Chapter 1881 – [Visitors From Another Dimension]

The final task of the cooking battle with Phantom is taste. In other words, you must present the dish with the best taste for this task.

The task itself was decided after discussion between Phantom and I, so it was important and understandable, but it also had meaning. In short, it means let’s hit each other with the strongest blows.

To be honest, both I and Phantom have some shortcomings when I think about it overall. When it comes to decoration or something like that, artistic sensibility is important, but on the other hand, we pride ourselves on being the best when it comes to taste.

Extreme taste. Since it is a place where each person competes for the best taste, it is essentially a place where each person prepares and cooks to the best of their ability, so it can only be said to bring out their signature menu and clash with each other.

In such a situation, the dish I would cook is not any other dish, but kimchi stew.

“You must be a steak, right?”

“Well, that’s right.”

This is obvious to both me and the Phantom. The dish that strikes you the most and is most memorable becomes your signature menu.

In my case, it’s kimchi stew. And in the case of Phantom, it is steak.

Although it is a menu that is nothing special, it is a menu that requires everyone to have different mindsets and do their best. For example, in the case of my kimchi stew, it is because it was the first dish I cooked for my younger siblings during the first round.

I failed to control the seasoning and quantity, so it was a mess and tasteless, but I can still taste it that way. I could have made it more delicious, I could have made it more delicious, but the regret that remained became a driving force and later became my signature dish.

I’ve heard that Phantom similarly did this because the first thing he cooked for his mother was grilled meat. However, she miscontrolled the heat and served it burnt, but Phantom’s mother enjoyed it.

As it is such a menu selection, it is a menu that cannot be said to lose based on mindset and will. Then go straight to cooking.

“This is the secret old paper prepared for today!!!!!”

“Oh my god!!!!! It’s that old!!!!!!”

Since ancient times, half of the taste of kimchi stew depends on kimchi. That’s why kimchi is important, and what I prepared for the final battle was the best, well-cooked kimchi.

The unique acidity of well-cooked aged kimchi. The kimchi, which was well fermented and full of lactic acid bacteria, was the ultimate in aged kimchi. By itself, if you tear up the oatmeal and put it on rice, it’s a good side dish, but I’ll boil it into kimchi stew.

“Baby, it doesn’t work as an ingredient. Especially if it’s something like aging.”

“I thought you were going to bring meat… Is it dry aging?”

There is a saying that meat tastes best just before it rots. This is because enzymes are produced during maturation and flavor components become richer, and dry aging is one of the maturation methods.

It is not rotten, but dry and dehydrated. The outside of the meat feels dry and distorted, but the inside is dehydrated and aged, and the flavor is condensed, so the meat is very delicious.

But it is not without drawbacks. Even if there is a lot of loss due to the tampered meat on the outside, it doesn’t matter since it’s not for sale and the intention is to make the best dish, it smells like cheese, so you may feel repulsed by it. However, since the opponent is a phantom, I think they have prepared countermeasures against it.

Anyway, we take out the ingredients and start cooking in earnest. I cut the prepared pork front leg into bite-sized pieces and stir-fry it with aged kimchi, red pepper oil, and cooking oil.

Cheeeeek!!!!

Kimchi is stir-fried with meat. In fact, it was no different from making stir-fried pork kimchi, and it was delicious on its own, so the smell of the meat and the smell of stir-fried kimchi mixed together to create an appetite-stimulating smell.

It’s similar to the curry I made in the previous match, but it’s only the beginning. Well, since kimchi is delicious, I think it will be delicious just now.

Stir-frying takes a fairly long time. Cook until the pork sticks slightly to the bottom of the pot. This is because the delicious ingredients that have been pressed in will come out and soak into the soup when the stew is boiled later, like deglazing.

– Above.

-I want to eat more because I can imagine what it tastes like.

-Such, tonight’s dinner is kimchi stew.

-Every kimchi stew restaurant nearby seems to be on fire.

– HahaPhantom is a steak, so it must be popular in the West.

-East VS West. It’s a match that makes your heart grow.

The response from Korean viewers was good. Since kimchi stew is one of the representative Korean foods, it makes me want to eat it and I support it by eating some soup.

After some time has passed, pour water into the well-stir-fried pork kimchi and scrape off the flavor ingredients stuck to the bottom. If it was simple stir-fry before, now it feels like a stew with homemade soup.

Once you have scraped everything from the bottom of the pot and turned it into soup, you can then pour in the stock and start boiling it. All you have to do is add your homemade tofu and green onions, boil it down, and adjust the seasoning.

While all it took was time, the Phantom… Was not grilling a steak, but boiling something.

“Are you making sauce?”

“Well, that’s right.”

Meat aged through dry aging loses moisture, so the flavor is condensed, but it may feel dry. Some people may like the pungent smell depending on their taste, but sauce is inevitably needed to complement it as much as possible… However, it feels somewhat familiar.

Phantom adds a few other ingredients to separately boiled broth and stir-fries vegetables at the same time. Onions, garlic, and many more. In particular, onions are caramelized and fried, then broth is poured and simmered.

Even though no starch is added, a thick and delicious brown sauce is created. A sauce that combines the sweetness of vegetables and the flavor of broth will compensate for the shortcomings of dry-aged meat and cover up its shortcomings.

“Didn’t I make vegetable sauce steak a long time ago?”

It looks like the dish I made during a steak cooking battle with that guy while I was there to judge the previous episode and then got cut off.

Zion is a picky eater and doesn’t eat vegetables, so I came up with a way to feed him vegetables. And Phantom improved the perfection of the dish by arranging the method I used in his own way.

“They say the pain that doesn’t kill me makes me stronger. Was it Ultron?”

“Nietzsche, you idiot!!!!!!”

And as the sauce was completed to a certain extent, Phantom slowly touched the meat. All discolored and dry outer meat is cleaned and removed, and only the well-aged red meat inside is used. Meat cut to an appropriate thickness goes directly onto the grill.

The fire made by burning fragrant charcoal is fragrant in itself, and steaks are placed on such a grill. Cheap!!! The sound of grilling meat began to sound, and a delicious smell gradually began to emerge.

What should I say… It feels like melting well-ripened cheese and spreading its aroma. It smells like you could add the unique flavor of meat to it. The smell was good when I was frying kimchi and meat to make kimchi stew, but the smell was no different.

It smells like that, so what does it taste like? As much as I did my best to prepare, that guy did the same, so I felt like I had to be very nervous. Of course, I was almost done cooking, so I didn’t have to sleep after doing more…

Eventually, Phantom placed the perfectly grilled steak on the plate and rested it at the optimal timing. Afterward, finish the dish by adding the prepared sauce.

“Okay, I’m done too.”

“Mine is finished too.”

The kimchi stew, which was seasoned by boiling the soup, was also completed. The taste of the kimchi stew soup was well absorbed into the soft and savory handmade tofu, and the kimchi was cooked deliciously… I dare say, the best kimchi stew was completed.

For your information, it would be difficult to make it any more delicious than this. Maybe it’s me or Eden in the future, but at least for now.

“Have you finished both of them? Let’s start with the second one for tasting this time. Meat doesn’t taste good when it’s cold.”

Since it is a stew, the taste does not deteriorate even if it cools down a little, so this time, the evaluation began with the steak Phantom on the menu. Phantom handed out plates containing dishes to the judges and then gave me a plate as well.

I cut the meat using a fork and knife. I thought the meat might be a bit hard due to dry aging, but it wasn’t like that when it was cooked perfectly. To add a little bit of exaggeration, if you put a knife on it, it would cut itself off.

Meat cooked to rare is cooked in its juices, but the juices do not leak out. But that wasn’t a bad story; it was actually a great story because it meant that all the juice was being contained.

Then, apply a generous amount of sauce to a well-cut steak and put it in your mouth. The first thing that hits you is the rich taste of the vegetable sauce. Caramelizing the onion as a base brings out the sweetness of the vegetables, and the broth added during boiling makes up for the lack of moisture and flavor.

Next, when I chewed the meat… The taste burst out as if I had chewed a water balloon of meat juice. The unique aroma of dry-aged meat disappears, leaving only a feast of taste.

“Wow…”

Eden only let out exclamations while eating, but didn’t say anything else as he was concentrating on savoring the taste. The other judges didn’t say anything, because it was a dish of such extreme taste that even a dimensional civilization would struggle to eat it.

Nowadays, there is a new genre called English cuisine, but that does not mean that the existing cuisine is inferior. Just as I showed the extreme of kimchi stew, Phantom showed the extreme of steak.

After enjoying the afterglow for a while, the members of the Simsam staff quickly ate it deliciously and then went on to sample my kimchi stew. During the second competition, kimchi stew was distributed from the pot into bowls along with the rice made and served to the judges.

Afterward, they each started tasting. The only thing that is the same is that, just like with Phantom, the screening started quietly and without saying a word.

No, it’s a review or something. They are eating at all. It wasn’t a lot, but it wasn’t a small amount either. This was our third match, so we probably ate a lot, but everyone started eating kimchi stew with rice as a side dish.

Around Zion, I just ate rice. And no matter how delicious it is, I think it would be a bit salty if I drink all the soup, so I just slurp down the whole bowl and eat all the soup.

It seemed like there wasn’t enough food, so I quietly gave him a refill from next to me while I waited for him to eat. There is no need to interfere with eating well, so just leave it until you are satisfied.

And after a while, the judging-like meal ended. Everyone seemed to be satisfied and expressed their satisfaction by patting their stomachs after eating well.

“Actually, it would have been nice to have a fried egg with perilla oil on it.”

“This isn’t a meal, it’s a competition… I’ll do it next time.”

“Dad!!!! I also spam!!!!!”

“It’s just a regular rice thief set meal.”

I think there was a zombie apocalypse survivor who ate that kind of meal at Eden’s restaurant, Elysium. Why do they give art and art supplies instead of paying for meals?

That story is a secret, so I won’t tell it for now. Even if it is revealed, it is better for Eden to reveal it himself.

Anyway, after the tasting, the judges gathered together. Each person tells their story and determines the winner of this battle. Since both of their current records are 1 win and 1 loss, this match will determine the winner of the cooking battle, and who will win… Since the opponent is the opponent, my intuition is not working, so I don’t know, so I just wait for the judging to end. .

“Hey, are you confident?”

“I did my best. Whatever the result, I have to accept it.”

“So you’ll accept it even if you lose to me?”

“Where did you get my word from? Don’t whine even if I win!!!!!”

The review took quite a long time, but the results came out. The judges were soon seated again and announced the results of the evaluation.

“I’m sorry it took so long to judge. It took quite a long time because it was as difficult to judge Lee Beom as it was to listen to one side. However, each person made their own decision and decided on this winner.”

“What are the results of the screening?”

“In this match, all five people came up with a common opinion. Do you know what that means?”

“Hmm?”

Phantom’s steak was really delicious, but my kimchi stew wasn’t as good. Even if one side receives an overwhelming number of votes, out of five people, at least one person will take the other side due to personal preference or something like that… All five people have the same opinion?

This doesn’t seem to have produced the right results. And as I expected, Gray shook his head and announced the results.

“All five people have declared abstention from this review. This means that it is impossible to determine which side is superior. Therefore, this match is a draw.”

“No, Mr. Absolute Judge. You have to judge properly. What is the reason for having you as a judge?”

“Obviously, one side is bad or worse, but we both did our best, and the level of cooking has reached the limit, making it virtually impossible to judge. Perhaps even if it came down to a matter of taste, your family members would have voted 2-2, and I abstained, so the result itself would not have changed. Yes.”

“Useup, is that so…”

If so, the result was a draw with 1 win, 1 loss, and 1 draw.

But if you go deeper, it is no different from my defeat. My kimchi stew is not much different from before, but that phantom guy took inspiration from my idea and created a more delicious dish. So in reality, I lost.

“Actually, I lost.”

“What, why are we having opposite thoughts?”

“What? My steak is a dish based on your idea, complementing its shortcomings and highlighting its strengths. I made a draw with your idea, so in reality, I lost.”

“This bastard…”

I was thinking the same thing, that they were similar types. If this happens, no one will win mentally and in fact, it will be a real draw.

So the cooking battle ended in a draw. It’s disappointing that we didn’t win, but at the same time, I feel fortunate that we didn’t lose.

“And it’s a party with the remaining ingredients!!!!!!!!”

“I knew that would happen.”

Still, I hope Eden learned a lot from this cooking competition. Someday… I will have to surpass myself and the Phantom.