Chapter 785 – #165_Miao Miao Battle (2)
#779
1.
Elroa’s beef dish, with its fine-dining-worthy presentation, somehow evoked the cozy feeling of a home-cooked meal.
Linne’s sweetfish dish, as neat and beautiful as a kaiseki meal that fills a hungry stomach after a dip in a hot spring at a ryokan.
Both dishes were flawless.
Linne had finished her dish slightly earlier, so we tasted hers first.
Dorothy, chopsticks in hand, looked at the dish on the ceramic plate and exclaimed.
“Amazing. It’s a perfect meal, capturing the season, the cooking skills, and even the tableware.”
“Dorothy, just eat a little.”
“That’s too much~ Aren’t I a life-saver too?”
“……”
Shiwoo, holding his chopsticks, first put what looked like an appetizer into his mouth.
It was a cold dish of thinly sliced sweetfish, sweet shrimp, and sea cucumber, dressed with cucumber vinegar.
“Wow.”
It was actually his first time eating raw sweetfish, and the amazing taste made his jaw drop.
The sweetfish, with its fine bones, crunched pleasantly, the sea cucumber was chewy, and the sweet shrimp melted softly.
A single bite offered a variety of textures.
Not only that, but the sweet, sour, salty, and bitter flavors, along with a rich umami that lingered on the tongue, awakened his dormant taste buds and stimulated his salivary glands.
It was a cold dish that perfectly fulfilled its role as an appetizer.
Next was the salt-grilled sweetfish.
As Dorothy had predicted, it was beautifully shaped.
It was cooked to a golden brown, slightly lacking in moisture, yet perfectly grilled with no burnt parts.
“Eat the head first.”
Dorothy and Shiwoo bit into the heads at the same time.
-Crunch!
The sound was like biting into a well-made apple pie.
“How can it taste like this…! Amazing!”
“As expected~ the aristocrat of freshwater fish.”
Honestly, he had been a bit hesitant before eating it.
He thought that eating a whole fish head would surely be overwhelmingly fishy and bitter.
But it was just as Dorothy had assured him.
The sweetfish head, slowly cooked over gentle heat and absorbing plenty of oil, had no fishy or gamey smell.
Instead, a mysterious, fragrant watermelon scent wafted like perfume, while a savory saltiness induced an orgasm on the tongue.
“Wow…. It smells like watermelon?”
“Oh~ you have a good palate? Good sweetfish originally has a watermelon scent. That’s why it’s called ‘fragrant fish’ in China and ‘sweet fish’ in other countries.”
Moreover, the flesh of the body was sweet and tender.
With the added charcoal aroma, he experienced a sophisticated flavor he had never encountered before.
Next was the pot rice.
The flesh was carefully deboned and mixed with the rice.
He took a mouthful of the rice, where the sweetfish flesh peeked through the slightly yellowish grains.
Coated with fish broth and oil, it felt like fried rice despite being pot rice.
“Mmm~ good! You followed the principle that fish broth shouldn’t be simmered for too long, and above all, this is~. Kelp and corbicula?”
“That’s right.”
Linne wasn’t satisfied with simply making rice with broth.
When making the broth, she added kelp and corbicula, natural MSG, to maximize the umami.
It was a delicate touch that enriched the flavor of the pot rice, which could have been bland, while controlling the aroma of other ingredients so as not to overwhelm the unique scent of the sweetfish.
There was not a hint of fishiness either.
After that, Dorothy slurped down the miso soup made with the remaining broth and closed her eyes.
“Ah~ I can feel the silver tail of the sweetfish swimming upstream, the vitality that seems to be alive even in the dish is truly moving!”
“Thank you so much. It’s delicious. It’s the best fish dish I’ve ever had.”
“Is that so?”
Shiwoo expressed his gratitude honestly, without any exaggeration.
He could confidently say that he couldn’t eat a better fish dish than this.
“A variety of variations played by the sweetfish! A colorful meal that tastes like all the colors! Absolutely amazing!”
Dorothy, who had been muttering long praises beside him, pondered for a moment and then asked.
“I have one question. Why~ sweetfish of all things? With your skills, you could have chosen other ingredients.”
Linne’s skills were excellent, and the results exceeded expectations.
However, even if she used farmed sweetfish, it was true that there was a lingering feeling of ‘Wouldn’t it have tasted better if she had used other seasonal ingredients?’
“……”
Linne looked at Dorothy with a ‘Why do I have to tell you that?’ expression, but then spoke calmly.
Dorothy had saved Linne during the last escape.
That was why she had tolerated her rambling commentary.
“It was my favorite food.”
The best feast that Linne had eaten with her family during her happiest times, she now wanted to share with Shiwoo, who had become her new family.
That was why, despite Zlata’s objections, she had insisted on using the sweetfish course as a challenge card.
Linne looked at Elroa with eyes burning with fighting spirit.
“So I won’t lose to you. Tiferet.”
“We’ll see about that.”
Elroa, despite hearing the two’s praises, was not intimidated and presented her own dish.
“You should taste the steak first, then the other dishes.”
The first thing to taste was, of course, the steak, which was true to the original flavor of the meat.
She put thyme in a pan with olive oil and butter and grilled the meat.
Throughout the grilling, she used a technique called ‘arroser,’ constantly basting the meat with melted butter and the fat that came out of the meat. This process evenly distributed the heat and made the outside crispy.
She then rubbed the cooked whole garlic on the meat to infuse it with flavor, and it was done.
In fact, no matter how it was made, the quality of the steak was 90% the ingredients and 10% the skill.
That’s how important the quality of the meat is.
“Oh~ it’s really well-grilled?”
In that sense, dry-aging could be said to be one method for the best steak.
It wasn’t quite the cheese scent that Dorothy had mentioned, but the concentrated meat aroma burst out as soon as he chewed.
And the butter and oil, generously poured to cover the shortcomings of dry-aged meat that lacked moisture, were very appropriate.
“It’s delicious, Master.”
But the steak was just a warm-up, letting them know that ‘meat’ was coming.
Both of them knew what Elroa’s main dish was.
It was Beef Bourguignon.
After a light rinse with red wine, he stuck a fork into the Beef Bourguignon, which looked like an ordinary stew at first glance.
“Hmm~ a good resonance.”
The fork went in smoothly, unbelievably soft for meat that was slightly tough due to dry-aging.
The cube-shaped meat that was lifted at the end of the fork jiggled.
The moment he savored the aroma and put it in his mouth, what unfolded was….
“Whoa! This is!”
Dorothy exclaimed in admiration.
Shiwoo was also surprised and widened his eyes.
It was a taste he had never imagined.
Nevertheless, it could be summed up in one word.
This was a dish to savor the aroma.
Instead of the heavy taste that one might expect from a meat stew, it was filled with a splendidly blooming fragrance and freshness.
The aroma of various vegetables, wine, spices, and meat was layered firmly, creating a beautiful harmony.
If the sweetfish meal was a variation with the sweetfish as the main performer, Elroa’s Beef Bourguignon was like the sound of all kinds of instruments creating a harmony at once….
“Truly an orchestra of flavors!”
Dorothy trembled with admiration, her eyes closed.
The more he closed his eyes and felt the taste and aroma, the more the melody of the same thickness played on his tongue without ever getting boring.
In addition, the fluffy cooked carrots and the accompanying mashed potatoes provided support.
It was a home-style meal filled with the love of his master, which was not flashy or stimulating, and could fill his stomach comfortably no matter when he ate it.
As the enjoyable tasting time came to an end, it was time for a decision.
Dorothy was just a commentator, so she was far away, munching on the remaining food.
“Don’t feel pressured.”
“That’s right. It’s just a meal.”
“Whose dish was better?”
“Whose dish was more to your liking?”
On the other hand, Shiwoo had to feel the gazes of his two masters, which were almost burdensome.
He had been watching the two of them bustling around the kitchen for three hours.
All Shiwoo had done was sit comfortably and take a few bites, but his one word would determine the outcome.
One would be the winner, and the other would bitterly dwell on the defeat.
How could he not feel pressured?
“You can think about it a little more.”
“Take your time.”
Look at the two of them saying it’s okay.
Both were trying hard to act strong, but they were gripping their aprons tightly, and their eyes, which showed signs of anxiety, were fidgeting.
If he chose the Beef Bourguignon here.
‘It’s okay, don’t worry about it. I’ll have to try harder in the future,’ Linne would say, looking dejected but trying to hide it.
Conversely, if he chose the sweetfish meal.
‘I see. Thank you for being honest. I’m sorry for making you make such a difficult decision,’ his master would say calmly, but he would worry that she would go to the back and sob.
Both of them would blame themselves without blaming Shiwoo.
Of course, it was also difficult to judge which taste was superior.
In that case, it would be better to end it by getting some complaints.
That was Shiwoo’s decision.
“I’ll call it a draw.”
“That won’t do.”
“Shiwoo, aren’t you being too indecisive?”
As expected, there was an immediate backlash, but it couldn’t be helped.
If Shiwoo was the only one to get some grumbling, it would be a world where no one was hurt.
“Ah, both of your dishes were so delicious. I hope we can do this again. Thank you for the meal.”
“Aren’t you making it too difficult? The opponent is Shin Shiwoo? Didn’t you expect this to happen?”
Dorothy, who had been diligently dipping bread she had brought from somewhere in the kitchen into the stew sauce, approached with a bright smile.
“If you’re really~ in trouble, shall I judge?”
“Stay out of it.”
“I’m sorry, but your judgment is not important.”
Linne bared her teeth and growled, while Elroa wore a displeased expression.
But this was no different from Dorothy volunteering to be the bait.
Shiwoo, who couldn’t bear to make either of them sad, quickly left his seat in that gap.
In the end, the cooking competition ended in a draw.
Elroa and Linne both realized that they couldn’t settle the score this way.
