First Impressions / Isekai Shokudou

「カルパッチョ/カレーパン」 (Karupaccho/Kare Pan)
“Carpaccio/Curry Bun”

General Impressions

I would say this episode was tamer than most of the ones we’ve had, but it worked out beautifully. By that, I mean the incredible direction of animation and sound combined together, to further amplify a unique ambience. If I had to describe such a thing, it would be childlike innocence and freely soaring through the skies for a happy eternity.

Here’s where Iris and Arius are introduced, and right off the bat, they give an immediate impression. These contrasting personalities of adventurous and meek, curious and intellectual, provide multiple interactions classical to their character archetypes. And what struck me most was how the pure simplicity of their relationship. If we hadn’t received a comprehensive explanation detailing that Iris and Arius were sirens, I would have been inclined to think of them as angelic creatures. At least up till the moment where they started singing terribly. Once again Kuro, thank you for silencing them. Since they were unaware of the drawbacks, I would cut them slack for doing something that could have been really harmful.

As for their benefactor, funny thing how Alfonse earned himself a fearsome reputation as the ‘Chimera Killer’ during his 20 year stay on the island. All I can see is a generous old man who loves eating his curry rice! Anyway, his surname ‘Flugel’ means ‘Wing’ in German, which neatly ties in to how the sirens were the ones who discovered his treasure. Though Arius didn’t express it in the restaurant, I’m sure he held a lot of gratitude towards Alfonse for leaving behind a truly wonderful legacy. You can tell how much the sirens loved the food, when they even relocated their roost to the same island! Who knows, maybe give it 20-30 years, and we’ll get an elderly Tenshu serving food to some siren hatchlings.

You might be surprised to know that Kuro also fits the definition I provided for this episode’s unique ambience. Through leading a sheltered and isolated existence, free to roam her lunar domain beyond the skies, she too is bound by a childlike innocence. Through discovering the door to Nekoya, she is given an escape from solitude, and is allowed to enjoy good food in the companionship of living creatures. She also signifies her warm feelings towards Aletta, by forgoing the usual telepathy to vocally express a fond farewell. If that’s not soul-healing, all I can say is that you’re one tough customer.

Concluding Thoughts

Next episode, the end is in sight. I’m about as sad as how Aletta initially looked in the preview, which speaks volumes about my emotional attachment to the series. While this segment might not have been particularly outstanding, I felt that it exhibited many of the hallmarks I would associate with the iyashikei genre (link to an essay from another blog that attempts to describe the concept). Of course, you’ll see it elsewhere in Isekai Shokudou, but I wanted to make a point that I felt it very strongly in this episode. Maybe it helps that the focus wasn’t particularly on food, though that could be my subconscious bias against raw fish at play. Let me know what your thoughts are!

Preview

Zaiden’s Homemade Fruit Crepe

A healthy and hearty breakfast

Allow me to preface this by saying that I like fruits, and I like crepes. But I’m not so convinced that having them together is a good thing. Regardless, if Isekai Shokudou serves a menu item that isn’t optimised for my taste, I will still go about replicating however it looks on the screen. For that reason, I put massive effort into making one fruit crepe, which tasted quite good. Then I made 10 regular crepes with what batter I had left.

3.6/10 – Crammed with too much fruit, making it difficult to fold the way I wanted. Also turns out I prefer your plain old crepe with a dash of lemon juice and sugar, because it doesn’t come out soggy.

23 Comments

  1. Oh man did that first part imply Kuro was developing feelings for Mastah? While I realize it probably just stems from her misattributing hunger and appreciation for the cook as something that perhaps-maybe-might resemble love because she’s lived alone on the moon for god knows how long, I still didn’t expect that at all.

    And personally, if this were any other show, I’d be all in at the idea of the classic trope of Death herself falling in love with a mortal. At the same time I’d be interested to see Kuro experience the wide range of emotions people have, including the tragic loss of a loved one, in such an infinitely minuscule time frame compared to her dragon years. Fuck I might be looking too much into that short scene.

    Although as side note, I really do wish Chaos in all its lovecraftian glory would show up as a customer. The thought of it is too good to pass up.

    Alcohol
    Reply

    1. I mentioned it in one of my previous replies to a comment, but wouldn’t it be awesome if Tenshu was actually descended from a person who belonged to the fantasy world?

      At the moment, there are only two characters I ship, and that would be Arte and Roukei. It would probably require another season of fleshing out, until other ships win me over too.

      Zaiden
      Reply

    1. Plain old crepes with no sauce tastes better. Also, honed my crepe skills at university, seeing how it’s a legitimate staple for poor students. My skill has gotten to the point where I can flip ’em over in a pan without utensils, and I don’t have to check to see whether the other side is golden brown. I can’t describe it, but I literally smell when it turns golden brown.

      Zaiden
      Reply

  4. OK, so I dropped this series on account of all the culinary solecisms, but I just had to come back and comment on the tuna “carpaccio”.

    First, it’s far, far too thick. Tuna sashimi should be thick cut, but carpaccio should be wafer thin. Second, just because it’s fake Italian that doesn’t mean you have to put capers and marjoram leaves on it. Third, there is FAR too much raw onion – if you’re putting onion on carpaccio then it too should be very thinly sliced. Fourth, carpaccio sauce should ONLY ever be used on beef carpaccio, never tuna.

    What you should drizzle over it is extra virgin olive oil and nothing else (or perhaps smoked olive oil if you’re feeling adventurous). Skip the capers, and replace the marjoram with a few pea shoots or alfalfa sprouts. Then garnish with a little freshly-milled black pepper. There, perfetto.

    Angelus
    Reply

    1. I have been wondering where you went Angelus. It’s a shame that you decided to eventually drop this series, especially since you made brilliant contributions to the comment section.

      I cannot relate to inaccuracies being that influential on my own viewing experiences, but each person has their own way of going about things. As a result, I tend to watch things I don’t particularly like all the way to the end (recently, that would be Frame Arms Girl). Will take your advice on the Carpaccio, which I intend on making it next week! Not that I have another choice, because although I really like Japanese Curry, I’m not very good at baking ;_;

      Zaiden
      Reply

      1. Zaiden, well, it’s not often I drop something once it passes the obligatory three episode test. Even if it turns out like Frame Arms Girl I’ll still carry on with it just in case it improves (or there’s an onsen/sentou episode!). But it wasn’t just the food that got to me here, it was the ponderous expositions every time a new group of characters appeared, oh, and that moon too (see below for the boring details).

        I do still like the character interactions though, plus the way that new characters are often connected in some way to ones we already know, and of course Kuro is undeniably cute (even if she does eat “curry” for breakfast). So maybe I should give it another chance and just skip over the culinary abominations.

        So, about that moon. I know the “moon/planet with a chunk missing” is a common-enough anime/sci-fi trope, but it just wouldn’t happen. Planets and large moons are more or less spherical because their gravity is so powerful that’s the only shape they can be. If you take a chunk out of anything larger than the so-called “potato radius” – around 200km/125 miles for ice up to around 300km/185 miles for solid rock – it would liquefy and reform itself into a spherical shape again.

        Angelus
        Reply

      1. I’m a full-on culinary Nazi because, among other things, I insist on preserving the racial purity of traditional dishes. It’s not that so-called “fusion food” necessarily tastes bad per se, but once you go down that route then the end result is monotony. It’s just like colours – if you keep on mixing different coloured paints together then you always end up with the same murky, muddy black.

        I’m not against trying new things within a single cuisine, though. So there’s no reason why you shouldn’t put Kewpie over tuna sashimi and see what it tastes like, but for goodness sake, don’t then dare to stick great chunks of raw onion and a few Italian bits on the top of it and call it “carpaccio”.

        Angelus
        Reply

  5. The BGM

    While these two was flying to the Island of the old geezer:

    Sounded like an Travel Music of some RPG Game (and it was good “High Spirit”)

    Also, no one did notice it?

    In the last Seconds? She spoke with her Mouth, not through telepathy to Aletta!!!
    She is making progress

    Worldwidedepp
    Reply

      1. Because (not know the Film, just the OST), when closing my Eyes, my inner Eye see Raindrops, hitting corrugated iron roof and so on. And the Music is moving, it has movement. Here the Anime BGM is just using loops, without really movement

        Worldwidedepp
        Reply

    2. I actually wanted to talk about it last episode, but I also feel that the BGM has seen steady improvement over the past few weeks. It certainly elicited feelings of the classical JRPGs I’ve played, but my mind was settled on the iyashikei aspect.

      Zaiden
      Reply

  7. https://randomc.net/image/Isekai%20Shokudou/Isekai%20Shokudou%20-%2011%20-%20Large%2026.jpg
    So that’s Carpaccio‘s namesake dish… Also, did I just hear Nao Touyama as Iris?

    And Kuro describes “lassi” as fermented cow’s milk. At first I thought it was the fantasy-worlders’ name for kefir or the Calpis brand of drinks, but it’s actually a drink from India. And yes, milk is the best drink to counteract spiciness. (Spices such as capsaicin are generally acidic and milk is a base…and if you recall your science class lessons, acids and bases neutralize each other.)

    https://randomc.net/image/Isekai%20Shokudou/Isekai%20Shokudou%20-%2011%20-%20Large%2035.jpg
    Finally… *gasp* Kuro actually spoke with her mouth?! (Instead of telepathically.) And that smile…

    On the topic of raw fish dishes… I like my raw tuna on occasion, as long as it’s properly prepared as sashimi or Hawaiian ahi poke, and I can’t eat those dishes properly without a certain brand of Japanese soy sauce. (Though I usually do without wasabi, hehe. *sweatdrops*)

    Incognito
    Reply

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