Chapter 7
Chapter 7: In 92nd Street in New York (3)
Posted on May 2, 2016 by bsubak — 18 Comments ↓
The first thing Jo Minjoon felt wasn’t surprise or happiness. He was annoyed. He was concentrating on the food, and didn’t want to get distracted by the alarm.
“Does it suit your tastes?”
“At first it wasn’t familiar. But as I ate I was able to enjoy it more. It’s the first dish i have eaten in the US.”
“Then when someone mentions you the US the first thing you will remember will be my cooking. It’s an honor.”
Jane said that and laughed. Jo Minjoon, after smiling back at her, concentrated again on the food. What was used on the meat? It didn’t look like something so ordinary as salt. On the ingredients window the herbs and the salt were separated, however he wondered if herb salt was used. The saltiness and the aroma of the herbs were so excessive they seemed to be mixed. When he felt that subtle difference, he didn’t know why but felt joyful. He felt like his tongue was trained.
[You noticed that the salt and the herbs were mixed together and discovered the herb salt.]
[Your delicacy experience increases.]
When the alarm window appeared he could once again affirm it. You could sense the flavor more clearly after tasting it. The herb salt’s unique flavor seemed to touch his heart. Jo Minjoon savored the hot meat juices in his mouth slowly. And at the same time he quickly read the recipe.
It was more ordinary than he thought. You mixed fried onions, beaten eggs, bread powder and minced beef. The point that minced beef was used was different from the normally used hamburger steak from Korea. It wasn’t chopped meat but minced meat so while chewing you could feel the meat more shallowly, and at the same time the beef juices felt more abundant.
Even the point that it didn’t use pork meat was different. In Korea you mixed the chopped pork meat with beef on a 1-1 ratio. So the softness of pork meat had the tendency to sustain the strong flavor of the beef, but on this hamburger there was no pork. Maybe it was because of that, that he felt more unfamiliar.
After that, the next steps on the recipe were quite ordinary. You fried the hamburger steak on an oiled pan, you put on some pepper on the brown sauce and put it on the hamburguer. For a dish that didn’t have any secret preparation to get 6 points, maybe it meant that it was an essentially basic dish.
After eating half of the hamburger steak, Jo Minjoon moved his fork to the mac and cheese.
He didn’t know what would be the final flavour if he ate two dishes that were strongly seasoned, so he purposefully ate the least seasoned hamburger steak first.
Honestly speaking mac and cheese wasn’t a dish Jo Minjoon liked. He didn’t like strongly seasoned dishes, precisely speaking he didn’t like dishes that made him feel pressured. He preferred simple flavors instead of complicated ones, and a simple sauce or only salt instead of sauce mixed with various ingredients.
With that, the discussion ended. Jessie went upstairs stomping. A banging sound of the door could be heard and at the same time it became quiet on the kitchen. Lucas said with a sigh.
“I’m sorry. I got you involved in vain.”
“It’s okay. You don’t have to apologize.”
Jo Minjoon said that and waved his hands. Jane went upstairs saying that she will have a conversation with Jessie, and only Lucas and Jo Minjoon remained in the kitchen. Jo Minjoon let a silent sigh.
‘Mac and cheese. It’s not an atmosphere in which I can eat more.’
But it’s delicious.
…
Really delicious.
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