Chapter 1573 – [What Is the Best Dish]

In the history of cooking, the element of fire cannot be left out. Probably the oldest cooking method in existence is simply grilling something over a fire.

Well, some say that grilling meat over a fire denatures its proteins, making it easier to digest, but in the end, the history of cooking using fire is deep.

Unless you are cooking raw fish or raw food, you inevitably have to use fire, and anyone who is a chef must cook in front of a fire. Even sushi masters cannot separate themselves from fire because the rice they use to make sushi also has to be cooked with fire, so in reality, there are very few dishes that can be cooked without fire.

In any case, fire is an inseparable partner in cooking. And the theme of this competition was cooking using fire.

First, there was a top expert in the field next to me, so I asked him what he thought.

“What do you think?”

“I don’t know what you’re asking, but if you’re asking about the odds of winning, I think it would be difficult for Eden to win.”

“Just make a cool-headed decision.”

“You have to look at reality. To control fire, proficiency in sensory abilities is important, but Eden’s level is lower than mine.”

Eden is a Lord-level transcendental who has awakened two abilities, but it has only been a few years since he awakened his ‘sense’. Compared to that, she was so good that it seemed like she had at least almost mastered the level of sensory abilities that would have taken decades of training.

When it comes to cooking with fire, that delicacy will determine victory or defeat. That’s why Eden has a low chance of winning.

“Now that the hostages have been released, the judges for this match will be those who will evaluate them best.”

“Dad and uncle?”

“If a sensory expert judges the dish prepared by a sensory expert, then wouldn’t he be able to make the best decision?”

“What if two people take my side?”

“That would mean they have given up their pride as chefs.”

Look at that bastard’s tongue. But what makes me even more angry is that I can’t deny it even if I swear.

As long as no great harm is done to Eden, we will evaluate it fairly. Darkon also did not intentionally put threatening conditions or anything like that on Eden, but he knew that the opponent was absolute in the road, so he drew a line and controlled it well so as not to cross it.

In such a situation, we cannot be the first to cross that line, so the outcome of the battle will be determined as a single chef, not as Eden’s family.

Oh, of course, that’s the way it is in the current situation. If there was a problem, there was no need to fight in the first place, so I killed him physically. It would take less than 2 seconds to tear them all down without using powers.

Phantom accepted the judge position in a similar mood to when he was working as the Great Demon King. Oh, just because it was a great demon king atmosphere, it didn’t mean I was making fun of anyone, it just meant that I would look at it fairly, keeping personal feelings as much as possible. Because he also serves as the chairman among the Great Demon Lords.

“Okay, I will judge fairly. I promise.”

“Me too.”

As long as there is no harm done to Eden, I plan to remain neutral and evaluate this match as well. The hostages were released anyway, and even if they lose, what Eden avoids is something like the secret of Youngja’s cooking method, but if you look at it, you can roughly understand Eden’s intentions.

No, there’s no need for a smart kid to be burdened by something like that. You can see it when you bet on something that is important to the other party but not very important to you.

In the end, winning or losing in this match was irrelevant. So I have no choice but to judge fairly.

“Cooking time is 2 hours. Then let’s start now!!!!”

“It’s good, let’s go!!!!”

Soon, the two headed to their respective seats and started cooking. As it was the final battle, each person’s mindset was different.

I don’t know about the other side, but Eden decided to work hard with the intention of destroying all of her recovered will and mental strength and began to gather all of her materials. She wondered what kind of dish she would make, but seeing that there were so many ingredients, including meat and vegetables, she thought it would be something like stir-fry.

It’s not a bad choice. In stir-fry cooking, heat power is one of the most important factors.

There are many types of cooking using fire. To put it bluntly, simply boiling or boiling something uses fire in the end, but it’s hard to win with such cooking. That’s because it’s so common that it’s hard to win.

In order to win this competition, it is important to cook a dish that has a more fiery flavor. With that in mind, the stir-fried dish was a pretty good choice.

And Darkon’s dish to counter him…

“Grilled? Uh, wait…”

“I guess he wasn’t a pure human.”

Darkon looked like a human on the outside, but he was no ordinary human. Looking at the flames moving at his will, you could tell that he had put in a lot of effort and was not at the level of ordinary ability.

Of course, it is difficult to awaken his abilities unless he is human. Strangely enough, the reason there are so many human-born transcendents is that humans are the easiest to use will. However, that does not mean it is absolute, and there are mixed race people in the world, so the issue was meaningless.

Darkon is not an ordinary human, but appears to be a mixed race from another race. It’s also a race that knows how to handle fire… Looking at it, it looks similar to Yerosto, so it seems to be a mixed race of fire spirits. Thanks to this, his ability to control fire is excellent, and he also has sensory abilities, so it is easy for him to control it in detail.

Darkon brought something that resembled a fairly large piece of pork. It’s also a delicious piece of pork belly, and it’s prepared by applying seasoning mixed with various spices.

And he put the meat, seasoned appropriately, on the iron plate. If the goal is to grill it, you could put it on a frying pan, but instead, he puts it on an iron plate and starts grilling it.

It sizzles, oil flows out from the meat, and it begins to cook. However, as the meat was cooking, Darkon brought out something else.

“Spit?”

“What are you, an acupuncturist?”

“But I don’t think it’s the needle that is being used, ho… It looks like they’re trying to use it better.”

If the meat is large, it is inevitably difficult to cook it all the way through, but he seemed to use that method to cover up for that.

He heated the prepared needle. There are dozens of needles, and each one is heated to a different temperature. Immediately, insert the well-heated needle into the piece of meat.

Some are deep, some are a bit shallow. The piece of meat with the needle stuck in it was covered in needles, as if someone had received extensive treatment at an oriental medicine clinic. However, a needle made of a material that conducts temperature well will cook the meat perfectly even on the inside.

Of course, if you use an oven, it will cook better, but it won’t be the dish he was hoping for. Moreover, if you use an oven, the surface of the meat will be cooked, so once grilled meat is likely to be overcooked.

After a moment, he removed the needle and began to finish the meat. He used his own abilities to create a flame, compressed it, and began to cook the fat layer of the meat with the flame.,

I support you!!! Tadadak!!!

It smells like the fatty parts are cooking. And also the sound of meat skin being cooked.

The sound itself is very fascinating. Moreover, the color itself was the same; the lean meat part of the cooked meat was dark red and the fat layer covering it was golden and evenly cooked.

The perfect layer of fat without any imperfections is baked crispy as if it were fried, revealing a smooth surface. But since it’s not really fried, it won’t be too greasy.

“That sounds delicious.”

“It would be nice to just roast the skin, but it wouldn’t be fun to eat the flesh as well.”

I don’t plan on finishing the dish there either, but I’m planning on adding more, so how will Eden win?

Eden, who was confronting Darkon, was quickly preparing the ingredients. He was cutting various kinds of meat and vegetables and preparing other ingredients, and among them there was something like dried flowers.

“Are you sure you want to make XO sauce?”

“It might be true in the sense of umami, but there’s no way it wouldn’t taste good.”

“It’s natural that it’s a Chinese sauce for stir-fry dishes.”

In fact, it is unclear whether it should be classified as Chinese because it is a sauce from Hong Kong, but in any case, The origin of the name comes from the notation of brandy grade, so it is called XO sauce with English added.

It is expensive and tastes good as it contains expensive ingredients such as dried flowers. No, when seafood is dried, its savory flavor is concentrated, but if the sauce made using it is not tasty, wouldn’t that be a slap on the head of the chef?

Although Eden is not as good as XO sauce, he makes a delicious sauce on the spot. If you fry it with meat and vegetables, it will be a delicious dish on its own.

But that alone wouldn’t be enough… And when I was thinking that, Eden took out another weapon he had prepared.

The ingredient taken out was a large pink paprika-like vegetable about the size of an adult man’s head. The slightly round feel gave the impression that it was different from paprika, so Eden soon trimmed it slightly and burned it as is.

“Oh, you use that method.”

“It won’t be bad.”

Burning is not a good thing, but it is not necessarily a bad thing either. In any case, it doesn’t burn to the point where it turns into charcoal; it only burns the surface.

Eden roasted a large piece of paprika over an open flame and burned its surface. The outside of her was charred and looked inedible, but that’s only the outside of her. If you remove the burnt part of the outside, her inside becomes chewy and sweeter.

It may be different from paprika on Earth, but it seems to be a similar ingredient as it is cooked in the same way. And it also has a slightly sweet smell of vegetables.

Anyway, the stir-fried dish Eden was trying to make didn’t seem to be just a greasy dish. It is said that too much of anything is just as bad as not enough. It would be difficult for anyone to enjoy a delicious stir-fried dish with a lot of meat unless they have a stomach in its prime.

The food they both made seemed very delicious. Who will win… Hmm.

“Look at it objectively. Objectively.”

“I know.”

“Whatever decision you make, it will help Eden. So remain neutral.”

“This bastard is nagging so much. If anyone hears it, they will think Eden is your bastard daughter.”

Winning is good, but losing is also a good experience. Because I haven’t won every time in my life.

No, that doesn’t mean she just ignores Eden. It doesn’t matter what the outcome is because it will be a good experience.

Afterward, the two people’s cooking is finished. Before slicing the meat that had been rested, Darkon gently scraped the well-cooked skin with a blade, and it grumbled!!! There is a pleasant sound of scratching something hard.

This means that the shell is grilled so thoroughly that it has a crispy texture. It was a delicious sound, similar to the sound of frying in oil or boiling stew, so I automatically anticipated the crunchy texture in my head.

Besides the crispy skin, the meat goes in very smoothly with a knife. In fact, it is so soft that you can cut the meat with your hands rather than a knife.

Slice the meat into moderately large pieces so that it has a chewy texture, then add the sauce on top. Like green salsa, it is a thick sauce that appears to be made using green tomatoes. The light green sauce is placed on top of the meat with a red cross-section, and the contrast in color is appetizing.

“It looks like Eden is coming to an end soon.”

Eden threw in the prepared ingredients and quickly stir-fried them over high heat, shaking the wok. The savory sauce made from dried flowers, well absorbed by the fire flavor, and the sweet smell whet your appetite.

Soon, pour the completed stir-fry onto the boiled and fried egg noodles. It’s like a nurungji stew!!! It is released with a sound. The performance on this side appears to be just as good as that on the other side.

Of course, the important thing is the taste.

Since Darkon finished the cooking itself first, I decided to try his dish first. On the plate placed in front of us, a thick piece of pork belly-like meat is topped with a light green sauce and dripping with delicious gravy.

“Okay, let’s start judging now. First, Darkon’s cooking.”

“Let’s see… Oh.”

I gently poked at the shell with a fork. I stabbed it pretty hard, but even so the teeth didn’t go in. It is not hard, but has a crisp, pleasant feel.

Although it was sliced ​​appropriately, it was still a bit too big to fit in one bite, so I cut it in half with a knife because I wanted to try cutting it at least once. Place the blade of the knife on the shell and apply force as if sawing, and it clicks!!! I felt the sound and the touch.

This is a perfectly well-made dish. The cooking condition of the meat was flawless, so I was impressed.

The cross-section of the cut meat reveals the pink flesh, and droplets of juice leak out from between the grains of the meat. Even though the meat is well cooked, the juice is completely preserved.

Immediately apply the sauce to the cut meat and eat it. The first thing that touches the tongue is, of course, the shell. It was hard and rough, but when I chewed it, it had a cookie-like texture and sound.

Ododog!!!

“Ohh.”

“Hmm, that’s good.”

It’s grilled well, so it’s crispy and savory. The skin is like that, but the meat part disintegrates into pieces like a well-cooked pulled pork. To exaggerate a bit, the meat is so soft that you can eat it with just your tongue, without teeth.

And the sauce, a little acidity, and the spicy taste hidden in it actually highlight the taste of the meat even more. It’s like mixing cacao with sugar and the bitterness of the cacao makes the sweetness stand out.

“As expected from cooking using fire, the heat was controlled well. The outside was crispy without burning, and the inside was juicy and not undercooked.”

“The sauce is also good. Instead of making the sauce thicker to balance the meat, it rather weakened the flavor to make the meat stand out more. It’s excellent.”

Phantom and I shared our honest impressions. Even in the underworld of cooking, chefs with great skills and their dishes must be respected. This is natural since we are also chefs.

Anyway, it was a great dish. If you use those skills correctly, you could become a famous chef even in dimensional civilization…

“Next, we will judge Eden’s cooking.”

“Let’s see…”

Soon, Eden brought his own dish and placed it in front of us. The stir-fried dish, with its hot steam rising, looked like it would have a thick soup like yusanseul or palbochae, but surprisingly, there wasn’t much water. Maybe it’s because the fried raw noodles underneath absorb the soup?

When you stir the raw noodles underneath, they break apart like cookies. It may be hard when fried, but the parts that absorb the moisture from the stir-fried dish become mushy and fall into pieces and mix with the dish.

Since Eden’s dish was served on one large plate, we each took a portion on our own plates and started tasting.

“It’s well-stir-fried. The freshness of the ingredients remains.”

“I guess it means it was made with good fire control. Where…”

First, take a bite with the meat. It tastes sweet at first, like oyster sauce, but it has a spicy taste mixed in. Looking at it, it looks like they mixed in red pepper oil, referring more to the XO sauce.

However, it is not spicy at all, and it is mildly spicy after eating. And the taste whets the appetite even more.

The meat stir-fried in that sauce was chewy and soft without any feeling of being undercooked or overcooked. At the same time, the taste of the sauce was well absorbed, and the sweetness of the sauce and the juice that came out when chewing blended well.

Then vegetables. Vegetables that had been stir-fried just enough to simmer, such as bok choy and bamboo shoots, maintained a crunchy texture, but the texture of the giant paprika that I had roasted whole earlier had a nice texture. It’s chewy, has a slightly bitter taste, and the burning taste passes through your nose pleasantly.

Broken fried egg noodles also add a crunchy texture, so it’s good to eat them together, but it’s also fun to choose. The only dish is stir-fry, but it makes you wonder what to eat as if you were at a buffet.

“Good, you made the sauce well. I was worried that the taste would come out properly because things like dried flowers need time to soak…”

“Made in Heaven!!!!!”

“You don’t have to say that by accelerating time and shortening the time called.”

“The meat was cooked gently and well, and the vegetables were stir-fried well, leaving some texture. When it comes to stir-fry dishes, heat power and stir-frying time are important, but it was done well.”

Both are great dishes. But a winner emerged.

Phantom must have been thinking the same thing as me when I looked at him and nodded. Since the views were similar, the winner was determined relatively easily.

“Both of them had excellent dishes, but this dish was enough to determine the winner. So, I will announce it right away.”

“The level of cooking was similar. But since one side made a mistake, the winner was the loser.”

Soon, Phantom announced the winner.

“The winner of this competition is…”