An Eye For An…

“I’m not doing this for you for free, old man.”
“Oh come on, I literally just walked in the door! Don’t I get a ‘Hi Sho, how has business been?’ or anythin’?”
“… how has business been. And I’m not doing this for you for free.”
“Good enough!”

Dagasho slapped his knee as he walked into Dan’s Dango, pulling up a chair to the little dango-making stand that Dan had set up close to the front to teach his lessons. Everything you could ever think to need was present — burners and pans to make soy glaze, stacks of skewers already soaking in water, bowls of add-ins galore, and bags upon bags of rice flour. Oh yeah, and the titular mochi-pounding teacher as the cherry on top of this dango sundae… who was currently glaring Dagasho down with an annoyed look.

“Guh. I know you, old man. You’re just coming around to get some free dango out of this all — don’t you know how to make this stuff just fine?” With a dango stick in hand, Dan jabbed the sharp end in Dagasho’s face… and Sho simply pushed it to the side.
“I’ve watched ya for long enough ta know the general motions, yep. But still, every time I try ta do the do…”

Dagasho simply pulled out a little container, set it on the counter, and opened it for Dan to witness the horror inside. A horribly smelly and half burnt puddle of rice goop along with a couple blackened sticks presented itself to the sour-faced master, and Dan audibly retched when he poked the concoction with his stick and it… jiggled.

“Oh dear Murmur’s teat and the light beyond, what the fuck did you do to this?!”
“… I followed yer recipe.”
“No you did not follow my fucking recipe—” Doing his best not to slam his hands on the table, Dan pointed a finger at Dagasho’s nose. “—and you’re not gonna follow ANYONE ELSE’S RECIPES until the end of time! You keep your ass sat right there, old man, because you aren’t gonna leave UNTIL you produce something decent!” Dan had gone slightly red in the face; Dagasho remained in a silently stunned state until they both calmed down enough to talk once more.

“… yep, Dan. So uh… feel free to start whenever, y’know. So ya can teach me the proper way to make dango, ‘n all that.”
“Grr—I know this is probably just a rouse to get me to give you free dango… and I’ve fallen for it—”
“Hey now, hold yer horses. You teach me how to fix this—” Dagasho motioned at the horrid creation he’d brought in, “—and I can teach ya how to make a couple simple fireworks or two. Even a dunce can make a couple o’ smokers or sparkle sticks, and wouldn’t that be a nice li’l addition to your mochi presentation?” Dagasho had a point… despite how daunting the task of making fireworks was, Dan couldn’t help but be at least a little interested in sprucing up his presentation skills. Dan sighed… then simply motioned for Dagasho to come over.

“Now listen carefully, because I’m not gonna go slow. This rice flour, it’s actually a mix of a couple different types of rice grains… one regular short-grain strain, and another glutinous short-strain one… that’s what makes the texture just right. My ratio’s not on the table, so fuck with it yourself and find out in your own time. It’s already blended, so we’ll dump it in a bowl.
“To that, we’ll be adding water; room temp works, but I like to use boiling water. Add a little bit, stir, and keep doing that ‘till it starts to clump… like that. This is the point where we’d start adding stuff if ya want flavors, but we’re doing mitarashi dango… so keeping them plain is good enough. Now get to kneading—and you better not stop until that dough is as smooth as Shibani’s—uh. As smooth as Shibani’s… face.”

Alongside Dagasho, Dan was making his own batch as an example. These two surly buns were more than enough manpower to get five batches done at once… but for now they’re taking baby steps.

“Whooee, yeah. The texture’s turnin’ out alright, actually.” Dagasho sounded quite surprised at his achievement as Dan came over to poke at it with a stray finger.
“That’s good. Really, I do wonder what the hell you added to yours to make it turn out like that.”

“Anyways…” Dan took some rice flour and lightly dusted an area of the table before plopping his dough out, “Turn it out here, and start dividing. We’re looking for them all to be somewhat equal — ya don’t NEED a scale, but ya can grab one if ya really want it. But… yeah, I just eyeball it. And once ya got the dough separated, roll ‘em smooth… and set ‘em over here.”

The two engaged in some idle business chit chat as they finished rolling all their dango balls—the price of goods, nasty customers, stuff like that—and time seemed to pass in a blur…

“And… that’s the last one.” Dagasho triumphantly sat the last dango ball on top with a smirk, looking to Dan’s… mildly emotional face.
“Good enough. Now you take care of boiling those while I make the glaze. I’ll teach ya how to make the glaze… next time, so for now just focus on not fucking up the boiling.”
“Yessirrrrrr~” With a little tease in his voice, Dagasho moved past to take up station at one burner so he could leave Dan to his own devices at the other.

Boil the dango… wait until they bubble up… then wait a minute scoop ‘em out into ice water. Once they’ve cooled a bit, transfer to a tray and skewer ‘em, three at a time. Yep, even a dunce like Dagasho could do this! And while Sho was doing that, Dan whipped up the glaze; sugar, mirin, soy sauce, water, and starch in a pan… whisked to an even texture and heated until the sauce thickens just enough.

And finally, once you get the dango and sauce together (with a little extra charring from holding it over the burner for a second)… voila! Mitarashi dango, ready to eat! Though before Dagasho bit into his, he watched Dan sample what they’d made together…

“… mmm. Passable.”
“WAHOO!” Dagasho pumped a fist into the air as he shoved a stick in his mouth—Dan’s “passable” was quite the good score in the end.
“Don’t get your fundoshi in a twist, old man — I was helping you out this time around. … here.” In the middle of Dagasho’s feast, Dan tossed him a small book… taking a slight bit of amusement in watching the older bun fumble. “Study up. Next time, you bring YOUR recipe book by, and we can see who makes the other’s craft better.”
The notion certainly brought a mischievous smirk to Dagasho’s face. “Heheh. Deal, Danny-boy. Yer so generous to give me a head start like this, y’know?”
“Because I’m just that confident. Don’t choke on the way back, you hear?”

Today’s competition may be over, but the overarching “rivalry” has just begun for these two shop owners.