Over the years, anime has explored different concepts providing viewers with unique stories, including cooking. Whether One Piece’s Sanji is cooking a hot plate for Luffy’s crew, or Spirited Away’s alluring street and inn food on screen, we crave to taste these delicious foods in real life. With cooking anime on the rise with shows like Food Wars and Delicious in Dungeon, I sought five dishes home cooks and professional chefs might want to make for their next meal.
5. Sumire Mark Karaage Roll (Food Wars)
In Food Wars episodes 17-18, Soma Yukihara challenges the fried-chicken restaurant, Mozuya after seeing the Sumire-dori Shopping District losing business since the Yukihara restaurant closed. While brainstorming, his childhood friend Mayumi and neighboring businessman, Mr. Tomita gave him the idea of a portable fried chicken dish that absorbs the grease and can advertise the local shopping district.
With Totsuki Saryo’s meat expert, Ikumi Mito, they created the Sumire Mark Karaage Roll. The fried chicken thigh chunks are marinated in soy sauce and chili peppers for a whole day. Then, they are battered in potato starch and fried in an open fryer twice. Finally, the chicken is placed on a bed of lettuce and herbs on a savory rice crepe called bahn xèo.
Bahn xèo (pronounced bahn chao) is a Vietnamese rice crepe with various proteins and vegetables. It’s typically served with a sweet chili sauce for dipping. This crepe is traditionally vegan using only rice flour, coconut milk, and turmeric powder for its iconic yellow color. Folding it into a Japanese-style crepe gives the dish portability and a refreshing taste to fight off the fryer grease.
If you want to know how to make bahn xèo at home, the flour mix is sold in bags with instructions on the back, or follow this recipe by Hungry Huy. For the karaage, we recommend making RecipeTin Japan’s recipe and adding chili peppers to the marinade.
4. Pizza Quatro Special (Koufuku Graffiti)
Koufuku Graffiti or Gourmet Girl Graffiti is a mini-series about two cousins studying junior high in Tokyo. The oldest cousin, Ryou Machiko provides comforting meals to her younger cousin, Kirin Morino. In episode 10, Kirin meets Ryou’s apartment neighbor, Yuki Uchiki, a shy girl introvert who can’t seem to speak her mind. Throughout the show, we see her order pizza but never knew what kind until now.
This pizza dish is a specialty from the fast food chain, Pizza Louise. The order is known as Pizza Quatro as there are four kinds of toppings on one pizza. Yuki’s selection includes Seafood, Gratin, Yakiniku Beef, and Salami Mushroom.
The Seafood slice has squid rings, shrimp, corn, and bell peppers. The Gratin has bits of ham, pasta, and white sauce. The Yakiniku Beef has bean sprouts and marinated beef with a hint of lemon. Finally, the Salami Mushroom is self-explanatory.
The crust is filled with cheese and Yuki orders it with a side of garlic butter potato wedges and chicken tenders. If you want to try Pizza Louise’s Pizza Quatro, Alvin Zhou has a recipe for it on YouTube.
3. Katsudon Pirozhki (Yuri on Ice)
In the acclaimed 2016 Yaoi sports anime, Yuri on Ice, Yuri Katsuki’s favorite dish is katsudon, a Japanese rice bowl dish topped with scrambled eggs, peas, pork cutlet, and tonkatsu sauce. His rival, Yurio Plitsetsky comes home to Russia for the Free Skate competition at Rostelecom in Episode 8-9. His grandfather greeted him home with a pirozhki, a fried bread stuffed with rice and meat.
He says to his grandfather he misses the taste of pork katsudon which he ate during his trip to Japan. Though he was slightly offended, his grandfather surprised Yurio with a katsudon pirozhki before the 2nd half of the Free Skate. After both Yuris lost to the Canadian skater, JJ, Yurio offered Yuri one for his upcoming birthday.
Two fried foods from two different countries to make a rich yet flavorful concoction. If you’re daring enough to eat this delectable stuffed bread or want to practice baking, Fiction-Food Cafe has a recipe with a detailed guide on the pirozhki dough.
2. Man-Eating Plant Fruit Tart (Delicious in Dungeon)
I felt unsure whether to add Netflix’s Delicious in Dungeon to this list as most of these dishes are made of monsters we can’t find in the real world. Thankfully, there are foods we can obtain from plant monsters. And this dish requires using leftover stock.
In the first Delicious in Dungeon episode, Marcille wanted a dish that didn’t have monster meat. The Dungeon chef, Senshi suggests making one out of the fruits of the man-eating plants from the forest on the second sub-basement. Her party harvested bell peppers, pumpkin flowers, cherry tomatoes, and Thai pea eggplants from the Shadowtail and the Baraselia.
Senshi speaks aloud during his cooking process for the viewers to learn. He steams the ripened bell peppers and removes their stems and skin from the flesh. Seeing the Dungeon Cook placing the salted and oiled bell peppers’ skin as a tart crust shows how much he wants to use each ingredient to its fullest.
He grinds it with some unripened fruit while gradually adding the scorpion broth, which can be substituted with lobster broth or mushroom stock. He attempts to use the slime liquid to solidify the tart filling as it bakes on the stovetop. A small amount of gelatin or agar-agar can thicken the fruit filling.
Senshi chops and tosses in the tree root. Taro root could replace it as Marcille describes this tart had some sweetness. Finally, once the tart begins to bubble, add the remaining fruit. So far, a few chefs have attempted their version of the tart like IssaGrill replacing some of the ingredients.
I would love to see how a professional or skilled home cook tries to create the white filling color in this sweet and savory tart.
1. Rainbow Fruit Jello (Toriko)
Before Food Wars, Toriko was Shonen Jump’s world revolved around cooking and being thankful for where your food comes from. The show is about the adventures of Gourmet Hunter, Toriko, and his chef companion, Komatsu. In episode 3, the IGO (International Gourmet Organization) agent, Johannes, informs Toriko that the Rainbow Fruit, a synthetic berry in Biotope 8, the Garden, is ready to be picked.
There is only one problem; Troll Kongs have made a nest around the Rainbow Fruit Tree. These four-armed gorillas can destroy an entire tank. In retaliation to Toriko’s presence, it beats his chest sending drumming sounds into the air. The viewers get to witness the iconic Spike Punch from Toriko’s fists and see how the wild beasts’ ecosystem operates in the series.
He faces an army of Troll Kongs before facing the King guarding the Rainbow Fruit Tree. Instead of killing them, he uses a Knocking Gun to tranquilize his targets as Toriko explains to Komatsu that we must preserve these beasts’ way of life instead of wiping them out to extinction. He challenges King Troll Kong to a battle of intimidation, summoning his demon aura, Gluttony.
The King understood not to fight Toriko as his aura was more threatening than itself. Toriko and Komatsu safely gather the Rainbow Fruit to cook at Hotel Gourmet, where Komatsu works as head chef. Immediately from its scent, Toriko, Komatsu, and the staff drool with anticipation.
The fruit has been made into a crystal clear jello that shines the colors of the rainbow. According to Komatsu, jello’s 5℃ (41℉) temperatures will preserve the fruit’s flavor as it naturally heats. Toriko says his thanks before scooping the jello, describing its consistency as pudding. And after he took the first bite, his tongue experienced multiple flavors of fruits and nuts.
He cries in appreciation of the Rainbow Fruit’s flavor. In honor of Komatsu’s efforts, this dish became the first food on Toriko’s Full Course meal. I have seen attempts on different types of jello and making a dessert with complex flavors may throw you off. No one to this day has attempted to bring this dish to life.
Craving for More Anime?
Need a new slice-of-life drama? Read why you should watch Sound! Euphonium! today.
Want to refresh about Mobile Suit Gundam Seed? See our guide before watching Gundam Seed Freedom.
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