Misoshiru de Kanpai! - Vol. 14 Ch. 84 - Let's Have A Toast With Miso Soup!

[undeed]

But if you notice, even without the lessons, the story would be the same. So I feel those are just extra.

I don't think so.
Without the miso, just take this story and remove the entire miso related, the story would be very, very short.
If that's actually the story the author wanted to tell, about a childhood crush, then the story presented here is very trivial.
You'd need to change the whole interactions, introduce new drama (because none exists here), and only then you can get a good romance story.
And even then the story would be very different.

But instead, if you take this story, replace Yae and Zen with any two close characters, for example a brother and sister, two adult women, a high school version of Yae and Zen, anything, and the 70% of the story, which is about miso: having breakfast with miso; going to place to discover different miso and specialties; learning how to make miso, would be the same.
Just probably not going to be as cute and as lovely as this.

And you can't just replace the miso with just any other food or cooking, because then the timing, the interactions, etc. would drastically change.

So with that in mind, I see the miso here as the plot, the story, the slice of life
and the middle school romance is the plot device: tools used by writers to move the plot or story along.

 

[Knighto]

Yae with the slam dunk hahaha, what a great way to end the series, a nice bow to send us with a warm goodbye

 

[Imryse]

having gone back and reread it again... the ending is STILL a total let down. there's no romance in this rom-com, just an almost romance, and then it ends like the cord was yanked.

 

[Felgon]

Ahh, what a nice ending

 

[Tinker_OwO]

What an absolutely amazing series!!
I remember reading the first few chapters YEARS ago but decided to drop it because I wasn’t a fan of the "Mother-zone"

Now I’m a big boy adult man, and after reading a shit-ton of slice of life, I came back to this series with a very different perspective and ended up loving it so, so, SO much

Sure, it wasn’t very romance-focused, but I really enjoyed following the daily lives of these amazingly written characters. Plus, I really, REALLY loved seeing Zen’s growth, being able to accept his regrets and learning to move forward past his mother’s passing...
Augghh, I just love this series so much… Zen and Yae Miso adventures were so much fun to read!!!