There is something every doctor in the world says in unison.
“Refined carbohydrates are bad for your health. Especially eating refined carbohydrates as dessert is the worst.”
Eh~ lol, if I die, I die~
Words were, in the end, only words.
No words of concern could stop Koreans from eating carbohydrates for dessert.
Dakgalbi and fried rice,
pork ribs and naengmyeon,
even shabu-shabu and porridge.
Koreans’ love for refined carbohydrates was extraordinary.
In truth, Koreans simply knew how to eat well, and no matter what country someone came from, they all praised the taste of dessert carbs.
And that wouldn’t be any different in another world..!
“It is a dish made by finely shredding the meat of boiled chicken, mincing carrots, onions, and green onions, then boiling them together with rice from the East in the chicken broth.”
I carefully explained the chicken porridge to the guest.
But whether she was listening to me or not, her gaze was fixed solely on the chicken porridge as she breathed hotly.
She was feeling it instinctively.
The craving for carbohydrates engraved in human DNA.
“You can scoop it up with a spoon and eat it. It’s hot, so please be careful. Then...”
So that she could follow her instincts, I quickly got out of the way.
***
As soon as the Master left the table, Isilla immediately scooped up a spoonful of chicken porridge.
Just as Isilla, whose patience had reached its limit, was about to put the porridge straight into her mouth, the Master’s warning came to mind.
‘He said it’s hot... so be careful, right?’
When she lightly touched it with her tongue, it was incomparably hotter than warm water.
She had a premonition that if she ate it right away, the roof of her mouth would be reduced to rags.
‘I have to endure... Hngh, it’s hard to endure...’
But Isilla’s body, her brain, her DNA, were demanding it.
Supply this beautiful refined carbohydrate to the body at once.
Isilla soothed her impatience by trembling her legs anxiously.
Perhaps because she had eaten baeksuk filled with yang energy, her body was hot, as though it had been basking in steady sunlight.
Not only her legs, but her whole body heated up, and sweat flowed.
It had long since reached the point where her bangs were sticking to her forehead from the beads of sweat.
“Hoo, ho...!”
Isilla blew on the porridge to cool it down.
When it seemed the heat of the porridge had subsided somewhat, she took the long-awaited first bite.
“Hahngh, hup!!”
And then, reflexively, a hot moan escaped her.
She tried to hold it back out of embarrassment, but it was unavoidable.
Even though she thought she had cooled it enough, she was startled by the porridge that was still hot.
Only after rolling it around in her mouth and adapting to the temperature did she finally taste it.
Zkyun─!
Somewhere deep inside Isilla’s body, she felt a sensation that made her heart drop.
That was how shocking the taste of the perfectly cooked chicken porridge was.
The savoriness of all the ingredients in the porridge crashed over Isilla’s taste buds like a tidal wave.
Just as humans are helpless before a massive natural disaster, Isilla too was left dazed and stunned.
‘If I learn this taste, I can’t go back to how I was before...’
More than the supreme flavor she was feeling right now, she despaired at the threshold of taste that would rise from now on.
And yet, the taste receptors on her tongue were still sending the tingling flavor of the porridge to her brain.
At this strange experience where despair and ecstasy came in turns, Isilla’s mind grew hazy.
The broth had already been rich enough when it was baeksuk, but as the starch in the rice melted into it, the broth boasted a thickness on an entirely different level.
The sweet minced vegetables that gave texture and the finely shredded chicken meat were bound together by the sticky viscosity of the broth, forming perfect harmony.
As she perceived that her tongue, even while trembling from the heat of that sticky liquid, was enjoying its taste, excitement somehow grew within her.
It was a flavor she wanted to feel forever, but the slippery, soft ingredients were swallowed before she even realized it.
As Isilla prepared for the next bite, her eyes fell on the red pickled vegetables she had eaten with it earlier.
Even when eaten with baeksuk, it had boasted an overwhelming combination, so wouldn’t it also go extremely well with this chicken porridge?
Isilla neatly placed the pickled vegetables on top of the porridge and ate it.
Before long, Isilla stopped thinking.
She had thought there could be no more taste left to surprise her, yet here was a violent combination that brutally shattered her expectations.
For her, in this moment, the act of eating had left the framework of society and civilization behind.
It had degenerated into the instinct for survival: consuming high-quality, delicious food in order to sustain life.
“No more, I can’t take any more in...!”
When Isilla finally came back to her senses, she had already been thoroughly done in by the food and was breathing heavily.
Gang Jinu, who had watched this entire disaster unfold, thought,
‘This has gone completely off the rails.’
***
The silver-haired woman, who was my guest, had already been unusual from the way she ate the baeksuk, but after eating the chicken porridge, she was now grinning dazedly with her eyes completely unfocused.
Did I put drugs in the baeksuk without knowing it?
Of course, there was no way that happened.
‘Status window.’
=====
[Hand Taste Lv.Max]
Through long years of cooking experience, you have reached the skill of a master.
The dishes made by your hands have increased savoriness!
*When cooking with ingredients obtained from the skill [Mana Market], additional effects occur in the food!
=====
My intuition was telling me this was the root of the problem.
The increased savoriness and the additional effects that occurred in the food.
It seemed those two things had created an insane synergy and produced that dramatic reaction.
The important point was that, with my ability, I couldn’t tell what those effects actually were.
When I ate it myself, I didn’t feel anything particularly strange. Maybe it was because I was a weakling with little mana.
Or maybe it was because I wasn’t originally a human of this other world. I didn’t know.
The part I could guess was that the effect probably manifested in a direction that maximized the original efficacy of the food.
Baeksuk is a symbol of summer nourishment, packed full of every yang-energy ingredient there is.
Because it’s a soup dish boiled hot, it extracts the nutrients of the ingredients down to the marrow, so the flavor is rich as well.
It seemed those characteristics of baeksuk had probably been maximized.
Considering how she, who looked like she had been raised preciously, was sweating buckets and unable to escape the lingering aftertaste of the food.
As I gazed at her quietly, she sensed my stare and spoke with a cough.
“Ahem..! Ahem! I never imagined I would be able to eat food of this level in a remote forest. As expected, a Master is a Master.”
“Ah, yes, well... Please let me know when it’s convenient for you to pay.”
“I’ll pay for the food together with tonight’s lodging fee.”
“Huh? We don’t do lodging.”
“Pardon?”
She, who had been rummaging through her wallet, asked again as though she had misheard.
I said it once more.
“We don’t do lodging. Only meals.”
“Uh... But the building has a second floor, doesn’t it? Then why did you build it this big?”
“Well... Because I have to live here.”
It was a conversation where our points were subtly misaligned.
Was it because, in a medieval fantasy world, there was a common sense that “restaurant = place that gives you food and lodging”?
I had not the slightest intention of providing lodging, but the other party reacted as though I were saying something strange.
But what could she do when the owner said he wouldn’t?
“I’ll pay you plenty of money. Couldn’t you allow it for just one day?”
“Hmm... Even if you say that...”
While I was troubled by her repeated request, the man who had been eating with the girl explained the situation.
“The truth is, we were originally heading to the city of Silbaerin...”
In short, the coachman and the client had originally planned to arrive in Silbaerin by the end of today, so they hadn’t even brought camping gear, but the carriage had broken down.
That was why they had come to a stop in the middle of the forest, and by chance, they had discovered my restaurant.
‘Haa... That is a difficult situation to refuse.’
Having lived in this forest myself, I knew there were beasts and magical creatures that could pose a threat.
If a girl like this and a coachman camped out at night without proper equipment, it would definitely be dangerous.
“Understood. Since the situation is special, you may stay the night today. Just pay for the food.”
“No. We’re the ones imposing on you, so we can’t possibly...”
“It’s fine. If I took money for something like this, I’d be struck by heavenly punishment later.”
Thanks to my long experience in business, I skillfully dodged her attempts to slip me money, and she eventually accepted and paid only for the food.
“Phew... All right. Thank you very much. How much was the meal?”
“Thirty copper coins for the two of you combined.”
“Pardon? Thirty copper coins?”
She and the coachman looked at me in surprise.
What? Did I set it way too expensive compared to this other world’s prices?
But this was something I had to push through.
The truth was, I had no desire to make a fortune through business in another world.
That was because, from the beginning, I only wanted to earn enough money to live on and run my restaurant leisurely.
So the amount I set as the bare minimum was no more than fifteen copper coins per menu item, even if it was expensive.
A day’s wages for a simple laborer was about thirty copper coins.
So I thought that if it was around fifteen copper coins, even commoners would come by to eat once in a while.
“It is thirty copper coins. Is there some problem...?”
“This may not be something a customer should say, but isn’t that too cheap? It’s a dish with an entire chicken in it...”
Ah, they were surprised because it was too cheap?
Certainly, even assuming there was no cost for ingredients thanks to magic, I did think baeksuk was on the cheaper side.
“It’s fine. I’m not that greedy for money.”
Since I couldn’t explain the whole complicated situation, I gave a suitable excuse.
After hearing my words, she murmured with a moved expression.
“Truly... that is an attitude befitting a Master...”
“Pardon? Did you say something?”
“Ah, no! I’ll give you thirty copper coins.”
“Thank you. I’ll show you to an empty room on the second floor.”
It was fortunate that, since I lived alone, there were quite a few spare rooms.
I showed the coachman and the girl to their respective rooms, then went back down to the first floor.
‘It doesn’t seem like there’ll be any more customers anyway...’
Before I knew it, it was nearing ten at night.
Those two were the only customers who had come during dinner time, so realistically, it was hard to expect any more customers.
And since I had unintentionally ended up letting them sleep here, I also had to wake up early in the morning along with them.
‘I should close up for today.’
My business hours were originally until dawn, but if I did that, I wouldn’t be able to wake up tomorrow morning.
I cleaned up the shop, washed myself, and went to sleep.
For breakfast tomorrow, I should just give them some leftover baeksuk or something...