Ssshhhaaaaak—!
The batter for pajeon met the sizzling-hot pan, producing an entrancing sound.
At the frying sound, which vaguely resembled rainfall, the three elves peered into the kitchen.
“Jinwoo, what are you making?”
“It’s something I used to eat back in my hometown... kind of like a pancake. We usually ate it when it rained.”
“Heeh. What an interesting culture.”
Iseria’s ears perked up in time with the sshhak, sshhak of the frying.
Sssssss—...
The frying sound, like a downpour, gradually subsided, and the batter began to cook in earnest.
In truth, the principles behind frying and grilling were the same.
Evaporate the moisture in the ingredients, cause a Maillard reaction on the surface, and cook them through.
With frying, the “moisture evaporation” stage was simply more dramatic.
Since you put a water-mixed batter into high-temperature oil, the moisture evaporated immediately.
And in the process of that moisture evaporating, the familiar sshhhaaaaak—! frying sound was born.
Which meant the actual cooking of the ingredients began now, after the sound had died down.
After confirming that the pajeon had more or less taken shape, I placed another pan on a different burner.
If I only used one, how long would it take to fry them all?
This time, into an oiled pan just like before, I dropped in the zucchini jeon coated in beaten egg.
Sssssss—!
The zucchini jeon also made a delicious sound the moment it hit the pan.
However, zucchini jeon made with beaten egg needed to be cooked a little differently.
I watched the zucchini jeon turning golden with intense focus.
Ten seconds... five seconds, now!
Flip, flip—!
About twenty seconds after the zucchini jeon had been placed in the pan.
I flipped every piece over once.
Rather than judging by time, it was better to judge by how much the egg coating had cooked.
With jeon coated in egg, if you fully cooked one side before flipping it, several things would turn out lacking.
By the nature of a food called “jeon,” it was thin.
Because of that, the heat from the underside alone could cook the egg on the top surface that wasn’t in direct contact with the fire.
The egg coating on the top side, cooked that way, wouldn’t be pressed down by the physical weight of the ingredient or by the cook’s spatula.
That was where the problem occurred.
Before the proteins in the egg changed, it needed to be pressed tightly against the ingredient and seared with heat for it to adhere properly.
If the egg cooked first through indirect heat, it wouldn’t bond correctly.
In that case, when the jeon was finished, the unfortunate disaster of only the egg coating slipping right off could occur.
That was why, when making jeon with beaten egg, my key point was to flip it quickly after putting it in the pan.
‘Okay, it stuck well.’
The egg coating on the zucchini jeon was golden on both sides, beautifully cooked.
Once both the front and back had been cooked once, there was no need to pay it much attention anymore.
Flipping the savory pajeon cooking beside it from time to time, I soon finished the dish.
Jeon wasn’t something you fried all at once and brought out together.
First, you served the jeon that was already made.
Then you placed more batter on low heat, and ate the finished jeon while that cooked.
That way, you could always enjoy the jeon hot and crispy.
I came out carrying jeon in both hands.
***
Iseria, Seiran, and Veila were already sitting at the table, waiting for the food.
Maybe it was because it was almost time for them to leave.
Compared to when Kang Jinwoo had first seen them, Seiran and Veila no longer felt quite as unlikeable.
“Let’s eat.”
“Wow... It’s shining with a golden glow.”
“It smells amazing too! So nutty!”
When they gave such fun reactions at every meal, it made cooking feel worthwhile as a chef.
Of course, as far as Kang Jinwoo personally was concerned, staying indebted to them any longer was something he’d rather decline.
“Hm. This isn’t bad either. Is it a pancake? It’s rather unique.”
Seiran, as always, showed off her cool-dork routine.
Until now, Seiran had constantly used the Iseria shield, saying,
“I’m only eating because Iseria is eating.”
But a few days ago, Iseria, who had been rubbed the wrong way by that attitude until she finally snapped, had thrown a fit, saying she would tell her father.
From then on, Seiran stopped using the Iseria shield.
What she adopted instead was her current appearance: cool-dork mode.
A cold, cautious face, and chopsticks clumsily held in the shape of the letter X.
With great effort, Seiran tore apart the pajeon with her chopsticks.
Crunch—crunch!
Every time the chopsticks touched its surface, the pajeon boasted an extreme crispness.
At the overwhelming texture that could be guessed without even tasting it, the elves gulped down their saliva.
“It looks like a pancake, but... it’s incomparably crisp.”
Following Seiran, Veila and Iseria also served some pajeon onto their small plates.
Then they dipped the pajeon into the seasoned soy sauce Kang Jinwoo had brought out with it.
Kwaaaak—.
Crunch—! Crisp!
Golden pajeon entered all three mouths at once.
Like a ripe autumn wheat field, a tawny-brown Maillard flavor spread over their tongues.
The crisp-fried surface and thin thickness.
Since the pancake mix had been minimized, the texture and the original flavors of the ingredients could be felt in full.
“Huaaah, hot!”
“Huu, haa!”
“Mm... ahem!”
Veila, Iseria, and Seiran each let out their own exclamations as they chewed.
The thinness, the crispy exterior, and within it, the warmth of the ingredients condensed whole.
Iseria moved her jaw in a trance, then bit precisely into a properly cooked green onion.
Crunch—!
The green onion, neither too large nor too small, showed off a perfect degree of doneness.
Iseria’s tiny molars dug into the fibers of the green onion.
Far from being tough, the green onion chewed softly while maintaining a pleasant fibrous crunch.
From within it, the vegetable juices the green onion had held flowed out warmly, harmonizing with the batter portion of the jeon.
As an elf, it felt somewhat irreverent to think this, but this was a plant.
Just one of the plants that could easily be seen in the forest, the sort that got kicked underfoot.
And yet, a master chef with first-rate skill.
Once it passed through Kang Jinwoo’s hands, an elven delicacy the likes of which she had never experienced even once was completed.
Iseria was not the only one thinking this.
Seiran, who was moving her chopsticks frantically beside her,
and Veila, who found chopsticks difficult and was devouring the pajeon with a fork.
All of them were thinking the same thing.
Iseria brought her fork to the zucchini jeon placed beside the pajeon as well.
It did not have the same crispness as the pajeon, but when she pierced it, she felt its softness.
The nuttiness of the golden-cooked egg coating and the sweet aroma of the zucchini stimulated her sense of smell.
Without hesitation, Iseria immediately put the zucchini jeon into her mouth.
Slurp—!
And the moment she chewed heartily, she was struck by an intense illusion.
‘What I just ate... was zucchini, right?’
It was normally a vegetable eaten simply grilled, or roughly chopped and thrown into stew.
It had sweetness, but its slight grassy smell tended to get in the way.
But the zucchini she had just eaten was somehow different.
When she bit down once with her molars, vegetable juices flowed out as if they had been waiting.
If it had merely been sweet and warm, she might not have thought much of it.
But the vegetable juices bursting throughout Iseria’s mouth right now also contained savoriness and saltiness.
‘What is this? How can it taste like this?’
Iseria could not know, but before Kang Jinwoo had coated the zucchini in batter, there was something he had done.
He had sprinkled salt on both sides, and it had been for this.
By removing the surface moisture drawn out through osmosis, he removed the grassy smell along with it,
and by adding a small amount of salt, he drew out the zucchini’s inherent sweetness even further.
Care and detail, packed even into a single bite of food.
Iseria did not realize that process, but she knew that such a taste was rare.
And so, she also realized all over again, with painful clarity...
that she could not leave him behind, not even for a moment.
Before they knew it, the two plates were showing their bottoms.
As if regretful, Iseria lightly licked her fork and said,
“Jinwoo, is there any more of this... ‘jeon’?”
“There is. Wait a moment.”
Rattle—clack!
Delighted by Iseria’s words that she wanted more, Kang Jinwoo picked up the plates and headed to the kitchen.
And at that moment, the eyes of the three elves crossed.
Iseria, as well as Veila and Seiran.
It was not as if they had intended to do this from the beginning.
However, these past three days had been filled with three meals a day made by Kang Jinwoo.
The food they had eaten for only three days had been the finest among all the foods they had experienced in their lives.
And so they abandoned it.
Their morality, which said, “You must not do such a thing,” collapsed before the desire that had been sleeping deep in their hearts.
Even Iseria, who had been relatively accustomed to Kang Jinwoo’s cooking, was swayed by their opinion.
That was how much the food Kang Jinwoo had made for them these past few days was dopamine itself.
Starting with bibimbap, then all sorts of seasoned vegetable side dishes, doenjang jjigae, pan-fried tofu, and even green onion and zucchini jeon.
Ah, I can never go back now. To the days when I could eat Elskit and call it delicious.
To the days before Kang Jinwoo’s cooking—never.
Iseria had realized it.
Seiran took out an unidentified white powder from her pocket.
After receiving it, Iseria poured the white powder
into the cup of water Kang Jinwoo had been drinking from.
Srrrk—...
The white powder dissolved in an instant, and not even the slightest change occurred in the water’s color or scent.
“Here, I brought more.”
“Ah, uh! Thanks.”
With an innocent face, Kang Jinwoo set down the jeon and took his seat.
Gulp—gulp—.
Then, perhaps because he was thirsty, he drank down the water in long swallows.
***
‘They seem to be eating even better than usual today.’
At Iseria’s request for refills, I went to the kitchen.
Just in time, the jeon that had been gently cooking over low heat were showing off their golden-brown appearance.
‘Even I have to admit I made them look delicious.’
Something I’d been feeling lately was that my cooking skills seemed to have improved compared to when I was on Earth.
Experience counted for everything, after all.
Was life in the new environment of another world having a positive effect?
Or perhaps it was thanks to [Mana Market].
As a chef, always being able to handle the best ingredients was extremely valuable.
Ever since I gained this ability, I no longer had to care about what was in season or whatever else.
Hm... In any case, if diverse experiences helped improve my skills,
I did sometimes think I’d like to visit Nuardel someday.
As for the southern part of the empire, I could go there if I made up my mind, so it didn’t matter.
However, Nuardel, the land of the elves, was a different story.
Since it was such a closed-off country by nature, even finding the way there was difficult unless one went with an elf guide.
From what I’d heard, they twisted the path with magic unique to elves.
‘Well, I have no intention of going now.’
It was truly a matter for someday. Someday.
For now, I had to pay attention to Kallius’s trade route, and I had to manage the hardtack supplied to Duke Kailan too.
Besides, traveling through the imperial region came first.
Wouldn’t it be more comfortable to travel domestically first, rather than to a completely unfamiliar foreign country?
Thinking this and that, I returned to the dining table with the jeon.
“Here, I brought more.”
“Ah, uh! Thanks.”
Iseria looked slightly startled when I set the jeon down.
Did she not expect there to be this much jeon left?
Seiran and Veila also looked at me with subtle expressions.
“Is everyone full? Are you all okay?”
“Hm, hm! I can eat more.”
“Yes...! Thank you!”
What’s this? Their reactions are kind of vague.
Without paying it much mind, I drank the water that had been placed at my seat.
Before starting round two, I should wash everything down with water.
With an excited heart, I picked up my chopsticks and was about to cut the jeon into bite-sized pieces when—
Dizzy...
‘Huh? All of a sudden, I feel a little...’
Crash—!
“Uh... huh?”
Before I even recognized the fact that I was dizzy, I collapsed to the floor.
The lightheadedness you feel when you’ve been lying down for a long time and suddenly shoot upright.
A dizziness even worse than that struck me without the slightest warning.
“Iseria. Help me up...”
I reached out to Iseria, who had been sitting beside me.
However,
Tap.
Iseria lightly swatted my hand away.
Why? Why would she?
Just as the question rose to my throat and I was about to open my mouth,
Iseria, Seiran, and Veila stood from their seats and looked down at me, collapsed on the floor.
Then they said,
“You should’ve... made your cooking only moderately good.”
“What...? Iseria. What do you mean by—”
“Just sleep deeply for a little while. It won’t take long.”
Bidding me a good sleep, Iseria stroked my head.
At that touch, which felt far too warm and soft...
“Ugh-ack.”
I fell asleep just like that.