Chapter 112: Bunsik Street in Another World (2) "Still, compared to the first day, it's improved a lot. There are three days left until opening, so I'll check again tomorrow."
Once Jason finished the hygiene inspection and stepped out of the store, the cooks immediately began moving busily.
They clenched their teeth and obsessively scrubbed the areas Jason had pointed out, and before long, they began a full-scale deep cleaning of the entire shop.
"Huu… I'm back."
As Jason let out a long sigh and entered the cooking area of the food truck, Lee Jinseo patted him on the shoulder.
"You worked hard. It's tough having to say unpleasant things, isn't it?"
"You worked much harder, hyung-nim. When you were teaching me, you didn't even do a quarter of this. I'm worried this might delay the opening too much."
"Our sense of hygiene is fundamentally different from theirs, so I expected it would take more time. Let's not rush."
Through Jason, Lee Jinseo did not merely inspect and point out hygiene issues in detail.
He provided cooking uniforms, sanitary gloves, and masks, helping them maintain hygiene throughout the entire cooking process.
Additionally, to ensure daily cleanliness, he instructed them to use the staff-only shower room—built directly by the dwarves—the moment they arrived at work.
Lee Jinseo did not give separate instructions or impose demands on the new cooks regarding matters outside of cooking.
However, when it came to hygiene, he refused to compromise to an extreme degree.
"Ah, seriously… these days I can painfully feel how frustrated you must have been watching me."
"In the beginning, it's always like that. When I was learning under my parents, I got scolded every single day. Honestly, cleaning thoroughly every day is annoying."
Even after Lee Jinseo's reassurance, Jason's expression remained stiff, apparently still troubled by the hygiene condition of the sixth shop.
Even so, he quickly skimmed the order sheet and, during a brief moment away from the counter, rapidly grasped how many orders had come in and what they were.
"Three servings of rosé Tteokbokki and the same for Sundae! Oh, and leave out the lungs from the assorted pieces!"
"Yes! Understood!"
The moment a new order came in, Jason smiled brightly as if he had never been downcast and attended to the customers.
At 1 p.m., all five bunsik shops on the street closed their doors simultaneously.
After hanging a sign reading "On Break" at the entrance, the cooks and staff of each shop gathered their own meals and headed toward the food truck operating near the entrance of Dwarf Town.
Because Bunsik Street was so popular, there were countless cases where staff could not properly rest during meals due to customers trying to enter the shops.
In the end, Lee Jinseo issued a directive that all staff of Bunsik Street were to come to the food truck to eat.
Although many customers came and went, the food truck was an official Sacred Relic of the Heirem Order, and Lee Jinseo was its owner.
Therefore, even if entry to the Sacred Relic was restricted to authorized personnel only for a certain period of time, no one would object.
Especially if it was justified as guaranteeing staff meals and rest.
"Hyung-nim! It's mealtime!"
"Yes, just a moment."
Having finished the last order twenty minutes earlier, Lee Jinseo completed the dish he had been preparing separately for the staff's meal.
He lifted a generous portion of noodles from a large pot with tongs and piled them high onto plates, drawing the attention of all the cooks seated at the table.
A week had passed since they began working under Lee Jinseo, but because of their past under Marquis Horus, they still felt awkward and fearful around him.
Even so, as cooks to their very bones, they could not suppress their curiosity whenever Lee Jinseo presented a new dish they had never seen before.
"Is this a new type of bunsik?"
"Compared to Ramen, it's quite rich with ingredients. But there's no broth, and it's not mixed with sauce like Jjolmyeon…"
"It's a bit ambiguous to call it bunsik, but it's a dish commonly enjoyed in Korea. It's Korean-style Japchae."
After finishing his explanation, Lee Jinseo gestured toward the Japchae and urged them to try it first.
Japchae, made primarily with glass noodles stir-fried with meat, vegetables, and mushrooms, was a Korean dish popular among foreigners. Lee Jinseo believed everyone would like it this time as well.
"It's definitely chewier than other noodle dishes. I like this."
"The noodles used here seem similar to the ones in Sundae and dumplings. I always wondered why there wasn't a dish centered around these noodles—turns out there was. It tastes better than I expected."
"It's stronger in soy sauce flavor compared to Ramen… I didn't know a non-spicy noodle dish could taste this good."
As expected, the cooks ate the Japchae enthusiastically and did not hold back their praise.
Perhaps because they liked it quite a bit, they focused entirely on eating, and conversation naturally faded.
Slurp, slurp.
Only the sound of glass noodles being sucked up could be heard here and there, spreading through the quiet atmosphere around the food truck—until Lee Jinseo turned on the large TV.
"Oooh! It's starting!"
"Did we watch up to episode 15? My memory's fuzzy."
A drama Lee Jinseo had casually begun playing from episode one a week ago, thinking that since it had been popular overseas, people here would enjoy it as well.
It was a story about a court chef of an old kingdom in Korea, and it had gained tremendous popularity worldwide beyond Korea.
At first, the cooks watched it out of curiosity, but before long it became a daily source of vitality they looked forward to even more than the bunsik Lee Jinseo served.
They wanted to keep watching the drama, and after gathering their opinions, Lee Jinseo fixed it to air only during break time.
As a result, even during non-orderable break hours, tourists began standing around to watch the drama.
It was simply an entertaining drama, whether one was a cook or not.
"To think we can learn about another kingdom's court cuisine just by watching… It's truly both interesting and educational."
Sitting at the very front of the large TV, Paulo slurped up Japchae while gazing at the splendid yet refined royal dishes on screen.
"Wow… to be able to cook like that. Truly amazing."
"She cooks that well and she's beautiful too. Isn't there a woman like that anywhere else?"
The actress playing the lead had become the cooks' ideal type, to the point that they hung up the drama's promotional posters Lee Jinseo had obtained all over their lodgings.
"Jang XX is truly amazing. To overcome such hardships and possess such outstanding skill… Compared to her, I still have a long way to go."
Jason, immersed in the drama, even reached the point of blaming himself for lacking in many ways compared to the protagonist.
"It's rare for anyone to be good from the very beginning. It's a drama—just enjoy it comfortably."
"Do you think there's really a cook with that level of skill in real life?"
"In real life… ah, there is someone."
A genius who had replicated bunsik perfectly just by seeing and tasting it came to Lee Jinseo's mind.
Marco, who had worked under Marquis Horus and still refused to come out even after most others were released, repeatedly insisting that someone had to take responsibility.
"If that person were to come out… Owl, what's wrong?"
As usual, Lee Jinseo offered his left shoulder to Owl, who had suddenly flown in. Sitting there, Owl pointed toward the sky with his right wing.
"Huh? Is it raining?"
Raindrops began to fall one by one onto Lee Jinseo's outstretched palm.
The sudden downpour that began over Dwarf Town and the surrounding area of Falstead Castle continued even after break time ended.
Whether to continue business or close early would have been decided by checking the weather forecast—but that only applied in Korea.
As time passed, there was no sign of the rain easing, and carriages carrying tourists were lined up heading toward Falstead Castle.
"This won't do. I think we should end business here for today. Please let the other bunsik shops know they can go home."
"Yes!"
Jason jumped down from the food truck, opened an umbrella, and hurried off.
Before long, the cooks who heard the news of early closing came outside their shops.
However, instead of heading to the lodgings prepared by the dwarves, they came to the food truck and began sitting one by one at the tables under the large parasols.
"Aren't you going in to rest? Aren't you tired?"
"Well, there's not really anything to do."
"We're used to working at this hour, so we don't even know what to do with ourselves."
At Lee Jinseo's concerned question, the cooks and staff answered with awkward smiles.
It was true there wasn't really anything to enjoy in a situation like this here.
If this were Korea, they would have spent time on the internet while listening to the rain outside the window, but this was the Francia Continent, where that was impossible.
With nothing special to enjoy, spending time watching dramas or movies on the large TV was far more entertaining for them.
"Jinseo-ssi, since it's raining, how about that for the first time in a while?"
"Shall we?"
Immediately understanding Aston Hamilton's words, Lee Jinseo went into the Additional Trailer and brought out a crate filled with bottles of makgeolli.
The policy of not selling alcohol from the food truck unless under special circumstances remained unchanged, but today he wasn't selling it—he was simply bringing it out—so it didn't matter.
"Everyone, how about a glass of makgeolli with Pajeon?"
As Lee Jinseo shook a bottle of makgeolli and made a gesture of knocking one back, the cooks looked confused.
"Ah, you haven't tried Pajeon yet?"
At his question, everyone seated at the table nodded.
"Then take this opportunity to try it. In Korea, on rainy days like this, people often drink makgeolli with jeon as anju. I'll fry other types as well, so you can treat it as a tasting session."
Sizzle.
As the smell of jeon cooking in oil spread gently through the air, an unplanned company dinner began.
Aston Hamilton and Jason diligently fried Seafood Pajeon they had learned from Lee Jinseo, while Lee Jinseo began presenting various types of jeon he had not yet introduced.
Chive Jeon made simply with chives and batter flour, which his mother often made.
Bindaetteok made with mung bean powder, and Potato Jeon.
And Kimchi Jeon, filled with well-fermented kimchi, which his father had liked.
When he served makgeolli that paired well with the various jeon, the atmosphere gradually began to heat up.
"Oh, this makgeolli… it goes down smoothly. It's sweet, so it's not too heavy."
"Wow, it pairs perfectly with these greasy side dishes."
"That thing called kimchi—I absolutely couldn't eat it plain, but made into jeon like this, the taste changes completely."
The cooks and staff drank alcohol for the first time since coming to Dwarf Town, in high spirits.
They tore apart the various jeon generously and stuffed them into their mouths.
"Here, eat this while you're at it. How is it? Tasty?"
Lee Jinseo placed a bite of Bindaetteok into the mouths of Aston Hamilton and Jason as they diligently fried Seafood Pajeon, and both widened their eyes and nodded vigorously.
"Come on, let's drink up! Drink up!"
"After having makgeolli and jeon, even the sound of the rain somehow feels cozy."
In the warm, lively atmosphere, the voices of the cooks and staff—now relaxed—grew louder.
Behind them, dwarves and others holding umbrellas pushed through the heavy rain and approached the food truck.
"Huh? Geshtain-nim, you came all the way here in this rain?"
"Tch, I thought I'd get to play a match for once, but it got called off because of the rain. So I came to lift my spirits with some bunsik."
Grumbling, Geshtain wiped his head and shoulders with the towel Lee Jinseo handed him.
Those who came with him were craftsmen of Falstead Castle who had moved to Dwarf Town to become apprentices, as well as blacksmiths and carpenters who had worked under Marquis Horus.
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