I Became a Food Developer in Another World

Chapter 18: It’s called ramen (5)

One day, a rumor began to circulate in the capital of the empire.

A magical powder had appeared that could make anything delicious when sprinkled on it.

At first, no one believed the story.

“Sprinkle it on something and it becomes delicious? How does that make sense?”

“If you want to make money from jokes, come up with a more plausible story.”

A powder that tastes good when you sprinkle it on top of something, there’s no way in the world that such a thing exists, right?

Ramen soup came close, but ramen soup was too spicy to eat on its own, so it was usually added to ramen noodles.

It was a far cry from the rumored magic powder.

As such, rumors of magic powder were considered to be like “culinary myths” in the back alleys of the capital.

It was like an urban legend that arose as people’s interest in food increased with the advent of ramen but strangely enough, the stories of the magic powder never stopped.

From those who witnessed the magic powder to those who tasted it, there were many testimonies.

“…Alas, the magic powder, what a strange powder it was. The moment I sprinkled it on the soup, the humble soup turned into a heavenly dish.”

“Magic powder, huh? It’s a substance that turns garbage into food.”

“If you want to meet an alchemist who sells magic powder, wander around the capital at night. You might be lucky enough to find one.”

Most people dismissed them as druggies, but not everyone.

A few curious individuals wandered the streets at night in search of the alchemists who sold it, hoping to verify that the magic powder was a real substance.

And the more they did, the more testimonies they heard of those who had tasted it.

Initially dismissive, the capital’s security forces finally recognized the seriousness of the problem.

“It looks like drugs are spreading in the capital.”

The captain of the guard decided that drugs were spreading in the capital.

The clandestine nature of the trade and the fact that the sellers were alchemists only added to his suspicions.

Drugs!

It was an evil that was eating away at the empire.

The rise of drugs was not to be tolerated, and the Guard launched a massive search for the ‘magic powder’.

It wasn’t long before they caught the alchemist who was secretly distributing it.

“Let go of me! This is not a drug!”

“I’ll know if it is or not when I examine it. Follow me!”

“Hey, these are ingredients for ramen soup!”

“……Ramen soup?”

“Yes!”

Distributing drugs in the empire was a capital offense, so the alchemist hastened to tell the truth.

While researching ramen soup, he had accidentally isolated a white powder, and it was MSG, the key ingredient in ramen flour.

The alchemist told the story to escape the death penalty, but he didn’t realize the repercussions of his words.

[The secret to ramen’s flavor is MSG!]

The alchemist’s revelation reached the capital through the mouths of the guards.

And

“The magic powder is real!”

“After all, that’s why ramen tastes so good!”

Once it became known that the magic powder was a real substance and that it was the secret to the taste of ramen, interest in MSG exploded.

People would talk about MSG whenever two or more people got together, and some even tried to find it in their ramen soup.

And then a wizard appeared who actually succeeded in isolating MSG from ramen soup.

The wizard’s isolated MSG was quickly sold to socialites, and a famous food critic who tasted it said.

“The history of food will be divided into two periods: before and after MSG. Everything I’ve ever eaten has been garbage. – Karl Rugen]

“Food without MSG is garbage,” he said.

It was an exaggeration, but he was the most authoritative food critic in the empire, so people took him at his word.

“I can’t believe the food I’ve been eating is garbage.”

“What the hell does MSG even taste like…….”

“They say eating MSG can make you live longer.”

“Do you mean it will increase your lifespan?”

The people’s fantasies about MSG were amplified and distorted.

“I want to taste MSG, how can I get it?”

“Of course it’s at the White Tower, where they make ramen.”

“I see! I’ll go to the White Tower and ask for it!”

Suddenly, people were rushing to the White Tower to get MSG but the tower was not a place for outsiders to come and go as they pleased.

To prevent the leakage of magic, the tower was only accessible through a formal process but the people who were denied access took it to mean something else.

“The White Tower is hiding the MSG!”

“The White Tower must release MSG immediately!”

Believing that the White Tower was trying to hide MSG, the people gathered in front of the White Tower and protested for days on end, demanding that the White Tower release MSG.

While the people of the empire were up in arms about MSG, the culinary industry was in an uproar.

[Blue Coat Chap was the first restaurant in the Empire to use MSG]

Believe it or not, there were restaurants that claimed to have gotten MSG, and they were using it as propaganda to sell their dishes.

Naturally, the damage was done to the non-MSG shops.

“Chef, does this dish have MSG?”

“Mmm. Well…”

“Why can’t you tell me? I thought the Blue Coat Chap next door had MSG. I’m so disappointed.”

“Bummer!”

In order to survive, restaurants that lost their regular customers began to put up signs saying that they also cooked with MSG.

And after a few months of that, it was like.

[We only use MSG]

[We are the original MSG shop]

[If it’s not MSG, we’ll give you your money back]

You can’t find a shop in the capital that doesn’t use MSG anymore, although no one can tell if they really use MSG or not.

“This sucks.”

“I’m sorry, Yuri. I’m not good enough……”

“No, I can’t blame Ciel for this.”

Ciel was sorry, but I didn’t blame her.

It wasn’t her lack of skill that caused this to happen.

Ciel had done a great job of stocking the MSG, and that was the end of her role.

No alchemist, not even Ciel, could have prevented the separation of the MSG in the ramen soup.

“Master, this is going to be difficult, isn’t it?”

“Yes, I’ve put a lock on the MSG, but that doesn’t prevent it from separating from the ramen soup.”

“I see.”

There was only so much you could do to prevent the recipe from leaking.

The more people’s interest in ramen grew, the more people would want to analyze it.

“Senior, what are you going to do now?”

“There’s no choice. Let’s just sell it.”

“…What?”

“Sell it, what……?”

“What else? MSG.”

“What?”

Everyone’s eyes widened at my words.

No, this was a discussion about how to stop MSG from leaking.

“Yuri, what do you mean, sell MSG?”

“Literally, if we can’t stop the leaks, we should just release it.”

In any case, the otherworldly MSG was a “stock” formulation. Like the Coke stock, the MSG stock had Ranya’s rock magic on it.

There was no need to worry about its contents being analyzed.

The reason people were protesting at the White Tower was because they couldn’t make MSG.

‘That doesn’t mean we can’t release it.’

Even if the White Tower didn’t release MSG, wizards would continue to isolate it from ramen soup.

If that wasn’t bad enough, there were also vendors who brought in unknown powders from unknown sources and sold them as MSG.

Needless to say, some people were harmed.

It’s quiet now because there’s good awareness of MSG, but you never know what can happen when incidents like that pile up.

It was better for me to release MSG rather than go through such an uncomfortable situation.

If MSG can improve the food culture of the other world, it’s not a bad thing.

After hearing my story, the Tower family nodded.

“That makes sense,” they said.

“But is it okay to consume MSG directly?”

“As long as you don’t eat too much.”

I remembered that in my previous life, there were products that sold MSG separately to eliminate this discomfort.

Starting with Japan’s Ajinomoto, MSG products that mimicked it were popular in each country.

I thought of making a similar product.

So…….

“Let’s call it Mizong.”

Mizong, a seasoning packed with MSG, was born.