Chapter 15

Chapter 15

...The Taste Is That Level

The appearance of the two who entered the restaurant interior was beyond words.

“...I really thought I’d die from suffocation!”

As soon as Cameron entered the hall, he roughly wiped the sticky table with wet tissues and grumbled without rest.

On the other hand Chief Choi glanced inside with an expressionless face.

“...”

Just an interior with nothing special.

Crowding people.

And...

A menu board with only a single menu written.

[Jajangmyeon – 13,000 won]

Even that menu board is just careless writing scribbled with a marker.

“...”

‘Speechless from how ridiculous.’

Chief Choi snorted inwardly.

Rough situation grasp was finished.

Just a one-time hot place that stimulated the curiosity of foreign tourists.

As soon as he sat down, he ordered toward the ajumoni with a sullen face.

“Two jajangmyeon here please.”

“Oh my, just a moment!”

As soon as Chief Choi’s words ended, Cameron sitting opposite raised his hand high and intervened.

“Give mine double portion, double portion!”

Cameron pushed the large sunglasses that were on the bridge of his nose up onto his head and made an affectionate eye smile toward the restaurant ajumoni.

“Ajumoni~ we came running from far Seoul after hearing the rumor? We’re completely expecting now, so please definitely tell that handsome chef there to make it really delicious! Yeah? Understood?”

That noisy fuss pouring out in a feminine high tone even waving hands.

But the ajumoni made a good-natured smile at such Cameron’s attitude and continuously nodded.

“Ayu, of course! Please wait a little.”

The mother who answered kindly took short steps toward the kitchen to put in the order.

Watching that back, Chief Choi looked at Cameron with eyes fully furrowed.

“The fuss is really... please keep some dignity. Double portion, tsk!”

“Oh my, what’s wrong with asking for double portion when coming to a famous restaurant? Chief Choi, do something about that appetite-dropping expression!”

“...”

Chief Choi clicked his tongue with an absurd expression, but Cameron didn’t even pretend to hear and turned on the smartphone camera and began filming the kitchen side.

At that time.

A pillar of fire surged up as if exploding from inside the kitchen.

Hwaaaaaaak!

Dalgeurak! Dalgeurak!

Noisy wok work sound.

And that moment.

“···Eh?”

Chief Choi flinched.

A strong fire aroma spreading throughout the hall beyond the kitchen.

The tremendous flavor created as lard mixed exquisitely with chunjang at strong temperature.

Just smelling it was enough for saliva to gather in the mouth.

“Oh my, the smell is really amazing, right?”

“Hmm... the smell is, well, not bad.”

“Tsk, still don’t want to admit it?”

“...”

“Anyway that’s Chief Choi’s problem, that problem.”

“What about me?”

“Ah, forget it. I won’t talk.”

“...”

Cameron ignored Chief Choi and concentrated on capturing the appearance of the young chef inside the kitchen in video with the phone.

A moment later.

“Jajangmyeon is out. One regular and one double.”

Soon two bowls of just-made jajangmyeon were placed on their table.

“Oh my, I’ll eat well~”

“...”

“The smell is really crazy! Look at this gloss!”

Cameron made a fuss and lifted the chopsticks, but Chief Choi still mixed the noodles roughly with an indifferent expression.

Even amid this the smell was killer, but it was something he couldn’t show in front of Cameron.

“Such jajangmyeon or whatever...”

Even amid that Cameron made a fuss while smelling.

“Waa! Jackpot! Jackpooot! The smell is too crazy! Waaa!”

“...”

Chief Choi who furrowed his eyes again made an expression without expectation and waved the chopsticks.

After wrapping the noodles like that, he pushed them into his mouth with a seuk.

Ujeok.

“...!”

At that moment.

Chief Choi’s whole body that stopped chewing froze as if electrocuted.

“Uh, eok...!”

In that momentary moment, all the prejudices that had been filling Chief Choi’s mind were smashed at once.

Crazy umami.

The explosive sweet taste that crunches when chewed and the salty taste of chunjung harmonized exquisitely with the fire taste.

‘Th, this is what on earth taste?!’

He was a mouth that had eaten even hundreds of thousands of won course meals at the highest-grade hotel Chinese restaurants to the point of getting tired.

But he had never experienced such a balanced strong taste in any dish.

“...”

In the shock as if his eyes would flip, Chief Choi began slurping the noodles like crazy without even breathing without realizing it.

“Hururururuk! Tseup, ujeok ujeok!”

“Oh my gaaaat!!”

Cameron opposite who ate one bite of jajangmyeon also jumped up from the chair and screamed.

“Chief Choi! This is crazy! Completely crazy! The best jajangmyeon of my life!!”

Cameron who couldn’t control his excitement, with lots of chunjang smeared around his mouth, suddenly stuck his body out toward the foreign women sitting at the next table.

“Excuse me! This is really crazy delicious! Right?!”

“Oh yes! Amazing chef! Unbelievable!”

“Oh my god! I know, I know! Crazy! Too delicious!”

Cameron and the foreign customers who were strangers began chatting fiercely mixing English and Korean.

A bizarre scene as if fanatics experiencing a miracle and sharing testimony.

But in Chief Choi’s ears, neither Cameron’s noisy chatter nor the surrounding people’s noisy cheers were heard at all.

“Hururururuk! Tseup! Ujeok ujeok!”

Chief Choi’s chopsticks became crazy fast, and accordingly the noodles going into the mouth were the same.

Every time the noodles went down the esophagus, there were no thoughts at all due to the crazy taste.

Dalgeurak!

“···Eh?!”

In an instant, Chief Choi’s movement stopped.

The jajangmyeon bowl that was in front of his eyes had emptied completely at some moment.

Even because he scraped even the remaining sauce with a spoon, not a single chunjang residue remained.

‘Th, this can’t be...’

Chief Choi looked down at the empty bowl with a blank face.

A feeling as if he had a short yet intense short dream.

And the extreme regret that followed.

“...”

“Waa······ really happy. Oh my, this guy?”

Cameron who finished the double portion looked at Chief Choi and frowned.

“······.”

Chief Choi with the area around the mouth and chin covered in jet-black jajang sauce, staring piercingly only at the empty bowl as if his soul had left.

“Ahyu, really!”

Cameron clicked his tongue and pulled out several tissues placed on the table.

Then he began roughly wiping his mouth and chin that had become a mess with chunjang.

“What is this being so sloppy, this.”

“······.”

Even while his head was flicked here and there by Cameron’s rough hands, Chief Choi made no reaction at all.

Even amid that the gaze was continuously fixed on the empty bowl.

Watching such him, Cameron made a strange expression.

“There Chief Choi. Want to order one more?”

“...”

*

Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul.

Namgung Wi’s highest-grade private kitchen.

Chief Choi entered with a stiff face.

“I’m back. Chef.”

“I came toooo...”

Namgung Wi who was deeply leaning his body on the highest-grade leather sofa rolling a wine glass raised his languid gaze and scanned the two.

“Looking at the expressions, there seems to be something.”

At Namgung Wi’s words Chief Choi flinched.

He was a gourmet elite who assisted Namgung Wi’s perfectionism from the side, and had tasted the cooking of countless highest-grade dinings and Michelin star chefs to the point of getting tired.

Therefore he was one who had despised street cheap food or hot places packaged with shallow tricks like looking at bugs.

A strange change was detected in such Chief Choi’s expression.

“...”

Chief Choi couldn’t easily open his mouth.

His mind was a mess from the shock of the taste he experienced at that Chinese restaurant.

If he closed his eyes, that shocking smell still circling the tip of the nose.

And even the unbelievable taste.

When he hesitated, Cameron who couldn’t endure the frustration suddenly stepped forward waving both hands noisily.

“Oh my my! Chef! Completely crazy, crazy! I’ve lived my whole life and that was the first time I had such jajangmyeon?!”

“...”

At Cameron’s noisy fuss, Namgung Wi’s brow narrowed for a moment.

“...Cameron’s words are right.”

Namgung Wi’s gaze slowly headed toward Chief Choi.

“Tell me in detail.”

“...It was a really surprising taste.”

“...”

“With strong firepower he fried lard and chunjang and exploded the umami amazingly, and controlled the onion’s moisture to draw out deep sweet taste.”

“...”

Chief Choi who was thinking something continued speaking again.

“At first I thought maybe he procured highest-grade ingredients from somewhere. So after coming out of the restaurant, I secretly dug through the trash site behind the building and the ingredient delivery boxes and confirmed.”

“Au, really!”

At that time, Cameron who had been quietly listening beside suddenly intervened and clicked his tongue.

“No, really digging through someone else’s restaurant back alley trash bags. How embarrassing I was afraid someone would see. Moreover the trash smell even wafted in the car all the way up to Seoul...”

“...”

At that moment, Namgung Wi’s sharp gaze headed toward Cameron.

“Ah, yes.”

The flinched Cameron smiled poutingly and made a gesture of zipping his lips with two fingers.

Namgung Wi turned his gaze indifferently again toward Chief Choi.

Chief Choi lightly fake-coughed and continued speaking.

“...Looking at the vegetable scraps and meat boxes lying around, they weren’t premium ingredients. The flour sack and noodle machine were also clearly ordinary ready-made products. They were ordinary ingredients commonly bought from the neighborhood market.”

“...”

Namgung Wi narrowed his eyes interestingly.

“Rather the texture of the chewing vegetables being so excellent seems the chef’s knife skill and fire-handling technique surpassed the limits of low-grade ingredients. Even the meals of hundreds of thousands of won hotel course cooking I’ve eaten so far probably couldn’t keep up with that jajangmyeon’s flavor.”

“...”

At his words Namgung Wi fiddled with his own chin.

Wasn’t Chief Choi merciless toward sloppy cooking.

But to be completely captivated and lost in one bowl of jajangmyeon from a mere neighborhood Chinese restaurant.

“...The taste is that level, you say.”

“...Yes.”

“...”

The languid yet intense gaze of the youth called Lee Jin-myeong flashed through his mind.

Conviction about his own cooking.

Does that mean that gaze isn’t just bluff.

‘Lee Jin-myeong······.’

Along with a strange déjà vu whose reason he couldn’t know, competitive spirit and thirst surged from deep in Namgung Wi’s chest.

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