to a final match in the TV studio in a week.
One week later, after the final match was held live in the studio, the cook dropped by the guy's restaurant. The guy said, "Congratulations. That was the one-side competition, wasn't it? " The cook didn't seem interested in his victory at all and ordered, "Simple Ramen".
This time he ate up the guy's ramen and said. "I didn't think you would ever be able to make this." The guy said pleasantly. "I thought hard, I worked hard. I had nothing to lose."
The cook said, "But I have to say something. This is a little bit different from the recipe on your website." The guy said, "Only a few people can notice that." He winked. "And I wanted to leave something for the cook who might come to me to ask my tips."
(The End)