“I have something I absolutely cannot stand.”
Right after the test, even though it wasn’t a club day, it was noisy. So, when I peeked into the laboratory, as expected, the usual group was hanging out there.
“What? Your lack of knowledge or something?”
“Yes, that too. I’ve already accepted my weakness because I know I can’t beat Hagasaki-kun in terms of knowledge.”
“I don’t think you lack knowledge, Maito-san.”
“Yeah, but when President says that, it makes me feel a bit unforgiving towards myself, so please stop.”
As I peeked in, thinking they were having some incomprehensible conversation.
“So, what is it? Tell us.”
“I can’t stand those ridiculously expensive pancakes.”
Maito said this.
“Ah… yeah, I get that. You mean those fancy ones that cost like 2000 yen a plate, right?”
“Yes. I can’t stand those.”
Ah, yeah. Well, I can’t completely disagree with that feeling.
Those kinds of pancakes in trendy places probably cost that much not just because of the utilities, ingredients, and labor but also the skill, location fees, and even the inefficiency of customer turnover. But I get why it would bother Maito since she can cook for herself.
Also, she’s the type to dismiss trends as ‘pretentious,’ so that makes sense too.
“Well, I’d like to try them, though. They might actually be worth 2000 yen.”
“But they are just pancakes. I think it would be more meaningful to challenge myself to make high-level pancakes for 2000 yen.”
Toriumi, who usually has a rich and relaxed perspective, doesn’t have that luxury. Well, it’s inevitable given the environment he grew up in.
“So, what do you think?”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t you want to try the pancake challenge?”
… Well, having a challenging spirit is a good thing. Yeah. I think it’s great to be full of curiosity and inquisitiveness.
“First, about the funds. Even if we don’t get a single yen of the club budget for next year, we’ll have about 2000 yen left after deducting the amount needed for the cultural festival.”
“Huh? Can we use the club budget for making pancakes?”
“If you look at past records, we spent 5000 yen on an experiment called ‘hydrolysis of sodium bicarbonate.'”
… Ah. Yeah. Well, it’s a common trick.
You see, sodium bicarbonate is baking soda. Baking powder. So in middle school science, they sometimes bake pancakes as an introduction to chemical formulas.
And at the end of the fiscal year, if there’s leftover budget, they try to use it up by buying various things, so if they want to do this, they can.
“Moreover, if each person contributes 200 yen, that’s a total of 4000 yen. It’s feasible. We can do it.”
“Are you planning to involve us?”
Maito immediately started writing something on the blackboard.
One bag of flour 200 yen, 3 liters of milk 500 yen, one pack of eggs 150 yen… It seems she’s serious. Well, I guess it’s fine.
But that’s not what I’m concerned about.
“Huh? If everyone contributes 200 yen, wouldn’t that be 1800 yen? … Oh, are you counting the teacher as well?”
“Of course! Teacher! You want to eat pancakes too, right? Let’s eat! We’re waiting for your contribution!”
Maito looked at me with a full smile. This kid…
“I’m sorry, teacher! She’s not a bad kid!”
“Yeah, I know.”
Toriumi made a half-hearted attempt to cover for her, but I’m fine with it. As long as they get proper permission before starting.
“I don’t mind investing, so if you’re going to do something, do your best. And make sure to bring the results.”
“Yay! As expected of the teacher! Thank you! Now we can afford cream!”
With that, Maito continued writing on the blackboard.
Sugar 1kg 200 yen, baking soda priceless.
… Huh? Baking soda priceless?
“… Maito.”
“Yes!”
“Are you including the reagent cabinet in your calculations?”
“I’m planning to eat it! If there’s baking soda there, I will use it for eating!”
“I’m really sorry, teacher! She’s not a bad kid! She’s just a bit obsessed with food!”
“I know, I know.”
The baking soda in the reagent cabinet… It’s probably something a previous teacher bought and left there for class demonstrations. It’s left in a separate place from the reagent shelf in the reagent cabinet. Oh, it’s the edible kind.
Well, it would be a waste to just leave it there, so if it can be used, it should be fine. Can’t be helped.
“I think the issue is the cooking equipment. Are you going to use a gas stove?”
“No, we have an electric griddle. It works. And we even have a freezer! We can even make ice cream!”
“Don’t count the freezer used for storing reagents.”
“No, no! I’m talking about the freezer used by the chemistry teachers!”
“I’m really sorry, teacher! She’s not a bad kid! She’s just really obsessed with food!”
“Yeah, yeah, I know.”
Well, as long as they do it when no one’s around, it should be fine. The teachers here are pretty lenient.
“Now, regarding the toppings! Anyone with suggestions can speak freely within the remaining 2500 yen budget!”
“It’s weird, 550 yen seems to have disappeared…”
“I already used that to buy 2 liters of commercial ice cream!”
… Well, this is how they started their fun, more or less.
Yeah. Well, an end-of-year party like this should be fine. I’ll leave it up to the students’ initiative.
Then, about two weeks later, on the Saturday right before spring break.
“Everyone’s here! The ingredients are here! We have plenty of time! Nothing to fear! Maito, let’s go!”
“Be careful not to burn yourself.”
“Oh, yes!”
After finishing the morning classes, they started their fun pancake party.
“Here are the things we bought this time.”
Maito showed me the receipts and I took a look.
Hmm, flour, eggs, milk, and sugar, that’s understandable. But isn’t the egg ratio unusually high? It seems like there’s a lot of eggs compared to the flour.
“This time, we’re planning to make soufflé pancakes by whipping the egg whites.”
Ah, so that’s it. That’s why there’s a high egg ratio. I see.
“In addition, the egg yolks, along with the extra milk we bought, sugar, and flour, were used to make custard cream. Here’s what we made. The custard cream was made the day before, and the egg whites were frozen. It’s easier to whip them when they’re half-thawed!”
And you’re making good use of everything. Impressive.
… Huh?
“Wait a minute. Maito. How did you make the custard cream?”
In the chemistry lab, the only things that can be used for heating are the electric griddle, gas burners, and alcohol lamps. There’s a microwave in the teachers’ room, but I don’t think Maito went there.
“Oh, for that, I used this.”
Maito pointed to… the water bath.
Yes, okay.
Basically, it’s a piece of laboratory equipment for water baths. So, she made it by using a double boiler. I see. At this point, I’m quite impressed.
“Additionally, we bought a frozen berry mix from a wholesale store for toppings. It’s not perishable, so I heated it in the microwave at home to make a chunky berry sauce. Then I made caramel sauce from milk and sugar. I also created chocolate sauce from cocoa powder, sugar, and water! Caramel sauce from water and sugar! And coffee syrup from water, sugar, and a bit of instant coffee! We can make affogato-style pancakes with ice cream!”
“Wait, wait, wait. There’s no instant coffee on the receipt.”
“I didn’t need much instant coffee, so I got some from the chemistry lab teachers! In return, we’ll offer them some pancakes!”
Now that I think about it, another teacher mentioned this morning, “I heard the chemistry club is making pancakes? I’m looking forward to it.” So, it must be that…
“Furthermore, we summoned a bunch of bananas for toppings! Bananas synergize with chocolate! For the banana-chocolate alliance, I wanted some nuts, so I got some snack nuts! We’ll crush and sprinkle them! We gave up on cornflakes due to budget constraints! And of course, whipped cream! We got 1 liter of commercial cream! This was the most expensive item! Additionally, we have yogurt! We strained it well, and we’ll mix it with whipped cream to make yogurt cream! It’s like a light cheesecake! Oh, and we’ll combine the whey from the strained yogurt with other milk to make ricotta cheese! This way, we can make not only soufflé pancakes but also fluffy ones with ricotta cheese! My strategy is flawless!”
“Hold on. You need vinegar to make ricotta cheese.”
“I got some from the refrigerator!”
…
“… And by any chance, were you the one using the incubator recently?”
“I was making more yogurt! The incubator is great! No need for a yogurt maker!”
…
While Maito started making pancakes with great enthusiasm, the guys were playing cards.
“Aren’t you guys going to help?”
“Do you think you can keep up with that?”
Hagasaki was watching Maito with a very cold look, but I agree it would be hard to keep up with her pace.
Maito is good at figuring out the optimal way to work herself, but she’s not very good at delegating tasks to others. If someone could perfectly share her thoughts, they could be an operator, but Maito and the whole chemistry club are like this. If other students are like Android devices, these guys’ OS is beyond iOS, more like Linux. Yeah, that’s how it is. For other students, they might seem incomprehensible.
“But you still came here and invested, right?”
“… Well, yes.”
“Yeah, well… yes.”
“I wanted to see Maito-san’s limits.”
“I didn’t want to bother bringing lunch…”
“It’s for the camaraderie!”
“I felt like I could eat sweets endlessly.”
“Since we have the opportunity!”
“It seemed like I could eat a lot!”
… Even though they should be quite different from each other, they strangely have high compatibility among themselves. I guess it’s true that birds of a feather flock together.
“Alright, the first batch is done! Serve it up! Eat up! I’m still going!”
While I was playing cards with the guys, Maito had already finished baking the pancakes.
Soufflé pancakes, all fluffy and soft. Wow, they look delicious.
“Teacher gets the first one! Here you go!”
“Oh, thank you. I’ll take it then.”
“Feel free to add any toppings you like!”
Wow. It’s fun having so many options available.
I’ll go with ice cream, custard cream, and berry sauce for the toppings.
I’ve never had soufflé pancakes before, but do they deflate when they cool? The freshly baked fluffy, melty pancakes with melting ice cream are delicious.
“Oh, could someone with good sense please top some pancakes appropriately and offer them to the chemistry lab teachers?”
“Are you asking us to do that…?”
“Ah, well, I’ll make it and bring it over.”
“Then I’ll help too.”
Toriumi and Kariya made and brought over banana with chocolate and whipped cream, berry sauce with yogurt cream, and ice cream with coffee syrup. Judging by the cheers from the lab, it seemed to be well-received. Well, it’s fine to consider it a bribe.
Then, Maito kept making pancakes while the others added toppings to the cooked ones and ate them… and this continued.
Once the souffle pancakes settled down, she started making a different batter with ricotta cheese, and tried it simply with butter and caramel sauce. This was also delicious.
Next, she added cocoa powder to the batter and tried it with bananas, nuts, and chocolate sauce. As expected, the combination of chocolate and banana is unbeatable.
Since she was making batter with drained yogurt, she tried it with yogurt cream and berry sauce.
The flavor was somewhat similar to the ricotta cheese batter, but the texture was completely different. Also, the yogurt cream was subtly good. Yes, nice.
Curious about the coffee syrup, they tried the next one with ice cream and coffee syrup.
The bitterness added a nice balance without being too overwhelming. Maito said it was affogato-style, and even though the coffee syrup was at room temperature, the heat from the freshly cooked pancake melting the ice cream was interesting.
Liking the coffee syrup, they tried it again.
Adding whipped cream and caramel sauce turned it into a caramel macchiato style, which was also good. Nuts fit well here too.
Craving fruit, they tried both banana and berry sauce. Yes, the fruit-based ones were delicious in their own way.
Cream is delicious, but you can’t eat too much of it. By sandwiching fruit-based ones in between, you can keep going.
Maito did something interesting by sprinkling sugar on the surface of the souffle pancakes and using a gas burner to caramelize just the surface. Adding custard and caramel sauce made it like a crème brûlée. The combination of the fluffy, melty texture of the souffle pancake and the crispy, caramelized sugar was nice. The custard and caramel sauce made it a bit like a pudding, so this combination was quite good.
…So, we kept eating pancakes endlessly.
“Sensei… this is amazing.”
Hagasaki had a terribly disheartened look.
“Hmm? What’s up?”
“You can eat this much sweet stuff in this quantity?”
Ah, right, Hagasaki wasn’t particularly fond of sweets, though he didn’t dislike them either.
Katori and Hariu, who seemed to like sweets quite a bit, were eating a lot. Yeah, it might be a bit tough for the guys.
“…Or rather, how much stomach capacity do you have?”
“Stomach? Hmm, I don’t know. I’ve never measured it.”
Well, I do pride myself on being able to eat a fair amount. On the other hand, I think Hagasaki should eat a bit more, but I won’t say that because he might be sensitive about it.
“Sensei eats so much, it’s worth making!”
“Maito, you’re really high-spirited this time.”
Well, yeah. It’s fun with lots of toppings and finding new combinations. And it’s delicious.
Most importantly, the students seemed to be having fun.
“For eight high school boys and one pancake master, plus one teacher, we consumed quite a lot…”
In the end, almost everything we prepared was gone.
The ice cream and cream were in bulk, but with this many people, it was bound to run out.
“Or rather, Sensei was really amazing!”
“I was worried about leftovers, but after seeing Sensei eat, I realized it was all unnecessary worry.”
“Sensei! Do you have a black hole in your stomach!?”
Well, I get that a lot.
Thinking back, I realized I ate quite a bit.
Yeah. I ate. I might have eaten more than the students, but, well, it’s fine.
“By the way, the pancakes we consumed with ten people today cost 4000 yen.”
“Hmm, after doing something like today, it makes you wonder what a 2000 yen pancake really is…”
“I understand that mass production can lower costs.”
“I don’t even understand the psychology of wanting to go into a store specifically to eat pancakes.”
“Wait, Hagasaki-kun, you say that after eating them? Huh?”
“We don’t have someone like Maito-san in a typical household. However, it didn’t seem like the technique was that essential either, so I deduce that the price of pancakes in a store includes the cost of the location and the time, i.e., the turnover rate.”
They started analyzing, and yeah, I get it. If you only think about the raw cost, it does feel like a rip-off.
But it seems like there’s quite a bit of effort involved, and the technique—Maito flipped them effortlessly, but flipping souffle pancakes looks difficult. Considering the cost of skill and, as President mentioned, the turnover rate, I guess that’s why the price ends up around 2000 yen.
“Well, if I’m going to eat something, I’d rather have cake. I don’t understand why they attach ‘pan’ to it.”
“Pancakes… are they bread or cake?”
“No, pancakes are pancakes, Kadomi-kun…”
“Uneatable bread… cake…” (T/N: In Japanese, bread = pan. But in English, pan can be frying pan = uneatable bread. So pan + cake = uneatable bread + cake. )
“That’s a pancake in your heart, Kadomi-kun…”
Yeah. Leave the uneatable bread talk aside.
“For today, can we agree that I am the winner?”
“Wait. What exactly were you fighting against?”
“Pancakes.”
Even the guys seemed willing to help with the cleanup, so everyone pitched in, bringing the pancake party to an end.
Yes, the spirit of “leave no trace” is commendable.
…However…
“I think it’s safe to say that we lost to Sensei’s stomach.”
“I think it’s forgivable to lose in an unwinnable situation.”
“Sensei, don’t you get stomach aches?”
“Sensei, is it okay to eat so many pancakes after turning 30? Won’t it all turn into fat?”
“What is Sensei’s stomach made of? A furnace or something?”
These guys are so rude!
“Shall we make the next eating contest with roast beef? If we use a water bath, we can make delicious low-temperature cooked beef!”
“Sensei, you’d do well in an eating contest!”
“Good luck! We’re rooting for you!”
“Ah, we’re going for some exercise after the meal.”
…So, the rude bunch neatly cleaned up the lab and went off to play.
It’s annoying how there’s nothing to complain about other than their rudeness.
Looking out the window, I saw them playing near the school’s back parking lot, careful not to get in the way of the sports clubs. Youthful. Well, as long as they’re having fun.
By the way, I’m kind of looking forward to the roast beef contest.