Chankonabe, he noted. "Chankonabe with two side dishes of freshly pickled cucumber and seaweed." Masashi repeated, as if he were intending to engrave those words into his memory. When the woman asked an explanation for what sake was, Usugi cut in before he could open his mouth. "That's rice wine, in layman's terms. It's sort of like liquor, but y'know made from rice. There's a lot of different types of brews from clear to cloudy, but I won't bore you with the details. The clear sake's what most people order. We get our brews from local distilleries and imports from Ataiyo." Usugi, his senior in terms of time working at Hoteiya, was a man with probably the most skill in striking up conversation in the entire neighborhood. Whether it was a timid housewife or a hardened thug, he had a way with words that made people open up and start talking. Omura called it the 'silver tongue', a trait that was easy to understand but hard to master. Some obtained it through practice, while others had a natural talent like Usugi. Usugi was a fair-faced man about his age who looked at least a few years younger with eyes that could easily melt ice. No wonder the female customers came in droves on the days the man was working.
"Oh and don't mind him. His face's always like that. He just started working here a couple of weeks ago, so he's still learning the ropes." Usugi grinned, throwing an arm around Masashi's shoulder. What a way with words…he could disarm an entire gang with a few sweet-talking sentences. Taking the cue from his senior, he bowed again and let Usugi handle things while he started cooking the dish. Chankonabe wasn't something customers ordered often. To start, it required many ingredients in large quantities and a single serving was often better split between two to three average people. Those who usually wanted to eat that much normally would prefer a dish with only meat than vegetables, and would skip the broth entirely. Still, as an employee you gave the customer what they ordered. If they wanted to eat a larger portion, you cooked a larger portion. His concern was more about the possibility of wasting some food if they didn't finish. Omura had told him the reasoning behind their serving portions, and he understood the concept.
The process took longer than the usual bowl of noodles. While the broth was boiling he had mushrooms, cabbage, carrots, sliced onion, and other leafy vegetables sliced. Shifting to a different chopping block, he rinsed his hands and began hacking the leg quarters of a chicken into pieces. The meat was thrown into the broth, then he added large chunks of tofu. The vegetables were then put in and left to simmer until the meat, mushrooms, and tofu were fully cooked. In that time he had the cucumber and seaweed side dishes out on the counter, set before the customer before returning to fry a few pieces of shrimp tempura. At the end of a thirty-minute wait, he set before the centaur a massive steaming pot filled to the brim with udon noodles, vegetables, tofu, and meat. Then, he carefully added the shrimp tempura on top of the mound to finish. "Please enjoy your meal." He said, Usugi coming in from the side to slide whatever drink the woman had ordered. "Take your time, there's no rush~ Chankonabe's not something you can eat in a hurry." The senior employee said with a cat-like smile.