Chapter 1880 – [Visitors From Another Dimension]

First, I divided the spices that needed to be stir-fried and the spices that would just be used. There are spices that require just roasting to bring out their aroma and taste, and there are spices that do not, so it is natural that they must be cooked separately.

Stir-fry the spices that need to be roasted little by little separately. Since the frying time is different for each, stir-fry to the optimum level and then make the curry roux.

It’s like a typical curry roux, but slightly different. It is a curry made with butter, whipped cream, and a little bit of yogurt. To be precise, it is leadern curry, and the name is…

“Korma.”

“Oh.”

“No, this is a soft curry, and they call it korma.”

Masala has a spicy and savory taste. If you make it spicy, it is called vindaloo. If you add butter, cream, yogurt, etc. To the masala and make it soft, it is called korma.

There are many types of curries in leader. It can be divided into large categories, but if you go into detailed categories, there is only one curry in each house… Anyway.

“I will work harder today, Your Highness!!!!!”

“I don’t know what you’re working hard for?!?!?”

Ah… I suddenly feel weak!!!!! Whether I win or lose, I feel like I’m going to suck this evening…

In this case, if you win, you celebrate, and if you lose, you console yourself. In fact, the outcome does not change no matter which side you choose, so motivation is low.

First, you still have to work hard. Then I came to my senses again and started cooking quickly.

Then I looked towards the phantom. Since a lot of ingredients are used, I was curious about how they would be cooked and served. It may seem like cheating, but the phantom is probably paying attention to me in the same way, even if he doesn’t mean it, so it’s okay because he’s a fan of it.

Anyway, Phantom began to trim the flower buds that looked like giant artichokes. First, cut off the thick stem at the bottom and remove the small leaves on the outside. Afterward, I took out another broth, perhaps prepared separately, and poured it into a pot and boiled it.

“… What did you prepare for this bastard’s broth?”

“Vegetables and herbs and this and that.”

“Tsk.”

Ingredients with a strong presence may be delicious on their own, but you cannot win this competition with the taste of the ingredients alone. Only by cooking by supporting and enhancing the taste of such ingredients can you finally win this competition.

So, shouldn’t I bring all kinds of spices and combine them to make curry? Phantom also prepared quite a bit, as if he had no intention of receiving just the materials.

Anyway, I made curry roux and prepared to make curry in earnest. The meat added to the various vegetables is chicken. Pork and the like are good, but since it is a contest that focuses on the sense of smell, meat is not the main focus, so I chose chicken, which has a relatively weak taste.

No, if I wanted to eat it at home, I would put in a few pounds of meat and make half the curry with half the meat in a large pot. Still, I think Eden and Lulu will eat it all in one meal.

Rice and naan were prepared as side dishes. They both go well together, so it doesn’t matter which one you eat with.

“Kaaaaah!!! I can’t stand the smell of curry!!!!!! Bring me rice!!!!!!”

“I have both rice and naan, so let me know if you need anything.”

“Wow!!!!!”

The curry had a slightly spicy taste with my special blend of spices, but the flavor was further enhanced by adding butter, cream, and yogurt to add richness and softness. Just the smell of the curry was enough to make my appetite explode. You don’t need anything else, just look at Eden’s reaction.

I add a little cheat to it.

Wooooow!!!!

“Hey, what kind of time acceleration… Isn’t that something you major in?”

“It’s just a matter of turning back time for a day. It’s not very efficient, but it’s not impossible.”

“Day-old curry?! This guy is using a cheat key.”

Freshly made curry and day-old curry are different. To speak scientifically, the flavor of the curry is more absorbed into the vegetables and other ingredients in the curry, making it taste more delicious. However, no one denies that day-old curry is delicious.

Sometimes stew or something tastes better when you eat it the next day instead of just making it, right? That’s roughly it.

I don’t know spatial systems, but time systems aren’t my major, but that doesn’t mean I can’t use them. However, the efficiency is so bad that the will required to accelerate it for just one day is roughly equivalent to 100 rounds of Hungje Bungkwon.

If a transcendent person sees it, they will say what a waste of money. You can blow up a continent with just a handful of willpower, but you put tens or hundreds of times more willpower into something that isn’t your specialty and isn’t very efficient. But there are things in this world that are more important than efficiency. Like right now.

As I slowly finished making everything, it seemed like the Phantom was also finished. After boiling it in the broth to infuse its flavor and aroma, the buds that looked like giant artichokes were slightly bloomed and wide open. Phantom began to remove the petals one by one and then separate the shells.

Afterward, I cut it as if I was peeling off the skin of an aloe to separate only the contents of the leaf. The inside of the leaf is a pretty, light purple color and looks soft, making me curious about what it tastes like.

Is it like jelly? Real aloe would have a bitter taste, but that doesn’t seem to be the case… Maybe I should try it sometime later.

Anyway, the Phantom decorated the fillet in a flower-like shape, as if it were raw fish, and finished it off by placing a bowl of sauce on the stamen in the center. And my curry is ready to be served.

“Both dishes are finished!!!! Then let’s go to the judging!!!!”

“The first thing to be judged is… Since I had the scar removal first, I was going to eat the second one first this time, but the menu looks like this. It won’t taste good if it gets cold, so should I eat the curry first?”

“I’m fine, so I can do whatever I want. Honestly, when the curry cools, it loses its taste, and it’s bothersome when that bastard makes excuses for losing because of that.”

“Hey!!!! Do you think I’m going to use that as an excuse?!?!”

“And since mine is a cold dish, it won’t lose its flavor if you leave it for a while, so there’s no problem.”

“Don’t ignore me, answer me!!!!”

I decided that the first thing to be judged would be my own cooking. I took rice, naan, and curry and distributed them to the judges.

The color of the curry I made is yellow like a regular curry because it contains turmeric, but it is light perhaps because it contains cream and yogurt. The bright golden curry is rich in vegetables such as potatoes and carrots, as well as diced chicken breast.

The judges who ate such curry with rice or naan responded very well.

“I’m a carbohydrate powerhouse now!!!!!”

“Mixing various spices to create the best taste… It’s pretty good.”

“Oh, please give me a refill. It’s delicious just to dip it in.”

“Okay, wait a minute.”

Gray, who played the biggest role in my previous victory, gave a favorable review. I probably decided that because the magician aspect went well with the curry I made. Other people seemed to think about various things after eating curry… But I guess I’ll have to eat the phantom stuff to get a proper verdict.

And then Phantom’s dish was judged.

Even though it is made from cooked buds of plants such as artichokes, it is a sumptuous dish that looks as if it were a piece of fish. As if eating sashimi, the judges use chopsticks to scoop up appropriately cut flower petal meat and dip it in the sauce.

“Hmm…”

“Oh.”

“This is delicious.”

“If it’s a dish like this…”

“…”

There is quite a bit of disagreement. It seemed to me that this match would also end with a difference.

“Hey, give me some.”

“Yeah, I thought so. Here.”

I received a separate dish from Phantom and tried it. It was like sashimi, but there were at most three or four pieces of it, so I picked it up, dipped it in the sauce, put it in my mouth, and chewed it.

The texture itself was soft, like elastic jelly. The taste of the ingredients itself is only mildly sweet, but the umami and flavor explode from there… When added to the sauce with the acidity of lemon, it stings your nose like mint, and in addition, several fragrant scents come together and fill your mouth. And made the nose happy.

It’s an amazing dish that rivals my curry. If I had simply boiled the ingredients, I would have 100% won, but I made the dish more perfect by adding broth and sauce to assist and strengthen it.

While I was immersed in sentimentality, the phantom tasted my curry and grumbled.

“No, this bastard made a perfect curry. Give me the rice, rice.”

“This guy is asking for food in case someone bought it in Korea. It’s old.”

“Honestly, I like rice better than naan. Carbohydrates are, of course, rice.”

While Phantom and I were chatting, the judges who finished judging the two dishes gathered their thoughts and soon decided on a winner. Of course, it was Gray, the absolute judge of judgment, who made the announcement.

This match announced by Gray… Just like before, the winner was decided with a score of 2 to 3. However, unlike previous matches, the person who decided the winner was different.

“In this match, the outcome was 2 to 3. However, the focus of this victory or defeat was not on me but on someone else.”

“Who else?”

“There must be someone who has an important sense of smell. You, especially the Emperor, will know it well.”

“… It’s Eden.”

People with ‘sensing’ abilities have at least one specialized sense. Phantom and I have a sense of touch, but Eden had a unique sense of smell.

So, in this match where the sense of smell was important, Eden had no choice but to become the key point. In response, Gray slowly tells a story related to the evaluation of this match.

“Mr. Sion was the evil emperor, and Mr. Ruinel and Sienne were the second party. I took the evil emperor’s side. Honestly, gathering various elements to reach the ultimate was a pretty good job for a magician.”

Zion and Gray are me. Ruinel and Sienne are phantoms.

So it’s a 2-2 situation. In that situation, it was Eden’s decision to decide whether to win or lose.

“Then Eden…”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Dad.”

“No, there’s no need to apologize. That’s because I’m not good enough.”

The daughter took the other side rather than her father’s side? Then I’m saying there must be a good reason. In the end, it meant that I was lacking in ability, so it wasn’t something for Eden to apologize for.

It’s just that I wasn’t good enough. Even in my opinion, if my daughter Eden took the opponent’s side and not mine in a close match, wouldn’t it be because I left something out or was lacking? This is not someone else’s fault, it’s my responsibility.

“Dishes like Dad’s overnight curry and Uncle Phantom’s artichoke sashimi were both good. The ultimate, made by combining various ingredients, and the best, made by strengthening and supplementing exceptional ingredients, were so good that it was just a matter of taste.”

“If it was boiling, there must have been a reason for that decision.”

“Well, so I set a standard. Which dish can I eat with more flavor?”

“The scent of my curry will last for a long time, right? Of course, it will, since curry is a dish made by mixing various spices in the first place.”

“So, I thought about it a lot… Uncle Phantom’s dish had a clean aftertaste. Apart from the lingering taste, the taste of the ingredients itself was only slightly sweet, so I thought I could keep eating it. Dad’s curry was good, too. If you keep eating it, the taste becomes more emphasized than the aroma.”

“Ah.”

“If the level of the aroma itself is the same, wouldn’t it be better to cook a dish that can be enjoyed and enjoyed for a long time? So I sided with Uncle Phantom.”

I felt like I knew roughly what Eden was trying to say. She also realized why she took the Phantom’s side and not mine.

The taste of the dish itself was too strong. Just as any stimulus becomes dull if it is continuously applied, if you continue to eat curry, you will inevitably become dull to the scent and stimulation. In short, the taste is so strong that the feeling you get becomes lighter in the end.

However, Phantom’s cuisine… The taste of the ingredients themselves is only slightly sweet, but is full of flavor, so you can feel the taste and aroma every time you eat it. It was similar to the first round, but on the other hand, I was superior in taste, but I could say I lost in the task.

I actually won this battle because the original taste of the ingredients was weak. By weakening the taste of the ingredients and emphasizing the aroma, we actually won the game.

“No, it’s really hard to lose like this…”

“Kkkk I won? Can’t I do anything? I got hit?”

“Shut up!!! You bastard!!!!!”

“So, simple is best. The curry you made is good, but didn’t you win because you like my dish better?”

“Fuck… Hey, give me some of the artichokes you used in that dish. I’ll cook some too.”

“It’s quite expensive, but I’ll send it to you at the winner’s expense. Thank you for my mercy.”

“When we fought before, I should have hit him with the Hung Se Bung Fist instead of the Hung Se Bung Fist!!!!! You damn bastard!!!!!!”

Know that the third match will be tough. Because I was determined and prepared.

So the winner of the second battle became Phantom. With this, the score is 1 to 1. Therefore, this match will determine the winner or loser of the cooking battle.

Actually, I’m glad to see it. If I had won two games in a row, I would have felt a little uncomfortable. Isn’t the most satisfying victory to be the one who boils over and eventually wins?

“Then it’s the last game!!!!! The task for this game is none other than taste!!! There is nothing different about this game!!! It just has to be fucking delicious!!!!!”

As for me, it is a game where the final outcome will be decided by a situation of 1 win and 1 loss. And it was a competition that involved taste, the most important element in cooking.

Honestly, no matter how good a dish looks or smells, it doesn’t taste good if it doesn’t taste good. Since ancient times, cooking has to be delicious, so if the taste is the same no matter how you prepare it, there is no reason to put effort into boiling and frying in the first place.

Therefore, it is the final match and the most important match where victory or defeat is determined.

“You’ve been determined and prepared too, right? I’m the same.”

“I thought I would make it to the third match… But it was rewarding because I was using what I had prepared for.”

“I win the final battle!!!!”

“Don’t drink the kimchi soup!!!!”

They turn up their heat and prepare for the third match. I have prepared my secret weapon for this fight… I will win with all my might. The dish I prepared for the final challenge was also my best.

Let’s go to the final showdown!!!!!!!