Get the origins right. No, perhaps you had to say that he got the breeding method right. But it wasn’t that difficult of a thing to do. Because even if it wasn’t Jo Minjoon, there were still a lot of people that could differentiate Kobe and Matsusaka beef after eating it. And if they were people that were really knowledgeable about j.a.panese beef, they could even guess what breed it was with just looking at it.
However, even if it were them, would they be able to guess it right if it was inside of a dumpling? The flavor would overlap with the other ingredients and you wouldn’t even be able to differentiate if the moisture was from the fat of the beef or from the stock.
Samuel opened his mouth.
“That’s…….right. We recently changed the beef that goes in the dumplings to Matsuzaka’s. I still couldn’t fix the menu and was about to explain it to you…But you got that right. Even when inside of a dumpling. ……It seems like your fame wasn’t a lie.”
His voice was completely shaking. It wasn’t that he didn’t know about Jo Minjoon. If you knew how to speak english and entered the culinary world, it was difficult to not know about Jo Minjoon except if you were a retired elder.
However, looking him through a broadcast and actually seeing him with your eyes was a completely different feeling. And even more, if his absolute taste was demonstrated.
[Now, it isn’t even surprising.]
[Did he guess things right like this once or twice? He even got the part of bee fright that was inside of a tofu pocket, so how surprising can that be.]
[But isn’t Matsuzaka better than Kobe’s meat?]
[It is more expensive.]
As soon as Samuel finished consenting, the chat went up. Sera, that was looking at that, let out a sigh and shook her head.
“I can’t get accustomed to it however times I look at it. No, how can you differentiate the marbling of meat? And something that’s inside of a dumpling?”
“The thing is that I ate beef from many provinces yesterday.”
“……..Normally, you can’t differentiate that just with eating it once.”
At Jo Minjoon’s natural answer, Sera replied with a depressed voice. Jo Minjoon smiled brightly and looked at Samuel. It wasn’t that he spoke to boast about his absolute taste.
“Is there a reason you use Matsuzaka instead of Kobe beef?”
“It’s because of the difference in flavor you felt just now. How was the dumpling you just ate?”
“Moist……I just felt like drinking fresh soup with the shape of a dumpling. Ah, is that because of the oil that comes out from the fat?”
“That oil does indeed make it a bit smoother. However, the biggest reason isn’t that. It’s the texture of the meat.”
At Samuel’s words, Jo Minjoon silently ate one more dumpling. You would think what kind of texture would there be on diced meat, but he could feel that the meat was being ground and broken in between his teeth. Jo Minjoon got amazed and said.
“Now that I see…… It just feels like tofu made with beef.”
“That expression is funny. Tofu made with beef.”
While Samuel and Jo Minjoon were conversing, the servers approached them and placed something like sandwiches. It was the same size as what they just ate. Sera asked with a confused face.
“Did we order this? I think we didn’t.”
“It’s an offering we give because precious customers came. ……It doesn’t sound nice saying that it’s an offering. I will speak honestly. It’s out show off pretending to be an offering. It’s the best product from our store.”
“Earlier you said that they were all similar.”
“People originally change their words whenever they want.”
As he answered that bluntly, they didn’t even want to talk back. Looking that Sera was feigning a laugh, Samuel smiled confidently.
“Actually this product can’t be ordered without making a reservation, so I made a reservation with my name. So this is something that goes on me, Samuel King. It’s my dream to cut the urge to do some diet from the viewers and fill this world with obese people”
“……Can a perverted dream like that exist?”
[There were always guys with a loose screw on weird places.]
[They say that geniuses and r.e.t.a.r.ds are only a paper of distance apart.]
Jeremy didn’t bother on the chat nor the conversation. His attention was solely on the flour..
“Is this nan*? No. If it was, there was no way it would end up like this…”
“It is bun*. It’s not that different to dumpling wrappers.’
(TL: Don’t know what these are nor how to tl.)
Even if he said that it was bun, they only saw it as a piece of flour. Jo Minjoon slowly lifted that up. Samgyeopsal, the shape of thick columns, were placed from between the buns, and on top of that there was a red sauce covering the vegetables. Along the aroma of the vegetables, the aroma of the curry was ideal.
‘It’s j.a.panese curry. The score….9 points.’
He thought that the best selling dish was going to be 10 points, but it wasn’t. But he didn’t feel regret. Because there was no law that said that that a 9 points dish fell behind in flavor compared to a 10 points one. Jo Minjoon opened his mouth.
“How do we eat this?”
“Yes?”
“What’s the best method to eat this the most deliciously? All at once? Or by small bites?”
“It differs depending on preferences. If you want to eat and a.n.a.lyze it, it will be better to take bites. You will be able to eat it many times, but also you will be able to enjoy the faint differences the parts of samgyeopsal has. But if you just want to enjoy the overall flavor, eat it all at once.”
“…….It’s regrettable that there is only one.”
“Haha, that regret will potentiate the flavor. You already know that well. Above all that, i’m having some economical problems.”
“I will eat it well.”
At Samuel’s joke, Jo Minjoon smirked and ate the bun. It’s texture was peculiar. Was it because it wasn’t baked in the oven nor fried and it was steamed flour? The faint texture between bread and rice cake. It just seemed like they took off the rough parts of a pizza dough and only made it with the soft parts.
The first thing he felt was only the flavor of flour. He didn’t even feel the juices when he chewed the samgyeopsal. But at one point, the bun that got dyed by the saliva and the stock sticked to the samgyeopsal just like it’s skin, and among the texture that teared of the bun a peculiar and soft flavor of a long cooked samgyeopsal was felt.
“Mm…..”
Jo MInjoon closed his eyes and let out a nice moan. His satisfied smile pinched his cheeks. Would you feel like this when eating the most delicious sandwich in the world? The flavors of the grated vegetables that were inside the curry also spread in his mouth and the samgyeopsal itself felt lovely because it melted just like stock. Jo Minjoon glared at Samuel with resentful eyes.
“………To only have one bite of something this delicious. This is goodwill but at the same time not.”
“Huhu, I will take it as a compliment.”
“If you were a woman, Samuel, I would have already confessed to you.”
[He speaks of such things while having Kaya.]
[He was born with it. To throw that gaze to a man..]
[Perhaps, also to Anderson……..No. I thought that for nothing.]
“…….I will get an indigestion. Do it in moderation.”
Jo Minjoon, that was glancing at the chat, frowned and said. [I have already got more than 10 indigestions at your words] Looking at that, he couldn’t keep frowning. Honestly speaking, when he saw himself at times, there were words he said that were hard for even him to handle.
‘…..If it was Kaya, what would she have felt when she ate this?’
He got that sudden thought. No, you couldn’t say it was sudden. Kaya. Tasting level of 10. She wanted to know how her tongue felt things. He wanted to make those things his. If only he could do that…..
“Minjoon.”
“Uh. Huh?”
“What did you feel after eating this?”
At Anderson’s sudden question, Jo Minjoon looked at him with an absent minded expression. Anderson just touched his ears and continued saying.
“Well, I was just curious. As to how you approached food.”
At that moment, Jo Minjoon got that thought. Perhaps just like Jo Minjoon admired Kaya as a taster, Anderson would also be wanting that from him. Maybe it was an obvious thing. He was always next to him, so you would want to get some interest of the person you admired…..and even has the eyes of the entire world in him. Even if Jo Minjoon said it was Anderson, he thought that he would be aware and try to a.n.a.lyze him. The problem……
‘My tasting level is the same as yours.’
Maybe, as he became tasting level 8 later than Anderson, his actual level would be lower than Anderson’s. He didn’t want to evaluate it in a sloppy way and turn Anderson’s direction to a weird way. Although he couldn’t say it all, he did think of Anderson as a friend.
“I……Focused on the texture of the bun. Honestly speaking, steaming the samgyeopsal is no problem at all. The thing is that there would be an adequate reason for steaming the bun. At first I thought that it would be the flavor, but what I felt was that the texture was the most important. That moisture feeling, it sticks softly to the samgyeopsal, just like that coating of fat…..doesn’t’ it just seem like curry sauce hot dog?”
“Um, let’s say so for the texture. But what about the other parts?”
“…….I saw a vague path.”
“Path?”
Jo Minjoon’s eyes lost focus and dimmed. Although his eyes were lowering to Anderson’s chest, obviously there was no way that he was actually looking at it. His eyes were drawing something invisible.
“An encounter of countries, culture. An exchange. Think about it. How much would a culture be inserted in a food for it to be created. The products of the region, cooking method, and the historical situations, etc. It has it all. But then, that meets with things of other countries, mixes up…….”
Jo Minjoon’s cheeks turned red. His tongue came out for a moment, licked his lips and then hid again. And then, he continued speaking. A voice that was like a moan or like a groan came out.
“Isn’t this…..too romantic?”
Just with expressing his thoughts, he felt his chest beat. A new cooking style always made him fl.u.s.tered. It was similar to moving to a new house, to a bigger and prettier house. It was a feeling all chefs felt, but was it because the time he dreamt of that was too long….. This moment that could be trivial for others was too important and beautiful for Jo Minjoon.
But of course, the others wouldn’t know about his situation. At least, it was like that for the people watching the live broadcast.
[Are all geniuses like that? It seems like his head is too different to ours.]
[Isn’t it because he is a genius, or he is the strange one.]
[What is certain is……that it’s the first time I feel a man spewing nonsense while eating to be s.e.xy.]
Anderson just looked at Jo Minjoon. His emotions behind his trembling brows and lips were just too clear. It was a face that was savoring the emotions he got from this dish and showing it without decorating it.
He also understood the words said in the chat. He did feel that it was strange, but he wanted to follow that. Although he wouldn’t imitate Jo Minjoon making an accident, he hoped to be able to understand what kind of view he had. Anderson slowly opened his mouth.
“The first day I saw you, I didn’t know you were this special.”
“…….Am I?”
“If you don’t like the word special, shall I just say that you have some loose screws?”
Although he did saying as if he was joking, Anderson’s was looking at Jo Minjoon with pa.s.sionate eyes. What would have happened if he had said the same things. Would the audience have shown this reaction? Probably not. Of course, some may say that it was a characteristic of a peculiar chef, but most would take it as simple nonsense.
However it wasn’t like that for Jo Minjoon. Even if he said the same words, if it was said by Jo Minjoon they thought that it would have some meaning behind it. Even Anderson was thinking like that right now. Although he didn’t know some things, he was able to feel every vegetables that went in the curry. There would be no way something said by someone like that was going to be taken as nonsense. After a while, Emily opened her mouth.
“So what you said just now, putting it in simple words you are saying that there is some fun on the combination that occurs when local and global food are mixed, right?”
“Yes. I think that these combinations are really good. Perhaps, I may feel more affection towards it because this may become the path I will walk in the future. I think that rather than carving a deep well, combining several things together is more charming to be.”
Jo Minjoon said while smiling composedly. Recently, he felt that the path he had to walk was becoming clearer. What kind of dish did they have to make. What kind of paths there are in the world. Jo Minjoon clenched his fists under that determination. And Anderson was looking at that Jo Minjoon and his determination was also burning. Sera, that was looking at the two of them, whispered quietly at Jeremy’s ear.
“He didn’t only seduce Kaya but also Anderson just because he didn’t want only one well, right?”
< Global & Local (2) > End