Second "Ganbaro Recipe Contest" Showcases Noto Ingredients: Original Dishes with Gasu Ebi Shrimp, Konka-zuke, and Nakajima-na

According to the organizers, it all started when the local city of Hakui reached out. Noto is still in the midst of recovery, and there was a wish to send the message from this facility that "Noto's light has not gone out." Since the facility also has a cooking studio, they wondered whether they could get someone to come, and the person in charge invited Ryuji out of personal enthusiasm. Ryuji laughed and replied that his work usually exists thanks to the efforts of people who champion him.

The contest is a competition of ideas that make the most of Noto's specialty ingredients. The first contest was limited to students, but this time the age restriction was removed. Ryuji himself chose the three teams that competed. He explained that he looked over the submitted recipes in advance and picked the ones he wanted to eat.

The judging panel included a representative from the city's commerce and tourism department, the manager of a local retail store, and someone from JF Ishikawa (the Ishikawa Prefecture Fisheries Cooperative Association). The special guest judge was Yusha Noto, a VTuber from the Noto region of Ishikawa Prefecture. Yusha Noto introduced themself as having been born and raised in a town in Noto and originally working as a company employee, before being "reincarnated" as a VTuber to share the appeal of their hometown and get as many people as possible to come visit. Their profile apparently lists their favorite activity as "eating" and their special skill as "food reviews with no vocabulary."

The three competing teams were:

• Tsubaki Kodomo Shokudo: A group that runs a children's cafeteria three times a month and has been supporting disaster victims in Noto since last year.
• Team "Oi-C Tano-C 2C": A team of students from Kanazawa Municipal Technical High School and the previous champions. They said they regularly study the Noto earthquake, and that their love for Noto is all the greater for it.
• Team MIYA: A duo of a senior and a junior colleague from a former workplace. One of the members is from Noto and said they hoped to convey even a little of Noto's appeal.

The ingredient Tsubaki Kodomo Shokudo chose was gasu ebi shrimp. As the team explained, gasu ebi turns black very quickly, so it rarely appears in stores and has to be eaten locally soon after it is caught. Ryuji summed it up as "The only way to eat gasu ebi is to come to Noto," and Yusha Noto chimed in with "Please come to Noto."

The dish is gasu ebi fritters topped with nanban sauce; the team said they made it "nanban-kake" (sauce poured over) rather than nanban-zuke (marinated). The key to the process lies in the frying. First the shrimp are fried without batter, then coated and fried again. The team explained that frying them first makes it possible to eat them whole, from head to tail. Ryuji was impressed by this double frying and said, "That's some real skill. I love this."

For the batter, they mixed rice flour in with egg, potato starch, and wheat flour, and also whipped egg whites into a meringue to add to it. Ryuji said that he doesn't really make meringue batters himself, so it was hard to imagine what the texture would be like, and he also pointed out that it was completely different from Japanese techniques. Before frying, they cleaned the oil, because otherwise the color would change. They added bell peppers to the nanban sauce, aiming for something "beautiful, delicious, and packed with nutrition." It is eaten with chili oil to taste.

While the cooking was underway, Ryuji and Taisho opened some Kanazawa Hyakumangoku Beer that had been brought for them. It is a beer made with Koshihikari rice, and Ryuji described it as fruity.

At the tasting, it was revealed that ishiru was used for the initial seasoning. What the judges reacted to most was the head, with comments like "The head is insane" coming one after another. The team explained that they have food education in mind, and that eating the shrimp shell and all provides plenty of calcium and other nutrients. For children they serve it seasoned without any heat, while adults eat it with chili oil or mustard. They said they make an effort so that everyone, from babies just a few months old to grandpas and grandmas, can eat it. Ryuji responded, "I could feel the love," and also said he would like to actually go and eat there. Yusha Noto pointed to the striking appearance and the savory flavor of the head, and remarked that if making the nanban sauce is too much trouble, it would probably be delicious with just a sprinkle of Noto salt.

Team MIYA made a mazesoba using konka-zuke, a traditional fermented food from Noto. Konka-zuke is fish pickled in rice bran, in the same family as what other regions call "heshiko." It was also mentioned that the name differs by region, such as Toyama or Kanazawa. Ryuji said this is one of his absolute favorite foods. According to the team, the konka-zuke they used has a mild smell, making it easy for first-timers to eat.

What drew attention was that they put not only the fish but also the rice bran bed into the sauce. Ryuji was surprised, saying, "This is the first time I've seen someone use the bran," and rated it as earning a lot of points. The amount added to the sauce is 8 g of bran and fish combined. Adding too much makes the flavor too strong, so they had apparently been reminded not to get the amount wrong. The sauce also uses soy sauce, soy milk, and sesame oil. They used a sweetish local soy sauce, and Ryuji said, "I don't think it would work with regular soy sauce." He also remarked that this soy sauce alone would be enough for tamago kake gohan, and wondered aloud whether it could be bought online.

The pork belly topping is stir-fried together with chopped konka-zuke as a substitute for chashu. The iwanori (rock seaweed) topping is crumbled before being added. Locally, it is eaten by adding it straight into miso soup, and the team member said they ate it often as a child. During the cooking, Ryuji tasted it partway through and reacted, "You could eat this on rice just like this." He also said it was fun because he couldn't picture the finished dish at all.

At the tasting, the team explained that the biggest novelty was "the combination of konka-zuke, a traditional food, with mazesoba, which is trendy right now." Ryuji added that soupless mazesoba is currently drawing a lot of attention in various ways, and that it has the advantage of not wasting soup. One of the judges commented that the aroma of the heshiko (konka) went really well with it.

Between cooking segments, Yusha Noto introduced "korogaki" as a recommended Noto food. It is a dried persimmon famous in an area a little north of Hakui, and they said it is very delicious with butter sandwiched in its thick flesh and paired with Noto wine.

The previous champions, the high school team, made omurice using Noto's Nakajima-na greens. Ryuji explained that Nakajima-na has a distinctive, slightly peppery flavor and is delicious.

After boiling the Nakajima-na, the team separated the stems and leaves. The stems went into the rice, while the leaves were blended and mixed into the eggs, turning them green. There wasn't enough liquid when blending, so they added soy milk. Ryuji said, "That's an idea we'd never come up with." The onion was chopped with an electric chopper, and the chicken was stir-fried not in butter but in the fat rendered from the chicken skin. Ryuji praised this as "amazing technique." Since the ingredients were cut on the large side, there was also a moment where Ryuji gave advice on how to cut them. During the cooking, Taisho stepped in to help, taking on tasks that might not have been finished in time.

The sauce used miso, honey, mirin, ishiru, and other ingredients. The miso was homemade by the school's home economics teacher, who was at the venue and was introduced as well. Ryuji joked that "this might be against the regulations," but it was deemed fine.

There was a moment during the finishing of the omurice that drew a reaction from Ryuji. When the team nailed the egg-wrapping technique in the actual contest after struggling with it in practice, he was surprised, saying, "I can't believe you were struggling so much just a moment ago." He also said this wrapping technique is surprisingly difficult. One of the members said they had wanted to become a chef back in elementary school, and Ryuji got a laugh by saying, "I guess I wouldn't really recommend it."

The background of the dish that the team explained at the tasting resonated with the judges. According to the team, a child living in Noto had said they didn't like eating Nakajima-na. Since it is a local ingredient, they came up with this dish to make it easier for that child to eat. Because of its green appearance, they named it "Noto's Alien Food." Nakajima-na is slightly bitter and spicy, and it is said that many people dislike it, but the team explained that they added sweetness with the egg and sauce to make it easier to eat, and tied everything together with ishiru, which the child loves. Ryuji praised them, saying it wasn't bitter at all despite having so much Nakajima-na in it and that they had pulled it together well, adding, "The story is perfect" and "You could open a restaurant with this."

The results were as follows:

• Special Prize: Team MIYA
• Winner (Second Champion): Team "Oi-C Tano-C 2C"
• Runner-up: Tsubaki Kodomo Shokudo

This means the high school team, the previous champions, won again this time.

After the results were announced, Ryuji was called up on stage, and the event moved on to a demonstration of quickly making ramen with Noto ingredients. However, Ryuji said that "it's not decided yet," and the video ends with the opening of that segment.