Since the knights’ last team dinner of janchi-guksu, the restaurant had gained a regular customer, though not much time had passed.
“Has the lord arrived?”
“Good to see you. I’ll have the usual today as well.”
“Understood. And you, Sir Arthur?”
“I’ll...”
When Arthur did not immediately state his order, Kailan glanced at him sidelong.
“I’ll have the same as the family head, please...”
“Ah, yes...”
When your boss says everyone is getting jjajangmyeon, there are not many talented employees who would reply, “I’ll have ul-myeon.”
Needless to say, that was even more true in the Middle Ages, where the hierarchy was clear.
The identity of the cool-headed, silver-haired, handsome middle-aged gentleman who had wept while eating janchi-guksu was none other than Duke Kailan Silbaerin.
Unaware of that, I had ended up being somewhat rude to the lord of the territory.
So when I first learned the truth, I immediately slammed my head to the floor.
‘I’m sorry I failed to recognize you!!!’
‘Why are you doing that? Just act as you always have.’
‘Huh.’
However, our duke turned out to be quite different from my preconceived notions—a noble who was rather friendly to commoners, or in other words, not authoritative.
‘You came from the East, so you may not know the Empire’s etiquette. I don’t mind. And... even if your status is that of a commoner, nobles cannot treat a Master carelessly.’
‘Ah... thank you for your consideration, my lord.’
It was true that I had come from the East, but not the East of this world...
And while I was a Master, I was not the official kind of Master Duke Kailan was thinking of.
In conclusion, not a single one of Duke Kailan’s guesses was actually correct, but I did not bother correcting him.
Who knew if he might suddenly chop me down for something like contempt of nobility?
“Here is the janchi-guksu you ordered.”
“Thank you. No matter how often I eat it, I never tire of it.”
“Thank you...”
Duke Kailan’s top pick on the menu was janchi-guksu.
Since he had visited quite a few times, I had also served him the baeksuk and chicken gomtang Isilla had eaten, but in the end, after going around and around, he returned to the noodles.
Even in South Korea, noodles tended to be preferred more by the middle-aged and older than by young people, so it was quite fascinating.
In our country, because of the historical background, the elderly liked bunsik as food of nostalgia, but that probably was not the case here.
Still, judging by the way Duke Kailan prayed reverently every time he ate janchi-guksu and enjoyed it as though he had nothing left to envy in the world, it seemed he had some special reason of his own.
After all, Arthur, who was sitting beside him with a miserable expression, preferred chicken gomtang to janchi-guksu...
Even so, once he actually began eating, Arthur finished his meal with a happy expression too.
“Kraaah! That hit the spot!”
“Thank you for the meal, Jin.”
“Haha, thank you.”
Watching the two of them after they finished eating reminded me of Isilla, my very first customer.
Come to think of it, Isilla had silver hair and blue eyes, and the duke also had silver hair and blue eyes.
Their looks were also outstanding enough to turn ordinary humans into squid, so perhaps?
“Um... my lord?”
“Mm? What is it?”
“Do you have any children?”
“I have one daughter, so precious I’d put her in my eye and it wouldn’t hurt.”
“Is your daughter’s name perhaps Isilla?”
Perhaps they found it an unexpected question.
Both Lord Kailan and Arthur’s eyes showed a strange light.
Then, as though he had suddenly remembered, Lord Kailan said,
“Ah, did I not tell you? It was thanks to Isilla that I learned of your restaurant.”
“Is that so??”
Isilla had certainly said she would advertise for me when she left. Had that led to this?
“Hoho! Isilla praised your food highly, saying she was greatly shocked when she first ate it. She also asked me to advertise for you while she was at it.”
“Aha... The young lady did say she would promote my restaurant, but she meant you, my lord.”
“That’s right. I also introduced you to another noble.”
“Pardon? You mean me?”
At my question, Lord Kailan let out a faint chuckle.
No, don’t laugh—answer me, old man.
“They will probably visit before long. I praised you highly, so you must serve them well.”
“Oh my God...”
“Mm? What does that mean?”
“Ah... it is an expression meaning I am delighted to receive a guest.”
Somehow... I had a feeling that something troublesome was about to happen.
It was a problem to have no customers at all, but too many customers, or customers of too high a status, were uncomfortable.
The kind of restaurant I wanted was, above all else, a place where a small number of regulars gathered cozily and shared their daily lives.
I had not wanted to boast insane table turnover and take customers in by the truckload, nor did I want to serve omakase to noble lords.
But what could I do, when the lord had already introduced me?
All I could do was smile.
“Haha! I’m glad you’re pleased. I’ll come again.”
“Take care, Jin.”
“Thank you. Please get back safely.”
After dropping that bombshell, Duke Kailan and Arthur heartlessly left.
Once they were gone, the restaurant became quiet again.
There was no helping what had already happened, so I decided to focus on the present.
In any case, I would know right away if a customer came in.
I headed to the jangdokdae in the backyard, where the sauces were in the middle of fermenting.
Bzz, bzz—
Bzzzt!
The spirits were hard at work today as well.
Watching the tiny things move so briskly was rather cute.
I tasted each of the three sauces.
‘Mm... the doenjang is a little lacking, but the rest are fine, aren’t they?’
The doenjang’s flavor had not fully developed. But the soy sauce and gochujang had turned out quite flavorful.
At this level, I could make dishes that used sauces!
I had expected it to take another two to three weeks, but it seemed the spirits had been working like mad in two shifts.
=====
Name: Gang Jinu (35)
Race: Human
Traits: [A Cook’s Touch Lv.Max], [Cold Resistance Lv.3], [Flame Resistance Lv.7]
Skills: [Mana Market Lv.1], [Basic Spirit Arts Lv.2]
=====
Sure enough, when I opened my status window, the level of [Basic Spirit Arts] had gone up.
They worked this hard without even being paid; they were nothing short of blessings.
Bzzzz—!!
The spirits themselves got angry when I took the sauces they had made day and night, though...
‘Sorry. Can’t be helped.’
I had made it to use in the first place, so later I should toss them something to play with.
Now that I had soy sauce and gochujang, the range of dishes I could make had expanded tremendously.
It was not that I only knew how to cook Korean food, but in any case, I was Korean and had cooked in Korea, so I was most proficient at it.
The greatest characteristic of Korean food, no matter what anyone said, was fermentation.
Even if there were no curry refrigerators or sushi refrigerators, there were kimchi refrigerators, were there not?
That kimchi was also a fermented food, and the sauces I had just made were fermented foods as well.
A variety of dishes moving between spicy, sweet, and salty, based on seasonings with the deep, rich flavor unique to fermentation.
I believed that was the greatest charm of Korean food.
‘If you disagree, then you’re completely right.’
Let us respect people who think differently from me as well.
In any case, now that I had made sauces, there was something I had to do first.
That was...
‘Bibimbap!’
I had to make bibimbap and eat it.
It had been about three months since I was transported to this other world, and I had not had proper gochujang or namul.
This meant a drop in the Korean concentration in my blood, a dangerous phenomenon that could lead all the way to a rapid decline in immunity.
I immediately exchanged for carrots, zucchini squash, and spinach through the [Mana Market].
Since I could not obtain a wide variety of namul like in South Korea right away, I had to stir-fry other vegetables and put them in instead.
Fortunately, I had already made sesame oil and soybean sprouts in advance.
They were ingredients I had thought I would never be able to obtain, but I had gotten them more easily than expected.
‘Sesame seeds are imported from the desert region, and soybean sprouts are just sprouted soybeans.’
In fact, even in modern times, soybean sprouts were vegetables mainly consumed in Korea.
They existed in countries like Japan, China, the Philippines, and Vietnam as well, but most of those places preferred mung bean sprouts.
Looking at it like that, you might think it was because they were a rare plant, but that was not really the case.
If you sprouted mung beans, you got mung bean sprouts, and if you sprouted soybeans, you got soybean sprouts.
And since those beans could be dried and transported, they were easy to preserve even in a medieval fantasy world, so I could get them at the market.
After preparing all the ingredients, I first put on water to blanch the vegetables.
While the water came to a boil, I prepared the other namul.
‘Julienne the zucchini and carrots, then stir-fry them with a light seasoning of salt until they soften.’
The bibimbap recipe for the Korean Cuisine Craftsman test included a variety of namul such as bracken, seasoned raw radish, bellflower root, and mushrooms.
But not only did I not have the leisure to make it that way.
‘It’s not that tasty.’
In the end, bibimbap was best when made according to one’s own tastes.
They say no ingredient is at fault, but personally, I could not stand bellflower root or mushrooms.
After confirming that the water was bubbling away, I dipped the root ends of the spinach in first for fifteen seconds, then dropped the rest in.
The steam rising like an active volcano was extremely hot, but it was a necessary step to blanch the roots and leaves evenly.
There was no need to blanch it for long; after about thirty seconds to one minute, it could be taken out.
The spinach I had looked a bit tough, so I blanched it for a minute.
I lightly cooled the well-blanched spinach in cold water, then placed it in a colander to drain.
Then I put the soybean sprouts straight into the water I had blanched the spinach in and boiled them for four minutes.
If soybean sprouts were not cooked properly, they could smell fishy. So I left the lid open and boiled them in vigorously boiling water.
Once the properly boiled soybean sprouts had also been rinsed in cold water, it was time to season them.
The recipes for seasoned spinach and seasoned soybean sprouts were the same.
Minced garlic, sesame oil, sesame seeds, and a little salt.
Depending on the recipe, you could add soup soy sauce or fish sauce, but the basic seasonings were enough.
And so, all the colorful namul were completed.
I spread rice in a large bowl, then arranged the namul colorfully on top of it.
On top of that, if I added a sunny-side-up egg with a runny yolk, a spoonful of gochujang, and a light drizzle of sesame oil?
‘I can’t hold back, grrr!’
I stuck a spoon into the bibimbap, which contained Korean beauty, and began mixing it wildly.
The plump yolk burst and flowed out, and along with the bright red gochujang, it dyed the pure white rice a reddish hue.
I mixed it thoroughly with brisk motions until all the ingredients fused into one.
I immediately dribbled the spoon along the wall of the bowl and scooped up one heaping spoonful.
By nature, bibimbap was something you stuffed your mouth full of and chewed heartily.
“Haaap!”
I tilted the heaping spoon slightly so it would enter my mouth cleanly.
The bibimbap slipped perfectly into my mouth.
The moment I put it in, the harmony of the ingredients resounded.
The sweetness of the carrot, spinach, and squash.
The crunchy texture of the soybean sprouts.
The spicy gochujang filling in the light depth of the salt seasoning.
The fried egg, making up for the lack of protein and pressing the ingredients evenly together with the richness of its yolk.
And finally, the Korean food cheat key that tied all these ingredients together: nutty sesame oil.
‘This is seriously fucking delicious.’
Seriously fucking delicious.
There was nothing else to say besides that.
That was how irresistible the taste was to any Korean.
After I wolfed it down in a frenzy, the bowl was showing its bottom before I knew it.
When I gulped down a glass of cold water, I felt the traffic jam in my stomach, caused by eating too quickly, get washed away in one clean sweep.
“Kya.”
That was the taste.
After finishing my meal and cleaning up, quite a lot of namul was left over.
I put the namul into storage containers and placed them in the refrigerator.
How could there be a refrigerator in the Middle Ages, you ask?
‘How do you think?’
Medieval-style technologica.
A spirit of cold was dancing behind the refrigerator.
I was full, there were no customers, and it was late.
I ended today’s business and went upstairs to my room.
After taking a clean shower, I suddenly wondered if I had left the back door open.
‘Ah, right.’
Earlier, I had been so excited at the thought of eating bibimbap that I had not even locked up properly.
I felt my way down the dark stairs to the first floor.
But at that moment,
Creeeak—
A sound came from the direction of the restaurant kitchen—in other words, from the back door.
It was the sound of the hinges’ looseness, one I had grown sick of hearing from going in and out of the backyard every damn day.
That was definitely the sound of the back door opening.
‘A thief? No, someone came all the way into the middle of a forest to steal?’
What was there to steal from my place!
After the sound of the door opening, I did not hear the distinctive breathing of an animal or demonic beast, so there was a high probability it was a person.
I did have skills, but all of them were cooking-related, and in the first place, I was someone who had lived in South Korea, one of the top three countries in the world for public safety.
I had not trained any physical abilities for dealing with criminal situations.
Even so, it would be best to have something in my hands that could serve as a weapon.
I grabbed a broom that had been placed in the corner of the first floor and slowly walked toward the kitchen.
Holding my breath, creeping like a cat without making a sound, I approached the light switch...
“Stop! Stop! Stop! Hands up, you ill-mannered bastard!”
At the same time as I turned on the light, I charged into the kitchen and delivered the perfect sentry challenge line.
“Kyaaak!!”
Crash—!
Just as I raised the broom to head height, ready to bring it down at any moment,
The identity of the thief who had snuck into the restaurant came into view.
‘An elf?’
A blond-haired, green-eyed elf had fallen over and was looking up at me.
With the soybean sprouts and spinach I had made dumped all over her head.