Chapter 317: Dangerous Cohabitation (5)
“Anyway, what do you want me to do? I think you want to speak out to me because you have been critical of me like this. Tell me, Antonio.”
“No, nothing.”
At that moment, Anderson’s face stiffened in an instant. As if he got nervous at Anderson’s stiff expression, Antonio hurriedly made excuses, shaking his hand, “Oh, I wasn’t trying to tell you about my recipe idea. I just wanted to point out the problem. As you know, we have to figure out the problem first to fix it, right?”
“Okay. It seems like you’re trying to gloss over it, but I give it a pa.s.s this time. Maya, do you have any recipe ideas?”
“I think we had better not cook steak.”
“Why?”
“Well, it’s too hot inside the truck if you grill steak here. Let’s make something we don’t have to roast or grill.”
“Min-joon, it looks like your cook has been remarkably slack these days.”
While Anderson was casting a pathetic glance at Min-joon, Min-joon stared at Maya with a stern expression.
Maya smiled awkwardly and paraphrased, “I was kidding. But, as you’ve seen it this time, grilling a steak takes too much time, even if we grill it medium-rare. Even if the iron plate is wide, we still can’t grill the steak quickly. I don’t think it’s best for a food truck menu because we have so many customers. How about cooking something else?”
“So, what kind of dish do you want?”
“Hmm… How about fried dishes?”
When she said that, Min-joon put his hand on his chin. It wasn’t a bad suggestion. Fried food was also a dish that took some time to cook. Given the time that would take to fry food to the core, fried dishes could take longer than grilled steak.
Besides, it wasn’t possible to just fry any food in the oil at random because every time a new ingredient was added, the temperature of the oil should go down. Of course, the temperature would go up again over time, but it would negatively affect the ingredients that were being fried at the moment.
‘But what if I adopt a recipe that only needs to make batter?’ Min-joon thought at the moment.
He thought of some ways on that. He could choose ingredients that didn’t have to be completely cooked to the core, or, as Rachel did in the past when she grilled back ribs, he could properly drain the pre-cooked ingredients before making fresh dough and frying it.
“How about Gyukatsu or deep-fried Wagyu beef cutlets?”
It was Anderson who said that. Min-joon bit his lower lip, lost in thought about it.
Gyukatsu, as the name suggested, it was a j.a.panese-style fried dish. It was a dish that used beef instead of pork in tonkatsu. Another feature of Gyukatsu was that beef was served almost like raw meat.
Min-joon said, “You know what? You can enjoy Gyukatsu properly on a brazier. Comparing the taste of the unfried wagyu beef with the fried one seasoned and coated in breadcrumbs is one of the fun things about Gyukatsu. So, if you want to serve Gyukatsu without using a brazier…”
“Yeah, I think we have to add more flavor to Gyukatsu, so the customers can enjoy it without being sick of the uncooked beef.”
“Flavor…”
For a moment, there was a silence among them. It wasn’t because they had nothing to say, but because each of them was busy trying to come up with a good recipe idea.
At that moment, Maya opened her mouth first.
“How about using the recipe of Cho Reggiano?”
“Cho Reggiano?”
“That’s your specialty, Chef Min-joon. By cooking one ingredient with different cooking methods, you brought out its different textures and flavors.”
“Explain to me in detail. What do you want to do?”
“Actually, the reason they bring out the brazier at the Gyukatsu is because they want to add flavor to the dish but at the same time give the customers some fun while cooking it on the brazier. So, when you are making Gyukatsu on our food truck, you serve half of it as raw beef, and the other half lightly roasted.”
Min-joon pondered over Maya’s suggestion for a moment. The example itself she just presented wasn’t that great, but the approach itself felt pretty good. And even though Min-joon Cho didn’t think it was that impressive, the way she approached the problem was good enough.
Anderson first opened his mouth.
“I don’t think it is a bad idea to use the Sous vide machine.”
“Are you saying that we are now going to serve the food cooked with Sous vide? Or do you want to fry it again before serving it?”
“I don’t think it’s bad to fry it after it’s cooked with sous vide. The strong point of the sous vide method is that it doesn’t destroy the beef’s texture. So, if you put the beef in the dough and fry it, you can save the taste of frying without losing the texture of the beef cooked with sous vide.”
Anderson turned up the corner of his mouth pleasantly while he was explaining to Min-joon.
Min-joon understood his feelings because he was in the same mood now.
A real chef would be thrilled to see delicious and fun dishes in front of him. When he made the dish, tasted it, and served the customers for the first time, no other pleasure in this could replace his happiness now.
“Let’s get down to it now. We had better prepare Sous vide in advance,” said Min-joon.
“Hey, wait a minute!”
Anderson grabbed Min-joon’s shoulder when he stood up abruptly.
Watching him looking back, Anderson shook his head as if he couldn’t help it.
“We haven’t even bought meat yet.”
“Oh, you’re right….”
***
“Well, I really don’t eat food truck dishes unless they are really good. They really don’t taste good. Besides, it’s expensive.”
“But this place is different. They are affiliated with Rose Island.”
“I don’t know what Rose Island is. What is it? Is it famous?”
“Look at the people waiting in lines now. As you see, so many people are waiting in lines to enjoy the food. You don’t have to hear me explaining why the food tastes so good out there, right?”
When the white guy said that, his Asian friend opened his eyes wide and looked at the people waiting in lines before the food truck.
Then the Asian guy whispered in a low voice, “How do I believe what you American guys are talking about?”
“Then just trust me. Have you ever been disappointed when I took you to restaurants?”
“Nope. Okay, let me trust you this time.”
The Asian guy nodded as if he admitted what his American friend said.
A little later, the door of the food truck was opened. As soon as they saw the chefs in the truck, the people waiting in lines cheered and clapped their hands.
When they suddenly cheered loudly, the Asian man shrugged, startled.
He said, “What the heck? Why are these people cheering and clapping like that?”
“You know the two chefs inside the truck are famous, Anderson and Min-joon. Don’t you know them?”
“Are they that famous?”
“Are you serious? You haven’t heard about them before? Min-joon is from your country, South Korea.”
“I don’t know him. I don’t watch TV.”
“After you enjoy his food today, I’m sure you will be looking for all the videos related to him.”
The Asian man snorted at his white friend. It wasn’t that difficult for him to see the menu board on the body of the truck as he and his American friend waited in lines quite early. There was nothing like the typical menu because there was only one choice.
“Five beef brothers? What the heck is this?”
“I don’t know. Don’t ask me. Just try it. You’ll find out. Well, this is my first time trying their food.”
It didn’t take long for them to place an order. When they thought the young white woman at the cas.h.i.+er’s table was so pretty as to turn them on, their order number was called. A white man came with his five beef brothers in a paper bowl and smiled.
“Let’s try it.”
Five pieces of beef were placed on the bowl. Gyukatsu cooked rare, and Gyukatsu cooked only on the outside of the flesh. Gyukatsu cooked with sous vide inside, and Gyukatsu made with the fried beef cut in half and jellies thinly sliced like cheese inside it. There was even beef served as raw meat like sas.h.i.+mi.
All of them were served with a salad with lime dressing, soy sauce, wasabi, and an unknown cream sauce.
“I like this simplicity in this food.”
The Asian man spoke with a sullen voice. He then put wasabi on the beef cutlet made with sous vide and dipped it in soy sauce. At that moment, he made an awkward smile, with the corner of his mouth trembling a bit, which was drooping as if he was tired.
Looking at his white friend’s thrilled expression, the Asian man opened his mouth with a trembling voice.
“Man, so delicious! What kind of dish is this?!”