Chapter 163: After Kimjang, Of Course… (2) Jinseo tore off an outer leaf from the napa cabbage in a plastic basin, put kimchi filling on top, and chewed.
This brings back memories.
When Jinseo was still young, whenever kimjang season came around, the neighborhood shopkeepers' ladies would take turns helping each other with kimjang.
If Jinseo asked whether there was anything he could do to help, the ladies would say he was such a good kid and, just like now, let him eat a napa cabbage outer leaf topped with kimchi filling.
Honestly, it was not a flavor his childhood palate liked much, but as time passed, it became a taste that suited him perfectly.
"Is it good even if you eat it like that?"
Fedora Artran stared in fascination at Jinseo eating kimchi filling on plain napa cabbage, and since she clearly looked like she wanted a bite too, Jinseo felt awkward.
"If you're not used to kimchi, it probably won't taste that good. Are you sure?"
"You never know."
"Alright. Here, ah—"
"Hm?"
"No, it's nothing. Please take it."
Jinseo was about to put the napa cabbage topped with kimchi filling straight into Fedora Artran's mouth, but belatedly aware of the eyes around them, he handed it to her instead.
"Hm…"
Fedora Artran chewed the cabbage in her mouth while looking upward, her expression complex and subtle.
"You're not used to it after all, right?"
"It's as you said, Sir Jinseo. I think the biggest issue is that I still can't really eat kimchi itself. Still, since we're making so many kinds of kimchi today, I'm hoping at least one of them will suit my taste."
"Even with kimchi, the flavor can change drastically depending on what region it's made in."
"Then what kimchi do you like the most, Sir Jinseo?"
"I like all kinds of kimchi without being picky, but if I had to choose… my mother's kimchi was the best. And the flavor of the kimchi I taught everyone is also what I learned from my mother."
Among his mother's kimchi, Jinseo liked best the deeply fermented kimchi that was just about to reach the point where it really should be used for kimchi jjigae or kimchi pancakes.
If you scooped up a spoonful of steaming white rice, put sliced grilled Spam on top, then laid a long strip of kimchi over it, you did not need any other side dishes.
A meal that came with his mother's kimchi—something he used to eat as a matter of course when he was young.
But now it was a table he could no longer taste, a table he could only remember with longing.
"It was really delicious."
With a faint smile, Jinseo stared toward the horizon.
"Um, that is…"
Fedora Artran shrank back as if she had done something wrong, unable to find words, and avoided his gaze.
"You don't have to watch my mood like that. It just reminded me of the past, that's all. Anyway…"
Jinseo took off his rubber gloves, then pulled out the smartphone he had kept in his pocket and checked the time.
"Oh, it's already almost 1 p.m."
The kimjang they had started after breakfast was nearly halfway done, and at this point everyone was thumping their lower backs and complaining of exhaustion, making it the perfect timing to rest while eating.
"Alright, alright—everyone's hungry, right?"
When Jinseo clapped his hands as he spoke, the people who had been working hard making kimchi all turned their eyes toward him at once.
"Today, I prepared a new menu item. Stop what you're doing and eat."
"I've been waiting for you to say that!"
Hayward quickly yanked off his rubber gloves and sat down at the counter seats faster than anyone.
Everyone had been hungry from making kimchi and watching for when they would finally be told to eat, so Jinseo's words felt more welcome than ever.
But what mattered even more was what exactly this "new menu item" was.
"I already got everything ready. Just wait a moment."
Jinseo opened a long metal pot, pulled out the meat that had been boiling inside, and began slicing it.
A dish that was simply boiled meat, yet depending on how much care you put into it, the finished result could vary wildly.
And above all, a dish that tasted especially good when eaten during kimjang.
"It's suyuk."
It was suyuk.
In truth, boiling meat and eating it was common whether in Korea or in the other world, so it was nothing special.
However, if you paid attention to removing the smell and making it tender enough to eat easily, you got the dish Koreans loved—suyuk.
"Jinseo, this is boiled meat, right? It's not specially seasoned or anything, right?"
"Yes."
"Then why is it so delicious? Seriously, it's strange."
Hayward, the first to taste the suyuk, kept tilting his head while continuing to eat with his chopsticks.
"It's so tender. Even people with bad teeth could eat it without strain. It's a shame it's not spicy, but that also makes it appealing, since more people can enjoy it broadly."
Fedora Artran lifted a bit of salted shrimp with her chopsticks, placed it on top of the suyuk, and put it into her mouth in one bite.
"Cardinal, isn't the salted shrimp too salty?"
"With the mild suyuk, it's just right. And if it feels salty…"
She scooped up a spoonful of white rice.
"You can eat it with this."
"Rice is good, but I feel like alcohol would go better. Jinseo, alcohol is… still not okay, right?"
Having spotted the potential of suyuk as drinking food, Hayward subtly asked for alcohol, but Jinseo shook his head.
"First, I'll give it to you after we finish kimjang."
"Guhh, it's hard to endure…"
"Instead, tonight I'll give you what you wanted so badly. You know—the thing that's perfect to eat at night."
"That thing? What do you mean, that thing… Don't tell me you mean that?"
"Yes. The thing you've never been able to eat here even once."
"Then I can endure it gladly! I'll be satisfied with suyuk for lunch!"
While exchanging talk only those who had been to Korea would understand, Jinseo started slicing more suyuk.
"Jinseo, one more plate, please."
Craid, who had devoured ten plates of suyuk in less than ten minutes, ordered more, just as expected of him.
"You must have been busy preparing for kimjang, yet you even had to boil this much meat, so you must have worked hard. But is there enough? It feels like I'm eating too much by myself."
"I made plenty separately for your share, Sir Craid, so you don't need to worry."
"It has been so long since I visited the food truck that I ended up eating a lot without realizing. I ask for your understanding."
Having returned to Falstead Castle the moment he finished inspecting the restaurants his father Greg ran, Craid ate the suyuk Jinseo served as if he were inhaling it.
Thanks to the branch, he could enjoy bunsik even in the Girvante Kingdom, but Craid could not shake the feeling that something was missing compared to what Jinseo—the original—made.
For him, the new menu item Jinseo served, suyuk, was an excellent dish that blew away his regret at not being able to stop by the food truck.
As expected, almost no one eats it with kimchi filling. It was good I served other things to dip it in.
Quite a few people dipped the suyuk in salted shrimp, but only a tiny handful ate suyuk together with kimchi filling.
Suyuk tasted best when dipped in salted shrimp that paired well with pork, or when eaten together with kimchi filling.
However, since many people here still could not eat kimchi itself, he served, in addition to those two, gochujang, chojang, and other sauces in small dishes.
But I didn't expect them to eat even these side dishes so well.
Slurp.
"Oh ho… it's savory. Nice."
Oswald Hamilton drank the broth of the baechu-sokdae-guk straight from the bowl and smiled happily.
"Jinseo, give me one more bowl."
"Me too! This is as good as the suyuk!"
"Sir Jinseo, I would like one more bowl as well."
Jinseo had not forgotten that when his mother did kimjang, she would cook baechu-sokdae-guk along with the suyuk, and he had prepared it together this time as well.
But unlike the suyuk, he had not been sure whether it would suit the tastes of the people of this other world.
Even though he had presented various bunsik and dishes in the other world, Jinseo had never served a dish where doenjang played a major role.
With kimchi alone already being divisive, doenjang would obviously be even more a matter of preference, so he had intentionally excluded it until now.
But once he actually cooked and served baechu-sokdae-guk with doenjang in it, the reaction was far better than he expected.
Is it because everyone's gotten used to Korean food? If I knew it would be like this, I should've served it earlier. They like sangchu-geotjeori quite a bit too.
For those who had worked hard doing kimjang, Jinseo did not serve only suyuk.
White rice, baechu-sokdae-guk, and sangchu-geotjeori.
With just those three, it was enough to enjoy the lunch's main dish—suyuk—even more deliciously.
"Nero, is it good?"
-meow.-
"Owl, is it good?"
Flap, flap.
The two creatures, tasting suyuk for the first time, each expressed that they wanted more with cries and wing flutters.
"By the way, Sir Jinseo. When can we eat the kimchi we made?"
"There is a way to enjoy it as geotjeori, but in general, it will need more time."
Kimchi was a side dish that had to go through fermentation.
So it was not feasible to eat it the moment it was made. He planned to store it in an appropriate place, then once it ripened properly, put it into Interspatial Storage for preservation.
"That's too bad. I wanted to taste it today…"
Fedora Artran, expecting that one of the new kimchi varieties she had never seen might suit her taste, looked regretful at Jinseo's answer.
"I prepared kimchi you can eat right away, since I thought you would. Kimchi that I bought in Korea or made ahead of time and let ferment properly. Would you like to try it?"
Jinseo began taking out other kimchi varieties one by one, excluding the napa cabbage kimchi and kkakdugi he had already introduced before, and placing them on the counter seats.
"This is green onion kimchi. And this is young radish kimchi—you can eat the radish greens attached to it too. And this is…"
As a large number of new kimchi appeared, the customers' attention shifted from suyuk to kimchi this time.
"There isn't much, so please understand that I'm only serving those in front right now."
Julien, who especially ate kimchi well; Craid, who ate almost anything in large amounts; Fedora Artran, who could eat spicy food better than anyone as long as it was spicy, yet still could not eat kimchi well;
And Oswald Hamilton, who loved ramen more than anyone, yet still could not eat kimchi well, ramen's best companion.
The "kimchi judging panel," made up of the food truck's long-time regulars, began eating the properly ripened kimchi that was easy to eat.
"Since you can eat the radish greens too, unlike kkakdugi, I'll give it 80 points."
"I heard kimchi tastes best eaten with ramen, yet I still cannot get used to it—my tongue is to blame. I am not qualified to score it with my tongue."
"It has an excellent chew compared to napa cabbage kimchi. I give it 90."
"Hey, Craid. Don't eat everything by yourself—leave some. So this is young radish kimchi, right? I'll give it 70."
"Mm… I'll give it 40."
They each stated scores according to their own tastes, and Owl filmed them eating kimchi and showed it on the large TV.
"100 points… 100 points out of 100! No, even more than that! This kimchi!"
Fedora Artran, who had never once given more than 50 points to any of the other kimchi she had tasted earlier, suddenly began praising the kimchi she had just eaten, clicking her tongue.
A kimchi where the spicy heat of red pepper powder combined with the sharp, nose-pricking heat of the mustard family.
The kimchi Jinseo had expected might suit her best, since she went crazy for spicy food.
It was gat kimchi.
"Just this one—what was it… right! In your words, Sir Jinseo, just this is enough to polish off a whole bowl of rice in one go!"
"Would you like me to serve you?"
Jinseo opened the electric rice cooker and scooped rice.
Then he added sangchu-geotjeori, baechu-sokdae-guk, and a fried egg, and served it all on a tray.
"Ah, ahh…"
Completely captivated by the appeal of gat kimchi enjoyed with white rice, only exclamations poured from her mouth.
"Oh, right—I forgot that! Please wait a moment!"
Even if rice and kimchi alone were enough to finish a bowl of rice, adding one more thing made an even more perfect meal.
That was grilled Spam.
Jinseo hurriedly opened the Spam, sliced it thinly, and began grilling it.
"Cardinal, try wrapping the Spam in gat kimchi."
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