“As expected, no one’s coming…”
It was the monumental first day of business, so I had even prepared precious chicken baeksuk, but not only were there no customers, I couldn’t even hear the sound of an animal.
Before I knew it, complete darkness had settled outside.
This was a restaurant tucked away in a remote forest where people might or might not come even in broad daylight, so at night, there was no need to even say it.
Right. How could I expect to be full from the very first spoonful?
I killed the expectations that had grown far too large and looked up at the ceiling.
It was a building exactly in the form I had always dreamed of in my head.
A first-floor hall that wasn’t all that spacious, but was all the more cozy for it.
The second floor was a home used as my living space.
It wasn’t overly traditional, but just the sort of Western-style house that might have been built from the 1990s to the early 2000s.
A moderately retro design.
And proudly hanging there was the name of our shop, [Picky Eating].
It was a name I had chosen with the thought that, when you were paying money to eat at a restaurant, wouldn’t you want to eat only what you liked?
It was my dream, so just looking at it was satisfying… but it didn’t fill my stomach.
Grrrr—
‘This is all to make a living anyway. Maybe I should eat.’
If a customer did come, there was plenty of baeksuk left to serve.
From the large stockpot bubbling away, I ladled out a portion of baeksuk for myself.
Personally, rather than baeksuk cooked to death in a pressure cooker until the meat fibers fell apart, I preferred the kind cooked moderately in an ordinary pot, leaving the texture tender and lively.
This baeksuk, made to suit my taste, boasted chewy and tender flesh.
“Ah, this is it.”
Just as I was about to take a big bite out of a steaming chicken leg…!
Jingle—
“Excuse me, is anyone here?”
A customer had come.
I was flustered by the sudden arrival, but quickly pulled myself together and greeted them.
“Welcome!”
A silver-haired woman who looked like a university student wearing something like a private school uniform, and a simple-looking middle-aged man.
The two of them looked around here and there, as if the interior of the shop felt unfamiliar, then awkwardly took their seats.
“My lady, I’ll eat separately at another table…”
“No. It’s really fine, so please sit.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
‘What kind of combination is that?’
Their incomprehensible conversation was interesting, but first, I fulfilled my duty as a chef.
“The only item on the menu right now is chicken soup. Is that all right?”
“Yes, that’s fine. One serving each, please.”
“I’ll bring it right out.”
I quickly ladled out the baeksuk, then prepared it with finely chopped green onion and pepper sprinkled on top as garnish.
As a side dish, I served the geotjeori I had seasoned in advance this morning.
“Here is your chicken soup. It’s hot, so please be careful.”
“Um… Chef? Owner? What should I call you?”
“Please call me Master.”
It was a title I would never have dared use on Earth, but this was another world.
If I didn’t fulfill my romance at a time like this, then when would I?
But when she heard my title, she flinched in surprise. What was that?
“Ma… Master. Is this really chicken soup? I think the wrong dish came out…”
“Ah, this is an Eastern-style chicken soup called ‘baeksuk.’ It may be different from the soup you usually eat, but it’s quite delicious, so please enjoy it without worry.”
“Is that so? Then I understand. Thank you.”
She tried to hide her bewildered expression, but she couldn’t hide the saliva gathering in her mouth.
Gulp—
Perhaps because this was their first time facing the overwhelming majesty of a whole baeksuk chicken, so tempting and splendid, they didn’t know what to do even with the food in front of them.
‘Do they not know how to eat it?’
Well, these were people who had probably spent their whole lives eating only dairy-based stew when it came to chicken soup.
But if you saw a pale, whole chicken sitting there with its legs crossed, it was understandable that you wouldn’t get a sense of how to eat it.
“Um, if you’d like, I can tell you how to eat…”
“No! It’s fine.”
It was obvious she was struggling, but she refused help.
Judging from her luxurious-looking clothes, jade-white hands, and appearance that could slap a K-idol across the face, she seemed like the child of a noble household. Was that why? I could sense a subtle pride.
It had the feeling of, How dare you try to teach me how to dine?
I had assumed they obviously wouldn’t be able to use chopsticks, so I had deliberately given them forks and spoons, but they were still struggling.
How could I tell them how to do it…? As I wondered that, a good idea came to me.
“I haven’t eaten yet myself, so would it be all right if I had my meal?”
“Yes. Please, go ahead?”
“Thank you!”
She answered as if puzzled why I was asking her permission to eat.
Whether she did or not, I brought over the baeksuk I had ladled out earlier but failed to eat, and deliberately sat down somewhere the customers could see me well.
Sure enough, as soon as I began eating, the two who had been floundering glanced at me.
Feeling their eyes on me, I fixed the chicken in place with my fork and tore off a baeksuk leg with my other hand.
“Now this is baeksuk.”
Crunch—!
I mercilessly bit into the chicken leg, torn off as generously as a Jamaican jerk whole leg!
It glistened and gleamed like a jewel,
and there was the sensation of my teeth meeting a slight, springy resistance before ultimately sinking in softly.
As I chewed a mouthful of meat, I secretly looked at the girl.
Crunch!
Though their movements held hesitation, both of them tore off a leg just as I had and filled their mouths with it.
Her blue eyes went round, and from that bite onward, her movements changed.
“Huaaaah!!”
Like a beast wholly focused on the prey before her eyes, she began her meal.
***
Until the food came out, Isilla could not dispel her suspicions.
It did smell delicious, but the unfamiliar shape of the building and interior, and even the owner with his unusual hair color—she couldn’t help but be suspicious.
Not long after they ordered, the chicken soup was brought out before Isilla and the coachman.
However, both of them were dumbfounded when they saw the food placed in front of them.
What they had ordered was ordinary chicken soup.
It should have been a dish with pale broth, vegetables, and a few scraps of chicken meat, so why had an entire chicken come out whole?
Thinking that this chef might have made a mistake, Isilla spoke.
“Um… Chef? Owner? What should I call you?”
“Please call me Master.”
Flinch—
The moment they heard the word Master, both Isilla and the coachman felt themselves stiffen as they looked at the man.
All those called Master possessed abilities worthy of leading the world.
The master of the Adventurers’ Guild, the greatest master craftsman of the Blacksmiths’ Guild, or the empire’s Sword Master, for instance.
They were living legends, people with such tremendous influence that they could not move as they pleased.
Moreover, in the long history of the empire, there had never once been a case where a chef had been acknowledged as a Master.
Did this black-haired man even know the weight of that title?
Isilla’s suspicions deepened further, but the food placed before her looked far too appetizing.
Thinking she had no choice, she played along with the man’s tune.
“Ma… Master. Is this really chicken soup? I think the wrong dish came out…”
“Ah, this is an Eastern-style chicken soup called ‘baeksuk.’ It may be different from the soup you usually eat, but it’s quite delicious, so please enjoy it without worry.”
“Is that so? Then I understand. Thank you.”
The man accepted the title of Master as if it were familiar to him, then gave a simple explanation of the dish.
Eastern chicken soup, baeksuk…
Could that man be an Eastern culinary Master?
She could sense no sign that he was lying.
If he was a Master from the East, then it was only natural she did not know of him.
Thinking she had nothing to lose, Isilla picked up her fork to eat the food.
But then,
‘H-how am I supposed to eat this?’
Isilla’s blue eyes wavered.
Isilla was the precious jewel of Duke Silbaerin of the North, a young lady who had experienced many delicacies and mastered dining etiquette.
But even she could not know the Eastern way of dining.
‘Ugh… If I make a disgrace of myself here, my noble pride will…’
Even the coachman across from her was looking at her.
His gaze seemed to say, If she’s a noble, then surely she knows how to eat it, right?
“Um, if you’d like, I can tell you how to eat…”
“No! It’s fine.”
Isilla even refused the Master’s offer to teach her the method.
If she crumbled here, she would truly be disqualified as a noble young lady…!
“Ahem, I haven’t eaten yet myself, so would it be all right if I had my meal?”
In the middle of Isilla’s once-in-a-lifetime dilemma,
the restaurant’s Master suddenly asked if it was all right for him to have his own meal as well.
“Yes. Please, go ahead?”
“Thank you!”
Since she had never seen anyone ask such a thing before eating, Isilla found it odd, but gave her permission.
The Master took his own serving of baeksuk and sat down at the table across from them. Then he fixed the chicken in place with a fork and, with his other hand, tore off a chicken leg in a bold motion.
‘No way, he tears it apart with his hands?’
Isilla’s and the coachman’s eyes went round at the shocking dining method, but whether he knew this or not, the Master savagely tore into the chicken before him.
If it had been any other time, the sight of the Master ripping apart a chicken like a wild beast would have seemed barbaric.
However, in this unfamiliar space, before this unfamiliar food, even Isilla’s common sense began to change.
‘Since the Master eats it that way… perhaps that is the proper dining method in the East?’
“Kraah! This is it!”
Seeing the Master dismantle the chicken as if possessed, Isilla made up her mind as well.
Just like the Master, she tore off a chicken leg with her hand.
Rich broth dripped from the large, tender chicken leg.
Gulp—!
That enormous “thing” before her eyes.
Isilla unconsciously felt a little frightened of the chicken leg.
But she squeezed her eyes shut, mustered her courage, and bit into the leg.
And in that moment, the world of “chicken soup” that Isilla had known collapsed.
“Huaaaaaah!!!!!”
A texture that was neither tough nor mushy, offering a slight resistance to her teeth and awakening an instinctive sadistic thrill.
Broth so rich it was as if a hundred chickens had been boiled down, yet clean and light as it lingered on the tongue.
Even the red pickled vegetables, refreshing and spicy, kept the main dish from ever becoming tiresome.
‘All the chicken soup I’ve eaten until now… was nothing but a fraud.’
The hesitation vanished from Isilla’s hands.
She alternated between chicken meat and pickled vegetables, then every so often washed her tongue with hot broth.
The savoriness of baeksuk seeping into every single taste bud on her tongue made it impossible for her to stop spooning it up.
Isilla’s face, which had been as white as eternal snow, gradually flushed red.
“Haa… haa…”
Sweat trickled down her forehead, and though she let out heated breaths, Isilla did not stop consuming it.
Considering the usual formalities of noble dining, it was an unthinkable disgrace.
‘My body is hot… so hot…’
But Isilla paid it no mind. In truth, she had no room in her mind to care about such things.
Baeksuk was a dish brimming with yang energy from garlic, onion, green onion, astragalus, and more.
Because Isilla had been born with a cold bloodline, that yang energy felt all the hotter to her.
‘More… more…! Huh?’
Isilla, who had been devouring the baeksuk like a starving lioness, came to her senses when she felt her spoon grow light.
Before her eyes lay the chicken bones, picked clean without a single scrap of meat remaining.
“Uh… the meat?”
Isilla muttered in bewilderment.
“It seems it suited your taste, customer.”
At some point, the Master had begun smiling with a pleased expression.
The Master, who had been watching her pointlessly torment the poor chicken bones, spoke quietly.
“This is the real thing.”
And in the new bowl placed before her…
was the essence of baeksuk, chicken porridge.