Fried chicken is an art form. You can't just toss some drumsticks in a vat of piping hot oil and expect instant goodness. There are secret ingredients, mixtures of spices and the batter to think about! Not to mention what type of oil to use, which part of the chicken to fry up, and on and on. As you can already tell, I am a BIG fried chicken fan. And I'm not alone! Go to any location on this planet, and chances are you'll find a restaurant that serves some good fried chicken.

After waxing poetic about my admiration for this tasty treat, you can imagine my delight when I found a copy of the latest Food Wars! volume sitting on my desk with a big story arc involving kara-age (fried chicken in Japan). It's bad enough the food art in this manga makes me hungry to no end, but to see one of my favorite foods highlighted just made this volume that much more unbearable, but in a good way!

After enduring a grueling cooking camp, the students of Totsuki get a much needed break. So what do these prodigious wannabe chefs do with their free time? Cooking, of course! And for Soma, it's no different as he decides to head home for his break, only to find the Sumire Street Market, where his family's restaurant is located, bare and lifeless.

So what is the reason behind the dearth of customers? The nearby in-station mall was recently renovated, but the true driving force attracting hordes of customers is the opening of a national deli chain famous for its fried chicken, Mozuya's!

Unwilling to let his neighborhood's market go under, Soma decides to challenge the national deli chain with a fried-chicken concoction of his own that the local market can cook and sell. And if there's anything we've learned about Soma is that he'll never shy away from a challenge. But this time around, he's up against a rather insidious bully of a manager.

Can folk hero Soma slay the corporate giant and rescue his local market in distress? Find out in the latest installment of Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma .