Oishinbo

To commemorate its 100th anniversary of the newspaper Touzai Shimbun, President Ohara announces a plan to publish the "Ultimate Menu". The assignment will be allocated to the reporters with the best taste in food and as a test, the assembled staff must distinguish the difference between three samples of water and tofu.

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The Japanese boxer Katsumura loses his bout against the world champion, and Yamaoka suggests to the Touzai staff that it was because he is overweight. The next day, sports photographer Arakawa tells Yamaoka and Kurita that he intended to propose to Tabata when Katsumura won, but now lacks the confidence to do so

The Culture Division celebrates the 20th birthday of Miki who has been working part-time at Touzai for three months. His friend Ueda arrives who is a trainee chef at Western Cuisine Ginka, but he is unhappy because the restaurant owner has little interest in cuisine.

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The Touzai Culture Division staff visit the spa at Shirakawa for a vacation where they had previously enjoyed hamanabe and takenoko sashimi.[m] They arrive and see a judo team training, including Tawara and Kanazawa from Butoku Women's University. They see them again later while eating hamanabe with rice for dinner on the beach.

A friend of Hanamura and her husband, Isamu Yarimura, is competing in F3000 races to become a F1 driver. However his performance is suffering because of insomnia and Kurita suggests that Yamaoka should find a solution

Deputy Director of the Arts and Culture Department, Tomio Tomii, tries to invite members of staff out drinking, but they all decline except Yamaoka and Kurita. Tomii then reveals he's meeting his younger brother Osamu who is a CEO of a construction company.

Mr Black seeks out Yamaoka and his associates to see his performance of "Sudofu". It is a story about people who live in an apartment building who scold the owner by giving him rotten tofu because he brags about being a gourmet.

Sai Shin'ei is one of a group of Japanese children orphaned in China during WWII who travel to Japan seeking information about their families. Deputy Director Tomii recalls his happy time as a child in China and thinks he recognises Sai as a childhood friend, but he is mistaken. However, Tomii offers to help Mr Sai find his family he was separated from during a Soviet bombardment of Japanese refugees.

Tatsuya Miyai is an earnest young man who works as an assistant in the kitchen of the Gourmet Club and impresses Kaibara with his tea making. One day, when he opens the kombu storage cabinet, a cockroach scuttles out and he notices a sheet with a hole in it.

Ohara secures a business partnership with President Shovan of the french news organization Le Tanne, but during the celebratory dinner they argue about the flavors of Japanese versus French food and the deal is almost broken.

In Autumn, the culture division revisit the Chikaraya udon restaurant (Episode 30) and the owner reveals that the three retired sportsmen, Otani, Oyama and Ouma are ready to graduate as chefs. Over dinner, Kurita mentions that the division will spend their holidays at a cottage in Kiyosato run by Yuzuru Takeda who quit last year.

Rival news organization Teito News announces that they will produce a "Supreme Menu", and have engaged Yuzan Kaibara to lead the project. They plan to release it before Touzai News completes their "Ultimate Menu" placing President Ohara in a difficult position.

Following the win by Kaibara in the first round of the Ultimate VS Supreme Menu competition, Tōyama objects because of the high quality ingredients that Kaibara used. Kaibara agrees to supply the same eggs to Yamaoka who remakes his dish with just the egg yolks in truffle sauce and the result is declared a tie. However, Kurita later teases Yamaoka, saying that he really lost because he modified his recipe after experiencing Kaibara's dish.

The Culture Division staff travel to Kamakura to visit Manager Tanimura who has been ill. Yamaoka accidentally bumps into his childhood friend and ex-yakuza Kazuo Hirai who has opened a small restaurant with his wife Tomoe However, although the food is good, business is slow which Yamaoka attributes to the standard Japanese menu.

Yamaoka's friend Okaboshi calls him because he is concerned about the mental health of his brother Ryozo who works at the Gourmet Club. Ryozo was attracted to a young woman called Suzuko, but she became engaged to another chef. The chef then broke off the engagement to marry someone else and Suzuko attempted suicide.

The Weekly Times suggests that for the next round of the Ultimate VS Supreme Menu competition, both chefs use the same ingredients and Yamaoka suggests vegetables. Kabara agrees on one condition, that they both use vegetables from the same farm, grown without the use of pesticides

The Ultimate VS Supreme Menu competition using vegetables continues with dishes based on turnips. Kaibara's dish consists of steamed turnip filled with mushroom paste which proves popular although Kaibara declares that it is unfit because the mushrooms were overcooked and he walks out. Yamaoka's version is presented,

The Culture Department Flower Trio of Touzai News insist on following Yamaoka to a regular evening rendezvous expecting to find a woman, but instead see him meet Inspector Nakamatsu at the "Sai" restaurant run by Naotaro Moriguchi.

Inspector Nakamatsu takes Yamaoka and Kurita to a small Fukagawa style restaurant run by his friend Hankichi Tsunahama who prepares peasant style food such as satoimo, renkon and boiled kinmedai fish.

Three months ago on a night out in Kabukicho, Yamaoka and the Culture Department rescue the teenager Yoko Nishio from some men who were harassing her. She explained that although her father Yasukaza is a famous architect and her mother Yoshiko runs the Bisai Cooking School, her home life is unhappy.

Some local restaurant owners visit the Touzai offices seeking payment for meals Yamaoka has bought on credit. Kurita lends him the money, but he has to play Santa Claus at an orphanage in return. He proves popular with the children, however the director explains that the orphanage has only one month before they must vacate the premises.

A heya's yobidashi, Oyakata, asks President Ohara to choose an appropriate bride for sumo wrestler Wakayoshiba from three candidates. Ohara suggests that they each prepare osechi dishes to determine the best potential wife. Meanwhile, Sumiko Senkichi, daughter of the heya's former yobidashi, is fond of Wakayoshiba and gets help from Yamaoka to prepare sweet kuromame (black soybean) for her own osechi.

Kurita's friend, Yoshiko Morisawa, asks her to help her boss Tsutomu Yamawaki, founder of a chain of Oharu gyoza restaurants. He makes traditional gyoza to a recipe developed by his late wife Oharu, but he is feeling the pressure of competitors and wants to update his menu. Yamaoka offers to create the ultimate gyoza for him.

Yamaoka enlists the help of two gyoza masters, Okutsu, who works in a publishing company, and Fang, a Chinese student. They both prepare boiled gyoza and the group is impressed by their versions. The dumplings are made more carefully to withstand boiling, the wrapping is more flavorsome and they do not use garlic as an ingredient

Yamaoka and Kurita are sent to a "Battle of Taste" TV quiz, competing against food enthusiasts from Teito News, Sports Times and Shina Economics. Yamaoka is unenthusiastic and during the quiz Touzai is in last place, however Yamaoka displays a strong knowledge of food and Touzai eventually wins.

The Culture Department go to the inexpensive Ginyotei European restaurant for breaded oysters but find the chef Nakazato despondent. He believes that he cannot compete with the well-known owner/chef of Restaurant Che Murono, Hiroy Murono who also grew up in Sendai.

After watching a documentary on rays and sharks made by the filmmaker Mr. Fusamoto, Mr. Tanaka proposes making a feature film featuring Fusamoto. Fusamoto refuses because he has taken a dislike to Tanaka, but Yamaoka realizes that he dislikes many things, including the exotic foods he often films as part of his documentaries.

In preparation of the Ultimate VS Supreme menu challenge using rays, Kaibara and Yamaoka separately approach Touyama to borrow dark green glazed plates to display the white flesh of the fish. For his dish, Kaibara selects a French style of preparation and Yamaoka also decides on a European approach.

Editor-in-chief Koizumi requests help from Yamaoka. Koizumi's son Norio, a last-year student in jr. high, is not studying for his exams, and instead stays out late, drinking alcohol and getting into trouble. Koizumi believes that, since Yamaoka is a former delinquent, Norio might listen to him. Yamaoka takes Norio to a bar where Yamaoka is greeted by two intimidating men who Norio believes are Yakuza.

Tomii embarrasses himself in an underground railway station when he sees a rat and he is later reprimanded for overreacting by the Human Resources director, Hiyama. Yamaoka's attempt to cheer up Tomii only makes matters worse, reinforcing Hiyama's plans to cancel the Ultimate Menu project.

An elderly woman from Hakodate enters the Touzai offices to sell the "half-dried squid" she prepared, but as she leaves and crosses the street she is hit by a car and taken to hospital. Inspector Nakamatsu, Yamaoka and the Touzai staff offer to help sell her remaining squid, however she has brought 300kg of squid to sell to help pay for her orphaned granddaughter's wedding.

A college friend asks Kurita to host her wedding reception. Her co-host is Soichi Tayama, who comes from a wealthy family but denies his reputation as playboy. Tayama is smitten with Kurita and invites her to his father's Dainichi Hotel restaurant featuring a French chef and his cuisine. Later, Yamaoka and Kurita are sent there to evaluate the restaurant for Touzai News and Tayama joins them with the food critic Takehara.

In spring, Dainippon TV proposes to make a program about which cafeteria has the best food. That day, Mr. Black visits Yamaoka and confesses that he doesn't understand the meaning behind the rakugo story "Parting From My Children", a story about a divorced couple who reunite because of their love for their child.

Kurita and Yamaoka are dining out in an expensive French style restaurant with Sushimoto's Ms. Natsuko and her boyfriend Mr. Kitao. An old school friend of Kitao and son of the owner of a Ryōtei in Ginza, Yasutaka Ashida, also arrives at the restaurant. Ashida states that he has little interest in the family business and sends an expensive vintage wine to Kitao's table, but Kitao accuses him of being a spendthrift.