【TBSJ】Hitorecipe.Recipe 2 Hirofumi Kiyonaga A story about Oita's specialty, Toriten (chicken tempura) and soccer. | feature

Toriten connects, my parents' mother.

. First of all, please tell us about the toriten you ordered this time.

Seinaga:It is both a local dish and a home-style dish, and nostalgia is probably the closest I can get to it. When I go back to my parents' house, I think of it as toriten, and my mother makes it for me. It's not a fancy restaurant dish, but it's very special to me.

Toba:A special dish is not something that is overpriced or underpriced.

Seinaga:It was served on a bat, without any proper preparation. Perhaps that exchange is how my mother and I communicate with each other.

Toba:Speaking from a chef's point of view, I was surprised to find that toriten, like the kind in udon noodles, is hard, but Oita's is moist and delicious. We shave the chicken, and I think it's an amazing culture that the umami is enhanced by tempura of the part that lacks volume. This time, instead of going for the standard, I added thigh meat in addition to the mainstream breast meat to give it a fresh taste. Seasoning is a prerequisite for mustard and soy sauce, and the batter is properly seasoned.

What kind of time do you consider mealtime?

Seinaga:There are people who want to eat delicious food and do not want to cut corners even for a single meal, but not me. When I go out to eat, my priority is communication. I don't think that I have to eat something delicious! I don't necessarily have to eat good food. Recently, there are restaurants where you can't get a reservation, but don't the restaurant staff try to make a big show of it? (Laughs). (Laughs.) It's like I have to say, "It's delicious. . I feel like I have to take care of them, and I feel like I have to act the part.

Toba:. The high end of restaurants nowadays is to take you to a restaurant where you can't get a reservation and then Instagram it, isn't it? In response to this trend, we created "Hotel's," which is open morning, noon, and night, and opens at 8:00 a.m. in the morning. . I wanted to make it easier for people to make reservations, even if just a little bit, by having a wide range of business hours. While some people are happy to go to a restaurant where they can't get a reservation, there are many who leave from there.

Seinaga:. It is the same with clothes. Too much production is not good, but too much limitation and not enough production is not good either.

Toba:In that sense, Kiyo-san made it possible for people to buy the products at a certain point in time, didn't he? I feel that this is similar to what we are doing. The reason we work with the masses is because we want to improve the food culture as a whole.

Seinaga:I called the restaurant and said, my appointment is in 3 years, or something like that. I said, "No, I'm not going, I'm dead" (laughs). I wonder if I need to go that far.

Toba:You feel that kind of momentum in the world, don't you? Are they coming to eat that food , or are they coming to sit in that seat?

It is true that the number of people waiting in line in front of restaurants has increased over the past few years.

Seinaga:I have been living a life where I don't eat lunch very often . I feel that when I eat, my ability to think and concentrate decreases. . I've been doing this for a couple of decades now, so my body has become like that.

Toba:I understand . I get tired of it.

Seinaga:Thinking about it in the first place, I wonder if the three meals are suitable for the Japanese. . Even if you watch a period drama, you don't see any scenes of lunch. In the old days, there was no electricity, so dinner was served while it was still light, which was probably around 5:00 p.m. . So it is possible that the time between breakfast and dinner was so close that they didn't have lunch.

That's an interesting point of view.