Chapter 1644 – [(Relatively) Daily Life]

After I came out, our store slowed down for a while, but after that, reservations increased explosively. Unlike the fact that I am an evil emperor, it is rumored that I am a reincarnation and that I can eat dishes with hundreds or thousands of years of experience that ordinary humans cannot match.

Of course, it was even more so because they used unique ingredients such as ingredients from the Garden of Eden and English cuisine. Fortunately, food ingredients are supplied these days with the opening of Eden Mart, but there is no place that can receive supplies as regularly as our store.

Anyway, that’s why my store is always fully booked all month long. Of course, I left some space this month because of the vacation.

Oh, the reason it’s a month and not a few months is because we take reservations every month. Now, even if the menu doesn’t change every day, it changes every month, so there will be some menus that you don’t like or aren’t that interested in, so that’s what you get.

If we receive a reservation at once, there will be people who won’t be able to visit our store for several months just because it’s late. So, you should give it a chance every month.

A year passed, and as I entered our store, which was celebrating a new year, I said hello to Jihee, who was cleaning the store. I wonder if they start hiring employees early on, but that’s because I come in late to bring ingredients and things like that.

“Ah, uncle. Happy New Year.”

“Yes, Jihee, I wish you a Happy New Year too. Oh, should I bring you new baby money?”

“Hey, Lunar New Year is still a while away, so what?”

“You don’t say no to it.”

“New Year’s money is important.”

“Of course.”

In fact, in terms of age, Jihee is at an awkward age to receive New Year’s money. Mid 20s… No, I’m in my late 20s now? Moreover, since I have a job like ours and earn enough money to be envious of it, I am self-reliant, so I am at a bit of an age to receive it.

Still, I want to give it to you. If only Jihee and that child could get some compensation for the adolescence they were unable to enjoy.

“But is it okay that the main ingredient this month is pigeon?”

“It’s a passenger pigeon. It’s an extinct bird that originally lived in America, and its breast meat is delicious.”

“Extinction?”

“Keter restored it. Maybe it will be released soon.”

They have already multiplied to the point where they are numerous in the Garden of Eden. Even our chickens and cows, even if combined in number, are not enough to show business cards in front of traveling pigs.

Well, just like krill, they don’t have any other means of survival and just cover up their reproduction with a lot of things. So they caught more people than they could reproduce, so they became extinct.

I thought it might happen again when I was released, but Keter took care of that part. First, the breeding area was set wider.

You might think that releasing extinct organisms would cause problems in the ecosystem, but these are the ones that existed in the first place. Moreover, if done well, it will be even more helpful to the ecosystem like the krill shrimp mentioned earlier.

That’s because there are so much krill that they become good food for many fish, whales, etc. Moreover, since it is delicious for humans to eat, other top predators will also be able to eat it well.

“But I don’t know if it’s okay. When you think of pigeons, some people might think of city chickens… No, I guess there’s no point in worrying now.”

“Reservations are already full?”

“Then we have to satisfy them. Let’s start with preparing the ingredients.”

“This time, there will be a lot of people, so it will take a lot of work.”

“That can’t be helped.”

Unlike cows or chickens, pigeons are small. Even if you ate well and grew up in the Garden of Eden, it is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand.

So, if you go out for a course meal, no matter how many things you think about, each person needs to eat a few pieces to be full. If you are someone who eats a lot, there is nothing to look at.

It’s small, but it takes a lot of work… You’ll have to work hard to make it, but it’s okay because it’s worth making. If I have to, I can take care of it myself. I don’t do it because I like doing it with my hands. It’s easy to do with telekinesis.

“Would you like to sample it for a moment? You can’t cook without knowing the taste of the ingredients.”

“How delicious is this?”

“Breast. Would you be surprised if I thought of something like chicken breast?”

I took the breast part from the cleaned passenger pigeon, put some oil on a pan, and lightly grilled it. I seasoned it lightly with salt and pepper, but it’s just for taste, so that’s enough.

Once the meat is cooked to some extent, transfer it to a bowl. And then tasting it. It’s difficult to put in one bite, so I cut it into small pieces and taste a bit.

When you think of breast meat, you might think of it being dry and tasteless because of the chicken, but this was not the case. It has a more oily and savory flavor.

What should I say… If you’re talking about chicken, would you say it mixes the texture of breast meat with the flavor of leg meat? Thanks to this, even though I didn’t use a lot of oil when baking, it didn’t get dry, and I ate it without getting stuffy.

Moreover, it smells faintly like fruit or nuts. I guess I ate it deliciously while growing up in the Garden of Eden, and its scent was absorbed into my flesh. So, although it had some similarities with chicken, it had a completely different flavor.

It’s delicious enough as is. It was like this even without any special cooking, so it was clear that it would taste even better if I used various recipes.

“Hmm, it’s delicious. It tastes a bit like chicken, but it still feels distinctly different. I like it because it has its own unique flavor.”

“Originally, pigeon tastes similar to chicken. I thought it would be a bit unpleasant if it was too similar to chicken, but since it is different, it is worth serving.”

Prepare the ingredients, and since you’re not only serving meat, prepare other ingredients as well. It took some time to complete everything because I had a lot of things in mind, but I was still fully prepared to welcome guests.

It’s a new year, but business begins as usual. And when the reserved time came, customers started coming.

“Ah, boss… Hello, how are you?”

“Welcome. What name did you make the reservation under?”

“I made a reservation with Jaejun Yoo.”

“You made a reservation for a total of 3 people, right? I’ll show you where to sit.”

At the store, I am just the owner and chef. It doesn’t matter if it’s an evil deity.

People who come to our store for the first time are a bit nervous and scared because of that, but people who have been here a few times or former regulars feel relatively comfortable. But looking at that reaction, it seems like this is a first-time customer.

It’s not really a strange thing. Because there is a first time for everything. So what you need to do as a store owner is not to treat such customers differently just because it is their first time.

The service is good for regular customers, but if it’s your first time, and they take it lightly, you won’t be able to use it. Then you have to hit the store.

“First of all, the basic hostess dish is fried traveling pigeon dolbone.”

“Oh, this one?”

Passenger pigeons are an animal that no one has ever eaten in modern society. It went extinct around the early 20th century, so even if there were people who ate it, it would still be worthy of being listed in the Guinness Book of World Records to be alive by now.

No matter what dish is served, it will be a delicacy that you will taste for the first time. Anyway, I simply put the fried odolbone on a plate and served it.

Originally, birds’ bones break into sharp pieces even when cooked, making them difficult to eat, but the coccyx bone part is edible. Rather, it has a good chewy texture, and the passenger pigeon’s conch bones are small, so it feels like eating a small snack.

It’s seasoned with a bit of salt, so it’s a great side dish to go with beer. Soon, they order beer first and start drinking and cooking lightly.

“It’s crunchy and good. It has the texture of a bone, but it’s a little hard, so the texture is good.”

“I haven’t cleaned a pigeon yet, so I’m not sure…”

“The salt seasoning was exquisite, and it was fried well. Although it was a bit greasy, it actually made the beer taste better, which was good.”

Listening to the three of them talking, it wasn’t just criticism. I wonder if it’s someone from Michelin, but they don’t reveal themselves like that.

And when I looked at my hands, I saw calluses. It was a callus formed from holding a cooking utensil, and looking at it, it seemed like he was probably working in the same industry as me.

Hey, I see the juniors here. Well, I don’t have much external experience working here, but whatever.

Slowly, other customers arrive, and I prepare different menus while calculating the cooking time. Aside from the basic snacks, the next dish was a soup made with broth from the bones of passenger pigeons.

At most, it was an amount that could be easily eaten by slurping it down, but since it was an appetizer, the amount was not that large. Even though there is no main dish served, no one fills their stomach with pre-meal bread even if they eat lightly, right? Oh, if you have it, I’ll respect it because it’s my preference.

Anyway, the soup made from the cleaned passenger pigeon bones was as thick as chicken broth. Moreover, the umami and flavor are so great that the smell alone stimulates the appetite, making it a great appetizer.

“Uhm…!!!”

“Is it made to taste like chicken soup? The ingredients are…”

“It’s not an incredibly unique and fancy dish, but it’s perfect without a single piece of vegetable being overcooked. How on earth can I make it like this?”

My cooking may seem sketchy, but I cook the ingredients in the optimal condition to bring out the best taste. Of course, if the cooking timing is different, you will have to adjust it a bit, but each ingredient in one dish boasts excellent taste, and when combined, it creates the best taste.

Well, I did get help from my sensory abilities, but in the end, it was my skill because it was also influenced by my cooking experience.

So it’s delicious even if people you don’t know eat it. But those who know can see its depth.

It doesn’t seem like it’s been a few years since I started becoming a chef, but I think I know something because I’ve seen and eaten it. Still, when I see that you are noticing it, it makes me happy because it seems like you have some experience.

Next, the next dish, which can be considered the main dish, is served. The dish to be served this time is charcoal-grilled whole passenger pigeon.

“The travel pigeon is grilled whole over charcoal. Serve with apple sauce or peanut salt on the side depending on your preference.”

“Peanut salt? Not peanut sauce?”

“It’s made by crushing roasted peanuts and mixing them with salt. It goes better than you might think, so give it a try.”

Perhaps because the passenger pigeons ate well and grew up well in the Garden of Eden, the flavor of fruit or nuts could be felt in the meat itself. So the side dishes are apple sauce for fruit and peanut salt for nuts. I thought about using other nuts, such as walnuts, but peanuts go well with charcoal grilling, so I decided to use peanuts.

The dish served was roasted pigeon. However, because it is grilled over charcoal, the skin is well-cooked and has a delicious smell. If you eat it with apple sauce, it is sweet and neutralizes the oily taste, and if you eat it with peanut salt, it is salty and the peanut grains are chewy, making it very delicious.

“The grilling is also perfect. It would be difficult to control the fire with charcoal, but there is no place that is undercooked or overcooked.”

“The sauce is good too. It goes well with the flavor of the meat.”

“The apple sauce is sweet, and the peanut salt is salty. It’s a simple combination of sweet and salty, but I think it will work well. Oh, hey. Could you please add another beer?”

“Yes, I’ll give it to you!!!”

The other side is still in the throes of analysis. Cooking skills are good for a chef, but eating delicious food is just as important as gourmet experience. In short, would you say it is similar to learning the swordsmanship of a martial arts master?

I have no intention of hiding my cooking skills. It’s good for more people to learn and use the skills to make delicious dishes.

Although I have no intention of teaching you, I do intend to teach you if you ask me to. However, I don’t know what it will be like now that I’ve come out.

Anyway, next comes the cooking. I’m thinking of making and serving the main dish soon… So, an English dish.

Just as you get tired of eating delicious food every day, the same goes for English cuisine. So, when serving a course meal, I decided to only make the most anticipated and delicious main dish an English dish. However, there are two main dishes to choose from today.

“What would you like for the main dish? I have sous vide steak with traveling pigeon breast and vegetable ortolan.”

“I understand the steak, but vegetable ortollan? Are you talking about that ortollan?”

“It’s just an imitation. However, this one is best eaten in one bite.”

The reason I say that is because some female guests do not want to be seen that way. Sometimes she comes with her boyfriend, and wouldn’t she be a bit reluctant to be seen chomping down on her food?

However, it didn’t matter because all the people here were men. I’m actually saying this as a courtesy.

“First, should we order two vegetable ortollans and a steak to share? It would be a waste to eat just one.”

“That would be nice.”

“Then I’m heading towards Haute Tollant.”

Once the order is placed, cooking begins immediately. As it is the main dish of the day, I put some effort into this too.

First, sous vide steak. In this case, carefully selected breast meat was cooked sous vide. As it is the most delicious part of the passenger pigeon, it is the best part to cook a steak with. Of course, it’s small, so I’ll just collect a couple of pieces and use it, but that doesn’t matter.

Baking itself is not a big deal. Well, other people would have a hard time controlling the heat, but for me, it was easy. And since we can’t just serve the steak, we prepare sauce to put on it.

A grape-based sauce… But it is red rather than the usual purple color of grapes. The color was created this way by deliberately using grapes of that type.

The sauce, made by boiling salt, pepper, butter and cornmeal, and making it sticky, had a very pretty red color. In fact, the reason I made the sauce using red grapes on purpose is because not only does it have color, but the high quality rubies are also called guhyeolsaek (鳩血色). In short, it feels like blood.

Anyway, put the sauce on the prepared steak and add garnishes such as asparagus. The Yamae Ortolan side takes time, so we take it out first.

“I’ll give you the steak first. Enjoy it.”

“Oh…”

The sweet yet sour taste of steak and grape sauce irritates the nose. And the unique scent that stimulates you by making it with English cuisine…

For your information, this English dish is based on the view of the United States from a bird’s eye view. A vast corn field that seems endless even as you fly through the sky. You won’t know the feeling of watching it spread out in the distance from the sky unless you see it in person.

“Hey, hey, give it to me. Give me just one!!!”

“I have to give it to you later when you come out, okay?”

“I’m the one paying today in the first place.”

“Sweet, I have nothing to say.”

After tasting it, they soon fall in love with it. The taste of one of the main dishes of the day and the added taste of an English dish combine to create a taste that you won’t know unless you try it.

In the meantime, I prepared the vegetable ortollan side. In fact, when it comes to Ortolan, you have to go through cruel methods such as plucking out the bird’s eyes and killing it by drowning it in alcohol. However, it is not called a wild bird for no reason, and I have no intention of making it like that.

If I were to ask something similar, it would be dumplings. Is there anything like cinnamon dumplings, that is, chicken skin dumplings other than cinnamon? That’s the feeling.

First, peel off the skin of one pigeon and add the cooked breast meat and the intestines of a passenger pigeon marinated in wine. Then top it with half a walnut that has been boiled to remove the bitterness, cover with the shell, and wrap it to finish.

Then put it in the oven and cook it.

The fat from the skin and breast of the passenger pigeon, and the nutty flavor from the walnuts mix together. Likewise, the scent of wine exuding from intestines marinated in wine harmonizes with each other.

Actually, if you really want to use it, you have to use brandy, but the unit price is… Honestly, even if you don’t care about the store’s profits, you shouldn’t run a deficit.

Anyway, as time passed, I put the finished vegetable ortelang on a plate and decorated it. The passenger pigeon is large enough to be difficult to eat in one bite, but the bones are removed, and the shell is used as dumpling skin. As it is cooked, it shrinks and becomes large enough to fit in a single bite.

Two of them are placed on a plate per person and served. You don’t need any special sauce, just add some garnish.

“You said vegetable ortelang, but it’s like chicken skin dumplings?”

“Once you try it, you’ll know why it’s called Yamae Ortelan. As I said before, it’s best eaten in one bite, so I recommend eating it that way.”

“Then… Oh!!!!!”

As an English dish, it’s the same as the sous vide steak from before, but the taste is completely different.

When you first put it in your mouth, the oily shell part touches your mouth, and when you chew it, you can feel the crunchy walnut. Sometimes I chew the internal organs and pop them out!!! And the sweet and fragrant wine bursts out, filling your mouth with the scent of wine.

If you keep chewing, all the flavors blend together. It’s harmonious, with nothing out of place… It’ll be like eating a whole bird.

So it’s a vegetable ortolan. Apart from the shell and breast meat, the walnuts have a crunchy texture and represent bones, and the organs marinated in wine literally refer to the internal organs. The mechanism itself was similar to that of Ortelant that makes it taste good.

“Wow… There are so many complex flavors in one bite, but they all come together in harmony? How does this happen?”

“First of all, with the walnuts and breast meat inside, are these internal organs?”

“It’s like eating Sorongpo. But what kind of wine is it pickled in?”

I am very proud of your willingness to explore. In some ways, it may seem like you’re trying to steal someone else’s store recipe, but when a chef eats something delicious, it’s natural to want to analyze it.

Being a chef may be difficult and arduous, but… I hope you don’t give up on that path.